Privacy and Cookies Policy

Note that the use of the words "we" and "this website" refers to PuzzleHour.com in this privacy policy.

At this website, we aim to be open about the way our site works to collect user data, we are committed to safeguarding the privacy of our website visitors; this policy sets out how we will treat your personal information.

The data controller responsible in respect of the information processed on https://puzzlehour.com (the “site”), is Marie.

If you have any questions about this privacy policy or our treatment of your personal information, please write to us by email to mariedrawer@gmail.com or use the contact page.

YOUR RIGHTS

It is important for you to understand and be able to exercise your ‘data rights’; in particular, your right to not to have personal data used for direct marketing purposes. Under the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), you have the right to access, modify, and delete your data.

WITHDRAWAL OF CONSENT INCLUDING MARKETING OPT-OUT

You may withdraw consent for data processing at any time, without affecting the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal;

You may also instruct us not to process your personal information for marketing purposes. In practice, you will usually either expressly agree in advance to our use of your personal information for marketing purposes, or we will provide you with an opportunity to opt-out of the use of your personal information for marketing purposes.

Our contact details are above and also at the bottom of this page should you wish to exercise these important rights.

ABOUT THIS PRIVACY POLICY

This privacy policy is for this website and governs the privacy of its users who choose to use it. It explains how we comply with the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), the DPA (Data Protection Act) and the PECR (Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations).

Helping to protect the privacy of site visitors and readers at this site is naturally very important. This privacy policy page helps to outline for you the type of personal information which may be received and collected by this site and how that information could be utilized.

Further explanations may be provided for specific pages or features of this website in order to help you understand how we and any third parties interact with you and your computer/device in order to serve it to you.

What Personal Information do we Collect?

When you visit the Site, we automatically collect certain information about your device, including information about your web browser, IP address, time zone, and some of the cookies that are installed on your device. 

Additionally, as you browse the Site, we collect information about the individual web pages or products that you view, what websites or search terms referred you to the Site, and information about how you interact with the Site. We refer to this automatically-collected information as “Device Information.”

We collect Device Information using the following technologies:

– “Cookies” are data files that are placed on your device or computer and often include an anonymous unique identifier. For more information about cookies, and how to disable cookies, visit http://www.allaboutcookies.org.

– “Log files” track actions occurring on the Site, and collect data including your IP address, browser type, Internet service provider, referring/exit pages, and date/time stamps.

– “Web beacons,” “tags,” and “pixels” are electronic files used to record information about how you browse the Site.

We do not take any orders or payments via this site which would be known as “Order Information.”

When we talk about “Personal Information” in this Privacy Policy, we are talking about purely Device Information as we do not collect any Order Information.


How do we use Your Personal Information?

We do not use any type of Order Information.

We use the Device Information that we collect to help us screen for potential risk and fraud (in particular, your IP address), and more generally to improve and optimize our Site (for example, by generating analytics about how our customers browse and interact with the Site, and to assess the success of our marketing and advertising campaigns).

Sharing Your Personal Information

We share your Personal Information with third parties to help us use your Personal Information, as described above. 

We 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.

Finally, we may also share your Personal Information 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.

As described above, we use your Personal Information to provide you with targeted advertisements or marketing communications we believe may be of interest to you. For more information about how targeted advertising works, you can visit the Network Advertising Initiative’s (“NAI”) educational page at http://www.networkadvertising.org/understanding-online-advertising/how-does-it-work.

You can opt out of targeted advertising by:

FACEBOOK – https://www.facebook.com/settings/?tab=ads
GOOGLE – https://www.google.com/settings/ads/anonymous
BING – https://advertise.bingads.microsoft.com/en-us/resources/policies/personalized-ads

Additionally, you can opt out of some of these services by visiting the Digital Advertising Alliance’s opt-out portal at: http://optout.aboutads.info/.

Do Not Track

Please note that we do not alter our Site’s data collection and use practices when we see a Do Not Track signal from your browser.

European Rights

If you are a European resident, you have the right to access any personal information we hold about you and to ask that your personal information be corrected, updated, or deleted. If you would like to exercise this right, please contact us through the contact information below.

Additionally, if you are a European resident we may process your information in order to pursue our legitimate business interests listed above. Additionally, please note that your information will be transferred outside of Europe, including to Canada and the United States.

Data Retention

We do not take any orders or payments through this site. So we have no information relating to these.

Where you submit personal information for publication on our website, we will publish and otherwise use that information in accordance with the license you grant to us.

Childrens Online Privacy Protection Act Compliance (COPPA)

We are in compliance with the requirements of COPPA (Childrens Online Privacy Protection Act), we do not collect any information from anyone under 13 years of age. Our website, products, and services are all directed to people who are at least 13 years old or older.

Third-Party Use of Personal Information

We may share your information with third parties when you explicitly authorize us to share your information.

Additionally, this website may use third-party service providers to service various aspects of the website. Each third-party service provider’s use of your personal information is dictated by their respective privacy policies.

This website currently uses the following third-party service providers:

Google Analytics – this service tracks website usage and provides information such as referring websites and user actions on this website. Google Analytics may capture your IP address, but no other personal information is captured by Google Analytics.

We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. As part of this Amazon Associates program, this website will post customized links, provided by Amazon, to track the referrals to their website. This program utilizes cookies to track visits for the purposes of assigning commission on these sales.

These third-party service providers include, but are not limited to, Amazon and Google Adsense.

Except when required by law, we will not sell, distribute, or reveal your email addresses or other personal information without your consent; however, we may disclose or transfer personal information collected through this 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.

Use of Cookies on This Website


This website uses cookies to better the users’ experience while visiting the website. As required by legislation, where applicable, this website uses a cookie control system, allowing the user to give explicit permission or to deny the use of and the saving of cookies on their computer / device.

What are Cookies?


Cookies are small files saved to the user’s computer’s hard drive that track, save and store information about the user’s interactions and usage of the website. This allows the website, through its server, to provide the users with a tailored experience within this website.

Users are advised that if they wish to deny the use and saving of cookies from this website on to their computer’s hard drive, or any other electronic devised used to view this website, they should take necessary steps within their web browser’s security settings to block all cookies from this website and its external serving vendors or use the cookie control system, if available, upon their first visit.

Cookies on This Website


Visiting and surfing on our website is possible without cookies.

Please note, however, that not using cookies may have negative effects on the usability and user guidance of websites and other online services. You may delete cookies stored in your browser at any time. Information stored in such cookies will be removed from your device.

This 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.

Users may, at any time, prevent the setting of cookies, by this website, by using a corresponding setting of your internet browser and may thus permanently deny the setting of cookies.

Furthermore, already set cookies may be deleted at any time via an Internet browser or other software programs. This is possible in all popular Internet browsers. However, if users deactivate the setting of cookies in the Internet browser, not all functions of our website may be entirely usable.

Third Party Advertising and Cookies


Some of the advertising companies on this site use cookies and web beacons.

Third party vendors, including Google Adsense and Amazon, may use cookies on this website. Cookies can be used to serve up advertisements to you based on your prior visits to this website and also other sites that you may have visited online.

Google, as a third party vendor, may use cookies to serve ads on this website. Google's use of the DoubleClick cookie enables it to serve up ads to users based on their visit to this website and also other sites on the Internet.

You may opt out of the use of this DoubleClick cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy at the following URL:

https://adssettings.google.com/authenticated

You may also opt out of some third party cookies used for interest based advertising by visiting:

https://www.aboutads.info

We may use both session cookies, which expire when you close your browser, and persistent cookies, which stay on your browser until deleted, to provide you with a more personalized experience on this website.

These third-party ad servers or ad networks may use technology to the advertisements and links that appear on this website sent directly to your browsers. They automatically receive your IP address when this occurs.

Other technologies (such as cookies, JavaScript, or Web Beacons) may also be used by the third-party ad networks to measure the effectiveness of their advertisements and / or to personalize the advertising content that you see.

You should consult the respective privacy policies of these third-party ad servers for more detailed information on their practices as well as for instructions about how to opt-out of certain practices. This privacy policy does not apply to, and we cannot control the activities of, 3rd party advertisers or web sites. However, we do endeavor to make our user's experience a very pleasant one.

If you wish to disable cookies, you may do so through your individual web browser options. More detailed information about cookie management with specific web browsers should be found at the browsers' respective websites.

Website Visitor Tracking and Stats


Like many other sites online, this website is also able to gain access to some general stats and log files both at the back-end of the site and also with Google Analytics. This website uses tracking software, including Google Analytics, to monitor its visitors to better understand how they use it. The software will save a cookie to your computer’s hard drive in order to track and monitor your engagement and usage of the website.

The information inside these log files may include internet protocol (also known as IP) addresses, web browser type, Internet Service Provider (or ISP), date/time stamps, referring and exit pages, and click numbers in to analyze trends, administer the site, track how visitors move around the site and engage with it, and also gather demographic information.

Consult your device’s help files if you wish to disable or delete these cookies from your device.

We do not record any personal data (not your name, address, telephone number or email address) other than that which is voluntarily provided by you, e.g. as part of commenting on articles on this website or contacting us.

Adverts and Sponsored Links on This Website


This website may use third-party advertising companies to serve content and advertisements when you visit this website. Third-party advertising may use cookies.These will typically be served through our advertising partners, who may have their own detailed privacy policies relating directly to the adverts they serve.

These third-party advertising companies include, but are not limited to, Amazon and Google Adsense.

Clicking on any such adverts will send you to the advertiser’s website through a referral program which may use cookies. This will track the number of referrals sent from this website. This may include the use of cookies which may in turn be saved on your computers hard drive.

Users should therefore note that they click on sponsored external links at their own risk and we cannot be held liable for any damages or implications caused by visiting any external links mentioned.

Affiliate Program Participation


This website may engage in affiliate marketing, which is done by embedding tracking links into this 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.

We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

As part of this Amazon Associates program, the Website will post customized links, provided by Amazon, to track the referrals to their website. This program utilizes cookies to track visits for the purposes of assigning commission on these sales.

We are members of other affiliate programs which may be used on this website. There may be customized links, provided by each affiliate program in order to track the referrals to their website. The programs may utilize cookies to track visits for the purposes of assigning commission on any resulting sales.

Online Behavioural Advertising (OBA) and Targeted Advertising


Online Behavioural Advertising (also known as OBA or targeted advertising), is a technology that allows the display of advertising, which is tailored to your preferences , with the aim of making the adverts more relevant and interesting to you.

They are based on the previous anonymous surfing behaviour of Internet users. Some providers are using cookies for this.

This website does not directly conduct OBA. However, it is conducted by our third party partners, including (but not limited to) Google Adsense.

More information on online behavioural advertising can be found on the websites of the European Interactive Digital Advertising Alliance (EDAA).

https://www.edaa.eu/

Downloads and Media Files


Any downloadable documents (such as free printables), files or media made available on this website are provided to users at their own risk. While all precautions have been undertaken to ensure only genuine downloads are available, users are advised to verify their authenticity using third party anti-virus software or similar applications.

We accept no responsibility for third party downloads and downloads provided by external third party websites and advise users to verify their authenticity using third party anti-virus software or similar applications.

Contact and Communication With Us and This Website


Users contacting this us through this website do so at their own discretion and provide any such personal details requested at their own risk. Your personal information is kept private and stored securely until a time it is no longer required or has no use.

At no time should you submit sensitive personal information to this website. This includes your social security or national insurance 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.

If you choose to use any comment fields here to contact us, please do not send any private information. If you choose to correspond with us through any comments or contact section, that is entirely at your own risk.

We ask that minors (those under the age of 13) do not contact us nor submit any personal information to this website. Please read the additional COPPA section below.

You should note that published comments on this website can be viewed online by anyone.

How we Use Information if You Voluntarily Provide it


We only use any information provided to us for purposes of administering our normal business activities such as improving on our customer service and making available other items and services to our customers and prospective customers.

We do not ask to obtain any personally-identifying information about you when you come to visit this site.

If you chose to voluntarily share any personal information with us then that is entirely your choice and you do so at your own risk. We would never pass on or sell any personal information that is given to us but we may be bound to disclose it if we are legally compelled by law to do so.

Email Mailing List and Marketing Messages


We currently do not operate an email mailing list program. Email mailing lists are normally used to inform email subscribers about products, services and/or news.

External Links on This Website


We endeavour to include quality, safe and relevant external links. However, users are advised to adopt a policy of caution before clicking any external web links mentioned throughout this website.

External links are clickable text, banner and/or image links to other websites.

We cannot guarantee or verify the contents of any externally linked website, despite our best efforts. Users should therefore note they click on external links at their own risk and we cannot be held liable for any damages or implications caused by visiting any external links mentioned.

Although we endeavor to only link out to other reputable companies and sites online, we cannot be held responsible for any external content that you may access via this website. We take no responsibility or liability for the actions and policies of other websites.

Shortened URLs


URL shortening is a technique used on the web to shorten URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) to something substantially shorter.

This technique is especially used in social media and looks similar to this (example: http://bit.ly/zzGGvwp). Users should use sensible caution before clicking on shortened URL links and verify their authenticity before proceeding.

Social Media Policy and Usage


While we may have official profiles on social media platforms, users are advised to verify authenticity of such profiles before engaging with, or sharing information with such profiles.

We will never ask for user passwords or personal details on social media platforms. Users are advised to conduct themselves appropriately when engaging with us on social media.

Our website features social sharing buttons, which help share web content directly from web pages to the respective social media platforms. Users use these social sharing buttons at your own discretion and accept that doing so may publish content to your social media profile feed or page.

You can find further information about some social media privacy and usage policies in the resources section below.

Resources and Further Information


Of course, online privacy and information security is an evolving issue. To help with country regulations governing your online privacy, we are providing useful links to other sources which you may find helpful:

Overview of the GDPR – General Data Protection Regulation
https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/data-protection-reform/overview-of-the-gdpr/

Data Protection Act 1998
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1998/29/contents

Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2003/2426/contents/made

The Guide to the PECR 2003
https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-pecr/

Google Adsense Privacy Policy
https://termsfeed.com/blog/privacy-policy-google-adsense/

Amazon Privacy Policy – Europe
https://services.amazon.co.uk/standards/privacy-notice.html

Twitter Privacy Policy
http://twitter.com/privacy

Facebook Privacy Policy
http://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/

Google Privacy Policy
http://www.google.com/privacy.html

Pinterest Privacy Policy
https://policy.pinterest.com/en-gb/privacy-policy

If you have any further questions, please use the contact page or email us at mariedrawer@gmail.com.

Note that we reserve the right to amend this privacy policy at any time. You can always see when this was last updated by checking the date listed below.

Privacy Policy Last Updated:

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Articles are accurate and true to the best of the author’s knowledge. Content is for informational or entertainment purposes only and does not substitute for personal counsel or professional advice in medical, business, financial, legal, or technical matters. All images on this site are my own or are product and public domain photos that are used with permission.