Privacy Policies

brickLAB, Inc. Privacy Policy

brickLAB, Inc. is committed to keeping any of your information, personal data, preferences, and all other sensitive material private to our operational situation. We do not share this information, except as needed to comply with our merchant agreements with WordPress, WooCommerce, Automattic, and Heartland processing service. Their policies are outlined below with links to current policies.

If you have any questions, or are not satisfied with our policy or theirs, please feel free to option out of our web pages and do not continue to use our service until you are satisfied with our policies, terms of service, shipping, refund, and return policies outlined within our brick policies pages. You can choose not to use our services or discontinue service at any time.

Definitions.

    1. Information Types.
      1. “Account Information” means data about how and when an account is accessed, and the features used.
      2. “Browser Information” means provided by a browser, including the IP address, the website visited, network connection, device information, and other data, including Cookies.
      3. “Contact Information” means basic personal details, including such information as first and last name, company name, email address, postal address, phone number, and may include social media account information.
      4. “Payment Information” means, for example, credit card, ACH or other payment information.
      5. “Security Information” means user ID, password and password hints, and other security information used for authentication and account access.
      6. “Support Information” includes hardware, software, authentication data, chat session contents, error reports, performance data, and other communication or technical information and may, with express permission, include remote access to facilitate troubleshooting.
      7. “Transaction Information” means the data related to transactions that occur on our platform, including product, order, shipping information, Contact Information, and Payment Information.
      8. “Automated Decision Making” means a decision made solely by automated means without human involvement.
      9. “Controller” means an entity that determines the purposes and means of the Processing of Personal Data.
      10. “Cookie” a small file that resides on your computer’s hard drive that often contains an anonymous unique identifier that is accessible by the website that placed it there but is not accessible by other sites.
      11. “Merchant” means an entity that has or is using Commerce Services for ecommerce.
      12. “Partner” means a separate legal entity that is a participant in our Design and Solution Partner (DSP) Program, our Technology Partner Program or other third-party technology integration with the Commerce platform, a theme designer, reseller, or referrer of the Services.
      13. “Personal Data” means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person identifiable information under applicable data protection laws and regulations.
      14. “Processing” means any operation or set of operations which is performed upon Personal Data, whether by automatic means, including, but not limited to, alteration, collection, organization, recording, retrieval, storage, transmission, and use.
      15. “Processor” means the entity which processes Personal Data on behalf of the Controller
      16. “Sensitive Personal Data” means any data that reveals racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, genetic data, biometric data for the purpose of uniquely identifying a natural person, or data concerning health or a natural person’s sex life and/or sexual orientation.
      17. “Shopper” means an entity that interacts with the ecommerce offering of a Merchant through the Commerce platform. Merchants

Merchant Policies.

We want you to understand how brickLAB, Inc., WordPress, WooCommerce, and Heartland collect and process Personal Data. To that end, we will post an accurate privacy policy on our storefront that complies with all applicable laws and regulations; access to their privacy policies, obtain informed consent from Shoppers for the use and access of their Personal Data by Commerce Partners and other third parties; and if we are collecting any Sensitive Personal Data from Shoppers, obtain proper consent and allow such Shoppers to revoke their consent to the use and access of Sensitive Personal Data at any time. 

Information Collected. When you interact with our Website, for example, by signing up for a trial, a subscription, or a newsletter, or performing transactions, brickLAB, Inc. may collect and control information such as Account Information, Browser Information, Contact Information, Payment Information, Support Information, and Security Information.

Information Usage. We use this information to provide our Partners ability to perform our Services, confirm identities, provide support for advertising and marketing, invoicing, to resolve incidents related to the use of our Website and Services, to improve and personalize our Services, and to comply with legal requirements. We may use this information in other cases where we have received express permission.

Partners.

Information Collected. When a Partner signs up for a partner account or signs us up as a Merchant for their Services, they may collect and control information such as Account Information, Browser Information, Contact Information, Payment Information, Support Information, and Security Information.

Information Usage. We use this information to provide Partners with our Services, confirm identities, provide support, for advertising and marketing, invoicing, to resolve incidents related to the use of our Website and Services, to improve and personalize our Services, and to comply with legal requirements. We may use this information in other cases where we have received express permission.

Shoppers.

Information Collected. When Shoppers interact with a Merchant’s ecommerce offering through the Commerce platform, Partners may collect and process Browser Information and Transaction Information of the Shopper on behalf of  brickLAB, Inc.

Information Usage. Our partners use this information as a Processor to provide our Services to us, support and process orders, improve and personalize our Services, and manage risk and fraud.

Information Collected. When visitors browse our Website, or engage in communications with us, we may collect, and control Browser Information, Support Information, and Contact Information submitted using any messaging features.

Information Usage. We use this information to provide our Services, improve and personalize our Services, and provide support if needed. 

Communications.

Promotional. We may deliver and personalize our communications with Merchants and Partners. For example, we may notify by email or other means when a subscription is ending or invite the recipient to participate in a survey. For information about managing email subscriptions and promotional communications, please go to our email preferences page.

Account. We send certain required communications, such as account notices or information, to users of our Services. You may not opt out of receiving these communications if you have an active account or are using the service after satisfied and in agreement. 

Information Sharing.

Our Services are possible because of a variety of third parties and service providers. Sometimes it is necessary to share Merchant, Partner, or Shopper Personal Data with them to support our Services. We may access, transfer, disclose, and/or preserve that Personal Data with consent or in the following circumstances.

Compliance. If we have a good faith belief that doing so is necessary to: (i) comply with applicable law or respond to valid legal process, including from law enforcement or other government agencies; or (ii) protect the rights or property of brickLAB, WooCommerce, and Heartland including enforcing the terms governing the use of the Services.

Protection. If we have a good faith belief that doing so is necessary to: (i) protect Merchants, Partners, Shoppers, or visitors; for example, to prevent spam or attempts to defraud users of our Services, or in response to threats of safety of any person; (ii) operate and maintain the security of our products, including to prevent or stop an attack on our computer systems or networks.

Affiliates. We share Personal Data among WooCommerce, and Heartland-controlled affiliates and subsidiaries.

Service Providers. WooCommerce or other partners may use from time to time a limited number of third-party service providers, contractors, and other businesses to assist us in providing our Services for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy.

Payment Processing. We share payment data with banks and other entities that process payment transactions or provide other financial services, and for fraud prevention and credit risk reduction. WooCommerce and Heartland processes our transactions.

Apps. WooCommerce will, upon receiving a Merchant’s consent to install an application, share the Merchant’s Contact Information with the app Partner.

Merger; Sale. We may also disclose Personal Data as part of a corporate transaction such as a merger or sale of assets.

Automated Decision-Making.

Some Personal Data may be used in Automated Decision Making to help us screen accounts for risk, fraud, or abuse concerns.

 Cookies.

Cookies can be used to recognize you when you visit our Website, remember your preferences, and give you a personalized experience. Third party integrations on our Website also use Cookies. By using our Website or Services, you are agreeing to the use of Cookies and similar technologies for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy. It possible to disable Cookies through your device or browser settings but doing so may affect your ability to use the Website. The method for disabling Cookies may vary by device and browser but can usually be found in preferences or security settings. To find out more about Cookies, including how to see what Cookies have been set and how to manage and delete them, visit allaboutcookies.org, or aboutcookies.org. Because there is no consistent industry understanding of how to respond to “Do Not Track” signals, we do not alter our data collection and usage practices when we detect such a signal from your browser.

 Information Protection.

We maintain administrative, technical, and physical security measures designed to provide reasonable protection for Personal Data against unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, loss, and misuse. Unfortunately, no method of Internet use, data transmission, or electronic storage is completely secure, so we cannot guarantee the absolute security of Personal Data.

While we are dedicated to securing our Website and Services, you are responsible for securing and maintaining the privacy of your passwords and account information. We are not responsible for protecting Personal Data shared with a third-party based on an account connection that you have authorized. 

Accountability for Data Transfer.

Data Processors. We will only share or disclose Personal Data to Processors that we have contractually obligated to provide at least the same level of privacy protection required by the current industry standards. Furthermore, we will obligate any Processor to the specified, explicit and legitimate purposes consistent with your consent.

Remedial Measures. If we learn Personal Data is not protected according to our contract, or is being processed beyond your consent, we will take reasonable steps to protect your information and/or cease its illegitimate processing from anything in our control.

Access to Your Personal Data.

We understand that you have rights over your Personal Data, and provide reasonable steps to allow you to access, correct, amend, delete, port, or limit the use of your Personal Data. This includes the right to withdraw, at any time, your consent for our collection and use. Additionally, you may have the right to make a complaint with the Data Protection Authority in your country.

Merchants, Shoppers, and Partners can update many types of collected Personal Data directly within their accounts. Please contact us if you are unable to access or otherwise change your Personal Data within your account, or if you are concerned about other data collected.

Contact us directly regarding your Personal Data we have collected. We can only forward your request to our partners or processors. Any deletion or limitation on the use of your Personal Data may negatively affect your use of our Services, or theirs.

brickLAB, Inc. will seek to attain acceptable enforcement of this policy and reserves the right to change or amend this policy at any time.

Our associations with WordPress, WooCommerce and Heartland are contractual and therefore any issues with their policies or ours may warrant you to option out of our service. If you have any questions please feel free to contact us directly through e-mail, our store address listed below, or call us directly, also listed below:

brickLAB, Inc.

J3@mybricklab.com e-mail

2552 Stonebrook Parkway Suite 250

Frisco, Texas 75034

(972) 704-3325

Updated 01/07/20

Heartland Privacy Policy

https://www.heartlandpaymentsystems.com/privacy-policy

  1.   Information Collection and Use

We collect information from various sources that we use to provide our Services to you, to analyze and improve our Services, and to communicate with you (e.g., to send you updates or notices about our organization, or emails about products or services that we believe may be of interest to you). The information that we collect and the purpose for our collecting such information is as follows:

Information that you provide to us:  We collect information that you provide to us when you set up an account with us, use our Services, or communicate with us.  For example, if you register for an online account with us, then we may request your personal information (e.g., name, postal address, email address, DOB, telephone number, credit/debit card number, security code) or as applicable your business information, to complete the registration process, to process transactions, to send you information about our products, to send you promotional offers from third parties that we think may be of interest to you, or to otherwise provide our Services to you.  Similarly, if you request information from us through an online contact form (or if you email us), we collect the information you provide (e.g., name, telephone number, email address) so that we can respond to you.

Information collected from third parties:  We may collect information about you or your business from third parties in the course of providing our Services to you.  

For example, we may obtain information from our merchant customers or we may collect information from a school or university about consumer/students to provide services to those consumers/students.  For some services, we may also collect information from third parties, such as credit reporting agencies or financial institutions, or other entities with information pertaining to the Services that we are providing to you.  In any case where information is collected from a credit reporting agency, a separate authorization shall be obtained from you prior to our collection of that information.

Information collected through technology:  When you visit our websites or mobile applications (or when you use any of our online services) we may collect certain information about your location, computer or device through technology such as cookies, web beacons, GPS or other tracking/recording tools.  The information collected may include, but is not limited to, IP addresses, referring URLs, access times, location, browser types, device types, mobile device identifiers, or information about your interactions with our websites, applications or services.  (Note that a “cookie” is a text file placed on a computer’s hard drive or stored on a mobile device; a “web beacon,” also known as an Internet tag, pixel tag or clear GIF, is used to transmit information back to a web server.)  We may use the information described in this paragraph to, among other things, (i) operate our Services, including by remembering information so that you will not have to re-enter it during your visit or the next time you sign in to your account, (ii) identify and protect our customers, (iii) control unauthorized use or abuse of our Services, (iv) provide custom, personalized content and information, which could include advertising, (v) monitor aggregate traffic patterns on our websites and services, and (vi) analyze and improve our Services.  

  1.   Sharing of Information

We do not sell or share your information with third parties outside Heartland and our group of companies (which include any parents, subsidiaries and affiliates), without your consent, except as described below and in this Policy:

  • We may share your information with our service providers and business partners (e.g., financial institutions or card brands that issue payment cards or are involved in transaction processing; entities that assist with fraud prevention or collections; merchants that sell gift cards managed through our websites or services; schools), who assist us in providing our Services.  We may also share information with our service providers and business partners to help us monitor usage and other analytics regarding our Services, and to help us improve these offerings.  When we share your information with our service providers and business partners, we only provide the information that these third parties reasonably need to perform their functions. 
  • We may aggregate, or strip information of personally identifying characteristics, and may share that aggregated or anonymized information with third parties.
  • We may share or disclose your information if we determine, in our sole discretion, that we are required to do so under applicable law or regulatory requirements, or if we reasonably believe disclosure is necessary to prevent harm or financial loss, or in connection with preventing fraud or illegal activity, and/or to enforce our Terms of Use.
  • We reserve the right to transfer any information we collect in the event we sell or transfer all or a portion of our business or assets (including any shares in the company) or any portion or combination of our products, services, businesses and/or assets.  Should such a transaction occur (whether a divestiture, merger, acquisition, bankruptcy, dissolution, reorganization, liquidation, or similar transaction or proceeding), we will use reasonable efforts to ensure that any transferred information is treated in a manner consistent with this Privacy Policy.
  1.   Children’s Privacy

Heartland’s websites, mobile applications and services are intended for use strictly by adults.  Heartland does not knowingly solicit or collect personal information from children under the age of 13.  If Heartland obtains knowledge that it has collected personal information from a child under 13 in retrievable form in its files, Heartland will delete that information.

  1.   Your Choices

Email Communications.  From time to time, we may send you emails regarding updates to our websites, mobile applications or products/services, notices about our organization, information about products/services we offer, or promotional offers from third parties that we think may be of interest to you.  If you wish to unsubscribe from such emails, simply click the “unsubscribe link” provided at the bottom of the email communication.  

Note that you cannot unsubscribe from certain Services-related email communications (e.g., account verification, confirmations of transactions, technical or legal notices).

Modifying Account Information.  If you have an online account with us, you may have the ability to modify certain information in your account (e.g., your contact information) through “profile,” “account,” “settings,” or “preferences” options provided on the website or service.  If you have any questions about modifying or updating any information in your account, please contact us at the email address, postal address, or telephone number provided below. 

Cookie and Location Controls.  You may be able to set your Internet browser or mobile device to block cookies or other tracking/recording tools, including cookies associated with our websites or Services, or to indicate when a cookie is being set by us. However, it is important to remember that many of our websites or Services may not function properly if your cookies or location are disabled.  We support the Do Not Track browser setting.  Do Not Track (or DNT) is a preference you can set in your browser to let the websites that you visit know that you do not want them collecting certain information about you.  

For information and instructions about how to manage your cookies, refer to your Internet browser’s or mobile device’s technical information.  Further information on how to adjust your cookie preferences through your browser is available at the external, third-party informational website www.allaboutcookies.org.

  1.   Data Protection and Storage

Heartland maintains reasonable administrative, technical and physical safeguards to protect the confidentiality of information transmitted online, including but not limited to encryption, firewalls and SSL (Secure Sockets Layer). Heartland has implemented policies and practices pursuant to various security rules and regulations relating to the security and safeguarding of payment cardholder data, including the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI-DSS).  Heartland is not liable for loss of passwords due to user negligence.  If you believe your password has been lost or compromised, we recommend that you immediately change your password.

We may store and process information in the United States or any other country in which Heartland or its parents, subsidiaries, affiliates or service providers maintain facilities. Heartland may transfer information that we collect about you, including personal information, to parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, or service providers across borders and from your country or jurisdiction to other countries or jurisdictions around the world.  If you are located in the European Union or other regions with laws governing data collection and use that may differ from U.S. law, please note that we may transfer information, including personal information, to a country and jurisdiction that does not have the same data protection laws as your jurisdiction, and you consent to the transfer of information to the U.S. or any other country in which Heartland or its parent, subsidiaries, affiliates or service providers maintain facilities and to the use and disclosure of information as described in this Privacy Policy. 

  1.   Third-Party Websites and Services

Our websites or Services may provide links to (or links from) third-party websites or services Ð none of which are governed by this Privacy Policy.To the extent that any linked third-party websites or services you visit are not owned or controlled by Heartland, we are not responsible for those websites’ or services’ content or information practices.  We strongly encourage you to review the privacy policies of any site or service before providing any personal information.

  1.   Changes to Privacy Policy

We reserve the right to change this Privacy Policy from time to time in our sole discretion.  We will post changes on this page and indicate the “last modified” date at the top of this page.  Please check back often for any updates.  Your continued use of our website, mobile application or services after any change in this Privacy Policy will constitute your acceptance of such change.

  1.   Contact Us

For additional inquiries about this Privacy Policy, please send us an email at PrivacyPolicy@e-hps.com  or letter. 

General Counsel Office
Heartland Payment Systems, LLC
10 Glenlake Parkway NE
North Tower
Atlanta, GA 30328

WooCommerce Privacy Policy

https://automattic.com/privacy/

Your privacy is critically important to us. At Automatic, we have a few fundamental principles:

  • We are thoughtful about the personal information we ask you to provide and the personal information that we collect about you through the operation of our services.
  • We store personal information for only as long as we have a reason to keep it.
  • We aim to make it as simple as possible for you to control what information on your website is shared publicly (or kept private), indexed by search engines, and permanently deleted.
  • We help protect you from overreaching government demands for your personal information.
  • We aim for full transparency on how we gather, use, and share your personal information.

Below is our Privacy Policy, which incorporates and clarifies these principles.

Who We Are and What This Policy Covers

Howdy! We are the folks behind a variety of products and services designed to allow anyone — from bloggers, to photographers, small business owners, and enterprises — to take full advantage of the power and promise of the open web. Our mission is to democratize publishing and commerce so that anyone with a story can tell it, and anyone can turn their great idea into a livelihood. We believe in powering the open internet with code that is open source and are proud to say that the vast majority of our work is available under the General Public License (“GPL”). Unlike most other services, because our GPL code is public, you can actually download and take a look at that code to see how it works.

This Privacy Policy applies to information that we collect about you when you use:

  • Our websites (including automattic.com, wordpress.com, vip.wordpress.com, jetpack.com, woocommerce.com, crowdsignal.com, gravatar.com, intensedebate.com, vaultpress.com, akismet.com, simplenote.com, simperium.com, leandomainsearch.com, cloudup.com, longreads.com, atavist.com, and happy.tools);
  • Our mobile applications (including the WordPress mobile app for Android and iOS);
  • Our other Automattic products, services, and features that are available on or through our websites (for example, WordPress.com plans, Recurring Payments, Simple Payments, WordPress.com VIP, Jetpack, the WooCommerce Services Extension, Gravatar, the IntenseDebate comment management system, Akismet plans, Simplenote, Simperium, Cloudup, Longreads, and Happy Tools); and
  • Other users’ websites that use our Services, while you are logged in to your account with us.

This Privacy Policy also applies to information we collect when you apply for a job at Automattic.

Throughout this Privacy Policy we’ll refer to our websites, mobile applications, and other products and services collectively as “Services.” And if you’d like to learn more about which Automattic company is the controller of information about you, take a look at the section below on Controllers and Responsible Companies.

Please note that this Privacy Policy does not apply to any of our products or services, like Tumblr, that have a separate privacy policy.

Below we explain how we collect, use, and share information about you, along with the choices that you have with respect to that information.

Creative Commons Sharealike License

We’ve decided to make this Privacy Policy available under a Creative Commons Sharealike license. You can grab a copy of this Privacy Policy and other legal documents on GitHub. You’re more than welcome to copy it, adapt it, and repurpose it for your own use. Just make sure to revise the language so that your policy reflects your actual practices. If you do use it, we’d appreciate a credit and link to Automattic somewhere on your site.

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 this information from three sources: 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.

Information You Provide to Us

It’s probably no surprise that we collect information that you provide to us directly. Here are some examples:

  • Basic account information: We ask for basic information from you in order to set up your account. For example, we require individuals who sign up for a WordPress.com account to provide an email address and password, along with a username or name — and that’s it. You may provide us with more information — like your address and other information you want to share — but we don’t require that information to create a WordPress.com account.
  • Public profile information:If you have an account with us, we collect the information that you provide for your public profile. For example, if you have a WordPress.com account, your username is part of that public profile, along with any other information you put into your public profile, like a photo or an “About Me” description. Your public profile information is just that — public — so please keep that in mind when deciding what information you would like to include.
  • Payment and contact information: If you buy something from us or earn revenue through your site, we’ll collect information to process those payments and contact you. If you buy something from us — a subscription to a WordPress.com plan, a premium theme, a custom domain, some Longreads swag — or if you pay fees to a person or business through their WordPress.com site (for example via Recurring Payments or Simple Payments), you’ll provide additional personal and payment information like your name, credit card information, and contact information. We also keep a record of the purchases you’ve made. If you use our eCommerce Services (including Stores on WordPress.comand the WooCommerce Services extension), you’ll have to create a WordPress.com account or connect an existing account and, for some Services, provide your site URL. You may also provide us with financial details to set up a payments integration, like the email address for your Stripe or PayPal account or your bank account information. If you participate in a revenue sharing opportunity for your site, like WordAds, you’ll provide some additional information — for example, a tax ID or other identifier so we can process payments to you.
  • Happy Tools information: If you are a Happy Tools user, you will provide us with information to set up your Happy Tools account and make use of the Service’s features. For example, you might enter timezone and location information, company and team information, and contact information.
  • Content information: You might provide us with information about you in draft and published content (a blog post or comment that includes biographic information about you, or any media or files you upload).
  • Credentials: Depending on the Services you use, you may provide us with credentials for your self-hosted website (like SSH, FTP, and SFTP username and password). Jetpack and VaultPress users may provide us with these credentials in order to use our one-click restore feature if there is a problem with their site, or to allow us to troubleshoot problems more quickly.
  • Communications with us (hi there!): You may also provide us with information when you respond to surveys, communicate with our Happiness Engineers about a support question, post a question in our public forums, or sign up for a newsletter like the one we send through Longreads. When you communicate with us via form, email, phone, WordPress.com comment, or otherwise, we store a copy of our communications (including any call recordings as permitted by applicable law).
  • Job applicant information:If you apply for a job with us — awesome! You may provide us with information like your name, contact information, resume or CV, and work authorization verification as part of the application process.

Information We Collect Automatically

We also collect some information automatically:

  • Log information:Like most online service providers, we collect information that web browsers, mobile devices, and servers typically make available, including the browser type, IP address, unique device identifiers, language preference, referring site, the date and time of access, operating system, and mobile network information. We collect log information when you use our Services — for example, when you create or make changes to your website on WordPress.com.
  • Usage information:We collect information about your usage of our Services. For example, we collect information about the actions that site administrators and users perform on a site using our WordPress.com or Jetpack services — in other words, who did what and when (e.g., [WordPress.com username] deleted “[title of post]” at [time/date]). Our WooCommerce Usage Tracker also tracks information like your email address, WooCommerce settings, and PHP settings, along with information about your online store, like the aggregate number of orders and customers. We also collect information about what happens when you use our Services (e.g., page views, support document searches at en.support.wordpress.com, features enabled for your website, interactions with our Admin Bar and other parts of our Services) along with information about your device (e.g., screen size, name of cellular network, and mobile device manufacturer). We use this information to, for example, provide our Services to you, get insights on how people use our Services so we can make our Services better, and understand and make predictions about user retention.
  • 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 Services from certain geographic regions. We may also collect information about your precise location via our mobile apps (like when you post a photograph with location information) if you allow us to do so through your mobile device operating system’s permissions.
  • Stored information:We may access information stored on your mobile device via our mobile apps. We access this stored information through your device operating system’s permissions. For example, if you give us permission to access the photographs on your mobile device’s camera roll, our Services may access the photos stored on your device when you upload a really amazing photograph of the sunrise to your website.
  • Interactions with other users’ sites:We collect some information about your interactions with other users’ sites while you are logged in to your account with us, such as your “Likes” and the fact that you commented on a particular post, so that we can, for example, recommend posts we think may interest you. As another example, we collect information about the comments IntenseDebate users make while logged in and use that information to, for example, tally up statistics about your comments (check them out in your dashboard!) and display information about your comments in your IntenseDebate public profile.
  • 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. Pixel tags (also called web beacons) are small blocks of code placed on websites and emails. Automattic uses cookies and other technologies like pixel tags to help us identify and track visitors, usage, and access preferences for our Services, as well as track and understand email campaign effectiveness and to deliver targeted ads. For more information about our use of cookies and other technologies for tracking, including how you can control the use of cookies, please see our Cookie Policy.

Information We Collect from Other Sources

We may also get information about you from other sources. For example, if you create or log in to your WordPress.com account through another service (like Google) or if you connect your website or account to a social media service (like Twitter) through our Publicize feature, we’ll receive information from that service (e.g., your username, basic profile information, friends list) via the authorization procedures for that service. The information we receive depends on which services you authorize and what options are available.

Third-party services may also give us information, like mailing addresses for individuals who are not yet our users (but we hope will be!). We use this information for marketing purposes like postcards and other mailers advertising our Services.

How and Why We Use Information

Purposes for Using Information

We use information about you for the purposes listed below:

  • To provide our Services.For example, to set up and maintain your account, host your website, backup and restore your website, provide customer service, process payments and orders, and verify user information.
  • To ensure quality, maintain safety, and improve our Services.For example, by providing automatic upgrades and new versions of our Services. Or, for example, by monitoring and analyzing how users interact with our Services so we can create new features that we think our users will enjoy and that will help them create and manage websites more efficiently or make our Services easier to use.
  • To place and manage ads in our advertising program.For example, to place ads on our users’ sites and some of our own sites as part of our advertising program, and understand ad performance.
  • To market our Services and measure, gauge, and improve the effectiveness of our marketing.For example, by targeting our marketing messages to groups of our users (like those who have a particular plan with us or have been users for a certain length of time), advertising our Services, analyzing the results of our marketing campaigns (like how many people purchased a paid plan after receiving a marketing message), and understanding and forecasting user retention.
  • To protect our Services, our users, and the public.For example, by detecting security incidents; detecting and protecting against malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity; fighting spam; complying with our legal obligations; and protecting the rights and property of Automattic and others, which may result in us, for example, declining a transaction or terminating Services.
  • To fix problems with our Services.For example, by monitoring, debugging, repairing, and preventing issues.
  • To customize the user experience.For example, to personalize your experience by serving you relevant notifications and advertisements for our Services, recommending content through our Reader post suggestions, and providing new essays and stories through Longreads for your reading pleasure.
  • To communicate with you.For example, by emailing you to ask for your feedback, share tips for getting the most out of our products, or keep you up to date on Automattic; texting you to verify your payment; or calling you to share offers and promotions that we think will be of interest to you. If you don’t want to hear from us, you can opt out of marketing communications at any time. (If you opt out, we’ll still send you important updates relating to your account.)
  • To recruit and hire new Automatticians.For example, by evaluating job applicants and communicating with them.

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 the applicable terms of service or other agreements with you or is necessary to administer your account — for example, in order to enable access to our website on your device or charge you for a paid plan; 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 advertising; and to understand our user retention and attrition; to monitor and prevent any problems with our Services; and to personalize your experience; 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, as described in our Cookie Policy.

Sharing Information

How We Share Information

We share information about you in limited circumstances, and with appropriate safeguards on your privacy. These are spelled out below, as well as in the section called Ads and Analytics Services Provided by Others:

  • Subsidiaries and independent contractors:We may disclose information about you to our subsidiaries and independent contractors who need the information to help us provide our Services or process the information on our behalf. We require our subsidiaries and independent contractors to follow this Privacy Policy for any personal information that we share with them.
  • Third-party vendors:We may share information about you with third-party vendors who need the information in order to provide their services to us, or to provide their services to you or your site. This includes vendors that help us provide our Services to you (like payment providers that process your credit and debit card information, payment providers you use for your own eCommerce operations, fraud prevention services that allow us to analyze fraudulent payment transactions, cloud storage services, postal and email delivery services that help us stay in touch with you, customer chat and email support services that help us communicate with you, registrars, registries, data escrow services that allow us to provide domain registration services, and your hosting provider if your site is not hosted by Automattic); those that assist us with our marketing efforts (e.g., by providing tools for identifying a specific marketing target group or improving our marketing campaigns, and by placing ads to market our services); those that help us understand and enhance our Services (like analytics providers); those that make tools to help us run our operations (like programs that help us with task management, scheduling, word processing, email and other communications, and collaboration among our teams); other third-party tools that help us manage operations; and companies that make products available on our websites (like the extensions on WooCommerce.com), who may need information about you in order to, for example, provide technical or other support services to you. We require vendors to agree to privacy commitments in order to share information with them. Other vendors are listed in our more specific policies (e.g., our Cookie Policy).
  • Legal and regulatory requirements:We may disclose information about you in response to a subpoena, court order, or other governmental request. For more information on how we respond to requests for information about WordPress.com users, please see our Legal Guidelines. Additionally, if you have a domain registered with WordPress.com, we may share your information to comply with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers’ (ICANN) regulations, rules, or policies. For example, your information relating to your domain registration may be available in the WHOIS database, or we may be required to share your information with ICANN-approved Dispute Resolution Service Providers. Please see our Domain Registrations and Privacy support document for more details.
  • 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 Automattic, third parties, or the public at large. For example, if we have a good faith belief that there is an imminent danger of death or serious physical injury, we may disclose information related to the emergency without delay.
  • Business transfers:In connection with any merger, sale of company assets, or acquisition of all or a portion of our business by another company, or in the unlikely event that Automattic goes out of business or enters bankruptcy, user information would likely be one of the assets that is transferred or acquired by a third party. If any of these events were to happen, this Privacy Policy would continue to apply to your information and the party receiving your information may continue to use your information, but only consistent with this Privacy Policy.
  • With your consent:We may share and disclose information with your consent or at your direction. For example, we may share your information with third parties when you authorize us to do so, like when you connected your site to a social media service through our Publicize feature.
  • Aggregated or de-identified information:We may share information that has been aggregated or de-identified, so that it can no longer reasonably be used to identify you. For instance, we may publish aggregate statistics about the use of our Services, or share a hashed version of your email address to facilitate customized ad campaigns on other platforms.
  • Site owners: If you have a WordPress.com account and interact with another site using our Services, your information may be shared with the administrators of the site. For example, if you leave a comment on a site created on WordPress.com or running Jetpack, your IP address and the email address associated with your WordPress.com account may be shared with the administrator(s) of the site where you left the comment. Or if you make a payment (like via Recurring Payments) to a site, your public display name, user name, and email address may be shared with the administrator(s) of the site.
  • Published support requests:If you send us a request for assistance (for example, via a support email or one of our other feedback mechanisms), we reserve the right to publish that request in order to clarify or respond to your request, or to help us support other users.

We have a long-standing policy that we do not sell our users’ data. We aren’t a data broker, we don’t sell your personal information to data brokers, and we don’t sell your information to other companies that want to spam you with marketing emails.

We show ads on some of our users’ sites as well as some of our own, and the revenue they generate lets us offer free access to some of our Services so that money doesn’t become an obstacle to having a voice.

Under a new California law, the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”), some personalized advertising you see online and on our services might be considered a “sale” even though we don’t share information that identifies you personally, like your name or email address, as part of our advertising program.

You have choices about these ads, learn more about them and our ads program.

Information Shared Publicly

Information that you choose to make public is — you guessed it — disclosed publicly.

That means information like your public profile, posts, other content that you make public on your website, and your “Likes” and comments on other websites are all available to others — and we hope they get a lot of views!

For example, the photo that you upload to your public profile, or a default image if you haven’t uploaded one, is your Globally Recognized Avatar, or Gravatar — get it? 🙂 Your Gravatar, along with other public profile information, displays alongside the comments and “Likes” that you make on other users’ websites while logged in to your WordPress.com account. Your Gravatar and public profile information may also display with your comments, “Likes,” and other interactions on websites that use our Gravatar service, if the email address associated with your account is the same email address you use on the other website.

We also provide a “Firehose” stream of public data (like posts and comments) from some sites that use our Services to provide that data to Firehose subscribers, who may view and analyze the content (all subject to our Terms of Service), but do not have rights to re-publish it publicly. Find out more about opting out of the Firehose for WordPress.com and Jetpack sites. Public information may also be indexed by search engines or used by third parties.

Please keep all of this in mind when deciding what you would like to share publicly.

How Long We Keep Information

We generally discard information about you when it’s no longer needed for the purposes for which we collect and use it — described in the section above on How and Why We Use Information — and we’re not legally required to keep it.

For example, we keep the web server logs that record information about a visitor to one of Automattic’s websites, like the visitor’s IP address, browser type, and operating system, for approximately 30 days. We retain the logs for this period of time in order to, among other things, analyze traffic to Automattic’s websites and investigate issues if something goes wrong on one of our websites.

As another example, when you delete a post, page, or comment from your WordPress.com site, it stays in your Trash folder for thirty days in case you change your mind and would like to restore that content, because starting from scratch is no fun. After the thirty days are up, the deleted content may remain on our backups and caches until purged.

Security

While no online service is 100% secure, we work very hard to protect information about you against unauthorized access, use, alteration, or destruction, and take reasonable measures to do so. We monitor our Services for potential vulnerabilities and attacks.

To enhance the security of your account, we encourage you to enable our advanced security settings, like Two Step Authentication.

Choices

You have several choices available when it comes to information about you:

  • Limit the information that you provide:If you have an account with us, you can choose not to provide the optional account information, profile information, and transaction and billing information. Please keep in mind that if you do not provide this information, certain features of our Services — for example, premium themes that carry an additional charge — may not be accessible.
  • Limit access to information on your mobile device:Your mobile device operating system should provide you with the option to discontinue our ability to collect stored information or location information via our mobile apps. If you choose to limit this, you may not be able to use certain features, like geotagging for photographs.
  • Opt out of marketing communications:You may opt out of receiving promotional communications from us. Just follow the instructions in those communications or let us know. If you opt out of promotional communications, we may still send you other communications, like those about your account and legal notices.
  • Set your browser to reject cookies:At this time, Automattic does not respond to “do not track” signals across all of our Services. However, you can usually choose to set your browser to remove or reject browser cookies before using Automattic’s websites, with the drawback that certain features of Automattic’s websites may not function properly without the aid of cookies.
  • Opt out of our internal analytics program:You can do this through your user settings. By opting out, you will stop sharing information with our analytics tool about events or actions that happen after the opt-out, while you’re logged in to your WordPress.com account. For more information, please see our Cookie Policy.
  • Close your account:While we’d be very sad to see you go, you can close your account if you no longer want to use our Services. (Here are account closure instructions for WordPress.com accounts.) Please keep in mind that we may continue to retain your information after closing your account, as described in How Long We Keep Information above — for example, 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 our legitimate business interests.

Your Rights

If you are located in certain parts of the world, including California and countries that fall under the scope of the European General Data Protection Regulation (aka the “GDPR”), you may have certain rights regarding your personal information, like the right to request access to or deletion of your data.

European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

If you are located in a country that falls under the scope of the GDPR, data protection laws give you certain rights with respect to your personal data, subject to any exemptions provided by the law, including the rights to:

  • Request access to your personal data;
  • Request correction or deletion of your personal data;
  • Object to our use and processing of your personal data;
  • Request that we limit our use and processing of your personal data; and
  • Request portability of your personal data.

You also have the right to make a complaint to a government supervisory authority.

California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)

The California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) requires us to provide California residents with some additional information about the categories of personal information we collect and share, where we get that personal information, and how and why we use it.

The CCPA also requires us to provide a list of the “categories” of personal information we collect, as that term is defined in the law, so, here it is. In the last 12 months, we collected the following categories of personal information from California residents, depending on the Services used:

  • Identifiers (like your name, contact information, and device and online identifiers);
  • Commercial information (your billing information and purchase history, for example);
  • Characteristics protected by law (for example, you might provide your gender as part of a research survey for us);
  • Internet or other electronic network activity information (such as your usage of our Services, like the actions you take as an administrator of a WordPress.com site);
  • Geolocation data (such as your location based on your IP address);
  • Audio, electronic, visual or similar information (such as your profile picture, if you uploaded one);
  • Professional or employment-related information (for example, your company and team information if you are a Happy Tools user, or information you provide in a job application); and
  • Inferences we make (such as likelihood of retention or attrition).

You can find more information about what we collect in the Information We Collect section above.

We collect personal information for the business and commercial purposes described in the How and Why We Use Information section. And we share this information with the categories of third parties described in the Sharing Information section.

If you are a California resident, you have additional rights under the CCPA, subject to any exemptions provided by the law, including the right to:

  • Request to know the categories of personal information we collect, the categories of business or commercial purpose for collecting and using it, the categories of sources from which the information came, the categories of third parties we share it with, and the specific pieces of information we collect about you;
  • Request deletion of personal information we collect or maintain;
  • Opt out of any sale of personal information; and
  • Not receive discriminatory treatment for exercising your rights under the CCPA.

The CCPA & Personalized Advertising in Our Ads Program

Our mission is to democratize publishing and commerce, and that means making our Services accessible to as many people as possible. We show ads on some of our users’ sites as well as some of our own sites, and the revenue these ads generate lets us offer free access to some of our Services so that money doesn’t become an obstacle to having a voice. Our ads program also allows our users to earn revenue to support and grow their own sites. As part of our advertising program, we and our users do use cookies to share certain device identifiers and information about your browsing activities with our advertising partners, and those advertising partners may use that information to show you personalized ads on some of our users’ sites and some of our own.

The personal information we share includes online identifiers; internet or other network or device activity (such as cookie information, other device identifiers, and IP address); and geolocation data (approximate location information from your IP address). These disclosures may be considered a “sale” of information under the CCPA. We do not sell (or share) information through our ads program that identifies you personally, like your name or contact information. Learn how you can opt out by going to California: Do Not Sell My Personal Information.

Contacting Us About These Rights

You can usually access, correct, or delete your personal data using your account settings and tools that we offer, but if you aren’t able to or you’d like to contact us about one of the other rights, scroll down to “How to Reach Us” to, well, find out how to reach us.

When you contact us about one of your rights under this section, we’ll need to verify that you are the right person before we disclose or delete anything. For example, if you are a user, we will need you to contact us from the email address associated with your account. You can also designate an authorized agent to make a request on your behalf by giving us written authorization. We may still require you to verify your identity with us.

Controllers and Responsible Companies

Automattic’s Services are worldwide. Different Automattic companies are the controller (or co-controller) of personal information, which means that they are the company responsible for processing that information, based on the particular service and the location of the individual using our Services.

Depending on the Services you use, more than one company may be the controller of your personal data. Generally, the “controller” is the Automattic company that entered into the contract with you under the Terms of Service for the product or service you use. In addition, Automattic Inc., our US-based company, is the controller for some of the processing activities across all of our Services worldwide.

The chart below explains the controllers for processing your personal information. We use the term “Designated Countries” to refer to Australia, Canada, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, and all countries located in the European continent.

If you reside outside of the Designated Countries (for services other than those offered at WooCommerce.com):

Automattic Inc.
60 29th Street #343
San Francisco, CA 94110

If you reside in the Designated Countries (for services other than those offered at WooCommerce.com):

Aut O’Mattic A8C Ireland Ltd.
Business Centre, No.1 Lower Mayor Street
International Financial Services Centre
Dublin 1, Ireland

Automattic Inc. is also the controller for some of the processing activities related to Services provided by Aut O’Mattic A8C Ireland Ltd.

If you are using our Services offered at WooCommerce.com:

Bubblestorm Management (Pty) Ltd (WooCommerce.com)
Unit A206, The Old Biscuit Mill (TOBM)
373 – 375 Albert Road, Woodstock
Cape Town, South Africa

Automattic Inc. is also the controller for some of the processing activities related to Services provided by Bubblestorm Management (Pty) Ltd (WooCommerce.com).

How to Reach Us

If you have a question about this Privacy Policy, or you would like to contact us about any of the rights mentioned in the Your Rights section above, please contact us through our web form or via email. These are the fastest ways to get a response to your inquiry, but you can also contact us by telephone at 1-877-273-3049.

Other Things You Should Know (Keep Reading!)

Transferring Information

Because Automattic’s Services are offered worldwide, the information about you that we process when you use the Services in the EU may be used, stored, and/or accessed by individuals operating outside the European Economic Area (EEA) who work for us, other members of our group of companies, or third-party data processors. This is required for the purposes listed in the How and Why We Use Information section above. When providing information about you to entities outside the EEA, we will take appropriate measures to ensure that the recipient protects your personal information adequately in accordance with this Privacy Policy as required by applicable law. These measures include:

  • In the case of US based entities, entering into European Commission approved standard contractual arrangements with them, or ensuring they have signed up to the EU-US Privacy Shield; or
  • In the case of entities based in other countries outside the EEA, entering into European Commission approved standard contractual arrangements with them.

You can ask us for more information about the steps we take to protect your personal information when transferring it from the EU.

Ads and Analytics Services Provided by Others

Ads appearing on any of our Services may be delivered by advertising networks. Other parties may also provide analytics services via our Services. These ad networks and analytics providers may set tracking technologies (like cookies) to collect information about your use of our Services and across other websites and online services. These technologies allow these third parties to recognize your device to compile information about you or others who use your device. This information allows us and other companies to, among other things, analyze and track usage, determine the popularity of certain content, and deliver ads that may be more targeted to your interests. Please note this Privacy Policy only covers the collection of information by Automattic and does not cover the collection of information by any third-party advertisers or analytics providers.

Third-Party Software and Services

If you’d like to use third-party plugins, embeds, WooCommerce extensions that enable services provided by third parties, or other third-party software or services, please keep in mind that interacting with them may mean providing information about yourself (or your site visitors) to those third parties. For example, some third-party services may request or require access to your (yours, your visitors’, or customers’) data via a pixel or cookie. Please note that if you use the third-party service or grant access, your data will be handled in accordance with the third party’s privacy policy and practices. We don’t own or control these third parties, and they have their own rules about information collection, use, and sharing, which you should review before using the software or services.

Visitors to Our Users’ Websites

We also process information about visitors to our users’ websites, on behalf of our users and in accordance with our user agreements. Please note that our processing of that information on behalf of our users for their websites isn’t covered by this Privacy Policy. We encourage our users to post a privacy policy that accurately describes their practices on data collection, use, and sharing of personal information. If you’d like, you can also read more about the data we collect on behalf of our users in our Privacy Notice.

Users control the content posted on their sites, so any disputes regarding content on a user’s site should be made directly to the site owner, through their “contact us” page, at an email address they provide, or by leaving a comment on the site.

Privacy Policy Changes

Although most changes are likely to be minor, Automattic may change its Privacy Policy from time to time. Automattic encourages visitors to frequently check this page for any changes to its Privacy Policy. If we make changes, we will notify you by revising the change log below, and, in some cases, we may provide additional notice (like adding a statement to our homepage or the WordPress.com Blog, or sending you a notification through email or your dashboard). Your further use of the Services after a change to our Privacy Policy will be subject to the updated policy

Translation

Our Privacy Policy was originally written in English (US). We may translate it into other languages. For example:

French: https://automattic.com/fr/privacy
Spanish: https://automattic.com/es/privacy
German: https://automattic.com/de/privacy

In the event of a conflict between a translated version of our Privacy Policy and the English version, the English version will control.

That’s it! Thanks for reading.

Change log

  • December 31, 2019: Updated for California Consumer Privacy Act and miscellaneous clarification throughout.
  • October 2, 2019: A few miscellaneous changes, such as new sections about translations of this Privacy Policy and how to opt out of our internal analytics program.
  • May 31, 2019:Included information for the Recurring Payments feature.
  • April 1, 2019:Included information for Happy Tools.
  • March 13, 2019: Added clarifications and additional details to existing sections, for example about ICANN policies and what we may store when you communicate with us.
  • February 1, 2019:Included information for Longreads and additional information regarding Longreads accounts.
  • November 6, 2018:Removed references to Polldaddy, which has been rebranded as Crowdsignal.
  • September 24, 2018: Included information for Simplenote, Simperium, Cloudup, and Lean Domain Search.
  • May 25, 2018:Added more specific information to help clarify our practices, included information for Crowdsignal and Woocommerce.com services, and added information to reflect the requirements of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation.
  • January 3, 2018:Revised and reorganized language throughout to help simplify the policy and clarify our practices.
  • August 22, 2017:Added “Information We Collect from Other Sources” section.
  • November 2, 2016: Added that comments submitted as missed spam are retained by Akismet to improve future performance.
  • February 18, 2015:Updated Creative Commons license from 2.5 to 4.0.
  • September 18, 2013:Added that blog commenter email addresses are disclosed to administrators of the blog where the comment was left.
  • February 1, 2011:Clarified subpoena language and added Business Transfers paragraph.
  • January 3, 2011:Added court order and subpoena clarification.
  • July 1, 2010:Revised paragraph about IP addresses to explain when they are collected and that commenter IPs are visible to blog administrators.
  • October 29, 2009:Added Comments paragraph to explain Akismet comment storage policy.
  • March 10, 2009:Added Ads paragraph to alert users that ads from third parties may use cookies.

WordPress Privacy Policy

https://wordpress.org/about/privacy/

WordPress.org websites (collectively “WordPress.org” in this document) refer to sites hosted on the WordPress.org, WordPress.net, WordCamp.org, BuddyPress.org, bbPress.org, and other related domains and subdomains thereof. This privacy policy describes how WordPress.org uses and protects any information that you give us. We are committed to ensuring that your privacy is protected. If you provide us with personal information through WordPress.org, you can be assured that it will only be used in accordance with this privacy statement.

Website Visitors

Like most website operators, WordPress.org collects non-personally-identifying information of the sort that web browsers and servers typically make available, such as the browser type, language preference, referring site, and the date and time of each visitor request. WordPress.org’s purpose in collecting non-personally identifying information is to better understand how WordPress.org’s visitors use its website. From time to time, WordPress.org may release non-personally-identifying information in the aggregate, e.g., by publishing a report on trends in the usage of its website.

WordPress.org also collects potentially personally-identifying information like Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. WordPress.org does not use IP addresses to identify its visitors, however, and does not disclose such information, other than under the same circumstances that it uses and discloses personally-identifying information, as described below.

Gathering of Personally-Identifying Information

Certain visitors to WordPress.org choose to interact with WordPress.org in ways that require WordPress.org to gather personally-identifying information. The amount and type of information that WordPress.org gathers depends on the nature of the interaction. For example, we ask visitors who use our forums to provide a username and email address.

In each case, WordPress.org collects such information only insofar as is necessary or appropriate to fulfill the purpose of the visitor’s interaction with WordPress.org. WordPress.org does not disclose personally-identifying information other than as described below. And visitors can always refuse to supply personally-identifying information, with the caveat that it may prevent them from engaging in certain website-related activities, like purchasing a WordCamp ticket.

All of the information that is collected on WordPress.org will be handled in accordance with GDPR legislation.

Protection of Certain Personally-Identifying Information

WordPress.org discloses potentially personally-identifying and personally-identifying information only to those of project administrators, employees, contractors, and affiliated organizations that (i) need to know that information in order to process it on WordPress.org’s behalf or to provide services available through WordPress.org, and (ii) that have agreed not to disclose it to others. Some of those employees, contractors and affiliated organizations may be located outside of your home country; by using WordPress.org, you consent to the transfer of such information to them.

WordPress.org will not rent or sell potentially personally-identifying and personally-identifying information to anyone. Other than to project administrators, employees, contractors, and affiliated organizations, as described above, WordPress.org discloses potentially personally-identifying and personally-identifying information only when required to do so by law, if you give permission to have your information shared, or when WordPress.org believes in good faith that disclosure is reasonably necessary to protect the property or rights of WordPress.org, third parties, or the public at large.

If you are a registered user of a WordPress.org website and have supplied your email address, WordPress.org may occasionally send you an email to tell you about new features, solicit your feedback, or just keep you up to date with what’s going on with WordPress.org and our products. We primarily use our blog to communicate this type of information, so we expect to keep this type of email to a minimum.

If you send us a request (for example via a support email or via one of our feedback mechanisms), we reserve the right to publish it in order to help us clarify or respond to your request or to help us support other users. WordPress.org takes all measures reasonably necessary to protect against the unauthorized access, use, alteration, or destruction of potentially personally-identifying and personally-identifying information.

Use of personal information

We use the information you provide to register for an account, attend our events, receive newsletters, use certain other services, or participate in the WordPress open source project in any other way.

We will not sell or lease your personal information to third parties unless we have your permission or are required by law to do so.

We would like to send you email marketing communication which may be of interest to you from time to time. If you have consented to marketing, you may opt out later.

You have a right at any time to stop us from contacting you for marketing purposes. If you no longer wish to be contacted for marketing purposes, please click on the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email.

Legal grounds for processing personal information

We rely on one or more of the following processing conditions:

  • our legitimate interests in the effective delivery of information and services to you;
  • explicit consent that you have given;
  • legal obligations.

Access to data

You have the right to request a copy of the information we hold about you. If you would like a copy of some or all your personal information, please follow the instructions at the end of this section.

All WordCamp attendee-provided data can be viewed and changed by the attendee via the Access Token URL that is emailed to confirm a successful ticket purchase.

WordPress.org user accounts can be edited by following these steps:

  1. Visit https://login.wordpress.org/, and enter your username and password.
  2. You will be redirected to https://profiles.wordpress.org/your_username.
  3. Click the “Edit” link next to your username.

If you would like to request access to your account data, please follow these steps:

  1. Visit https://wordpress.org/about/privacy/data-export-request/.
  2. Enter your email address.
  3. Click “Accept Declaration and Request Export”.

Note: If you have a WP.org account, it’s recommended you log in before submitting to associate your account with the request.

Retention of personal information

We will retain your personal information on our systems only for as long as we need to, for the success of the WordPress open source project and the programs that support WordPress.org. We keep contact information (such as mailing list information) until a user unsubscribes or requests that we delete that information from our live systems. If you choose to unsubscribe from a mailing list, we may keep certain limited information about you so that we may honor your request.

WordPress.org will not delete personal data from logs or records necessary to the operation, development, or archives of the WordPress open source project.

WordPress.org shall maintain WordCamp attendee data for 3 years to better track and foster community growth, and then automatically delete non-essential data collected via registration. Attendee names and email addresses will be retained indefinitely, to preserve our ability to respond to code of conduct reports.

On WordCamp.org sites, banking/financial data collected as part of a reimbursement request is deleted from WordCamp.org 7 days after the request is marked paid. The reason for the 7-day retention period is to prevent organizers having to re-enter their banking details if a wire fails or if a payment was marked “Paid” in error. Invoices and receipts related to WordCamp expenses are retained for 7 years after the close of the calendar year’s audit, by instruction of our financial consultants (auditors & bookkeepers).

When deletion is requested or otherwise required, we will anonymise the data of data subjects and/or remove their information from publicly accessible sites if the deletion of data would break essential systems or damage the logs or records necessary to the operation, development, or archival records of the WordPress open source project.

If you would like to request deletion of your account and associated data, please follow these steps:

  1. Visit https://wordpress.org/about/privacy/data-erasure-request/.
  2. Enter your email address.
  3. Click “Accept Declaration and Request Permanent Account Deletion”.

Note: If you have a WP.org account, it’s recommended you log in before submitting to associate your account with the request.

Rights in relation to your information

You may have certain rights under data protection law in relation to the personal information we hold about you. In particular, you may have a right to:

  • request a copy of personal information we hold about you;
  • ask that we update the personal information we hold about you, or independently correct such personal information that you think is incorrect or incomplete;
  • ask that we delete personal information that we hold about you from live systems, or restrict the way in which we use such personal information (for information on deletion from archives, see the “Retention of personal information” section);
  • object to our processing of your personal information; and/or
  • withdraw your consent to our processing of your personal information (to the extent such processing is based on consent and consent is the only permissible basis for processing).

If you would like to exercise these rights or understand if these rights apply to you, please follow the instructions at the end of this Privacy statement.

Third Party Links

Our website may contain links to other websites provided by third parties not under our control. When following a link and providing information to a 3rd-party website, please be aware that we are not responsible for the data provided to that third party. This privacy policy only applies to the websites listed at the beginning of this document, so when you visit other websites, even when you click on a link posted on WordPress.org, you should read their own privacy policies.

Aggregated Statistics

WordPress.org may collect statistics about the behavior of visitors to its websites. For instance, WordPress.org may reveal how many times a particular version of WordPress was downloaded or report on which plugins are the most popular, based on data gathered by api.wordpress.org, a web service used by WordPress installations to check for new versions of WordPress and plugins. However, WordPress.org does not disclose personally-identifying information other than as described in this policy.

Cookies

Additionally, information about how you use our website is collected automatically using “cookies”. Cookies are text files placed on your computer to collect standard internet log information and visitor behaviour information. This information is used to track visitor use of the website and to compile statistical reports on website activity.

Please see our cookie policy for more information about what cookies are collected on WordPress.org.

Privacy Policy Changes

Although most changes are likely to be minor, WordPress.org may change its Privacy Policy from time to time, and at WordPress.org’s sole discretion. WordPress.org encourages visitors to frequently check this page for any changes to its Privacy Policy. Your continued use of this site after any change in this Privacy Policy will constitute your acceptance of such change.

Contact

Please contact us if you have any questions about our privacy policy or information we hold about you by emailing dpo@wordcamp.org.