Privacy Policy

Who I Am and What This Policy Covers

Hello! I’m a writer of speculative fiction. Through my website catchingwords.com, I share my writing, news about my writing, and my thoughts about writing and the world. catchingwords.com is a WordPress.com website hosted by Automattic. This Privacy Policy applies to information that is collected only when you use catchingwords.com.

Throughout this Privacy Policy, I’ll refer to Automattic’s website, mobile applications and other Automattic products and services collectively as “Services.” Please refer also to Automattics’s own Privacy Policy as well as Automattic’s Privacy Notice for Automattic’s Users’ Sites and Automattic’s Cookie Policy.

This Privacy Policy is adapted from Automattic’s own Privacy Policy and Privacy Notice, which they generously release under a Creative Commons Sharealike license.

Collected Information

Information of visitors to catchingwords.com is collected only if there is a reason to do so–for example, for Automattic to provide their Services to me, for me to communicate with you, or to make catchingwords.com better. Information is collected in three ways: Automattic collects certain information that the visitors provide to catchingwords.com, Automattic collects some information automatically, and Automattic collect any information that I may provide about visitors to catchingwords.com.

I have access to certain but not all information collected by Automattic. For example, I have access to email addresses of visitors who have chosen to subscribe to notifications from catchingwords.com and to statistics about visits to catchingowrds.com.

Information You Provide to me and Automattic:

The amount and type of information depend on the context and how Automattic or I use the information. Information is collected primarily when visitors type into a text field on catchingwords.com, like a comment field or a sign-up form. I may also implement other ways to allow catchingwords.com’s visitors to provide information directly through catchingwords.com. Here are the most common ways in which a visitor directly provides information to catchingwords.com:

Follower and Subscriber Information: When a visitor to catchingwords.com signs up to follow or subscribe to catchingwords.com, Automattic collects the sign-up information requested by catchingwords.com, which typically includes an email address.
Site Comments: When a visitor leaves a comment on catchingword.com, Automattic collects that comment, and other information that the visitor provides along with the comment, such as the visitor’s name and email address.
PollDaddy Survey Responses: When a visitor to catchingwords.com completes a poll, quiz, or other type of survey prepared by me via Polldaddy.com, Automattic collects the visitor’s responses to those surveys, and other information that I may require for a poll/quiz/survey response, like an e-mail address.
Other Information Entered on the Site: Automattic may also collect other information that a visitor enters on catchingwords.com–such as a contact form submission or a search query.

Information Automattic Collects Automatically

When you visit catcingwords.com, Automatic also collects some information automatically:

Log Information: Like most online service providers, Automattic collects information that web browsers, mobile devices, and servers typically make available, such as the browser type, IP address, unique device identifiers, language preference, referring site, the date and time of access, operating system, and mobile network information.
Location Information: Automattic may determine the approximate location of your device from your IP address. The folks at Automattic collect and use this information to, for example, calculate how many people visit their Services from certain geographic regions. Automattic may also collect information about your precise location via their mobile apps (when, for example, you post a photograph with location information) if you allow Automattic to do so through your mobile device operating system’s permissions.
Stored Information: Automattic may access information stored on your mobile device via their mobile app. Automattic accesses this stored information through your device operating system’s permissions. For example, if you give Automattic permission to access the photographs on your mobile device’s camera roll, Automattic’s Services may access the photos stored on your device when you upload a photograph.
Interactions with catchingwords.com: If you have a user account at Automattic, Automattic collects some information about your interactions with catchingwords.com while you are logged in to your account with Automattic, such as your “Likes” and the fact that you commented on a particular post, so that Automattic can, for example, recommend posts they think may interest you.
Information from Cookies & Other Technologies: A cookie is a string of information that a website stores on a visitor’s computer, and that the visitor’s browser provides to the website each time the visitor returns. Pixel tags (also called web beacons) are small blocks of code placed on websites and emails. Automattic uses cookies and other technologies like pixel tags to help identify and track visitors, usage, and access preferences for Automattic’s Services, as well as track and understand email campaign effectiveness and to deliver targeted ads. For more information about Automattic’s use of cookies and other technologies for tracking, including how you can control the use of cookies, please see Automattic’s Cookie Policy.
Usage Information: Automattic collects information about the usage of catchingwords.com and Automattic’s Services. For example, by using their WordPress.com or Jetpack services, Automattic collects information about my actions as a site administrator and the actions of catchingwords.com visitors while they use catchingwords.com–in other words, who did what, when and to what thing on catchingwords.com. Automattic also collects information about what happens when you use their Services via catchingwords.com (e.g., page views, features enabled for catchingwords.com, interactions with the Admin Bar and other parts of Automattic’s Services) along with information about your device (e.g., screen size, name of cellular network, and mobile device manufacturer). Some of this information (e.g. referrer to catchingwords.com, page views, location of page views) I have access to. I use this information to, for example, get insights on how people use catchingwords.com, so I can make catchingwords.com better.

Other Information Provided by Automattic’s Users

Automattic also collects any other information that I provide to them about visitors to catchingwords.com. For example, I may upload a directory or other information about catchingwords.com’s visitors to the “backend” administrative platform for managing catchingwords.com.

How Automattic Uses Visitor Information

Automattic uses information about catchingwords.com visitors in order to provide their Services to me and catchingwords.com. I may use Automattic’s Services to, for example, manage catchingwords.com, sell products and services on catchingwords.com, flag and fight comments from spammers, and collect information through polls, quizzes and other surveys. In addition to the above, Automattic uses some information about catchingwords.com visitors who are also Automattic users as described in their Privacy Policy. Automattic 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, Automattic may publish aggregate statistics about the use of their Services.

How I Use Visitor Information

I use information about catchingwords.com visitors in order to run and optimize catchingwords.com and to provide a better experience to catchingwords.com visitors. I may use information (provided e.g. in the stats section of the administrative platform) on visitor engagement (e.g. link clicks) to better tailor my content to my visitors’ interests and to increase my reach.

How Visitor Information is Shared

I do not share catchingwords.com visitor information directly with third parties other than Automattic whose Services I use to manage catchingwords.com.

Automattic may share information collected about catchingwords.com visitors in the limited circumstances spelled out below:

Subsidiaries, Employees, and Independent Contractors: Automattic may disclose catchingwords.com visitor information to their subsidiaries, our employees, and individuals who are their independent contractors that need to know the information in order to help them provide their Services to me and other Automattic users and their hosted websites, or to process the information on their behalf. Automattic requires their subsidiaries, employees, and independent contractors to follow Automattic’s Privacy Notice for information about visitors that they share with them.
Third Party Vendors: Automattic may share catchingwords.com visitor information with third party vendors who need to know this information in order to provide their services to Automattic. This group includes vendors that help Automattic provide their Services to their users (including me) and their hosted websites. Automattic requires vendors to agree to privacy commitments in order to share information with them.
Legal Requests: Automattic or I may disclose catchingwords.com visitor information in response to a subpoena, court order, or other governmental request. For more information on how Automattic responds to requests for information, please see Automattic’s Legal Guidelines.
To Protect Rights, Property, and Others: Automattic or I may disclose catchingwords.com visitor information when we believe in good faith that disclosure is reasonably necessary to protect the property or rights of third parties or the public at large. For example, if I have a good faith belief that there is an imminent danger of death or serious physical injury, I may disclose information related to the emergency without delay.
Information Shared Publicly: Information that catchingwords.com visitors choose to make public is disclosed publicly. That means, of course, that information like visitor comments and “likes” are all available to others, including information about catchingword.com visitors that is displayed in connection with a comment or “like” (such as a visitor’s WordPress.com username and Gravatar). Automattic provides a “firehose” stream of public data (including comments) from catchingwords.com to provide that data to firehose subscribers, who may view and analyze the content, but do not have rights to re-publish it publicly. Public information may also be indexed by search engines or used by third parties.

Please also take a look at Automattic’s Privacy Notice on how hosted sites’ visitor (including visitors to catchingwords.com) data is handled.

How Long Information is Kept

Automattic generally discards information about you when they no longer need the information for the purposes for which they collect and use it. For example, Automattic keeps the web server logs that record information about a visitor to one of Automattic’s websites, such as the visitor’s IP address, browser type, and operating system, for approximately 30 days. Automattic retains the logs for this period of time in order to, among other things, analyze traffic to Automattic’s websites and investigate issues if something goes wrong on one of their websites. After the thirty days are up, the deleted content may remain on their backups and caches until purged.

I also generally discard catchingwords.com visitor information when I no longer need it to run catchingwords.com. After I have deleted a visitor’s data from catchingwords.com’s administrative platform, Automattic may still retain this data in one form or another for a longer period of time even though I do not have access to it any longer.

Security

While no online service is 100% secure, the folks at Automattic assure in their Privacy Policy that they work very hard to protect information about you against unauthorized access, use, alteration, or destruction, and take reasonable measures to do so, such as monitoring their Services for potential vulnerabilities and attacks.

To enhance the security of my account, I have enabled Automattic’s advanced security settings.

Choices

You have several choices available when it comes to information about you:

Limit the Information that You Provide: If you have an account with Automattic, you can choose not to provide the optional account information, profile information, and transaction and billing information.
Limit Access to Information On Your Mobile Device: Your mobile device operating system should provide you with the ability to discontinue Automattic’s ability to collect stored information or location information via Automattic’s mobile apps.
Opt-Out of Electronic Communications: You may opt out of receiving promotional messages from Automattic or from catchingwords.com. Just follow the instructions in those messages. If you opt out of Automattic’s promotional messages, Automattic may still send you other messages, like those about your account and legal notices. If you opt out of email notifications from catchingwords.com, I will no longer send you any messages.
Set Your Browser to Reject Cookies: At this time, Automattic does not respond to “do not track” signals across all of their Services. However, you can usually choose to set your browser to remove or reject browser cookies before using Automattic’s websites, with the drawback that certain features of Automattic’s websites may not function properly without the aid of cookies. In this case, catchingwords.com too may not function properly.

Your Rights

If you are located in certain countries, including those that fall under the scope of the European General Data Protection Regulation (AKA the “GDPR”), data protection laws give you rights with respect to your personal data, subject to any exemptions provided by the law, including the rights to:

Request access to your personal data;
Request correction or deletion of your personal data;
Object to the use and processing of your personal data by me;
Request that I limit the use and processing of your personal data; and
Request portability of your personal data.

Please feel free to contact me at adriana@catchingwords.com for requests regarding your personal data directly related to catchingwords.com (e.g. with regards to your email address or comments you’ve left). You can also use the contact form on catchingwords.com to contact me.

To some requests with regards to personal data of visitors to catchingwords.com, only Automattic might be able to respond. If you have an account for their Services, you might be able to access, correct, or delete your personal data using your account settings and tools that Automattic offers, but if you aren’t able to do that, or you would like to contact Automattic about one of the other rights (and in case I am not permitted by the administrative platform to carry out your request), scroll down to How to Reach Automattic.

EU individuals also have the right to make a complaint to a government supervisory authority.

How to Reach Me

You can reach me at adriana@catchingwords.com or you can also use the contact form on catchingwords.com to contact me.

How to Reach Automattic

In case I am not permitted by the administrative platform to deal with requests about privacy issues with regards to catchingwords.com visitor data (I will let you know if that’s the case), you can contact Automattic at privacypolicyupdates@automattic.com.

Other Things You Should Know

Transferring Information

Because catchingwords.com is a WordPress.com website and is thus run by my use of Automattic’s Services, and because Automattic’s Services are offered worldwide, the information about you that Automatic processes when you use catchingwords.com in the EU may be used, stored, and/or accessed by individuals operating outside the European Economic Area (EEA) who work for Automattic, other members of their group of companies, or third party data processors.

You can ask Automattic for more information about the steps they take to protect your personal information when transferring it from the EU.

Ads and Analytics Services Provided by Others

I do not use ads on catchingword.com.

Ads appearing on any of Automattic’s Services may be delivered by advertising networks. Other parties may also provide analytics services via Automattic’s Services. These ad networks and analytics providers may set tracking technologies (like cookies) to collect information about your use of Automattic’s Services and across other websites and online services. These technologies allow these third parties to recognize your device to compile information about you or others who use your device. This information allows Automattic and other companies to, among other things, analyze and track usage, determine the popularity of certain content, and deliver advertisements that may be more targeted to your interests.

Please note that this Privacy Policy only covers the collection of information by Automattic from catchingwords.com and does not cover the collection of information by any other third party advertisers or analytics providers through Automattic.

Visitors to catchinwords.com

Automattic also processes information about visitors to catchingwords.com on my behalf and in accordance with Automattic’s user agreements. If you’d like, you can read more about the data Automattic collects on my and other Automattic users’ behalf in Automattic’s Privacy Notice.

Privacy Policy Changes

Although most changes are likely to be minor, Automattic or I may change our Privacy Policies from time to time. I encourage you to frequently check this page as well as Automattic’s Privacy Policy and Privacy Notice for any changes.

If I make changes to this Privacy Policy, I will notify you by revising the change log on this site. Your further use of catchingwords.com after a change to this Privacy Policy will be subject to the updated policy.

Change Log:

Updated 06. Mar 2021.