Privacy Policy

Effective Date: October 7, 2019 onward

This privacy policy has been compiled to better serve those who are concerned with how their ‘Personally identifiable information’ (PII) is being used online on BeardWiki.com and its subdomains.

PII, as used in information security, is information that can be used on its own or with other information to identify, contact, or locate a single person, or to identify an individual in context. 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. At times, it may be referred to simply as “information” or “data” below.

We’re committed to protecting personal data and only use it in accordance with legal obligations and business. By accessing or using our website and any of its services, you agree to the terms set forth in this Privacy Policy, our Terms of Use, and other terms and policies posted on this website. If you do not agree, you must cease use of this website and any services provided by it or its owner, Obstance LLC.

1. What information we collect

1. 1. Information collected from customers and users

1. 1. 1. Explicitly Added Personal Information

When ordering a product or service from our site, you may be asked to enter the following:

  • First and last name
  • Email address
  • Billing and shipping address(es)
  • Payment method choice

These are only required if you are making a transaction with us. While the fields are “required” when viewing your account settings, you do not need to enter this information into your account unless you choose to make a purchase and proceed to checkout.

Additionally, if you create an optional account on this site, we ask for a username, which can be used to log in. The choice of what you input as a username is yours. Other information you explicitly decide to share with us through our services may be collected as well.

1. 1. 2. Information Gathered via Tracking

Along with information you give us, we utilize tracking to learn where our customers come from:

  • IP address
  • Geographical location (country)
  • Device data (which type of device you’re browsing with, which browser you’re using, etc)
  • Length of visit, page views, website navigation and registration, cart additions, and other related browsing activity

1. 2. When we collect this information

1. 2. 1. Explicitly Added Personal Information

We collect information from you when you explicitly the enter information on our site. This can be entered through your account settings or during checkout as either a guest or registered user.

1. 2. 2. Information Gathered via Tracking

We collect this when you visit and browse the website, so long as your cookie settings allow us to. We honor ‘Do Not Track’ signals.

2. How we use this information

We may use the information we collect from you when you register, make a purchase, sign up for our newsletter, respond to a survey or marketing communication, surf the website, or use certain other site features in the following ways:

  • To personalize your experience and to allow us to deliver the type of content and product offerings in which you may be most interested.
  • To allow us to better service you in responding to your customer service requests.
  • To process your transactions of products or services as efficiently as possible.
  • To prevent abuse of our services.

3. How we protect visitor information

Our website and servers are checked on a regular basis for security holes and known vulnerabilities in order to make your visit to our site as safe as possible. As well, we are dedicated to protecting your information and employ strict electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard it.

3. 1. We make use of regular malware scanning.

Your personal information is contained behind secured networks and is only accessible by a limited number of persons who have special access rights to such systems, and are required to keep the information confidential. In addition, all sensitive/credit information you supply is encrypted via Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology and are not stored directly on our servers.

We implement a variety of security measures when you place an order, enter, submit, or access your information; to maintain the safety of your personal information.

4. We use cookies

Cookies are small files that a site or its service providers transfers to your computer’s hard drive through your web browser — if your browser settings allow — that enables the site or its service provider’s systems to recognize your browser and capture and remember certain information.

Cookies are a standard on many, if not most websites on the internet.

They are also used to help us understand your preferences based on previous or current site activity, which enables us to provide you with an improved browsing experience. We also use cookies to help us compile aggregate data about site traffic and site interaction so that we can offer better site experiences and tools in the future.

4. 1. We use cookies to:

  • Understand and save your preferences for future visits.
  • Compile aggregate data about site traffic and site interactions in order to offer better site experiences and tools in the future. We use data processors, such as Google and Facebook, to 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 (like Firefox or Chrome) settings. Each browser is a little different, so look at your browser’s help menu to learn the correct way to modify your cookie preferences.

If you disable cookies, many features of the site may not function correctly. It should not adversely affect your reading experience of articles and site content, although things such as logging into the website or adding items to your cart will not function correctly without the use of cookies.

5. Third party disclosure

We do not sell, trade, or otherwise transfer to outside parties your personally identifiable information. This does not include website hosting partners and other parties who assist us in operating our website, conducting our business, or servicing you; so long as those parties agree to keep this information confidential. We may also release your information when we believe release is appropriate to comply with the law.

However, non-personally identifiable visitor information (anonymous aggregate data) may be provided to other parties for marketing, research, or other uses.

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 try to share only those sites in which are of high quality, such as Amazon.com links for example.

5. 2. Data processors

We use Google Analytics and Facebook (Pixel) as our data processors. Their use is to compile data that enables us to further expand business and marketing, and to help us see what we’re doing wrong or right via statistics and charts. IP addresses gathered by Google Analytics are anonymized.

Our software has and uses the ability to integrate with Google Analytics and Facebook’s Pixel to show when actions such as registering an account have been made.

5. 2. 1. Jetpack (WordPress.com/Automattic) Data Processing
5. 2. 1. 1. Contact Forms

Data Used: Akismet is enabled on this site, so the contact form submission data (IP address, user agent, name, email address, message, and/or other info the form may contain inputs for) is submitted to the Akismet service, which is owned by Automattic — which also owns WordPress.com — for the sole purpose of checking for spam. The actual submission data is stored in the database of this website, which is explicitly submitted by the sender and is emailed directly to the owner of the form. In all cases, the owner of the form will be a team member or officially authorized person of this website. This email will include the submitter’s IP address, timestamp, name, email address, message, and other data that may be sent (if the form has additional fields).

Data Synced (?): Posts and post meta data associated with a user’s contact form submission. With Akismet enabled on the site, the IP address and user agent originally submitted with the comment are synced. As well, as they are stored in post meta.

5. 2. 1. 2. WordPress.com Stats

Data Used: IP address, WordPress.com user ID and username (if logged into WordPress.com),  user agent, visiting URL, referring URL, timestamp of event, browser language, country code. Important: we do not have access to any of this information via this feature. For example, this site can see that a specific post has 542 views, but we cannot see which specific users or accounts viewed that post. Statistics logs (containing visitor IP addresses and WordPress.com usernames, if available) are retained by Automattic for 28 days and are used for the sole purpose of powering this feature.

Activity Tracked: Post and page views, video plays (if videos are hosted by WordPress.com), outbound link clicks, referring URLs and search engine terms, and country. When this module is enabled, Jetpack also tracks performance on each page load that includes the Javascript file used for tracking stats. This is exclusively for aggregate performance tracking across Jetpack sites in order to make sure that our plugin and code is not causing performance issues. This includes the tracking of page load times and resource loading duration (image files, Javascript files, CSS files, etc.). By default, we honor DNT (Do Not Track) signals.

5. 3. Ways to opt out of targeting from companies:

You may be interested in opting out of Google Analytics altogether (which includes all websites you visit).  Beyond Google, there are other sorts of data collection, such as the Facebook Pixel, Amazon Ad System, etcetera. The below links may be helpful to your privacy needs.

5. 4. Affiliates and Sponsorship

This site makes the use of affiliate links to earn income by linking to what we believe are reputable sellers or marketplaces (such as Amazon.com and eBay). We may also be paid for sponsorship of particular products or companies.

If a link leads away from this site bear in mind that we may make a portion of any sales made through that link.

5. 5. Spam Protection

We utilize services such as Akismet and Google’s ReCaptcha (v2 and/or v3 depending on when and where we are using the service on our website) to help protect us against unwanted spam. These are minimally intrusive, particularly Akismet, though you may want to read each privacy policy and terms of use to see how they use data that comes from our website.

6. COPPA (Children Online Privacy Protection Act)

When it comes to the collection of personal information from children under 13, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) puts parents in control. The Federal Trade Commission, the nation’s consumer protection agency, enforces the COPPA Rule. It spells out what operators of websites and online services must do to protect children’s privacy and safety online.

We do not specifically market to children under 13 and will not knowingly collect or retain their information should we discover it through our services.

7. Fair Information Practices

The Fair Information Practices Principles form the backbone of privacy law in the United States, and the concepts they include have played a significant role in the development of data protection laws around the globe. Understanding the Fair Information Practice Principles and how they should be implemented is critical to comply with the various privacy laws that protect personal information.

In order to be in line with Fair Information Practices we will take the following responsive action, should a known data breach occur:

  • We will notify the users via email
    – within 7 business days
  • We will notify the users via website notification
    – within 7 business days

We also agree to the individual redress principle, which requires that individuals have a right to pursue legally enforceable rights against data collectors and processors who fail to adhere to the law. This principle requires not only that individuals have enforceable rights against data users, but also that individuals have recourse to courts or a government agency to investigate and/or prosecute non-compliance by data processors.

8. 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.

Note that not all emails sent by us are commercial emails, and as such do not apply to this policy.

8. 1. We collect your email address in order to:
  • Send information, respond to inquiries, and/or other requests or questions.
  • Process orders and to send information and updates pertaining to orders
  • We may also send you additional information related to your product and/or service.
8. 2. To be in accordance with CANSPAM 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 the physical address of our business or site headquarters
  • Monitor third party email marketing services for compliance, if one is used.
  • Honor opt-out/unsubscribe requests quickly
  • Allow users to unsubscribe by using the link at the bottom of each email
8. 3. If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from receiving future emails, you can
  • Follow the instructions at the bottom of each email or
  • Log into your account and select your email and notification preferences

9. California Residents

9. 1. California Online Privacy Protection Act

CalOPPA is the first state law in the United States to require commercial websites and online services to post a privacy policy. The law’s reach stretches well beyond California to require a person or company in the United States (and conceivably the world) that operates websites collecting personally identifiable information from California consumers to post a conspicuous privacy policy on its website stating exactly the information being collected and those individuals with whom it is being shared, and to comply with this policy.

– See more at: ConsumerCal.org/california-online-privacy-protection-act-caloppa/

According to CalOPPA guidelines, we agree to the following:
  • Users can visit our site anonymously.
  • Once this privacy policy is created, we will add a link to it on our home page, or as a minimum on the first significant page after entering our website.
  • Our privacy policy link includes the word ‘Privacy’, and can be easily be found on the page as specified above.
  • Users will be notified of any privacy policy changes on this privacy policy page.
  • Users are able to change their personal information:
    – by logging in to their account and changing this information in their account settings
    – by sending us an email or support request
9. 1. 1. How we handle ‘Do Not Track’ signals

We honor do not track signals and do not track, plant cookies, or use advertising when a Do Not Track (DNT) browser mechanism is in place.

9. 1. 2. Third party behavioral tracking

It’s also important to note that we allow third party behavioral tracking.

10. European Economic Area

In accordance with European Union data protection regulations, you have certain rights in respect to your personal information.

  • You have the right to request access to your personal data and to be able to amend, delete, or limit its use
  • If you have belief that your information has been unlawfully processed, you have the right to submit a complaint via our contact form, or to your respective data protection supervisory authority.

To access your data per above, you can send us an email at privacy (at) beardwiki (dot) com.