Last updated April 2, 2020. Please save for your records.
Background
Defending Digital , also referred to in this document as “We,” “Us,” “Our,” and “Ours.” Users of this website are referred to in this document as “You,” “Your,” and Yours.”
Your privacy is important to Defending Digital. We have a few fundamental principles:
- We don’t ask you for personal information unless we truly need it.
- We don’t share your personal information with anyone except to operate or develop our services, comply with the law, or protect our rights.
- We don’t store personal information unless required for the ongoing operation of our services.
Unless otherwise defined in this Privacy Policy, capitalized terms used in this Privacy Policy have the same meanings as in our Terms & Conditions.
Information We Collect
We only collect information about you if we have a reason to do so–for example, to provide our Services, to communicate with you, or to make our Services better. We collect information in three ways: if and when you provide information to us, automatically through operating our Services, and from outside sources. Let’s go over the information that we collect.
When we perform tech support services, we do not share the details of anything we see on your screen, including your files. However, we are legally required to report child pornography if we encounter it on customer devices while providing services.
Information You Provide to Us
We collect information that you provide to us. The amount and type of information depends on the context and how we use the information. Here are some examples:
- Transaction and Billing Information: If you pay us for service, you will provide additional personal and payment information that is required to process the transaction and your payment, such as your name, credit card information, and contact information.
- Communications With Us: You may also provide us information when you respond to surveys or communicate with us about a support question.
Information We Collect Automatically
We also collect some information automatically:
- Log Information: Like most websites, we collect information that web browsers, mobile devices, and servers typically make available, such as the browser type, IP address, unique device identifiers, language preference, referring site, the date and time of access, operating system, and mobile network information.
- Usage Information: We collect information about your usage of our website. We use this information to get insights on how people use our website, so we can make our website better.
- Location Information: We may determine the approximate location of your device from your IP address. We collect and use this information to, for example, calculate how many people visit our website from certain geographic regions.
- Information from Cookies & Other Technologies: A cookie is a string of information that a website stores on a visitor’s computer, and that the visitor’s browser provides to the website each time the visitor returns. We use cookies and other technologies to help us identify and track visitors, usage, and access preferences for our website, as well as track and understand email campaign effectiveness and to deliver targeted ads.
Information We Collect from Other Sources
We may also get information about you from other sources. For example, if you leave a comment by logging into your WordPress.com or social media account, we will receive information from that service (such as your username) via the authorization procedures used by that service. The information we receive depends on which services you authorize and any options that are available.
How And Why We Use Information
Purposes for Using Information
We use information about you as mentioned above and for the purposes listed below:
- To further develop and improve our content;
- To monitor and analyze trends and better understand how users interact with our website, which helps us improve our website and make it easier to use;
- To measure, gauge, and improve the effectiveness of our marketing, and better understand user retention and attrition;
- To monitor and prevent any problems with our website, fight spam, and protect the rights and property of Defending Digital, OptimWise and others;
- To communicate with you, solicit your feedback, or keep you up to date on Defending Digital.
Legal Bases for Collecting and Using Information
A note here for those in the European Union about our legal grounds for processing information about you under EU data protection laws, which is that our use of your information is based on the grounds that: (1) The use is necessary in order to fulfill our commitments to you under our Terms & Conditions or other agreements with you or is necessary to administer your account; or (2) The use is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation; or (3) The use is necessary in order to protect your vital interests or those of another person; or (4) We have a legitimate interest in using your information–for example, to provide and update our services, to improve our services so that we can offer you an even better user experience, to safeguard our services, to communicate with you, to measure, gauge, and improve the effectiveness of our marketing, and better understand user retention and attrition, to monitor and prevent any problems with our services; or (5) You have given us your consent–for example before we place certain cookies on your device and access and analyze them later on.
Sharing Information
How We Share Information
We do not sell our users’ or clients’ private personal information. We share information about you in the limited circumstances spelled out below and with appropriate safeguards on your privacy:
- Third Party Vendors: We may share information about you with third party vendors who need to know information about you in order to provide their services to us, or to provide their services to you. This group includes vendors that help us provide our services to you (like payment providers that process your credit and debit card information, email delivery services that help us stay in touch with you, and those that help us understand and enhance our services (like analytics providers).
- Legal Requests: We may disclose information about you in response to a subpoena, court order, or other governmental request.
- To Protect Rights, Property, and Others: We may disclose information about you when we believe in good faith that disclosure is reasonably necessary to protect the property or rights of Defending Digital, OptimWise, third parties, or the public at large.
- Business Transfers: If OptimWise, or substantially all of its assets, were acquired, or merged with another entity, or in the unlikely event that OptimWise goes out of business or enters bankruptcy, user information would be one of the assets that is transferred or acquired by a third party. You acknowledge that such transfers may occur, and that any acquirer of OptimWise reserves the right to continue to use your personal information as set forth in this policy.
- With Your Consent: We may share and disclose information with your consent or at your direction.
- Aggregated or De-Identified Information: We may share information that has been aggregated or reasonably de-identified, so that the information could not reasonably be used to identify you.
Information Shared Publicly
Information that you choose to make public is disclosed publicly. For example, your Gravatar public profile information may display with your comments.
How Long We Keep Information
Defending Digital generally discards information about you when (1) it’s no longer needed for the purposes for which it was collected and (2) there is no legal requirement to keep it.
Security
Defending Digital uses reasonable administrative, technical, and physical security controls to protect your personal information from loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction. However, despite such efforts, no security controls are completely fail-proof and Defending Digital cannot ensure or warrant the security of your personal information.
If you pay us for services, your payment will be processed by Stripe. Your credit card information runs through Stripe, and we don’t see or store it. Here’s more about Stripe security and privacy.
Choices
You have several choices available when it comes to information about you:
- Limit the Information that You Provide: You can choose not to provide optional information.
- Opt-Out of Electronic Communications: You may opt out of receiving messages from us. Just follow the instructions in those messages.
- Set Your Browser to Reject Cookies: You can choose to set your browser to remove or reject browser cookies before using this website, with the drawback that certain features of the website may not function properly without the aid of cookies.
- Stop Using Website: If you no longer want to use this website or other communications (email, social media, etc.), you can discontinue using them. We may continue to retain your information after discontinuing your use, when that information is reasonably needed to comply with (or demonstrate our compliance with) legal obligations such as law enforcement requests, or reasonably needed for legitimate business interests.
Third-Party Content
This website includes links that will direct you away from this website to third-party websites. By accessing those third-party websites, you will be obligated to comply with their respective privacy policies and you are encouraged to read them carefully.
This website includes 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.
Third-party 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 Policies
This website is hosted by SiteGround. Please also see their Privacy Policy and Data Processing Agreement.
Our email service provider is Mailchimp. Please also see their legal policies.
We use Google Analytics to collect anonymized website stats. Please see this policy.
We use Google AdSense to display ads on our site. Please see this policy and note these points:
- Third party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to our website or other websites.
- Google’s use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visit to our site and/or other sites on the Internet.
- You may opt out of personalized advertising by visiting Ads Settings. You can also opt out of a third-party vendor’s use of cookies for personalized advertising by visiting www.aboutads.info.
We use Stripe to process payments for services. Please see this policy.
How to Reach Defending Digital
If you have a question about this Privacy Policy, or you would like to contact Defending Digital about any of the rights mentioned above, please contact Defending Digital.
Privacy Policy Changes
Defending Digital may change this Privacy Policy from time to time, and in its sole discretion. We encourage you to periodically check this page for any changes to its Privacy Policy. Your continued use of this site after any change in this Privacy Policy will be subject to the updated policy.
If you have any questions about this privacy policy or Defending Digital’s treatment of your personal information, don’t hesitate to contact Defending Digital.
Thanks to Automattic for their Privacy Policy, released under a Creative Commons Sharealike license.
