Dear readers,
A Friend recently asked me whether, like EMEYF, Willy and Penn needs a page outlining it’s data protection policy. Now, because I’ve set up this magazine through WordPress.com I can only follow their data protection policies but nevertheless, it may be worthwhile to explain what these are. WordPress is part of a larger company called Automattic, and you can read their full privacy policy for website visitors here.
Three housekeeping announcements:
> Apologies for only providing this text in English. Many of the terms used are very technical and I am afraid of some of them getting a bit ‘lost in translation’. If you feel called & comfortable to translate it anyway, please contact me.
> If you do read English but are unsure what some of the things mentioned mean, please contact me as well. (Or use google. Google probably knows it better than me.)
> This might not be the most interesting read, but if you make it all the way to the end I will show you some pictures of cats.
What is the GDPR?
Unless you have managed to avoid all contact with the internet in the past few months, you will probably already know that GDPR stands for General Data Protection Regulation, a new data protection law in the EU starting from the 25th of May 2018. Its aim is to give citizens of the EU control over their personal data and force organizations to be more conscious about data privacy.
For example, users must confirm that their data can be collected, each organization must be transparent about how your data is stored and how it is going to be used. Moreover, it has to be made clear to you how you can exercise your right to withdraw your consent to the use of personal data (consequently deleting the data) at any time.
What does this mean for Willy & Penn?
There are several ways in which you may interact with this website. Everyone who has ever visited this website (which you must have in some way if you’re reading this) is a visitor as described below. Moreover, some of you are subscribed to the W&P mailing list (yay, thanks!), in which case not only WordPress but also the website editor (me) can see your email address.
Visitors
WordPress automatically collects some information about visitors to Willy & Penn:
- Technical Data from a Visitor’s Computer and Etcetera: WordPress collects the information that web browsers, mobile devices, and servers typically make available about visitors to a Site, such as the IP address, browser type, unique device identifiers, language preference, referring site, the date and time of access, operating system, and mobile network information.
- Visitor Interactions: WordPress collects information about a visitor’s interactions with a Site, including likes and ratings.
- Location Information: WordPress may determine the approximate location of a visitor’s device from the IP address. They collect and use this information to, for example, tally for me how many people visit W&P from each country.
- Akismet Commenter Information: Information about visitors who comment on W&P is collected by the Akismet anti-spam service. This includes the commenter’s IP address, user agent, referrer, and Site URL (along with other information directly provided by the commenter such as their name, username, email address… and the comment itself, of course).
- Information from Cookies and Other Technologies: WordPress uses cookies to improve your experience of the website. To learn more, please have a look at their Cookie Policy.
WordPress says it uses this information in order to provide their services to users (= the editor of a website) and their sites. The information can be accessed by their staff members and their contractors where needed. They may also use and share information that has been aggregated or reasonably de-identified, so that the information could not reasonably be used to identify any individual. For instance, they may publish aggregate statistics about the use of our services. Read more about this here.
Please note that if you comment on an article, that comment will be made public, which means that any personal information you give in it can be used by third parties or indexed by search engines. You need to enter an email address to comment, but this will not be public.
If you would like to have any comment removed, please contact me.
Extra information about the W&P mailing list
When you sign up for the W&P mailing list, your information is not only stored by WordPress but can also be seen by the W&P editor (me). The editor is required by the same law (plus you have my Quaker promise) to only use your email address for what you gave W&P permission to do by clicking ‘confirm’ in the sign-up email: to send you an update each time a new W&P article is released. I have not stored your information anywhere outside the WordPress platform. Moreover, I can only see your email address since this is the only information required for the mailing list. I cannot, for example, see your full name.
If you would like to unsubscribe to the mailing list you can follow the link in any of the W&P emails or get in touch with me. Your email address will then be removed from our records.
Lastly, if you would like to request access to the personal data saved about you, please contact me. I will then contact WordPress to gather this information.
Hurray! You made it! A promise is a promise: here are some pictures of various cats in my life. (Cats are amazing! I would LOVE to have one, but please don’t give me one for my birthday because my apartment is too small..)
This is Semmel (like the bread). We’ve nicknamed her ‘The Tiger’ – can you see why?
[Credits for this amazing shot go to my grandfather.]
This cutie is Matze (like the cracker).
We call him “The Cow” but he also makes a good hen.
This is Moon, she belongs to a former housemate of my boyfriend. Having to miss her was álmost a reason not to move in together ;).
And when stay over at my aunt’s house, this is how I have to edit W&P…
That’s it for today. If you haven’t seen the birth announcement of Eleanor Stuhr yet, I suggest you pop over to the previous W&P post for some baby happiness. If you are all caught up: adieu!
I hope you have a lovely morning/afternoon/evening/night.
In Friendship,
Emmie