Your privacy is important, and I am dedicated to protecting it: any personal information you share with me will be used only for internal purposes and will never be sold to third parties. I am including this Privacy Policy to explain exactly how I collect, use, protect and otherwise handle your personal information (defined as information that can be used on its own or with other information to identify, contact, or locate a single person, or to identify an individual in context). I hope this will help you make an informed decision about sharing personal information with me.
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Personal Information
I collect personal information only on a voluntary basis: when you subscribe, you are asked to enter your name and email address. I use that information to follow up with you, to send you updates, and to improve the content of my website.
Your personal information is stored behind secured networks and is only accessible by a limited number of persons who have special access rights to such systems, and are required to keep the information confidential. My website is scanned on a regular basis for security holes and known vulnerabilities in order to make your visit to my site as safe as possible.
(I also have a Connect form that asks not only for your name and email address but also for any relevant website – but completing it doesn’t subscribe you to my list. I offer this so that you can get in touch with me and begin a dialogue. I don’t store the information you provide there – except if you ask to be added to my Beta Readers list, in which case I will protect your information the same way I do that of all my subscribers – but you will only receive an email when a draft is ready…at my current rate about every two years or so!)
If I make material changes in the collection or use of personally identifiable information I will inform you by placing a notice on the site.
Cookies
I do use cookies. Cookies are identifiers that a site or its service provider transfers to your computer’s hard drive through your Web browser (if you allow) that enables the site’s or service provider’s systems to recognize your browser and capture and remember certain information. For instance, I use cookies to help me understand your preferences based on previous or current site activity, which enables me to provide you with improved services (e.g. you won’t see the popup subscription form over and over!). I also use cookies to help me compile aggregate data about site traffic and site interaction so that I can offer better site experiences and tools in the future. This is primarily done through trusted third-party services that track this information on my behalf.
I also use web beacons. A web beacon is a transparent image file used to monitor your journey around a single website or collection of sites. They are also referred to as web bugs and are commonly used by sites that hire third-party services to monitor traffic. They may be used in association with cookies to understand how visitors interact with the pages and content on the pages of a web site.
You have the ability to accept or decline cookies by modifying your Web browser; you can also choose to turn off all cookies. You do this through your browser settings. Since browser is a little different, look at your browser’s Help Menu to learn the correct way to modify your cookies.
I sometimes host authors and others and include links to their books and social media sites. Other than that, I do not include or offer third-party products or services on my website. Still, I reserve the right to change this – and if I did, those third parties might use cookies and web beacons in the course of those ads being served to ascertain how many times you’ve seen an advertisement (but I would not provide them with any personally identifiable information you have given me so they could not personally identify you with that information). And (more speculation!), to the extent that any of those third-party advertisements would be provided by Google, they would use the DART cookie to serve ads based on users’ visits to this site and other sites on the Web. You may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy.
Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act
This website is directed to adults; it is not directed to children under the age of 13. I operate this site in compliance with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, and will not knowingly collect or use personal information from anyone under 13 years of age.
Non-Personal Information
In some cases, I may collect information about you that is not personally identifiable. I use this information, which does not identify individual users, to analyze trends, to administer the site, to track users’ movements around the site and to gather demographic information about my user base as a whole. The information collected is used solely for internal review and not shared with other organizations for commercial purposes.
How You Can Correct or Remove Information
I provide this privacy policy as a statement to you of my commitment to protect your personal information. If you have submitted personal information through my website and would like that information deleted from my records or would like to update or correct that information (or even just see it), please use my Contact Us page and I will respond promptly.
I also include a link at the bottom of every email update I send to allow you to unsubscribe easily, if you choose to do so (I hope you don’t, but I understand). If that happens, I will promptly remove you from ALL correspondence.
Agreeing to Terms
Your use of this site indicates acceptance of this privacy policy. If you do not agree, then please do not use this site or any services offered by this site.