Our Privacy Policy: This policy outlines our privacy guidelines, which you agree to by navigating this site. To better protect your privacy, this notice explains our online information practices and the choices you can make about the way your information is collected and used.
How We Collect & Use Your Information
Your privacy is very important to us. We collect, use and store information when you:
- Opt in and subscribe to our Newsletter;
- Send a Contact Us form;
- Post a Comment;
- Purchase a product or service from our online Store;
- Follow or become a fan on a social media platform including Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest;
- Join as a member of our Member services;
- Join any Forum feature;
- Participate in a Poll or Survey;
- Request information associated with other services including Garden Consultations;
- Enter Giveaways or Promotions; or
- Provide your contact details for any other reason.
We respect the information you submit to us. We use SSL encryption to protect and secure your data. Information we collect from you is treated as strictly confidential and for internal use only. We will never share or sell your details to any third party whatsoever. The Micro Gardener is opposed to unauthorized commercial email delivery (spam). We value our visitors, members and subscribers.
We utilise a double-optin process which requires that you confirm that you requested us to send information to you. Furthermore, we do send information over and beyond what was requested.
Sharing your personal information
We ONLY share your personal information with third party software applications in order to enable them to help us use your personal information to successfully discharge services specifically requested by you. For example, if you purchase a product from our store, your personal information is sent to a third party software application which processes and reconciles this information within our online accounting system. You may request us at any time to provide links to the Privacy Policies of those third party entities.
In addition, we use an automated subscription management and email marketing system “Drip.” The use of personal information collected by Drip is limited to preventing and detecting fraud, operating, maintaining and providing the features and functionality of their services and to communicate with us so as to monitor and improve these services. All these actions collectively serving to enable me to provide to you the regular emails and information that you have requested. Drip’s full Privacy Policy can be viewed at https://www.drip.com/privacy.
We also use Google Analytics to help us understand how our customers use the Site. You can read more about how Google uses your personal information here: https://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy/. You can also opt-out of Google analytics here: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
We use PayPal and Stripe to process payments. Any credit card information entered on this site is encrypted and processed by the respective payment processors using advanced encryption technologies. Their respective Privacy Policies can be accessed directly on their websites.
Legal requests
We may also share your personal information if obliged to comply with applicable laws and regulations, to respond to a subpoena, search warrant or other lawful request for information we receive, or to otherwise protect our rights.
Log Data
Your data is used to communicate with you to deliver the information, products and services you specifically request. This includes sending you newsletters and website updates via email; free eBooks and resources; answering your enquiries; and delivering products and services. We maintain an email list to service our subscribers and customers. We use a third party email provider and customer relationship management system.
We use our own technologies to track when emails are opened or links contained in those emails are clicked. We can also determine and log webpages visited by those who have specifically subscribed to our newsletter or who are paid members. We use third party tracking and analytics services such as Google Analytics to collect, monitor and analyse site visits to TheMicroGardener.com.
When you visit TheMicroGardener.com, we collect information that your browser sends. This may include the IP address used to access this site, the dates and times of access, web browser and version used (Firefox, Chrome etc.), pages visited and other statistics. This information is purely used to analyze trends, administer the site, track visitor movement and gather broad demographic information for internal use.
Targeted marketing
Cookies information
When you visit the service, we may send one or more cookies — a small text file containing a string of alphanumeric characters — to your computer that uniquely identifies your browser and lets us help you log in faster and enhance your navigation through the site. A cookie may also convey information to us about how you use our service (e.g. the pages you view, the links you click and other actions you take on the service), and allow us or our business partners to track your usage of our services over time.
You can control or reset your cookies through your web browser, which will allow you to customise your cookie preferences and to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. However, some features of our service may not function properly if the ability to accept cookies is disabled.
Notice for residents of the European Union (EU):
As we cannot control from which countries our website visitors come from, we specifically request direct and explicit consent from visitors residing in the EU to our use of cookies. If consent is not granted, then only cookies are used which are necessary for the proper functioning of the website.
Data retention
When you enter your email or place an order through the site, we will maintain your contact information and order information for our records and marketing purposes unless and until you ask us to delete this information.
Amazon and Advertisements
The Micro Gardener 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. Affiliate links and advertisements on this site are monitored and recorded in accordance with the Amazon.com Privacy Notice.
Data gathered from advertisements on this site will not identify you to us personally. It is strictly aggregate statistical data about our visitors and how they used our resources on the site. No identifying personal information will be shared at any time via cookies. You may also elect to decline all cookies via your computer. Any of our advertisers may also have a use for cookies. We are not responsible, nor do we have control of the cookies downloaded from advertisements. They are downloaded only if you click on the advertisement.
Other affiliate relationships
From time to time we may offer products for which we act as affiliate sellers only. When you purchase such products you will be directed to the originating seller of those products and we do not receive your personal information. We cannot be held liable for misuse of any personal information submitted to those sellers. Nonetheless we only strive to have relationships with reputable sellers.
External Links
The Micro Gardener contains links to other websites that are neither owned nor controlled by us. If you click on a link that takes you to another website, you will leave The Micro Gardener website. The Micro Gardener is not responsible for the privacy policies or content on other sites. You are encouraged to read the individual privacy policies on websites you visit. By providing links to other sites, The Micro Gardener aims to value add to your learning experience. We do not guarantee, approve, or endorse the information or products available at these sites. We do not accept claims of liability or responsibility in any way for these policies or links, as we have no way to control third party sites.
How to Update your Contact Details
If you subscribe to our newsletter and wish to change your email address, please visit the Change Contact Details page.
How to unsubscribe
You are free to unsubscribe at any time by clicking on the ‘Unsubscribe’ link contained in the footer of emails we send to you. You may also contact us directly to request this. Please use the Contact Me page. No information will be sent to you from that point on.
Updates and Effective Date
This updated Privacy Policy is effective as of 25 May 2018 and will remain in effect, except in respect to any changes in its provisions in the future. Any updates will be in effect as soon as they are posted on this page.
TheMicroGardener.com reserves the right to make changes to this policy. If there is a material change in our privacy practices, we will indicate on our site that our privacy practices have changed and provide a link to the new privacy policy. We encourage you to periodically review this policy, so that you will know what information we collect and how we use it.
No Representations or Warranties Limitations on Liability
While we strive to provide original, high quality content, we’re not perfect! The information and materials on The Micro Gardener website may include technical inaccuracies, broken links or typographical errors. Changes are periodically made to the information contained on this site. The Micro Gardener makes no representations or warranties with respect to any information, materials or graphics on this website. All content is provided on a strictly “as is” basis, without warranty of any kind. The information on this site is not provided to diagnose, prescribe, cure or treat any disease or illness. Visitors are obliged to perform their own due diligence and/or research to establish the accuracy of such general information. Visitors should seek the advice of a qualified health practitioner with any questions about their health or medical condition.
The Micro Gardener hereby expressly disclaims all warranties with regard to any information, materials or graphics on this website. This includes all implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. Under no circumstances, shall the site owner or publisher be liable under any theory of recovery, at law or in equity, for any damages, including without limitation, special, direct, incidental, consequential or punitive damages (including, but not limited to loss of use or lost profits), arising out of, or in any manner connected with, the use of information or services, or the failure to provide information or services, from this website.
Agreeing to Terms
If you do not agree to TheMicroGardener.com Privacy Policy as posted on this website, please do not use this site or any services offered by this site. Your use of this site indicates acceptance of this privacy policy.
Hosting
The Micro Gardener site is hosted by Siteground. If you have any questions about the privacy of information you submit through this site, you should read Siteground’s privacy policy. Siteground provides an extremely high standard of service and security and has systems designed to detect and defeat intrusion attempts. In addition, we utilise a Web Application Firewall (Sucuri) through which all traffic passes in the first instance, enabling the identification and remediation of any security issues.
Notice re application of the European Union GPDR effective 25 May 2018
As is our legal right, we are not endeavouring to be compliant with the requirements of the European GDPR, as it is an impossibility for us under that regime to do so and be confident that we are fully compliant and therefore not at risk of having substantial fines imposed on us (up to AUD$30m) under the GDPR. Therefore, although we have looked to the GDPR to provide guidance as to what best practices should be so as to protect the interests of individuals who provide their personal information to us, in no way do we represent our compliance with the GDPR. On this basis, and so as to be required to be complaint with the GDPR, effective 25 May we no longer accept subscriptions from residents within the EU nor do we sell products or services to residents within the EU.
As referred to under the above heading “Cookies information” some of our visitors may be from the EU and consequently we have elected to require specific consent from those visitors to the use of cookies by us. Though we are not seeking compliance under the GDPR, we are nonetheless endeavouring to meet the spirit and intent of the GDPR as regards the use of cookies.
Changes to our policy
We may update this privacy policy from time to time in order to reflect, for example, changes to our practices or for other operational, legal or regulatory reasons.
Please contact me directly for clarification on any element of this Privacy Policy.
Please see my Copyright Notice & Disclaimer and Disclosure Statement for more details. If you have questions in relation to my privacy policy, please contact me.
© Copyright Anne Gibson, The Micro Gardener 2016. https://themicrogardener.com. All rights reserved.