Privacy Policy - Direct or Follow

Who we are

What personal data we collect and why we collect it

Personal Data:
- Name and Email Address: Collected when you register an account, subscribe to our newsletter, or contact us. We use this to communicate with you about our services, updates, and support.
- User Profile Data: Includes preferences, avatar images, and other profile info you choose to share. This helps in personalizing your experience on our site.
Transactional Data:
- Purchase Information: If applicable, we collect data related to transactions for billing and order fulfillment.
Technical Data:
- Cookies: We use cookies to enhance user experience, remember your preferences, and for analytics.
Sensitive Personal Data: We do not collect health data or other sensitive personal information.

Legal Basis for Data Collection:

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: [link to Gravatar privacy policy]. 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.

Contact Forms

We retain the data submitted through contact forms for six months for customer service purposes. This data is not used for marketing without explicit consent.

Cookies

Essential: Necessary for site functionality.
Analytics: Used for understanding user behavior on our site (e.g., Google Analytics).
Marketing: For targeted advertising (e.g., via social media platforms).

Analytics

We use Google Analytics to measure user interactions with our site. You can opt out of Google Analytics by installing the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on. See Google’s privacy policy for more information: [link to Google Privacy Policy].

Who we share your data with

Service Providers: We share data with third-party providers like web hosting services (e.g., AWS), payment processors (e.g., Stripe), and email marketing platforms (e.g., Mailchimp). Each has their privacy policy, which you can access through their respective websites.

How long we retain your data

Comments: Stored indefinitely for historical context unless you request removal.
Contact Form Submissions: Six months for customer service.
Analytics Records: One year for site improvement.

What rights you have over your data

You can request access, correction, deletion, or transfer of your personal data. You also have the right to withdraw consent for data processing or object to certain types of processing.

Where your data is sent

Data might be processed outside the European Union, specifically in the USA, where our servers are located. We ensure compliance with EU data protection standards through Privacy Shield or similar mechanisms.

Contact information

Additional information

How we protect your data

We use SSL encryption, regular security audits, and staff training to ensure data security.

What data breach procedures we have in place

We have internal reporting systems for potential breaches and immediate action protocols to mitigate risks.

What third parties we receive data from

What automated decision making and/or profiling we do with user data

We do not engage in automated decision making or profiling that would significantly affect you.

Industry regulatory disclosure requirements

We adhere to all applicable data protection laws and regulations, including but not limited to GDPR for European users.