PRIVACY POLICY
Effective: September 1, 2020
This Privacy Policy (the “Privacy Policy”) serves to inform you of our policies and procedures regarding the collection, use and disclosure of the information we receive when you access and use our website (our “Site”), sign up for our newsletter or access and use such other subscriptions and services that may be provided by us from time to time (collectively, the “Services”). This Privacy Policy is a legally binding agreement between Michael Castro (“Michael Castro,” “we,” “our” or “us”) and you (and your employer or an entity if you are acting on their behalf, “you” or “your”) as the user of the Services. By using the Services, you hereby warrant and represent that (i) you have read, understand and agree to this Privacy Policy, and (ii) if you are acting on behalf of your employer or an entity, you have the authority to accept and agree to this Privacy Policy. PLEASE DO NOT ACCESS OR USE THE SERVICES IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY.
This Privacy Policy may be updated from time to time. We will notify you of any material changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on our Site. Your use of the Services following any such notice will signify and constitute your agreement to and acceptance of such revised Privacy Policy.
SQUARESPACE
This Site is hosted by Squarespace. Personal Information (as defined below) hosted by or through Squarespace is subject to their privacy policy which may or may not contain terms as protective as this Privacy Policy. By using our Site, you are agreeing to be bound by Squarespace’s privacy policy, which can be found at https://www.squarespace.com/privacy.
INFORMATION COLLECTION
For the purposes of this Privacy Policy, “Personal Information” means data that allows someone to identify or contact you, including, for example, your name and e-mail address, as well as any other non-public information about you that is associated with or linked to any of the foregoing data.
Personal Information We Collect
When you interact with us, we collect Personal Information that you voluntarily provide. For example, when you sign up for our newsletter or other e-mail lists or otherwise use certain aspects of our Services, we may ask you to provide information such as your name and e-mail address. In addition to collecting information on our Site, we may collect information from you when you communicate with us via e-mail. You can choose not to provide any information that is requested of you by us. However, this may limit your ability to use the Services.
Non-Personal Information
We and/or our third-party service providers may also collect information in a form that does not personally identify you (“Non-Personal Information”). Non-Personal Information can include certain Personal Information that has been de-identified; that is, information that has been rendered anonymous. We and/or our third-party service providers obtain Non-Personal Information about you from information that you provide us, either separately or together with your Personal Information. We also use cookies and other technologies to passively collect Non-Personal Information as described below.
In this Privacy Policy, we refer to all information collected from or about you, including Personal Information and Non-Personal Information, as “Your Information.”
Non-Personal Information Automatically Collected
We and our third-party service providers may use a variety of technologies, now and hereafter devised, that automatically record certain usage information. When accessing our Site, Squarespace may log your IP address, access URL, time of access, geographic location, browser type, and referral URL in order to provide us with internal information regarding Site traffic statistics. This information may also be used to identify users who are using our Site for spam or other activity that is deemed in conflict with our Terms of Service. Otherwise, this information is used in the aggregate, and is never linked back to any Personal Information.
Cookies and Other Technologies We Use
Squarespace and our other service providers may use cookies (both session cookies and persistent cookies) to analyze trends, administer our Site, track your movements around our Site, better understand how you interact with our Site, determine interest in particular content and monitor aggregate usage by visitors and online traffic routing. We may receive reports based on the use of these technologies by these companies on an individual and aggregated basis. You may be able to instruct your browser, by changing its option, to stop accepting cookies or to prompt you before accepting a cookie from the online services you visit. You may also remove persistent cookies by following your web browser’s help file directions. If you do not accept cookies, however, you may not be able to use all portions of our Site or all functionality of our Site.
Squarespace and our other service providers may also use “pixel tags,” “web beacons,” “clear GIFs,” or similar means in connection with our Site and HTML-formatted e-mail messages to, among other things, track the actions of users, to determine the success of marketing campaigns and to compile aggregate statistics about Site usage and response rates. This information is collected anonymously, in a manner that does not personally identify you.
OUR USE OF YOUR INFORMATION
We mainly use Your Information, either alone or in combination with other information, so that we can provide, enhance and personalize our Services and related content.
Your Information is used and disclosed for, but is not limited to, the following purposes:
to provide you with the best user experience possible;
to respond to your questions and comments;
to communicate with you regarding updates to our Services;
to send you our newsletter or other subscriptions;
to help us develop, customize, deliver, support and improve our Services and content;
to protect the rights or property of Michael Castro or our users, and prevent fraud and other prohibited or illegal activities;
for distribution to third-party service providers that provide services to us;
to protect the security of our Services and business;
to conduct system administration and system troubleshooting and to diagnose or fix technology problems;
for marketing and advertising purposes;
for our internal purposes (such as auditing and data analysis);
otherwise, as disclosed to you at the point of collection; and
to monitor and analyze use of the Services and for the technical administration of the Services.
We may combine your Personal Information with Non-Personal Information and aggregate it with information collected from other users or sources to attempt to provide you with a better experience, to improve the quality of our Services, and to analyze and understand how our Services are used. We may also use the combined information without aggregating it to serve you specifically. After you terminate your use of the Services, we may continue to use your Non-Personal Information for statistical purposes or other purposes as we see fit. Please note that we cannot guarantee that Non-Personal Information will not identify you as we cannot guarantee that others with access to Non-Personal Information may not have knowledge sufficient to identify you.
PUBLIC FORUM
Our Site has features that enable users to post content publicly (including, without limitation, user comments). The protections described in this Privacy Policy do not apply when you provide information (including Personal Information about you or any person) in connection with your use of these public forums. Any information you share in a public forum is public information and may be seen or collected by other persons, including third parties that do not adhere to the standards set forth in this Privacy Policy. We are not responsible for events arising from the distribution of any information you choose to publicly post or share through our Site. You agree that we may use Personal Information and other information about you to identify you with a posting in a public forum. If you would not like to have these details disclosed, you should refrain from posting any comments on our Site.
INFORMATION SHARING & DISCLOSURE
We will not rent or sell your Personal Information to others. Non-Personal Information may be provided to third parties for marketing, advertising, or other uses.
OUR SERVICE PROVIDERS AND OTHER THIRD PARTIES
To operate the Services, we may share Your Information with our agents, representatives and contractors so they can provide us with support services and other features. We also may engage third-party companies and individuals to perform services on our behalf or to assist us in analyzing how our Services are used. These third parties may have access to your Personal Information. If they do, this access is provided so that they may perform these tasks on our behalf and we ask these third parties not to otherwise use or disclose your Personal Information in ways that are prohibited by this Privacy Policy, except to the extent required by law. However, Michael Castro is not responsible for the privacy policies and/or practices of such third parties.
ANALYTICS INFORMATION
Squarespace uses analytics tools to help us measure traffic and usage trends for our Site. These tools collect information sent by your browser as part of a web page request, including the web pages you visit, your browser add-ons, and other information that assists us in improving our Site. We may collect and use this analytics information together with your Personal Information and stitch together session data from user visits to build a broader profile of our individual users so that we can serve you better.
THIRD-PARTY PRODUCTS ON OUR SITE
Our Site contain links to, and/or content from, third-party websites and online services. The fact that we link to a website or display an advertisement or other third-party content or product is not an endorsement, authorization or representation of our affiliation with any of those third parties, nor is it an endorsement of their privacy or information security policies or practices.
This Privacy Policy applies only to our Site and your interactions with those third-party services are governed by the privacy policy of the third party providing it. We do not exercise control over third-party websites, products or services. Other websites, products and services may place their own cookies or other files on your computer and/or collect data or solicit Personal Information from you. We encourage you to read the privacy policies and other terms of such third parties before using their services.
COMPLIANCE WITH LAWS, LEGAL PROCESS AND AUTHORITIES
We may disclose any of Your Information to government or law enforcement officials or private parties as we, in our sole discretion, believe necessary or appropriate to: (1) comply with a legal requirement or process, including, but not limited to, civil and criminal subpoenas, court orders or other compulsory disclosures; (2) enforce our Privacy Policy or Terms of Service; (3) respond to claims of a violation of the rights of third parties; (4) respond to user comments or service inquiries; (5) protect our rights, property, or safety and the rights, property and safety of our users or the public; or (6) prevent or stop any activity we may consider to be, or to pose a risk of being, illegal, unethical, inappropriate or legally actionable. However, Michael Castro will endeavour only to disclose information requested via a valid legal process, and will endeavour to notify any user about whom we have disclosed information if possible.
DATA TRANSFER
Squarespace and Michael Castro process Personal Information in both the United States of America and Canada. You should be aware that the United States and other countries have not harmonized their privacy regulations. Because Squarespace is located in the United States, we have written our Privacy Policy to satisfy United States regulations. By using our Services or providing us with Your Information, you explicitly (i) acknowledge and agree that Your Personal Information may be transferred to, and used by, entities located outside of your state, province, country or other governmental jurisdiction where the privacy laws may not be as protective as those in your jurisdiction, and (ii) consent to the collection, transfer, storage and processing of your Information to and in the United States and the use and disclosure of Your Information as described in this Privacy Policy.
BUSINESS TRANSFERS
Circumstances may arise where, whether for strategic or other business reasons, we may sell, transfer or otherwise disclose some or all of our assets, including your Personal Information, in connection with a merger, acquisition, reorganization or sale of assets or in the event of bankruptcy. It’s our practice to seek appropriate protection for Your Information in those types of transactions.
OPTING OUT
If you decide at any time that you no longer wish to receive communications from us, please follow any unsubscribe instructions that may be provided on our Site or in our communications to you. Please note that we may use your Personal Information to contact you with important notifications, such as changes to our terms, conditions and policies; you may not opt out of these notifications. Please also note that we may continue to use Your Information for statistical or other purposes as we see fit after you unsubscribe from any communications and/or terminate your use of the Services.
CHANGING OR DELETING YOUR INFORMATION
We keep your data on your behalf and for your benefit. You can correct your name and e-mail address that we have on file by e-mailing us at hello@michaelcastro.ca, which you may also contact for further assistance and questions regarding this Privacy Policy. If you request us to delete your Personal Information, we will delete such Personal Information within seven (7) business days. We may decline to process change or deletion requests that we deem to be unreasonable, require disproportionate technical effort, jeopardize the privacy of others, or as may be required by law.
DO NOT TRACK
Squarespace currently does not respond to Do Not Track signals.
SECURITY
Please be advised that while we strive to protect your Personal Information and privacy, we cannot guarantee or warrant the security of any information you disclose or transmit to us online and we are not responsible for the theft, destruction or inadvertent disclosure of your Personal Information.
COMPROMISE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION
In the event that Personal Information is compromised as a result of a breach of security, Michael Castro will promptly notify those persons whose Personal Information has been compromised, in accordance with the notification procedures set forth in this Privacy Policy, or as otherwise required by applicable law. In the event that we or our Site suffers a data security breach that requires us to provide you with notice, such as under applicable law, you consent to allow us to provide you with such notice by sending an e-mail to the e-mail address you have provided to us.
NOTIFICATION PROCEDURES
It is our policy to provide notifications, whether such notifications are required by law or are for other business related purposes, to you via e-mail notice, written or hard copy notice, or through conspicuous posting of such notice on our Site, as determined by Michael Castro in its sole discretion. We reserve the right to determine the form and means of providing notifications to you, provided that you may opt out of certain means of notification as described in this Privacy Policy.
OUR POLICY TOWARDS CHILDREN
We do not knowingly collect Personal Information from children under 13 via our Services, and we do not target our Services to children under 13. We encourage parents and guardians to take an active role in their children’s online activities and interests. If we become aware that we have unknowingly collected Personal Information from a child under the age of 13, we will make commercially reasonable efforts to delete such information from our databases. If you are the parent of a child under the age of 13 and have a concern regarding your child’s information on our Site, please contact us at hello@michaelcastro.ca.
CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY
Our security and this Privacy Policy are periodically reviewed and enhanced as necessary. This Privacy Policy might change as we update and expand the Services. We will notify you of any material changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on our Site. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically. If you do not understand any of the terms or conditions of any of our policies, you may inquire regarding the same via e-mail at hello@michaelcastro.ca. Your continued use of the Services after any change in this Privacy Policy will constitute your acceptance of such change.
CONTACT
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please feel free to contact us via:
e-mail at hello@michaelcastro.ca
website link at: https://michaelcastro.ca/contact