Privacy Policy

We’re updating our Privacy Policy on May 25, 2018. Our new and previous policies are outlined below.

This is our updated Privacy Policy which goes into effect on May 25, 2018.

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Who We Are

Xanthe Walter is the author of ‘Ricochet’ and upcoming trilogy ‘Slavecatcher’. www.xanthewalter.com offers news and updates regarding any past, current and future works by Xanthe Walter, and general news of interest.

This privacy policy applies to all visitors and members using or accessing the website www.xanthewalter.com. It also applies to the Newsletter service that we provide as part of our subscription service.

Xanthewalter is based in London, for any privacy-related questions, you can reach us a via email here.

Who We Share Your Data With

We use third-party services (data processors) across our sites. The extent to which your data is shared with these providers depends on your use of our services, and we list the specific third-parties in use (with links to their privacy policies) in the sections below.

Each third-party provider has been vetted by our security team to ensure that privacy policies and practices meet or exceed the same levels of compliance and standards that we follow in order to help ensure your data is safe and secure.

We disclose potentially personally-identifying and personally-identifying information only to our employees, contractors and affiliated organizations that (i) need to know that information in order to process it on our behalf or to provide services, and (ii) that have agreed, in writing, not to disclose it to others. Some of those employees, contractors and affiliated organizations may be located outside of your home country; by using our websites and services, you consent to the transfer of such information to them. We will not rent or sell potentially personally-identifying and personally-identifying information to anyone.

We may be required to disclose an individual’s personal information in response to a lawful request by public authorities, including to meet national security or law enforcement requirements.

If we ever were to engage in any onward transfers of your data with third parties for a purpose other than which it was originally collected or subsequently authorized, we would provide you with an opt-out choice to limit the use and disclosure of your personal data.

Cookies

A cookie is a string of information that a website stores on a visitor’s computer, and that the visitor’s browser provides to the website each time the visitor returns. We use cookies across our sites to help identify and track visitors, their usage of our services, and their website access preferences. We describe the specific cookies used in the sections below. Visitors who do not wish to have cookies placed on their computers should set their browsers to refuse cookies before using our websites, with the drawback that certain features may not function properly without the aid of cookies.

What Personal Data We Collect And Why We Collect It

Registered Users

If you create an account on one the site, you will be prompted to select a Username and provide your Email Address.
When choosing a Username, we strongly advise you not use or include your real name. Usernames cannot be changed by the member, you can contact the admin to request a username change.
Your Username and Email Address are stored in the website’s database. Your Email Address is used to send you an email with a link to set your password or to send you an email with a link to reset your password in the event you forget your password.
Once an account is created, you must contact us to have it deleted.
Accounts have a numeric User ID assigned to them when they are created. The User ID cannot be changed.
An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) is provided to the Gravatar service to see if a Profile picture of you is available for display. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here.
You may optionally complete your Profile by providing your First Name, Last Name, Website (URL) and/or Biographical info. These additional details are also saved in the website’s database. You may edit these details, and your Email Address, in your Profile at any time.
You may also choose how your name is displayed (your Display Name) to visitors to the site (e.g. in comments you create) in your Profile.
Your Username, First Name, Last Name and Email Address are accessible by employees on the site.
If you attempt to log in to our site, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies at all. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.
If you have an account and you log in to a site, we will set up several cookies to save your login information and some of your screen options. The logged-in cookies last for two days, and the screen options cookies last for a year.
If you select “Remember Me” these cookies will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed. It is important that you log out if you are using a public computer.
For users that register on one of our site, we also store the data they provide in their profile indefinitely. All registered users can see, change or delete most of that data at any time except their login name/nickname.

Publishing Content (Comments, Pages, Posts, Forums)

Your Profile Picture (Gravatar, or one uploaded by the member), Display Name, Website (URL) (if any) and Biographical Info (if any) may be visible to visitors to the website (e.g. if you leave a comment, forum post, or contribute an article/post).
If you author an article/post, your Username, User ID, Profile Picture (Gravatar), Display Name, Website (URL) (if any) and Biographical Info (if any) are provided to any visitor using the website’s REST API interface.
If you upload media (e.g. images) to the website (in forums, posts, or comments), you should avoid uploading images with EXIF GPS location data included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data included in images on the website.
Visitors using the website’s REST API interface can correlate uploaded media to a particular user. This may allow such visitors to map a user to a particular time and location if EXIF GPS location data was included in the uploaded media.
If you edit or publish an article/post, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.
When visitors leave comments on one of our sites 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.
Comments may require manual approval by one of our employees or site owners.
If you leave a comment on a site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies so we can recognise you as a commenter. These cookies will persist for one year.
Published content and comments are stored indefinitely unless deletion/removal is requested by the original author.

Email/Chat/Contact Forms

We use Google/G Suite to process all internal email and communication with our customers. Google’s privacy policy is available here.
Customers that email us, or use any of the contact forms on our websites, will have their email address, IP address, and any data provided in the contact form or body of the email stored in G Suite archives .
We keep all email and chat communication indefinitely to help us provide support and improve our services. Individuals can request copies of any previous correspondence with us at any time.

Embedded Content From Other Websites

Embeds are pieces from other websites that are shown from time to time on our websites. They behave in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website and may use cookies or capture information. Typically embedded content is from websites that share videos, images, or other content. These services may collect your IP Address, your User Agent, store and retrieve cookies on your browser, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including correlating your interaction with the content with your account with that service, if you are logged in to that service.

Links to the privacy policies of the most common services have been included below. Where a general privacy policy is not available, the applicable country is indicated.

Analytics

We use Google Analytics for tracking visitors and aggregating information about the traffic to our websites. The Google Analytics privacy policy can be found here: https://policies.google.com/privacy. You can learn more about how to opt-out of tracking in Google Analytics here.

Marketing Campaigns

We use email marketing to communicate with customers and potential customers from time to time. All email lists and campaigns are “opt-in” meaning we will not send you these sorts of emails unless you indicated that you wish to receive them during signup or other interactions on our website.
We may send you “system” emails, such as password reset requests or payment notifications/receipts even if you have not opted-in to email marketing lists.
All marketing emails sent by us will include an unsubscribe link in the footer of the email. Emails sent to you may also include standard tracking, including open and click activities.
We use an external service for email marketing, MailChimp. Mailchimp’s privacy policy is found here.
We may utilize social media and web advertising campaigns. These service providers use cookies on our sites and/or pixel tracking to serve ads across the different platforms.
- Google AdSense & DoubleClick (privacy policy| opt out)
- Twitter (privacy policy| opt out)
- Facebook (privacy policy| opt out)

Hosting and API Services

All web servers and hosting are managed by our team on the Godaddy Web Services platform located in different regions around the world. This includes website hosting, backups, web database, file storage, APIs, and log files. Godaddy’s privacy policy can be found here.
Our ‘Tinypng’ services use the image compression serviceFiles and images served by the CDN may be stored and served from countries other than your own. Tinypng’s privacy policy can be found here.

What Rights You Have Over Your Data

If you are a registered user or have left comments on our site you can request to see or download the data we have about you.

Typically for visitors that have left comments, the data will be their email address, any IP addresses assigned to them at the time of leaving the comments and the user agent strings of the browsers they used. The rest of the data is public as published by the visitors.

For registered users, this will also include profile information and download, payment, and support ticket histories.

You can also request “to be forgotten” and we will erase any personally identifiable data we have about you. Of course, this excludes data we need for administrative or security purposes or if we are required by law to retain some of the data.

An individual who seeks access, or who seeks to correct, amend, or delete inaccurate data, should direct his/her query to xanthewalter. We will respond within a reasonable timeframe, not to exceed one week.

How We Protect Your Data

The security and reliability of our service is our number one priority. We endeavour to ensure that best practices are followed in everything that we do.

See wordpress.org/about/security for details on the security of the WordPress core itself.

Prevention is best when it comes to security, and as a first step, we follow all WordPress Code Standards in the plugins that we build and use.
In addition, we internally review services and plugins specifically to prevent potential security vulnerabilities in those plugins and services.
All staff only have access to systems that are directly required to complete the functions of their job.
Staff stay informed of best practices and relevant trends. Staff review and agree, in writing, to all policies and procedures annually. We need to get something formal between me and you here to protect us on this
We only use third-party services, such as Goddady Web Services, that are fully vetted and adhere to the highest levels of privacy and security practices.

What Data Breach Procedures We Have In Place

Should any event occur where customer data has been lost, stolen, or potentially compromised, our policy is to alert our customers via email no later than 48 hours of our team becoming aware of the event. We will also report such incident to any required data protection authority. We will work closely with any customers affected to determine next steps such as any end-user notifications, needed patches, and how to avoid any similar event in the future.

Privacy Policy Changes

Although most changes are likely to be minor, Xanthe Walter may change its Privacy Policy from time to time, and in Xanthe Walter’s sole discretion. Xanthe Walter will notify clients by email when making changes.

Changelog

May 25, 2018 – Updated language of the policy to be more user-friendly, specifically outlining requirements in preparation for meeting the GDPR.

Previous Privacy Policy

This following document sets forth the Privacy Policy for the Xanthe Walter website, www.xanthewalter.com.

Xanthe Walter is committed to providing you with the best possible customer service experience. Xanthe Walter is bound by the Privacy Act 1988 (Crh), which sets out a number of principles concerning the privacy of individuals.

Collection of your personal information

There are many aspects of the site which can be viewed without providing personal information, however, for access to future Xanthe Walter customer support features you are required to submit personally identifiable information. This may include but not limited to a unique username and password, or provide sensitive information in the recovery of your lost password.

We may occasionally hire other companies to provide services on our behalf, including but not limited to handling customer support enquiries, processing transactions or customer freight shipping. Those companies will be permitted to obtain only the personal information they need to deliver the service. Xanthe Walter takes reasonable steps to ensure that these organisations are bound by confidentiality and privacy obligations in relation to the protection of your personal information.

Use of your personal information

For each visitor to reach the site, we expressively collect the following non-personally identifiable information, including but not limited to browser type, version and language, operating system, pages viewed while browsing the Site, page access times and referring website address. This collected information is used solely internally for the purpose of gauging visitor traffic, trends and delivering personalized content to you while you are at this Site.

From time to time, we may use customer information for new, unanticipated uses not previously disclosed in our privacy notice. If our information practices change at some time in the future we will use for these new purposes only, data collected from the time of the policy change forward will adhere to our updated practices.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

Xanthe Walter reserves the right to make amendments to this Privacy Policy at any time. If you have objections to the Privacy Policy, you should not access or use the Site.

Accessing Your Personal Information

You have a right to access your personal information, subject to exceptions allowed by law. If you would like to do so, please let us know. You may be required to put your request in writing for security reasons. Xanthe Walter reserves the right to charge a fee for searching for, and providing access to, your information on a per request basis.