Beginning May 24, 2018, all websites are required to disclose a statement regarding the site’s privacy policy. They all say basically the same thing… we may collect some data in order to provide a better user experience. I do not believe in spam or selling your data so you should never worry about that. It won’t happen here! And you can always opt out of any email subscription of mine at any time, no questions asked. Having said that, regulations require a more detailed description, so here it is! Enjoy… 😉

TheSpicyApron.com Privacy Policy

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 specifically for TheSpicyApron.com (Website). If at any time you are concerned about your privacy on the Website, please exit the site.

What information do we collect and how it is used?
Information You Voluntarily Submit to the Website: We may collect and retain personal information provided by you such as your name or email address when you voluntarily leaving a comment, subscribe to a newsletter, submit a contact form, or take other voluntary actions on the Website. Through this voluntary submission of personal information, you agree to let us retain this information. Information We Collect from Others: We may receive information about you from
other sources or sites. For example, if you use a third-party software through the site, they may transfer information to us.

Automatically-Collected Information: We automatically collect certain information about you and the device with which you access the Website. For example, when you use the Website, we will log your IP address, operating system type, browser type, referring website, pages you viewed, and the dates/times when you accessed the Website. We may also collect information about actions you take when using the Website, such as links clicked.

We may use the information collected in the following ways:
• To operate and maintain the Website in order to provide our visitors with a positive
site experience.
• To send you promotional information, such as newsletters, but only if you sign up voluntarily for the newsletters
• To respond to your comments or inquiries
• To provide you with user support.
• To track and measure advertising on the Website
• To protect, investigate, and deter against unauthorized or illegal activity.

Third-Party use of Personal Information:

The Website uses third-party service provider services for various aspects of the Website. Each third-party service
provider’s use of your personal information is dictated by their respective privacy policies. The Website currently uses the following third-party service providers:
– Google Analytics – this service tracks Website usage, site performance data, and
provides information such as referring websites and user actions on the Website.
– MailChimp – this service is used for subscriber email management and marketing.
– WPOpt – Hosting Service provider who provides computer, storage, and
network services.

– MediaVine – Advertising Management Service Provider

Except when required by law, we will not sell, knowingly distribute, or reveal your email addresses or other personal information; however, we may disclose or transfer personal information collected through the Website to third parties who acquire all or a portion of our business, which may be the result of a merger, consolidation, or purchase of all or a portion of our assets, or in connection with any bankruptcy or reorganization proceeding brought by or against us.

Cookies: 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 herein. You as the User may, at any time, manage how cookies can be used on your
browser. However, not all functions of our Website may be entirely usable depending on how cookie settings are set.

Advertising: We may use third-party advertising companies to serve content and advertisements when you visit the Website, which may use cookies.

Tracking Pixels: From time to time, the Website may engage in remarketing efforts with third-party companies, such as Google, Facebook, or Instagram, in order to market the Website. These companies use cookies to serve ads based on
someone’s past visits to the Website.

Sponsored Content: This Website may engage 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.

Affiliate Program Participation:
The Website may engage in affiliate marketing, which is done by embedding tracking links into the Website. If you click on a link for an affiliate partnership, a cookie will be placed on your browser to track any sales for purposes of commissions.

Newsletters and other ccommunications: You may voluntarily subscribe to our newsletter or other direct communication
capabilities which are used for communication and advertising purposes. These capabilities may contain tracking pixels. Because of these tracking pixels, we may see if and when you open an email and which links within the email you click. Also, this allows the Website to adapt the content of future newsletters to the interests of the user.

RIGHTS RELATED TO YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
Opt-out – You may opt-out of future email communications by following the unsubscribe links in our emails.

Access or Delete – You may request information from us regarding what specific personal information we currently have of you, or that we delete your personal information by submitting a request to heather@thespicyapron.com. Please note that we may need to retain certain information when required by law.

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.

Mediavine Programmatic Advertising (Ver 1.0)

The Website works with Mediavine to manage third-party interest-based advertising appearing on the Website. Mediavine serves content and advertisements when you visit the Website, which may use first and third-party cookies. A cookie is a small text file which is sent to your computer or mobile device (referred to in this policy as a “device”) by the web server so that a website can remember some information about your browsing activity on the Website.

First party cookies are created by the website that you are visiting. A third-party cookie is frequently used in behavioral advertising and analytics and is created by a domain other than the website you are visiting. Third-party cookies, tags, pixels, beacons and other similar technologies (collectively, “Tags”) may be placed on the Website to monitor interaction with advertising content and to target and optimize advertising. Each internet browser has functionality so that you can block both first and third-party cookies and clear your browser’s cache. The “help” feature of the menu bar on most browsers will tell you how to stop accepting new cookies, how to receive notification of new cookies, how to disable existing cookies and how to clear your browser’s cache. For more information about cookies and how to disable them, you can consult the information at https://www.allaboutcookies.org/manage-cookies/.

Without cookies you may not be able to take full advantage of the Website content and features. Please note that rejecting cookies does not mean that you will no longer see ads when you visit our Site. In the event you opt-out, you will still see non-personalized advertisements on the Website.

The Website collects the following data using a cookie when serving personalized ads:

• IP Address
• Operating System type
• Operating System version
• Device Type
• Language of the website
• Web browser type
• Email (in hashed form)

Mediavine Partners (companies listed below with whom Mediavine shares data) may also use this data to link to other end user information the partner has independently collected to deliver targeted advertisements. Mediavine Partners may also separately collect data about end users from other sources, such as advertising IDs or pixels, and link that data to data collected from Mediavine publishers in order to provide interest-based advertising across your online experience, including devices, browsers and apps. This data includes usage data, cookie information, device information, information about interactions between users and advertisements and websites, geolocation data, traffic data, and information about a visitor’s referral source to a particular website. Mediavine Partners may also create unique IDs to create audience segments, which are used to provide targeted advertising.

If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices to opt-in or opt-out of this data collection, please visit Opt Out – NAI: Network Advertising Initiative. You may also visit http://optout.aboutads.info/#/ and http://optout.networkadvertising.org/# to learn more information about interest-based advertising. You may download the AppChoices app at YourAdChoices.com | AppChoices to opt out in connection with mobile apps, or use the platform controls on your mobile device to opt out.

For specific information about Mediavine Partners, the data each collects and their data collection and privacy policies, please click here.

CONTACT INFORMATION
Please contact us at heather@thespicyapron.com for questions related to this
Privacy Policy.

Furthermore, here’s what the FTC also says I have to tell you. 🙂

I couldn’t have said it better myself so I copied the following (with her permission, of course!) directly from one of my very favorite blogs, Rachelle Lucas’s, The Travel Bite. Thank you, Rachelle!

Disclosure – What’s Up My Apron.

Beginning December 1, 2009, the FTC requires bloggers to provide disclosures whenever there could be hidden interests or unspoken biases related to recommendations.

What’s really funny to me, is that Kelly Rippa doesn’t have to take 10 seconds at the beginning of her Electrolux commercial to say, “excuse me, but y’all need to know I’m getting paid to endorse this product.” Oh no … that would ruin the cool Bewitched music they’ve got playing in the background. It’s just assumed.

I don’t get paid one tenth of what Kelly Rippa does … so let’s not assume …

First, the obvious: This blog is for entertainment purposes only. I’m not a journalist, I’m a blogger.

…

Second, the less obvious: If I interview someone and they grab the bill for lunch, I would need to specify this.  If I get some free groceries or foodie products in the mail, ditto. (What’s laughable is that any “goodie” I receive in the mail to try doesn’t even cover my grocery bill for the month for all my experimental cooking photography. But let’s just please the FTC, shall we?) If someone gives me a comfy t-shirt with a logo and I wear it in a photo, ditto. Disclaimers all over.

This would be tedious for me and a continual eye sore for readers. But rules is rules.

To cover my butt and preserve your reading experience, please assume that, for every recommendation, link, and product I use, the following all hold true:

I copied this from Tim Ferriss’ blog. If you’re a blogger too … please feel free to use the text and images on this page with proper attribution. There is no reason why each blogger should have to reinvent the wheel.

(Illustrations courtesy of Louis Gray and Jeannine Schafer)

PRIVACY POLICY:

We do not share personal information with third-parties nor do we store information we collect about your visit to this blog for use other than to analyze content performance through the use of cookies, which you can turn off at anytime by modifying your Internet browser’s settings. We are not responsible for the republishing of the content found on this blog on other Web sites or media without our permission.

Mediavine Programmatic Advertising

For information regarding data collection by Mediavine ad partners including how to opt out of data collection, please click here