Privacy Policy 

Updated and Effective October 1, 2018

In General, the only personal data gathered by JoesPortico.com  is your email address and name. If you subscribe to the site or choose to download items offered on the website your email address is kept to provide newsletters, notifications, and to regular subscribers information regarding happenings with the website.  Your information is kept private and will never be sold to outside sources.  When receiving emails from our mailing service there is always an unsubscribe button, you can opt out at any time.  In case the system messes up, you can also opt out by sending an email directly to Joe at JoesPortico@Gmail.com.

That being stated, there are many laws, requirements, protections, and notifications associated with every website you access, including JoesPortico.com.  We have aimed to be in compliance with the known expectations of the rules, but have no control over who accesses our information across the world and thus cannot realistically comply to every detail worldwide.  Our site is hosted by a hosting company which we believe complies with all privacy laws which we understand must also try to adhere to strict compliance and tracking rules in cases of wrongdoing.  

We sometimes utilize tools such as Google analytics to analyze data traffic, locations, and other data that is gathered from the various internet and computer technology tools.  Basically, beware that big brother can find out anything about you and there are probably things happening WE have no idea are happening as you access our site and/or traverse to the many helpful links provided in our posts.  Note also, some of the services mentioned are currently not enabled, but their information is included as we reserve the right to implement the tracking services at a future date as many are common tools used in the blogging field.

So HERE IS THE FULL PRIVACY AND DISCLOSURE ITEMS TO BE AWARE OF:

You will find ads hosted by GoogleAdSense,  Mediavine, specific affiliates, and Amazon Affiliate Links.  Sometimes I write about products I recommend or provide reviews on books and music I love.  All of those are items I/we personally endorse but only receive compensation via the affiliates selling platform, IF you click on the link to review and/or buy something.  The ads and affiliates utilize tools to track data.  In all the following notations where it states ‘we’, JoesPortico.com is disclosing that these resources will gain information that is typically not passed on to us, however, be aware it may, out of our control, and may be utilized in various ways by each of the entities.  WordPress.Com, Jetpack, and other components in the background of our website may also gather the data, as is common for most blog sites.

Therefore in the rest of the terms Average Joe utilizes the word “We”, although in 99% of the situations the data usage is out of JoesPortico.com’s control.    Hence ‘We’…..

We respect your privacy and are committed to protecting it. The purpose of this Privacy Policy is to inform you what information we may collect and how it may be used. This statement only applies to this Website. This Website may contain third-party links to other websites which are not governed by this policy.

WHAT INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT AND HOW IS THE INFORMATION USED? 

1. We may receive and store information that you voluntarily submit through the Website to subscribe to the Website to receive newsletters, to leave comments on blog posts, or administering sweepstakes, contests or promotions. Examples of information collected for this purpose are your name, email address, and website URL. This information is only captured when you voluntarily enter or opt-in and enter this information for collection.
2. We may receive and store certain types of usage-related information when you interact with the Website, including but not limited to, your computer’s IP address and browser information. The information we collect is used to customize the content and/or layout of our page for each individual visitor.
3. We use third-party advertising companies to serve content and advertisements when you visit the Website, which may use cookies*. No personal information is shared with the Website’s ad providers, however, the “cookies” will allow advertisers to share the products that you may be interested in.
4. The Website uses Google Analytics to track statistics regarding our audience and Website traffic. No personally identifiable information is transferred from the Website to Google Analytics. For more information on Google’s Analytics privacy policies, please visit this site.
5. This Website engages in sponsored campaigns with various influencer networks, brands, and agencies. All sponsored content is duly disclosed in accordance with the FTC’s requirements. From time to time, these sponsored campaigns utilize tracking pixels (aka web beacons), which may contain cookies to collect data regarding usage and audience. This information is collected by the sponsoring company to track the results of the campaign. No personally identifiable information collected by the Website is used in conjunction with these tracking pixels.
6. The Website uses cookies to store visitors’ preferences, record user-specific information on what pages users access or visit, ensure that visitors are not repeatedly sent the same banner ads, customize Website content based on visitors’ browser type or other information that the visitor sends. Cookies may also be used by third-party services, such as Google Analytics, as described above.
7. JoesPortico.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and links to Amazon.com. As part of this Amazon Associates program, the Website will post customized links, provided by Amazon, to track the referrals to their website. This program utilizes cookies to track visits to assign commission on these sales.
8. The Website hosts ads courtesy of Mediavine. Mediavine uses cookies* to deliver ads that will best suit your wants and needs. If you have any questions about Mediavine’s Privacy Policy or the information practices of the Sites or Services, you may contact them at privacy@mediavine.com.

*An HTTP cookie (also called web cookie, Internet cookie, browser cookie, or simply cookie) is a small piece of data sent from a website and stored on the user’s computer by the user’s web browser while the user is browsing (Wikipedia). Read more about the Website and Cookie in the section below.

THIRD-PARTY USE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION
The Website may provide personal information to any applicable third party in order to provide services.

Currently, the Website uses the services of Convertkit for delivery of email updates and newsletters. Convertkit’s use of your personal information is subject to Convertkit’s privacy policy. If you would like to review, correct, delete, or update personal data that you have previously disclosed to us, please email us at legal@convertkit.com.

The Website also uses Thrive Leads for the collecting names and email addresses. Thrive Leads is integrated with Convertkit and will send that information to Convertkit so that Convertkit may distribute the information you opted-in for. See the Thrive Leads Privacy Policy.

Your personal information is not shared or sold with any other third-party application, information that does not identify you personally may be provided to other parties for marketing, advertising, or other uses.

WILL WE SHARE THE PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT?
We will not sell, distribute, or reveal users’ email addresses or other personal information without their consent. This does not include third-party partners, such as those listed above which are contracted by JoesPortico.com for services to serve our readers better.

MODIFICATION OR DELETION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION
You can decline to submit personal information at any time. If you decline, we may not be able to continue to provide service to you. You may request deletion of your personal information by sending an email to JoesPortico@Gmail.com.

HOW LONG WILL WE RETAIN YOUR DATA?
If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.

For users that register on our website (if any), we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.

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: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.

The Website utilizes a WordPress Plug-in (add-on) Comment Reply Email Notification which allows readers commenting on a page or post to be notified of a reply, per the user’s request.

Visitor comments are checked through an automated spam detection service.

CONTACT FORM
The Website uses a WordPress Plug-in (add-on) Contact Form 7 for contact submissions. The name, email, and comment entered by the visitor will be forward to JoesPortico@gmail.com so that we may respond to the question.

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.

LOG FILES
As with most other websites, we collect and use the data contained in log files.  The information in the log files include  your IP (internet protocol) address, your ISP (internet service provider, such as AOL or Shaw Cable), the browser you used to visit our site (such as Internet Explorer or Firefox), the time you visited our site and which pages you visited throughout our site.

COOKIES & WEB BEACONS
We do use cookies to store information, such as your personal preferences when you visit our site.  This could include only showing you a popup once in your visit, or the ability to login to some of our features, such as forums.

We also use third party advertisements on Joesportico to support our site.  Some of these advertisers may use technology such as cookies and web beacons when they advertise on our site, which will also send these advertisers (such as Google through the Google AdSense program or Amazon Associates) information including your IP address, your ISP, the browser you used to visit our site, and in some cases, whether you have Flash installed.  This is generally used for geotargeting purposes (showing New York real estate ads to someone in New York, for example) or showing certain ads based on specific sites visited (such as showing cooking ads to someone who frequents cooking sites).

You can choose to disable or selectively turn off our cookies or third-party cookies in your browser settings, or by managing preferences in programs such as Norton Internet Security.  However, this can affect how you are able to interact with our site as well as other websites.  This could include the inability to login to services or programs, such as logging into forums or accounts.

If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to save 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.

EMBEDDED CONTENT FROM OTHER SITES
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.

AFFILIATE LINKS 

JoesPortico.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.  All post that contains amazon.com links are associated with this affiliate program.  Advertising fees are earned when a visitor clicks on an Amazon link and makes a purchase from Amazon.com according to the terms of the Amazon Associates Operating Agreement.  You can view that agreement on Amazon.com to see how your clicks earn an affiliate a small % of income.

I also have joined various affiliate networks in connection with products and services I already use and love. I will indicate posts that contain affiliate links cleary. In this case, I will make a small commission if you purchase something from clicking on an affiliate link.  There is a special code in my link that lets the company know you are coming from my blog to their site.  It’s how they track my commission.  Those small commissions help me keep the blog running and help support my family. I am grateful for any support you can offer!

ADS

JoesPortico.com  uses third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our Web site. These companies may use aggregated information (not including your name, address, email address or telephone number) about your visits to this and other Web sites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you.

If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, please see: http://www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp

SWEEPSTAKES & GIVEAWAYS 

Every once in a while JoesPortico.com will host a sweepstake or giveaway.  Any information we collect in connection with a sweepstake or Giveaway via Amazon Giveaway or Rafflecopter is intended to be used for the sole purpose of giving away a free item or prize and notify the winners.  We don’t do anything else with any personal information collected.  Check out giveaway links for specific rules and regulations regarding each individual giveaway.

SENSITIVE PERSONAL INFORMATION
At NO time should you submit sensitive personal information to the Website. This includes your social security number, information regarding race or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious beliefs, health information, criminal background, or trade union memberships. If you elect to submit such information to us, it will be subject to this Privacy Policy.  JoesPortico.com will never solicit donations, business investments,  or other money making schemes.  Be aware of scams that create fake solicitations.   If you receive any emails or see posts on social media depicting our web pages with solicitations for donations or other non-credible activities, please notify us immediately via email and if possible include a link or screen shot of the activity.

CHILDREN’S INFORMATION
The Website does not knowingly collect any personally identifiable information from children under the age of 13. If a parent or guardian believes that the Website has personally identifiable information of a child under the age of 13 in its database, please contact us immediately at JoesPortico@Gmail.com and we will use our best efforts to remove such information from our records promptly.

HOW WE PROTECT YOUR DATA
The Website utilizes several security measures including a secure HTTPS connection, Wordfence WordPress Plug-in (add-on), and regular monitoring by WordPress support services.

We are committed to protecting your data and want to you feel comfortable spending time here!

CONTACT INFORMATION
Thank you for being a part of my website and blog.  If you have questions or comments, please feel free to fill out the contact form or email me at JoesPortico@Gmail.com