Privacy
Hello and thank you for visiting the Privacy Policy page, where we explain how we handle the information you provide to us, what information we collect ourselves, why we do it and who else we trust with it. It also tells you how you can exercise your rights regarding your own data.
When you use our products and services, by browsing the site, registering to have an account, logging in, commenting and such you do so under the policies we outline on this page.
1. What personal information do we collect and why do we collect it?
1.1. Information you provide to us:
When you register for an account on our site, we ask for your email address so we can check whether you already have an account, if you don’t, we ask you to provide:
— Email address, so we can let you know about your account status and activity on the page,
— Password – oh, don’t worry, we don’t see it, so feel free to use the name of your crush (as long as it’s at least 8 symbols and has a number in it:) ). You can always reset it too, in case it doesn’t work out.
— Full name – you can lie here, nobody will know. We use this as your Pen name when you comment or post articles. You can change it once the popularity becomes too heavy or any other time, we’re chill.
We will also ask you if you would like to receive our awesome newsletter, no pressure, and then we will send you an activation email – just to make sure you’re a real person or at least a very clever bot.
Ah, true, almost forgot, if you chose to use your Facebook login to create an account with us, you give Facebook permission to share with us the associated email and your profile name, good news though, that also means we don’t need to vet you for humanness, so no confirmation email – woohoo!
1.2. Information we get from your device:
In order to make sure that the site performs at its best – functions properly, is informative, up-to date and tailored just for you – when you visit it, we collect information from your device. That may include:
— Device info – we want to know if you should be seeing a desktop or mobile version of the site, which application store you might need and such.
— Network data – such as IP, helps us diagnose problems with our servers, administer our sites and also helps us to make sure our comment section is hate free.
— Cookies – the no calories kind. There is more detailed info about them below, but in short, they let us know how you use our site and optimize it for a better user experience.
1.3. Share functions:
When you share our articles with friends, you do so using social widgets and according to those social networks policies.
2. How the information is used?
2.1. We are relying on several separate bases to process your information as required by law. In order to provide our service to you, we process some data with Legitimate Interest in mind:
2.1.1. When the purpose is to deliver the service:
— Communicate with you over email according to your Notification preferences,
— Contact you and maintain records in order to provide customer service and support,
— Ensure there is no fraud with voting, polls and competitions we host,
— When we use cookies to remember your preferences,
— When we strive to detect and defend against fraudulent, abusive and unlawful activity on the site.
2.1.2. When the purpose is to measure and analyze traffic:
— We use Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc., to collect information about how users use our site. We use the information to compile reports and to help us improve the site. The cookies collect information, including the number of visitors to the website, where visitors have come to the website from and the pages they visited.
2.2. Additionally, we ask your Consent to process the data we need:
2.2.1. When the purpose is better advertising experience. We would like the ads on our sites to be relevant and tailored to your interests, nobody likes seeing those hair grow vitamin ads, when you CLEARLY are not going bald (you’re not, don’t worry… I mean it).
— Cookies and similar technologies help us know what interests you might have,
— Location services help to only show you relevant ads, matching your location or language,
— Our partners may use the data they have about you, collected according to their own policies to show you what they believe would be relevant.
3. How the information may be shared?
We strive to ensure, using technological and contractual mechanisms, that your data is protected and only used according to this policy. We need to share certain data with our trusted partners:
– When we optimise our site and innovate we may use partners who provide services and functionalities we need, such as Google and others,
– When we deliver ads via vendors and third-party vendors. This helps you get better ads.
– When we would need for Legal purposes and according to the law.
4. How the data might be transferred?
The data we process about individuals in the EU/EEA may be transferred from the EU/EEA through various compliance mechanisms, including data processing agreements we have with our partners. By using our services you consent to us transferring your information to our partners outside of EU/EEA. Any organisation who has access to your information in the course of providing services on our behalf will be governed by contractual restrictions to make sure they protect your information and comply with applicable data protection legislation.
5. How we protect privacy of children?
Our services are aimed at a general audience. We do not knowingly target, collect, use or share information that could reasonably be used to identify children under the age of 16 without prior parental consent or consistent with applicable law. By using our service you confirm that you either are of legal age or have an applicable consent.
6. How can you exercise your rights under GDPR?
6. 1. If you are an individual browsing from the EU/EEA, where the General Data Protection Regulations apply, you can exercise rights related to your data by contacting us via contact details at the bottom of the page:
— You can request access to a free copy of your data,
— You can ask us to delete your personal data, and we will do so where we legally can,
— You have a right to rectify your data,
— If you wish to object to us processing your data according to Legitimate interest.
— You also are free to revoke your consent by updating your settings.
— You have a right to complain about us with our supervisory authority here.
6. 2. Your above described requests will be executed in a legally required time frame, 1 month, and we will need you to provide a valid proof of identification with each request.
7. How long do we keep the data?
We store your data for no longer than necessary in relation to the purpose under which such data was collected. This is determined on a case by case basis and depends on things such as the nature of the data provided, why it was collected, the legal basis we rely upon to process the data, and our relevant legal or operation retention requirements. For example, if you request to delete your account we still have to retain some data for fraud prevention purposes and financial auditing.
8. What about Cookies?
8.1. When you use our websites and apps we may collect information using cookies or similar technologies. Cookies are small files that are downloaded to your computer or mobile device when you visit a website. Your browser sends these cookies back to the website every time you visit the site again, so it can recognise you. This allows websites to tailor what you see on the screen.
We use cookies as they are a very important part of the internet, they help sites to work smoother, just like what a cup of morning coffee does to you. The cookies we use are for:
– Services – to make sure the site functions as expected, they are essential to you being able to enjoy the experience,
– Analytics – those are also super important, they allow us to understand how all users combined use our site, make business decisions based on it and do what we need to do on our side to make the site viable,
– Preferences – yeah, this is to remember your consent status, so we don’t bug you with a pop-up on each visit,
– Advertising – you might not think that, but this part is very important too, cookies help us provide you the best possible experience with ads, without them there would be a wild wild west of terrible banners everywhere. Also they help us pay our bills and provide you with great content, just keep that in mind. We use a Google tool called Google Double Click to make this all happen.
8.2. If you use an Ad-blocker on our site, we cannot fully execute our services and therefore ensure your rights under this policy.
8.3. You can manage your cookie settings by:
— changing your Privacy Settings,
— changing settings on your mobile device,
— changing your browser settings,
Please contact us if you need assistance with anything. We want you to be aware that by changing certain preferences you might cause the page to not work correctly, or at all, and that would be very sad, wouldn’t it? Changing the settings, also, would not remove advertising from the site, but would instead make it less relevant and even more annoying.
9. Changes?
We may amend or update this Privacy Policy from time to time, so you should check it periodically. Where changes are made, we will post the revised Policy here with an updated effective date.