Who we are
Welcome to Clear The Lens! We value your privacy and are committed to protecting your personal information. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, and protect your information when you visit our website and interact with the content we provide. By using our website, you agree to the collection and use of your information as outlined in this policy.
1. Information We Collect
We collect the following types of personal information:
- Personal Identification Information: When you leave a comment, subscribe to our newsletter, or contact us, we may collect personal information such as your name, email address, and other details you provide.
- Usage Data: We collect information about how you interact with our website, including your IP address, browser type, device type, pages visited, and the date and time of your visit. This information is collected via cookies and tracking technologies for analytics and performance purposes.
2. How We Use Your Information
We use your personal information for the following purposes:
- To respond to your inquiries: When you contact us via forms or email, we may use your information to respond to your queries.
- To send newsletters or promotional content: If you subscribe to our newsletter, we will use your email to send you updates, blog posts, or other related content.
- To improve our website: We use analytics tools (like Google Analytics) to track website usage and improve user experience.
- To protect against security threats: Plugins like Loginizer Security help us protect our website from unauthorised access, but the data they collect is used to safeguard your privacy and prevent hacking attempts.
3. Cookies and Tracking Technologies
We use cookies to collect information about your use of our site, which helps us improve functionality, provide personalised content, and enhance your experience. Cookies may track information such as your browsing behaviour and preferences. You can choose to disable cookies through your browser settings, but please note this may affect the performance of our website.
Some of the services we use may also set cookies:
- Google Analytics: We use Google Analytics to track and analyse website traffic. Google Analytics collects data like your IP address, device, and browser information to help us improve our site’s content and performance. For more information on how Google handles your data, please visit their Privacy Policy.
- OptinMonster: If you subscribe to our newsletter via OptinMonster, this tool collects and stores your email address for communication purposes.
4. Third-Party Services
We may use third-party services that help us manage, analyse, or deliver content to you. These services may collect or process personal information as part of their functionality. Below are some of the third parties with whom we share information:
- Yoast SEO: Used for optimizing website content and improving our visibility on search engines.
- XML Sitemap Generator for Google: Helps in creating XML sitemaps for search engine indexing. No personal data is directly collected by this tool, but it helps with website visibility.
- Mailchimp (MC4WP: Mailchimp for WordPress): If you subscribe to our newsletter, we may send you emails through Mailchimp. Mailchimp will collect your email address and track your interactions with the emails (such as open rates and clicks).
- Akismet Anti-Spam: We use Akismet to protect our site from spam. This service may collect data about your comments and your use of our website in order to detect spam content.
Please note, these third-party services have their own privacy policies, and we encourage you to review them for additional information on how your data is handled.
5. Data Security
We use industry-standard security measures to protect your personal information. This includes SSL encryption (indicated by "HTTPS" in your browser) to secure any data transmitted between your browser and our website.
While we strive to protect your data, no method of transmission over the internet is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.
6. Your Rights and Choices
Depending on your location, you may have certain rights regarding your personal data, including:
- Access: You can request a copy of the personal data we have collected about you.
- Correction: You can request corrections to any inaccurate or incomplete information we hold.
- Deletion: You can request that we delete your personal data, subject to certain exceptions under applicable laws.
- Opt-Out of Marketing: You can unsubscribe from our newsletter or marketing communications at any time by following the unsubscribe link in the email or contacting us directly.
7. International Transfers
If you are accessing our site from outside of Australia, please be aware that your personal data may be transferred to and processed in Australia, where our servers are located. By using our website, you consent to this transfer and processing.
8. Children’s Privacy
Our website is not intended for children under the age of 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If we become aware that a child under 13 has provided personal information, we will take steps to delete such information.
9. Changes to This Privacy Policy
We may update our privacy policy from time to time. When we do, we will post the updated policy on this page with a new effective date. We encourage you to review this privacy policy periodically to stay informed about how we are protecting your information.
Additional Information
Comments
When visitors leave comments on the site 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.
An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.
Clear The Lens values your privacy and strongly advises against sharing any personal or sensitive information in the comments section. To ensure your safety, we encourage you to use nicknames or aliases rather than your real name. Please refrain from disclosing details such as your address, banking information, or personal whereabouts.
Media
If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.
Cookies
If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.
If you visit our login page, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.
When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select "Remember Me", your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.
If you edit or publish an article, 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.
Embedded content from other websites
Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.
These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.
Who we share your data with
If you request a password reset, your IP address will be included in the reset email.
How long we retain your data
If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognise and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.
For users that register on our website (if any), we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.
What rights you have over your data
If you have an account on this site, or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.
Where your data is sent
Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.
Use of Wordfence Security
To protect our website from unauthorized access, Clear The Lens uses Wordfence, a website security plugin. Wordfence may collect the following data for security purposes:
- IP addresses: To detect and block malicious traffic and protect against hacking attempts.
- Traffic data: To analyse website visits and identify suspicious behaviour that could indicate a security threat.
- Security logs: To track and monitor security events on our website.
This information is used solely for security purposes and is not shared with third parties unless required for security reasons.
For more details on how Wordfence handles your data, please refer to their privacy policy.
10. Contact Us
If you have any questions or concerns about this privacy policy or the data we collect, please contact us at:
- Email: admin@clearthelens.com
- Website: https://clearthelens.com