Your privacy is very important to us. Please read our privacy policy carefully to get a clear understanding of how we collect, use, protect or otherwise handle your Personally Identifiable Information in accordance with our website.
Who are we
Our website address is: https://lws.dko-dev.co.uk.
It is run by Louise who you can contact at: [email protected].
What personal information we collect and why we collect it
Newsletter subscribtions
When registering for our email newsletter on our site, as appropriate, you may be asked to enter your name, email address, or other details so that we can send you email updates. We don’t ask you for personal information unless we truly need 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 anonymised 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.
By submitting a comment, you agree for the comment to be posted on this blog once it has been approved.
Contact Forms
We collect information from you when you enter information into one of our contact forms – for example on the Contact Me page. The information you enter into these forms is only used in order for queries/questions to be answered and will never be used for marketing purposes.
If you enter your story and personal details into the Share Your Story or Ask Me a Question contact form, there is an option for you to consent for your story and details to be published on this blog. If you do consent to this, you can change your mind at any time and have the post removed – simply email [email protected].
How do we use your information?
When you have provided your affirmative consent, which you may revoke at any time, such as by signing up for our mailing list. We will use the information we collect from you when you sign up for our newsletter to send periodic email updates about new blog posts, news and updates about the site. We are committed to keeping your e-mail address confidential. We do not sell, rent, or lease our subscription lists to third parties. We will not provide your personal information to any third party individual, government agency, or company at any time unless strictly compelled to do so by law.
We will use your e-mail address solely to provide timely information about lifewithscoliosis.com.
You can withdraw your consent at any time by clicking on the unsubscribe link at the bottom of any email you receive from us.
Who has access to your information?
We will never sell or rent your information to third parties. We will never share your information with third parties for marketing purposes.
We may pass your information to our third party service providers/plugins for the purposes of completing tasks and providing services to you on our behalf (for example, collecting email addresses and sending email communication). However, when we use third party service providers, we disclose only the personal information that is necessary to deliver the service and we have a contract in place that requires them to keep your information secure and not use it for their own direct marketing purposes.
We use Mail Chimp to send our email communication. When you subscribe to receive our newsletter, the information you provide will be transferred to Mail Chimp for processing in accordance with their Privacy Policy and Terms.
We also use Mail Munch – a WordPress plugin – which powers the forms that you enter your email address into when you subscribe to our newsletter. When you subscribe to receive our newsletter, the information you provide will be be transferred to Mail Munch and automatically synced with Mail Chimp to allow us to send you the newsletters.
We use a plugin called AddToAny, which enables you to share our site/blog posts via social media. When you click on any of the social media icons, listed either at the left hand side of the site or after any blog post, AddToAny will collect data to enable the content to be shared. AddToAny will not collect or share any personally identifiable information – for more details on the kind of data collected, view their Privacy Policy.
We use the Bloglovin‘ widget on our site, which you can click on in order to follow our blog on the Bloglovin’ blog network. Bloglovin widgets may collect certain metadata about you such as, unique identifiers, the geo-location, whether you are logged into Bloglovin.com, and the URL of the blog the widget is located. Please view the Bloglovin’ Terms of Service for more information.
How to access, update and remove your information
Under the GDPR, you have the right to access and receive a copy of the personal information we hold about you. If you wish for us to stop holding your personal data then you have the right to have this information removed from our systems. If you wish to update or remove your personal information or request a copy of the information we hold about you, please email [email protected].
How long will my information be stored?
Where you have subscribed to our blog newsletter, we will keep your data until you notify us otherwise or withdraw consent. We may delete your data after a prolonged period of inactivity.
If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognise and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.
How we protect your data
We take several steps to keep your data secure and protect against unauthorised access including the use of Firewalls, Antivirus/Malware protection and blocking access to suspicious traffic. This site also uses SSL encryption to ensure that all personal information is handled securely. This encryption prevents third parties from gaining unauthorised access to personal data. Most web browsers show a green padlock symbol to confirm SSL encryption is in place.
Where we send your data
Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.
Do we use ‘cookies’?
Yes. Cookies are small files that a site or its service provider transfers to your computer’s hard drive through your Web browser (if you allow) that enables the site’s or service provider’s systems to recognise your browser and capture and remember certain information. This does not involve the collection of personally identifiable information. View our Cookie Policy for more information.
We use cookies to:
Compile aggregate data about site traffic and site interactions in order to offer better site experiences and tools in the future. We may also use trusted third-party services that track this information on our behalf.
You can choose to have your computer warn you each time a cookie is being sent, or you can choose to turn off all cookies. You do this through your browser settings. To find out more, including what cookies have been set and how to manage and delete them, visit: http://www.whatarecookies.com.
Comments
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.
Google Analytics
We use Google Analytics to track website statistics, such as how many visitors we receive and where they have come from. We use Google Analytics to understand visitor behaviour in order to improve your experience on the site. You cannot be identified by Google Analytics cookies and no personally identifiable information is shared. We ensure that your IP address is anonymised. For more information on the data collected by Google Analytics, view the Google Analytics data privacy policy. You can opt out of Google Analytics by installing the Google Analytics Opt Out Browser add on.
Google Advertising
We use Google AdSense Advertising on our website – read how Google manages data in its ads products here.
Google, as a third-party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads on our site. Google use cookies for a number of purposes, such as to stop you from seeing the same ad over and over again, to detect and stop click fraud and to show ads that are likely to be more relevant. See more detail about the types of cookies used by Google and their partners and how they use them.
We have also implemented the following:
• Remarketing with Google AdSense
• Demographics and Interests Reporting
We, along with third-party vendors such as Google, use first-party cookies (such as the Google Analytics cookies) and third-party cookies (such as the DoubleClick cookie) or other third-party identifiers together to compile data regarding user interactions with ad impressions and other ad service functions as they relate to our website.
Opting out:
You can set preferences for how Google advertises to you and opt out of Ads Personalisation using the Google Ad Settings page. You can also manage many cookies used for online advertising via the EU-based Your Online Choices, or you can manage cookies in your web browser.
You can set preferences for how Google advertises to you and opt out of Ads Personalisation using the Google Ad Settings page. You can also manage many cookies used for online advertising via the EU-based Your Online Choices, or you can manage cookies in your web browser.
Affiliate Marketing Cookies
Affiliate marketing cookies are third party cookies that are set when you click on an affiliate link on this blog. We will always disclose if a blog post contains affiliate links at the start of the post. Clicking an affiliate link just means that we will get a small commission if you buy anything from a website using the link you clicked on via this blog. This will eventually help towards the running costs of the site (web hosting, domain name, etc) so that we can continue to help and provide advice and support to others with scoliosis as well as raising awareness of the condition.
We work with an affiliate network called AWIN who act as an intermediary between this website and various advertisers. We also work with Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com and any other website that may be affiliated with Amazon Service LLC Associates Program.
Clicking on an affiliate link does not affect the price – you will not pay more for a product by clicking on an affiliate link. For more information on affiliate marketing see my disclosure page.
Affiliate cookies help the affiliate networks to track and report sales and award commissions to the correct website/blog. Please see here for a list and description of cookies used for tracking purposes by AWIN and Amazon’s Cookie Notice.
You must give consent to the use of cookies on the this website, before a cookie is placed, via the bar at the bottom of the site.
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 tracing your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.
Third-party disclosure
We do not sell, trade, or otherwise transfer to outside parties your Personally Identifiable Information.
Third-party links
Occasionally, at our discretion, we may include or offer third-party products or services on our website. These third-party sites have separate and independent privacy policies. We therefore have no responsibility or liability for the content and activities of these linked sites. Nonetheless, we seek to protect the integrity of our site and welcome any feedback about these sites.
CAN SPAM Act
The CAN-SPAM Act is a law that sets the rules for commercial email, establishes requirements for commercial messages, gives recipients the right to have emails stopped from being sent to them, and spells out tough penalties for violations.
We collect your email address in order to:
Send periodic updates about new blog posts.
To be in accordance with CAN-SPAM, we agree to the following:
- Not use false or misleading subjects or email addresses.
- Identify the message as an advertisement in some reasonable way.
- Include clear information on how to contact the sender.
- Honor opt-out/unsubscribe requests quickly.
- Allow users to unsubscribe by using the link at the bottom of each email.
If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from receiving future emails, you can
follow the instructions at the bottom of each email and we will promptly remove you from ALL correspondence.
Privacy Policy Changes
We may amend or update this policy from time to time. We encourage you to check back regularly and review any updates. If you are subscribed to the newsletter, any major changes will be communicated via the newsletter.
Contacting Us
If there are any questions regarding this privacy policy, you may contact us by emailing:
Last Edited on 2020-03-29
