Policies

Website Policies

I know, I know – this stuff isn’t fun to read or write! But it’s important, so without further ado . . .

 

Copyright Policy

I own the content on this website and it is copyrighted in my name. I want to encourage as many people as possible to garden in an ecologically sensitive way because it’s easy, fun, and good for everybody on the planet, human and otherwise. So I’d love to see my content widely distributed. But at the same time, I need to protect my intellectual property rights. To make it easy, I’ve created a permissions policy, shown below. Thanks in advance for cooperating with it.

 

You are free to do the following without my permission:

  • Link to my website or any specific post on my website
  • Extract and re-post less than 200 words on any other site, provided you link back to my original post.
  • Print off my posts and photocopy up to 50 copies for internal distribution within your own company or organization.
  • Print my posts in any non-commercial publication (e.g., company newsletter, class syllabus, etc.), provided you include this copyright notice: “© 2019, Nicole Paull. All rights reserved. Originally published at https://happywrengardens.com.”

 

You must have my express written consent before doing any of the following:

  • Use this content in or for commercial purposes, including selling or licensing printed or digital versions of my content.
  • Alter, transform, or build upon my work.

 

Comments Policy

I’m so glad you’re here and I want this website to feel cozy and safe, to be a place for sharing ideas in a civil and respectful manner. Disagreement is welcome; shouting matches are not. Questions are welcome. If you have a question, others probably do, too, and it adds value for everyone when these are included in the discussion.

Comments are held in moderation before being published. I will not publish comments that are, in my opinion, (a) snarky; (b) off-topic; (c) libelous, defamatory, abusive, harassing, threatening, profane, pornographic, offensive, false, misleading, or which otherwise violates or encourages others to violate my sense of decorum and civility or any law, including intellectual property laws; or (d) “spam,” i.e., an attempt to advertise, solicit, or otherwise promote goods or services. You may, however, post a link to a recent blog post on your website when commenting.

You retain ownership of your comments and I expressly disclaim any and all liability that may result from them. By commenting on my site, you agree that you retain all ownership rights in what you post here and that you will relieve me from any and all liability that may result from those postings.

My goal is to host interesting conversations with caring, honest, and respectful people and my hope is that this simple comments policy will support this.

 

Affiliates

At the present time, I am not a member in any affiliate program.

If I should join an affiliate program in the future, I may occasionally post affiliate links for products I have personally used and benefited from – and therefore feel comfortable personally endorsing. Posts that include affiliate links will be clearly identified as such and I would receive a small fee for sales through affiliate links.

Because my greatest interest lies in the quality of the products, I do not hesitate to link to a product I love myself. Nevertheless, vendors and products change, beyond which different people place value on different criteria when evaluating a purchase. Therefore, although I only share what I genuinely believe is worth considering, I expect that you will do your due diligence when evaluating anything I share before making any purchases.

 

Privacy Policy

Your privacy is important to me and it is my stated intention to respect it, both according to the law and from a place of personal integrity. Please read my Privacy Policy carefully before use, as it governs your access to and use of https://happywrengardens.com, including any content, functionality and services offered on or through the website, whether as a guest or a registered user.

 

How your information is collected, what is collected, and how it is used
As a visitor to this website, you can engage in most activities without providing any personal information.

I collect information from you, with your knowledge and consent, when you comment on a blog post, respond to a survey, fill out a form, or communicate with me via email. Information may include name, email address, and anything you share in a comment.

 

Comments
Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service. When you leave comments on the site, the data shown in the comments form, and also your IP address and browser user agent string may be collected to help spam detection.

An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment. If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely.

 

Security Logs
The IP address of visitors, user ID of logged in users, and username of login attempts are conditionally logged to check for malicious activity and to protect the site from specific kinds of attacks. Examples of conditions when logging occurs include login attempts, log out requests, requests for suspicious URLs, changes to site content, and password updates. This information is retained for 60 days.

This site is scanned for potential malware and vulnerabilities by Sucuri’s SiteCheck. We do not send personal information to Sucuri; however, Sucuri could find personal information posted publicly (such as in comments) during their scan. For more details, please see Sucuri’s privacy policy.

Security logs are retained for 60 days.

This site is part of a network of sites that protect against distributed brute force attacks. To enable this protection, the IP address of visitors attempting to log into the site is shared with a service provided by ithemes.com. For privacy policy details, please see the iThemes Privacy Policy.

 

The information collected from you may be used:

  • To personalize your experience
    (For instance, if you comment using your first name, I’m able to reply to you rather than to ‘Dear Random Person’.)
  • To improve my website
    (I’m always seeking to improve my website and one of my data points is information and feedback you provide.)
  • To send periodic emails
    (The email address you provide when you comment on my blog will be used, should that be necessary, to contact you about your comment. If you email me directly, I’ll use that email address to correspond with you about the topic of your email.)
  • To help keep the website secure

 

How your information is processed, stored, and protected
My website is scanned on a regular basis for security holes and known vulnerabilities in order to make your visit to my site as safe as possible.

Your personal information is contained behind secured networks and is only accessible by a limited number of people who have special access rights to such systems, and are required to keep the information confidential.

The personal information I collect is stored and processed in the United States, or where I or my third-party providers maintain facilities. I only transfer data within jurisdictions subject to data protection laws that reflect my commitment to protecting your privacy.

I only retain personal information for as long as necessary to provide a requested service, or to follow up with you. While I retain this data, I will protect it within commercially acceptable means to prevent loss and theft, as well as unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, use, or modification. That said, it’s important for you to understand that no method of electronic transmission or storage is 100% secure; therefore, I cannot guarantee absolute data security (and in your shoes, I would be suspicious of anyone who says they can).

If you request that your personal information be deleted, I will erase it from my system within a reasonable time frame. I do not sell, trade, or otherwise transfer to outside parties your personally identifiable information. This does not include trusted third parties who assist me in operating my website, so long as those parties agree to keep this information confidential. I may also release your information when, on good faith, I believe release is appropriate to comply with the law, enforce site policies, or protect my or others’ rights, property, or safety.

 

Use of cookies and monitoring your behavior online
This website is powered by WordPress. By default, WordPress uses cookies as follows: If you leave a comment on my site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.

I do not use any service to monitor your traffic pattern through my website.

 

Embedded content from other websites
Posts on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.

These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

 

Handling a breach of your information
Should a data breach occur, I will take notify you via email within seven (7) business days.

 

Limits of my policy
This privacy policy only covers my own collecting and handling of data.

Occasionally, I may include or offer third party products or services I believe in on my website. These third party sites have their own separate and independent privacy policies. That means I have no control over their policies and therefore, I have no responsibility or liability for the content and activities of their sites. It’s your responsibility to review the privacy policies of each website you visit should you want more information.

 

Childrens Online Privacy Protection Act Compliance
You must be at least 18 years old to access this website. I do not direct this website to anyone under 18, nor do I knowingly collect any personal information from children under the age of thirteen. If I learn I have collected or received personal information from a child under 13 without verification of parental consent, I will delete that information. If you believe I might have any information from or about a child under 13, please contact me at nicole@mainspringva.com.

 

GDPR compliance
Because my focus is on the North American market, I do not do business with or knowingly collect any information from anyone in the European Economic Area. (I respect the idea of the GDPR, however, it’s such a complicated law and I’m such a small entity that it seems prudent to simply eliminate myself from that sphere.)

 

Your consent
Your continued use of this website will be regarded as acceptance of my practices around privacy and personal information. If you have any questions about how I handle your data and personal information, feel free to contact me at nicole@mainspringva.com.

 

You retain control of what information I have
You have the right to refuse to provide any information that I request. However, please note that doing so may prevent me from providing information or services you would like to receive.

At your request, I will correct or update your personal information, stop sending emails to your email address, and/or remove all information I have stored. You can make these requests by emailing me. When emailing me, please do not email any sensitive information.

 

Changes to my Privacy Policy
If I make changes to my privacy policy, I will post those changes on this page. I encourage you to review this policy from time to time to keep abreast of any changes of updates.

 

Contacting Me

If you have any questions regarding blog policies you may contact me using the information below.

happywrengardens.com
P.O. Box 384
N. Dighton, MA 02764
USA

nicole at happywrengardens dot com

 

This policy is effective as of 2/10/19.