(You’re reading the More Technical Edition of our Privacy Policy. If you’re looking for more of an overview, click here to read our Newsletter-Dragon’s Down-and-Dirty Plain Speech Edition.)
Privacy Policy
We care about your data. We, the cast of Melinda’s books, might be fictional, but our scribe is not, and she takes your data safety seriously, so we do too. After all, she created us.
Visiting MelindaKucsera.com does not share with us any personally identifiable information unless you fill out a form. If you fill out a form for any reason, you grant us the right and privilege of processing your personal data. We obtain consent at form submission because we can’t do anything without that consent.
The processing of personal data, such as your name and e-mail address is in line with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Our scribe, Melinda Kucsera, with the help of a programmatic being known as the Newsletter-Dragon, has implemented measures to ensure your personal data processed through this website is as secure as we can make it given the reality that Internet-based data transmissions may in principle have security gaps. So absolute protection isn’t possible.
If that’s a concern, feel free to email our scribe or the cast at melinda@melinda-kucsera.com to request a subscription by alternative means such as phone or text message or snail mail, and we’ll work something out.
1. Definitions
This privacy policy is based on the terms used by the European legislator for the adoption of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). It’s as easily understandable as we can make it. To ensure this, we’d like to take a moment to explain some of the terms we use in it:
a) Personal data
Personal data is any information that identifies you directly or indirectly by referencing an identifier such as your name or email address. GDPR defines a long list of items that count as identifiers, but we shortened it to only include the ones you might divulge during your visit to our website.
b) You
GDPR calls you a ‘data subject’ but that sounds so impersonal, we’re just going to call you ‘you,’ okay? So ‘you’ are identified or an identifiable natural person (meaning you’re alive; you have a name, and you’re not a computer-generated AI) whose personal data is processed by our scribe or our Newsletter-Dragon, your ‘data controllers’ for this mission.
c) Processing
Processing is what we do with your personal data. This ‘processing’ thing includes a wide range of activities such as collecting, recording, organizing, structuring, storing, adapting, or altering, retrieving, consulting, using, disclosing by transmission, dissemination or otherwise making available, aligning, or combining, restricting, erasing, or destroying.
e) Anonymization
Anonymization strips all attributes that identify that data as belonging to you as in the case of aggregate data. We just hang onto your behavior (visiting, opening, or clicking something) but remove anything identifying you. So you become just a faceless, nameless number.
f) Controller
Your ‘controller’ is a natural and legal person who determines how, why, and when your personal data is processed. She is our scribe, Melinda Kucsera.
g) Processor
Our processor is an agency, which processes personal data on behalf of the controller, such as our email service provider. To keep costs down, we use two email service providers, Mailerlite and Elastic Email.
h) Recipient
The Recipient is a natural or legal person, public authority, agency, or another body, to which your personal data are disclosed, whether a third party or not.
j) Third party
A third party is a natural or legal person, public authority, agency, or body who is authorized by our scribe to process your personal data to deliver your newsletter.
k) Consent
Your consent is freely given, specific, informed and an unambiguous indication of your wishes through a statement or by a clear affirmative action giving us permission to process your personal data.
2. Name and Address of the controller/data protection officer
The controller for the purposes of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is:
Melinda Kucsera, 5 Dove Ct, Croton, NY 10520, melinda@melinda-kucsera.com,
https://melindakucsera.com
You may, at any time, contact our scribe directly with questions and suggestions concerning your data and its protection.
4. Collection of general data and information
Our website, MelindaKucsera.com collects some general data when you visit it. This general data is stored in our site’s server log files. It collects the following information about you: (1) when you accessed our site, (2) what you visited, (3) what you clicked on, (4) what you commented on, (5) the number of times you shared our posts to social media.
This data is all anonymous. You’re just a number. No personally identifiable information is stored with this information, not even your IP address.
5. Subscription to our newsletters
On MelindaKucsera.com, we offer the opportunity to subscribe to our newsletter/ weekly web serial. To get our newsletter, (1) you must have a valid e-mail address and (2) you must register for our newsletter. A confirmation e-mail will be sent to the e-mail address you register with. When you register, we’ll ask you to tick off a box to consent to receive our newsletter and to authorize us to send our newsletter to you.
While you register, Mailerlite stores the IP address of the computer assigned by your Internet service provider (ISP) and the date and time you registered to log your consent.
Your personal data collected when you register for our newsletter and will only be used to send our newsletter. We won’t transfer your personal data collected by our newsletter to any third parties. You can unsubscribe from our newsletter at any time via the links at the bottom of every newsletter we send. You can also hit reply to any newsletter or email us directly at melinda@melinda-kucsera.com, and we’ll unsubscribe you.
6. Newsletter-Tracking
Our newsletter contains a thing called a ‘tracking pixel.’ A tracking pixel is a tiny image embedded in HTML-formatted e-mails to enable our email service provider to log the number of times you open our newsletter or click a link in it. This data allows us and our email service provider to analyze the success or failure of each newsletter we send.
If no clicks or opens are recorded for a period of time, our email service provider marks your email address as stale and does not allow us to send our newsletter to you. They can change the length of that time period without warning according to their terms and conditions.
The opens and click data collected by the tracking pixel are stored and occasionally analyzed by our scribe to optimize the sending of our newsletter. We don’t pass your personal data obtained through that tracking pixel to any third parties. You can opt-out of receiving our newsletter and request that your data is deleted, and we’ll contact our email service providers to make that so.
7. Contacting Us
MelindaKucsera.com has a contact form. When you fill it out, it shoots our scribe an email. Her email address is also published on the website and is mentioned in each newsletter. If you contact our scribe by e-mail or via the contact us form, your personal data is not stored and is only used to reply to you. We don’t transfer any personal data from this form to any third parties.
8. Commenting on our website
MelindaKucsera.com allows you to comment on our blog posts and web pages.
If you leave a comment on our site, your comment is stored and published by WordPress, our site host, plus the date, your name, or the pseudonym you chose. Your IP address is also logged for security reasons. Unless required by law, we won’t transfer that data to any third parties.
9. Subscription to comments on our website
You can subscribe to the comments posted on MelindaKucsera.com, and so can third parties. If you do subscribe to comments, WordPress will alert you by email when there is a response to your comment. You can opt out of those emails at any time through the links on each one.
10. Routine erasure
Our scribe will process and store your personal data while you are subscribed to our newsletter and while you remain actively engaged with our newsletters. Our email service providers block access to your data if you fail to open or click on an email within the time periods they set. We do not have control over this.
11. Your Rights
a) Right of confirmation
You can ask us to confirm whether or not your personal data is being processed. Just email our scribe.
b) Right of access
You can ask our scribe:
- what information we have about you;
- how we’re processing your information;
- who received your information.
c) Right to rectification
You can correct any inaccurate or incomplete personal data by emailing our scribe.
d) Right to be forgotten
You can ask our scribe to erase all your personal data, and we’ll make that so. Just shoot her an email.
e) Right of restriction
You can restrict the processing of your data if your data is inaccurate or you don’t want it processed in a certain way. Since the only reason we process your data is to send you our newsletter, if you restrict your data, you will no longer receive our awesome weekly adventures.
f) Right to data portability
You can receive your personal data in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format. More than likely, this will be in a comma separated value (CSV) formatted spreadsheet which is the norm for such data transfers.
g) Right to withdraw data protection consent
You can withdraw your consent to process your personal data at any time by emailing our scribe or unsubscribing.
12. Data protection provisions for Facebook Plugins
If you click the like button integrated into our website, then Facebook will store and process your personal data. For more information about what personal data Facebook stores, processes, collects and uses as well as how to revoke, restrict or terminate that data, please see their data protection guideline: https://facebook.com/about/privacy/
13. Data protection provisions for Google+ Plug-ins
If you click the Google+ buttons integrated into our website, then Google+ will store and process your personal data. For more information about what personal data Google+ stores, processes, collects and uses as well as how to revoke, restrict or terminate that data, please see their data protection guideline: https://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy/
14. Data protection provisions for Instagram Plug-ins
If you click the Instagram buttons integrated into our website, then Instagram will store and process your personal data. For more information about what personal data Instagram stores, processes, collects and uses as well as how to revoke, restrict or terminate that data, please see their data protection guideline: https://help.instagram.com/155833707900388 and https://www.instagram.com/about/legal/privacy/.
15. Data protection provisions for Jetpack for WordPress
Jetpack is a WordPress plug-in, which provides anonymized, aggregate data about click activity and pages visited. In addition, security features integrated into Jetpack protect it against brute-force attacks. Jetpack also optimizes and accelerates the loading of images on our website.
For more information about what personal data Jetpack stores, processes, collects and uses as well as how to revoke, restrict or terminate that data, please see their data protection guideline: https://automattic.com/privacy/.
Jetpack also utilizes the tracking capabilities of Quantcast. For more information about what personal data Quantcast stores, processes, collects and uses as well as how to revoke, restrict or terminate that data, please see their data protection guideline: https://www.quantcast.com/privacy/.
16. Data protection provisions for LinkedIn Plug-ins
If you click the LinkedIn buttons integrated into our website, then LinkedIn will store and process your personal data. For more information about what personal data LinkedIn stores, processes, collects and uses as well as how to revoke, restrict or terminate that data, please see their data protection guideline: https://www.linkedin.com/legal/privacy-policy.
17. Data protection provisions for Pinterest Plug-ins
If you click the Pinterest buttons integrated into our website, then Pinterest will store and process your personal data. For more information about what personal data Pinterest stores, processes, collects and uses as well as how to revoke, restrict or terminate that data, please see their data protection guideline: https://about.pinterest.com/privacy-policy
18. Data protection provisions for Tumblr Plug-ins
If you click the Tumblr buttons integrated into our website, then Tumblr will store and process your personal data. For more information about what personal data Tumblr stores, processes, collects and uses as well as how to revoke, restrict or terminate that data, please see their data protection guideline: https://www.tumblr.com/policy/en/privacy.
19. Data protection provisions for Twitter Plug-ins
If you click the Twitter buttons integrated into our website, then Twitter will store and process your personal data. For more information about what personal data Twitter stores, processes, collects and uses as well as how to revoke, restrict or terminate that data, please see their data protection guideline: https://twitter.com/privacy?lang=en.
20. Data protection provisions for YouTube Plug-ins
If you click the YouTube buttons integrated into our website, then YouTube will store and process your personal data. For more information about what personal data YouTube stores, processes, collects and uses as well as how to revoke, restrict or terminate that data, please see their data protection guideline: https://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy/
21. Our Legal basis for processing your data
When you opt to receive our newsletter, you’re giving us the right to process your personal data, so we can send you our newsletter.
22. The legitimate interests pursued by our scribe
When we process your personal information, we’re doing it to send you our newsletter which we hope will entertain and inform you, and sell our books, so we can afford groceries, email service provider fees, and keep a roof over our heads.
23. How long will your personal data be stored?
We’ll store your personal data for as long as you maintain an active subscription. If you unsubscribe or your subscription becomes inactive, we will delete your personal information.
However, our email service provider will retain certain pieces of personal data in case you choose to re-subscribe. If you wish that data purged from their system, just shoot our scribe an email, and she’ll make a formal request to them on your behalf.
24. The existence of automated decision-making
Our scribe doesn’t use software for automatic decision-making or profiling.
This Privacy Policy has been generated with the help of our Newsletter-Dragon and a fictional cast that asked a lot of questions and Googled a lot of bizarre terms so we could simplify things for you. We hope we achieved that. If not, just email our scribe with questions at melinda@melinda-kucsera.com, and she’ll get back to you within 24 hours.
You just read the More Technical Edition of our Privacy Policy.
Our Privacy Statement comes in two flavors:
They both say the same thing, but the Newsletter-Dragon’s Down and Dirty Plain Speech Edition is more of an overview or quick reference to set your mind at ease. It just covers the most salient facts because sometimes that’s all you need. When it’s not, there’s the More Technical Edition, which you just read.
Email us if you have questions.
Melinda Kucsera - USA Today Bestselling Author of Epic Fantasy Adventures 