Who we are
Our website address is: https://thewildlifediary.com.
As the owner of The Wildlife Diary, (“we” or “us”) understand that your privacy is of critical importance. This Privacy Policy describes what information we collect from you via the Site and how we use and disclose such information.
What personal data we collect and why we collect it
Comments
When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string 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.
Media
If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.
Email Addresses
We may collect your email address, but only if you voluntarily provide it to us. This may occur, for example, if you sign up to receive an email newsletter, or enter a promotion.
We will use your email address for the purposes for which you provided it to us, and also from time to time to send you emails regarding the Site or other products or services that we believe may be of interest to you. You may opt out of such email communications at any time by clicking the “unsubscribe” button in the email.
We will not share your email address with any third parties.
Registration or Account Data
We may collect other information from you when you register with our Site in order to use various features. Such information could include your name, birthday, postal code, screen name, and password (if applicable). As you use the Site, we could collect other data that you provide voluntarily (such as comments that you post).
We may also collect information about you through other methods, including research surveys, social media platforms, verification services, data services, as well as public sources. We may combine this data with your registration data in order to maintain a more thorough profile.
We may use third parties to provide the functionality to allow you to register for the Site, in which case the third party will also have access to your information. Otherwise, we will not provide any personally-identifying information about you to third parties, except if required by law.
We may use your personally-identifying information for a variety of our internal business purposes, such as creating a better user experience for the Site, diagnosing and troubleshooting malfunctions on the Site, better understanding how the Site is used, and making personalized recommendations to you.
Our Use of Cookies
A cookie is a file containing an identifier (a string of letters and numbers) that is sent by a web server to a web browser and is stored by the browser. The identifier is then sent back to the server each time the browser requests a page from the server. Cookies may be either “persistent” cookies or “session” cookies: a persistent cookie will be stored by a web browser and will remain valid until its set expiry date, unless deleted by the user before the expiry date; a session cookie, on the other hand, will expire at the end of the user session, when the web browser is closed. Cookies do not typically contain any information that personally identifies a user, but personal information that we store about you may be linked to the information stored in and obtained from cookies.
If you leave a comment on our 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.
We use cookies for the following purposes:
(a) [authentication – we use cookies to identify you when you visit our website and as you navigate our website];
(b) [status – we use cookies [to help us to determine if you are logged into our website];
(c) [personalization – we use cookies [to store information about your preferences and to personalize the website for you];
(d) [security – we use cookies [as an element of the security measures used to protect user accounts, including preventing fraudulent use of login credentials, and to protect our website and services generally];
(e) [advertising – we use cookies [to help us to display advertisements that will be relevant to you]; and
(f) [analysis – we use cookies [to help us to analyze the use and performance of our website and services];
Analytics
We use Google Analytics to analyze the use of our website. Google Analytics gathers information about website use by means of cookies. The information gathered relating to our website is used to create reports about the use of our website. Google’s privacy policy is available at: https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/
Most browsers allow you to refuse to accept cookies and to delete cookies. The methods for doing so vary from browser to browser, and from version to version. You can however obtain up-to-date information about blocking and deleting cookies via these links:
(a) https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95647?hl=en (Chrome);
(b) https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/enable-and-disable-cookies-website-preferences (Firefox);
(c) http://www.opera.com/help/tutorials/security/cookies/ (Opera);
(d) https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/17442/windows-internet-explorer-delete-manage-cookies (Internet Explorer);
(e) https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/safari/sfri11471/mac (Safari); and
(f) https://privacy.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10-microsoft-edge-and-privacy (Edge).
Please note that blocking cookies may have a negative impact on the functions of many websites, including our Site. Some features of the Site may cease to be available to you.
Embedded content from other websites
Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, 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.
Retargeting Ads
From time to time, the Website may engage in marketing efforts with third-party companies, such as Google, Facebook, or Instagram, in order to market the Website. These companies use cookies to serve ads based on someone’s past visits to the Website.
Facebook: Opt-out of Facebook remarketing here
Google: Opt-out of Google remarketing here
Advertising – AdSense
This site is affiliated with Google AdSense for the purposes of placing advertising on the site, and they will collect and use certain data for advertising purposes. To learn more about Google AdSense data usage, click here: https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en
Affiliate Program Participation
The Wildlife Diary may engage in affiliate marketing, which is done by embedding tracking links into the Website. If you click on a link for an affiliate partnership, a cookie will be placed on your browser to track any sales for purposes of commissions.
This program utilizes cookies to track visits for the purposes of assigning commission on these sales.
As an affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases. This in no way impacts my opinions or recommendations.
How long we retain your data
If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.
For users that register on our website (if any), we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.
RIGHTS RELATED TO YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
Opt-out – You may opt-out of future email communications by following the unsubscribe links in our emails.
If you have an account on this site, or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.
SENSITIVE PERSONAL INFORMATION
At no time should you submit sensitive personal information to the Website. This includes your social security number, information regarding race or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious beliefs, health information, criminal background, or trade union memberships. If you elect to submit such information to us, it will be subject to this Privacy Policy.
CHILDREN’S INFORMATION
The Website does not knowingly collect any personally identifiable information from children under the age of 16. If a parent or guardian believes that the Website has personally identifiable information of a child under the age of 16 in its database, please contact us immediately and we will use our best efforts to promptly remove such information from our records.
Additional Rights of EEA Residents (European Economic Area) Residents
If you are a resident of a country in the EEA, you have the rights, among others, to:
(i) access your personal data
(ii) ensure the accuracy of your personal data
(iii) the right to have us delete your personal data
(iv) the right to restrict further processing of your personal data, and
(v) the right to complain to a supervisory authority in your country of residence in the event that data is misused
If you believe that our processing of your personal information infringes data protection laws, you have a legal right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority responsible for data protection. You may do so in the EU member state of your residence, your place of work or the place of the alleged infringement.
Where we send your data
Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.
How we protect your data
We use reasonable and appropriate physical, electronic, and administrative safeguards to protect personal data from loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration and destruction, taking into account the nature of the Personal Data and risks involved in processing that information.
Sale of Business or Assets
In the event that the Site or substantially all of its assets is sold or disposed of as a going concern, whether by merger, sale of assets or otherwise, or in the event of an insolvency, bankruptcy or receivership, the information we have collected about you may be one of the assets sold or merged in connection with that transaction.
Changes to the Privacy Policy
We may change this Privacy Policy from time to time. The most recent version of the Privacy Policy will always be posted on the Site, with the “Effective Date” posted at the top of the Policy. We may revise and update this Privacy Policy if our practices change, as technology changes, or as we add new services or change existing ones. If we make any material changes to our Privacy Policy or how we handle your personal information, or we are going to use any personal information in a manner that is materially different from that stated in our Privacy Policy at the time we collected such information, we will give you a reasonable opportunity to consent to the change. If you do not consent, your personal information will be used as agreed to under the terms of the privacy policy in effect at the time we obtained that information. By using our Site or services after the Effective Date, you are deemed to consent to our then-current privacy policy. We will use information previously obtained in accordance with the Privacy Policy in effect when the information was obtained from you.