And Terms of Service for WHATIHEARDHIMSAY.COM
Privacy Policy Statement
[UPDATED: 03/27/20). Yes, I expect you to read the whole thing. I can be reached via e-mail at kennethstanley24@gmail.com. For each visitor to this Web site (https://whatiheardhimsay.com), certain information is collected by statistical counters, such as referring domain/search engine, your IP address, geographic location (where your ISP is located), etc. This is not generally considered personally identifiable information, just statistical information that helps me to see where most of my visitors come from and what content seems to have the greatest appeal to them.
Comments and Other Contributions (if Allowed) + Data Retention
When visitors leave comments on the site, I 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.
If you leave a comment on this 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. Feel free to toss them (clean cache and cookies from your browser) if you feel they’ve gone stale. 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.
Registration on this site is not required. In fact, it’s not allowed unless you are a trusted contributor or member of my web-hosting company’s support team. If you are authorized to upload any images or video to this site, 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. You should also refrain from uploading anything (including text in comments) that may violate anyone else’s intellectual property rights.
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.
For the few users who are permitted to register on this 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 (including support folks at WordPress from time to time) can also see and edit that information. 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.
Analytics
The information I collect (via third-party stat counters) is used for internal review and is then discarded; it is used to improve the content of my web site; it will be disclosed if legally required to do so, at the request of U.S. governmental authorities conducting an investigation, to verify or enforce compliance with the policies governing this web site and applicable laws or to protect against misuse or unauthorized use of the Web site.
With respect to cookies: I don’t know much about Internet cookies, but I know that certain “gadgets,” “widgets,” “stat counters,” and third-party ad servers use cookies to record user-specific information such as that described in the first paragraph. I look at the information provided by the stat counters to see what interests you, but beyond that…I really don’t know where it goes. Most browsers let you block cookies, and you won’t hurt my feelings if you do. It may throw off my stat counter, so it’d be really cool if you didn’t – but your privacy is more important to me than a bunch of statistics. All those pretty graphs don’t mean a whole lot to me, anyway.
Note: I may, from time to time, play with add-ons and widgets and lord knows what. I’d love to tell you all about them, really – I just don’t always know, or remember to update this thing. So here’s an idea: There is a really nifty site called http://www.ghostery.com/ that has a browser add-on you can install that will alert you to cookies, tell you all sorts of information about each one it finds…well, here, in their own words:
Ghostery sees the invisible web – tags, web bugs, pixels and beacons. Ghostery tracks the trackers and gives you a roll-call of the ad networks, behavioral data providers, web publishers, and other companies interested in your activity.
Install that. It also lets you block all those things, if you wish. As of this update, my site has the following cookies, bugs, pixies, faery lights (sorry, “beacons”) whatever:
I reserve the right to add stuff to my site, but allowing it is never a condition of your using the site – feel free to raise the shields and block them.
If you do not want to receive e-mail from me in the future, please don’t subscribe to anything on this site.
I have heard it said, “You have to write letters to get letters.” That’s kind of true of emails from me, too. If you don’t want emails from me, don’t send me any. If you get some you weren’t expecting, let me know by sending an e-mail at the above address. It may be a “spoof” and I’d like to stop that practice every bit as much as you would.
From time to time, I may use customer information for new, unanticipated uses not previously disclosed in our privacy notice. (Not really.) I’m adding this simply as a CYA, in case I missed something in this privacy policy. I’m not deliberately “collecting information” about anyone. If my information practices change at some time in the future, I will post the policy changes right here on my Web site to notify you of these changes and I will use for these new purposes only data collected from the time of the policy change forward. If you are concerned about how your information is used, you should check back here at my Web site periodically.
Upon request I offer visitors the ability to have inaccuracies corrected in any contact information they may have provided in their communications directed to me or to the site.
Outside Advertising
At this time, the only ads on my site are from Google AdSense. I do not see this changing in the foreseeable future, due to how the Internet works. If I do agree to any other advertising, it will be carefully vetted and will not involve sex, pharmaceuticals, gambling, or other topics unsuitable for the general public.
Embedded Content
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 tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.
You might want to consider using Ghostery. (See information on this above.)
To Parents (If you have kids who might be reading this site, MAKE SURE THEY READ THIS)
This site is not designed for use by, nor does it target, visitors under age 13. As a parent, I feel that it is a parent’s responsibility to be aware of what their child(ren) are doing on the Internet. I don’t require any personally identifiable information from anyone, and certainly not from minor children. Young visitors are welcome to visit with their parents’ approval and/or supervision. I may occasionally write about topics more suitable for adults than for children. I may express political and religious views that differ from those taught in your home. Please use your parental discretion to determine whether this site’s content is appropriate for your kids.
Comments and Civil Interaction Policy
I support the First Amendment. I do not delete comments merely because the author expresses disagreement with me or with others here – in fact, I welcome respectful debate and discussion. However, I reserve the right to delete comments on my blog for excessive profanity, threats, or abuse of other visitors to the site.
I reserve the right to delete comments for spammy uselessness and incoherent, irrelevant rambling, or off topic, in my opinion. Actually, I reserve the right to delete comments for any reason whatsoever.
Any credible threats or illegal activity will be promptly reported to law enforcement for investigation.
If you feel that this site is not following its stated information policy, you may contact us at the above email address or The DMA’s Committee on Ethical Business Practices at mgoldberger@the-dma.org.
What I Heard Him Say 