Privacy Policy

This policy was last updated on June 1, 2020.

Your privacy is important to me. The policy below outlines how your personal information is collected and how it is used when you use my website.

You agree to the terms of this policy when you use this website. This privacy policy may change from time to time. If any changes are made, then you will be notified by revising the date at the top of this policy.

Who we are

Founded in 2015 and based in the U.S.A, Books and Giggles is an independently operated blog run by me – Heather. This website shares educational activities, crafts, and book lists, and a variety of free printable resources for parents and educators.

Our website address is: https://booksandgiggles.com.

What personal data we collect and why we collect it

Here is how your information is collected on Books and Giggles:

  • if you subscribe to the weekly newsletter
  • if you leave a comment on the blog
  • through website cookies and log files
  • through Google Analytics

Weekly Newsletter

If you decide to join the weekly newsletter via any of the many sign up forms located throughout this website, then your email address is required, and your first name is optional. We require your email address in order to send you the emails. If you provide your first name my emails to you will include a friendly personalized note. You are welcome to enter a pseudo-name, if you would prefer. It could make for an interesting email each week if you pick something fun!

At the bottom of every email I send, you will find a link to unsubscribe. You may unsubscribe from the newsletter at any time. If you are having trouble unsubscribing or would like to be removed from the newsletter, then simply send me an email at heather@booksandgiggles.com asking to be removed.

I use a third party application called Thrive Leads (read their privacy policy here) to deliver some of my free printables. It captures your name (if you provide it) and your email address.

Your email and name are never sold or given away to a third party.

All emails you receive are CAN-SPAM compliant. At the bottom of every email, you will find information on how to contact the sender, as well as information on how to unsubscribe.

We use ConvertKit to deliver some free printables, manage our email marketing subscriber list, and send emails to our subscribers. ConvertKit is a third-party provider, which may process your data using industry-standard technologies to help us monitor and improve our newsletter.

ConvertKit’s privacy policy is available at http://convertkit.com/privacy

You can unsubscribe from our newsletter by clicking on the unsubscribe link provided at the end of each newsletter.

Comments

Love something you read on my blog? Then leaving a comment is a great way to do that! I personally love hearing your feedback. If you choose to leave a comment on a blog post, then please be aware that the comment is then public and visible to anyone who reads the comment section. Your email address is never shared or disclosed, but your name and comment will be visible to others.

It is highly recommended that you avoid leaving detailed personal information in your comments.

I reserve the right to remove comments deemed as inappropriate, threatening, profane, or spammy without notice.

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.

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.

If you have an account and you log in to this site, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.

When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.

If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.

Cookies store user-specific information into a log. I use the following cookies on Books and Giggles:

Amazon (for advertising)
Facebook Pixel (for Facebook ad targeting): Read how the Pixel works
Google Analytics (for tracking website traffic and user behavior): Read how their cookies work
Grow share buttons (for social sharing): Read how their cookies work

Google Analytics

Books and Giggles uses Google Analytics to track website performance and user behavior. It provides information on pageviews, referral sources, and other valuable information that helps me adapt the content I write for this website. Google Analytics does capture anonymous data about location, age, gender, and interests, but I have no way to connect that information and specifically identify you. Google Analytics may also capture your IP address as you make your way around this website. User and event data does not automatically expire. You can read more about that here.

Advertisements

Mediavine Programmatic Advertising (Ver 1.1)

The Website works with Mediavine to manage third-party interest-based advertising appearing on the Website. Mediavine serves content and advertisements when you visit the Website, which may use first and third-party cookies. A cookie is a small text file which is sent to your computer or mobile device (referred to in this policy as a “device”) by the web server so that a website can remember some information about your browsing activity on the Website.

First party cookies are created by the website that you are visiting. A third-party cookie is frequently used in behavioral advertising and analytics and is created by a domain other than the website you are visiting. Third-party cookies, tags, pixels, beacons and other similar technologies (collectively, “Tags”) may be placed on the Website to monitor interaction with advertising content and to target and optimize advertising. Each internet browser has functionality so that you can block both first and third-party cookies and clear your browser’s cache. The “help” feature of the menu bar on most browsers will tell you how to stop accepting new cookies, how to receive notification of new cookies, how to disable existing cookies and how to clear your browser’s cache. For more information about cookies and how to disable them, you can consult the information at All About Cookies.

Without cookies you may not be able to take full advantage of the Website content and features. Please note that rejecting cookies does not mean that you will no longer see ads when you visit our Site. In the event you opt-out, you will still see non-personalized advertisements on the Website.

The Website collects the following data using a cookie when serving personalized ads:

  • IP Address
  • Operating System type
  • Operating System version
  • Device Type
  • Language of the website
  • Web browser type
  • Email (in hashed form)

Mediavine Partners (companies listed below with whom Mediavine shares data) may also use this data to link to other end user information the partner has independently collected to deliver targeted advertisements. Mediavine Partners may also separately collect data about end users from other sources, such as advertising IDs or pixels, and link that data to data collected from Mediavine publishers in order to provide interest-based advertising across your online experience, including devices, browsers and apps. This data includes usage data, cookie information, device information, information about interactions between users and advertisements and websites, geolocation data, traffic data, and information about a visitor’s referral source to a particular website. Mediavine Partners may also create unique IDs to create audience segments, which are used to provide targeted advertising.

If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices to opt-in or opt-out of this data collection, please visit National Advertising Initiative opt out page. You may also visit Digital Advertising Alliance website and Network Advertising Initiative website to learn more information about interest-based advertising. You may download the AppChoices app at Digital Advertising Alliance’s AppChoices app to opt out in connection with mobile apps, or use the platform controls on your mobile device to opt out.

For specific information about Mediavine Partners, the data each collects and their data collection and privacy policies, please visit Mediavine Partners.

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.

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.

What rights you have over your data

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.

Where we send your data

Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.

Additional information

SOCIAL MEDIA PRIVACY
Books and Giggles uses various social media platforms. Books and Giggles is not responsible for what you post on Books and Giggles’ social media channels.

PARENTAL CONSENT
If you are under 16 years old, you must first have parental permission before using our website or entering personal information.

FINAL NOTES ON THIS PRIVACY POLICY
You have the right to access your personal data and know how it is being processed. Hopefully, the policy above adequately explains how your data is used.

Personal information will not be transferred unless we are legally obligated to do so. If you would like your information to be removed from our systems, please contact heather@booksandgiggles.com. You can request to be removed at any time.

Books and Giggles contains links to other websites. As such, Books and Giggles is not responsible for the privacy policies of other websites or the third party applications it uses.

If you have questions or concerns about this privacy policy, please feel free to contact me at heather@booksandgiggles.com.