As noted on the ol' blog's Table of Contents page, I follow my own privacy policy when it comes to interactions with and information provided by readers. You can find details on that by clicking over to the ToC and scrolling down to the section titled, in red, Privacy Policy.
The Cliff Notes version is I don't collect and definitely don't share any data that readers give to me, either via email or RSS subscriptions, comments on blog posts or email.
That said, Don't Mess With Taxes is hosted on Typepad, a blogging service owned by Endurance International Group.
As such, your visits to Don't Mess With Taxes, either via my Typepad subdomain or directly at Don't Mess With Taxes, is governed by Endurance's privacy policy.
That privacy policy, as updated Dec. 21, 2019, includes the follow.
Information Collected From You
We obtain the following information about you as described below. We collect this data for the purposes described under How We Use Your Information.
Information you voluntarily provide to us
We collect the following information from you when you provide it to us:
- Information you provide prior to any registration process, such as your email when you provide it to us;
- Information that you provide during any registration process, including in connection with a co-branded offer (such as your name, company name, email address, phone number, billing address or credit card information, geographic location and industry);
- Information you provide, when you call or email us (for support or otherwise) or when you use Typepad/Endurance products or services; and
- Payment information, including credit card data that you provide to Typepad/Endurance (by way of associated partners, customers or other services or otherwise) when you make a purchase via such sites or services.
Information we collect about your usage and devices
We collect data relating to your online activity on our websites, including the following:
- IP address;
- Browser type and version;
- Type of device you use, operating system version, and device identifier;
- Geographic location;
- Pages you view;
- How you got to Typepad/Endurance services and any links you click on to leave;
- When you update your information, communicate with us, or order new services;
- Metadata about your use of Typepad/Endurance services and emails sent to you (including clicks and opens);
- Metadata about how your customers, contacts, and users interact with the Typepad/Endurance-provided services;
- Your interactions with any videos offered;
- Issues you encounter requiring Typepad/Endurance support or assistance; and
- Any device or other method of communication you use to interact with Typepad/Endurance services.
Any collected data is stored in a variety of places within the Typepad/Endurance infrastructure, including system log files, back end databases and analytics systems.
Information We Aquire From Social Media
Typepad/Endurance collects information from third party social networking sites, including information that they provide to us if you use your credentials at such social networking sites to log into some of our Services (such as your name and email address to pre-populate our sign-up form).
The information you allow Typepad/Endurance to access varies by social networking site, and depends on the level of privacy settings you have in place at the social networking site. You can control and find out more about these privacy settings at the applicable social networking site.
Information We Aquire From Other Sources
Typepad/Endurance also collects the following information from other sources:
- Information you provide to at seminars or to our partners;
- Information you provide to in surveys;
- Information that is publicly available; and
- Information you consent to us receiving from third parties.
We also collect information that you may provide during your telephone conversations with us, which we may monitor or record.
We may combine any information we collect about you with other information we have about you to help us update, expand and analyze our records, identify new customers, and provide products and services that may be of interest to you. If you provide us personal information about others, or if others give us your information, we will only use that information for the specific reason for which it was provided to us.
How We Use Your Information
We use the information we collect, both on its own and combined with any other information we collect about you, for the following business and commercial purposes:
- To provide the requested Typepad/Endurance services to you;
- To provide you with useful content;
- To ensure the proper functioning of our services
- To offer and improve our services;
- To provide you with requested information or technical support
- To facilitate your movement through our websites or your use of our services;
- To do a better job of advertising and marketing Typepad/Endurance services (subject to your consent where required by applicable law);
- To advertise and market third party products and services (subject to your consent where required by applicable law)
- To diagnose problems with Typepad/Endurance servers or services;
- In connection with Typepad/Endurance security and compliance programs;
- To administer Typepad/Endurance websites;
- To communicate with you;
- To target current or prospective customers with Typepad/Endurance products or services through online advertisements served on third-party sites by third-party vendors, such as Google (subject to your consent where required by applicable law);
- To assist us in offering you a personalized experience or otherwise tailor Typepad/Endurance services to you; and
- As otherwise described in this privacy notice.
We also use the information we receive to produce reports on trends and statistics, such as mobile search trends, email open rates by industry, campaign best practices or the number of users that have been exposed to, or clicked on, our websites or evaluated or purchased our products or services.
Typepad/Endurance also records telephone conversations for quality control purposes, to train employees and for the companies' own protection.
Sharing of Information
We will only share certain personal information with:
- Other members of the Endurance corporate family;
- Our partners;
- Third party service providers and vendors;
- In connection with a sale, merger, acquisition or corporate reorganization;
- Authorized users within your organization; and
- For legal reasons.
Further information about the third parties with whom Typepad/Endurance share personal information is available here.
When we share your personal information with certain third-party partners, including marketing and advertising partners, that information includes your name, email address and other information enabling partners to:
- Assist you in using Typepad/Endurance services,
- Contact you with offers, services or products that may be of interest to you, and
- Provide you with their products or services.
Typepad/Endurance partners may use cookies and similar technologies in order to provide you advertising based upon your browsing activities and interests.
When you leave comments on Don't Mess With Taxes, the data shown in the comments form, including your IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection, is collected. This also is used by Google Analytics to determine data on blog readership.
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 you have visited the other website. These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking and monitor your interaction with their content that is shared on Don't Mess With Taxes. This could include tracking your interaction with the embedded content.
If you wish to opt out of interest-based advertising click here, or if you are located in the European Union, click here. Please note you will continue to receive generic ads.
Click here to access Typepad/Endurance's Cookie Notice.
Typepad/Endurance partners are prohibited from using your contact information for any purpose beyond those set forth above without your consent. Further information about certain partners we share personal information with is available here.
Additional information and details about Don't Mess With Taxes/Typepad/Endurance's full privacy policy.
Thank you for reading and for your trust in me and the ol' blog regarding your data and privacy.