This privacy policy has been compiled to better serve those who are concerned with how their ‘Personally Identifiable Information’ (PII) is being used online. PII, as described in US privacy law and information security, is information that can be used on its own or with other information to identify, contact, or locate a single person, or to identify an individual in context.

Please read our privacy policy carefully to get a clear understanding of how we collect, use, protect or otherwise handle your Personally Identifiable Information in accordance with our website.


Who We Are

Our website address is: https://petcitadel.com.

Pet Citadel, run by Kevin Wainwright, can be contacted through the contact form on this page.


What Personal Data We Collect And Why We Collect It

Comments

When visitors leave comments on the site, we collect the data provided 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, any profile picture you have set will be visible to the public in the context of your comment.

Opt-In Forms

Opt-in forms on our website (that don’t fall under any of the other categories mentioned in this section) will require you to provide your email address and/or name. In this case, your email will be sent marketing communications by us and by us alone.

You can opt out of these email communications at any time by following the unsubscribe link at the bottom of any sent email.

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.

Contact Forms

Contact forms on this website may ask for your name and email address. You will be required to confirm your consent to have the data that you provide stored indefinitely.

We will only use the data you provide in contact forms in order to communicate with you personally, and not for marketing purposes.

Cookies

If you leave a comment on the 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 have an account and you log in to the site, 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 one day.

Note that you can choose to have your computer warn you each time a cookie is being sent, or you can choose to turn off all cookies. You do this through your browser settings. Since each browser is different, look at your browser’s Help Menu to learn the correct way to modify your cookies.

If you turn cookies off, some of the features that make your site experience more efficient may not function properly.

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 tracing your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

Analytics

This site uses Google Analytics to track data related to your location, pages you’ve visited, age (if you’ve already made this information available), as well as other data. This information is only used in order for us to understand general user activity on the site and for us to improve the user experience.


About Google AdSense

Google’s advertising requirements can be summed up by Google’s Advertising Principles. They are put in place to provide a positive experience for users: https://support.google.com/adwordspolicy/answer/1316548?hl=en

We may use Google AdSense Advertising on our website.

Google, as a third-party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads on our site. Google’s use of the DART cookie enables it to serve ads to our users based on previous visits to our site and other sites on the Internet. Users may opt-out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google Ad and Content Network privacy policy.

We have implemented the following:

We, along with third-party vendors such as Google, use first-party cookies (such as the Google Analytics cookies) and third-party cookies (such as the DoubleClick cookie) or other third-party identifiers together to compile data regarding user interactions with ad impressions and other ad service functions as they relate to our website.

Opting out:

Users can set preferences for how Google advertises to you using the Google Ad Settings page. Alternatively, you can opt out by visiting the Network Advertising Initiative Opt Out page or by using the Google Analytics Opt Out Browser add-on.


Who We Share Your Data With

We do not sell, trade, or otherwise transfer to outside parties your Personally Identifiable Information unless we provide users with advance notice. This does not include website hosting partners and other parties who assist us in operating our website, conducting our business, or serving our users, so long as those parties agree to keep this information confidential. We may also release information when it’s release is appropriate to comply with the law, enforce our site policies, or protect ours or others’ rights, property or safety.

However, non-personally identifiable visitor information may be provided to other parties for marketing, advertising or other uses.


How Long We Retain Your Data

If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize 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, although they cannot change their username. Website administrators can also see and edit that information.

Any other data such as emails, names and locations will be stored anywhere from 14-50 months or indefinitely.


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 related to you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.

To proceed with any of these requests, email support@petcitadel.com.


Where We Send Your Data

Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service. All data we collect is safeguarded to European data protection standards by the companies that store it.


How We Protect Your Data

We do not use vulnerability scanning and/or scanning to PCI standards.

We only provide articles and information. We never ask for credit card numbers.

We do not use Malware Scanning.

Your personal information is contained behind secured networks and is only accessible by a limited number of persons who have special access rights to such systems, and are required to keep the information confidential. In addition, all sensitive/credit information you supply is encrypted via Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology.

We implement a variety of security measures when a user enters, submits, or accesses their information to maintain the safety of your personal information.

All transactions are processed through a gateway provider and are not stored or processed on our servers.


Additional Information

CalOPPA (California Online Privacy Protection Act)

CalOPPA is the first state law in the nation to require commercial websites and online services to post a privacy policy.

The law’s reach stretches well beyond California to require any person or company in the United States (and conceivably the world) that operates websites collecting Personally Identifiable Information from California consumers to post a conspicuous privacy policy on its website stating exactly the information being collected and those individuals or companies with whom it is being shared. See more at: http://consumercal.org/california-online-privacy-protection-act-caloppa/#sthash.0FdRbT51.dpuf

According to CalOPPA, we agree to the following:

  • Users can visit our site anonymously.
  • Once this privacy policy is created, we will add a link to it on our home page or as a minimum, on the first significant page after entering our website.
  • Our privacy policy link includes the word ‘privacy’ and can easily be found on the page specified above.

You will be notified of any privacy policy changes on our privacy policy page. You can change your personal information by emailing us.

CCPA Privacy Rights

Under the CCPA, among other rights, California consumers have the right to:

  • Request that a business that collects a consumer’s personal data disclose the categories and specific pieces of personal data that a business has collected about consumers.
  • Request that a business delete any personal data about the consumer that a business has collected.
  • Request that a business does not sell the consumer’s personal data.

If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact us.

COPPA (Children Online Privacy Protection Act)

When it comes to the collection of personal information from children under the age of 13 years old, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) puts parents in control. The Federal Trade Commission, the United States’ consumer protection agency, enforces the COPPA Rule, which spells out what operators of websites and online services must do to protect children’s privacy and safety online.

We do not specifically market to children under the age of 13 years old.

Fair Information Practices

The Fair Information Practices Principles form the backbone of privacy law in the United States and the concepts they include have played a significant role in the development of data protection laws around the globe.

Understanding the Fair Information Practice Principles and how they should be implemented is critical to comply with the various privacy laws that protect personal information.

GDPR Data Protection Rights

We would like to make sure you are fully aware of all of your data protection rights. Every user is entitled to the following:

  • The right to access: You have the right to request copies of your personal data. We may charge you a small fee for this service.
  • The right to rectification: You have the right to request that we correct any information you believe is inaccurate. You also have the right to request that we complete the information you believe is incomplete.
  • The right to erasure: You have the right to request that we erase your personal data, under certain conditions.
  • The right to restrict processing: You have the right to request that we restrict the processing of your personal data, under certain conditions.
  • The right to object to processing: You have the right to object to our processing of your personal data, under certain conditions.
  • The right to data portability: You have the right to request that we transfer the data that we have collected to another organization, or directly to you, under certain conditions.

If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact us.

CAN-SPAM Act

The CAN-SPAM Act is a law that sets the rules for commercial email, establishes requirements for commercial messages, gives recipients the right to have emails stopped from being sent to them, and spells out tough penalties for violations.

We collect your email address in order to:

  • send information or respond to inquiries.
  • market to our mailing list or continue to send emails to our clients after the original transaction has occurred.

To be in accordance with CANSPAM, we agree to the following:

  • not use false or misleading subjects or email addresses.
  • identify the message as an advertisement in some reasonable way.
  • include the physical address of our business or site headquarters.
  • monitor third-party email marketing services for compliance, if one is used.
  • honor opt-out/unsubscribe requests quickly.
  • allow users to unsubscribe by using the link at the bottom of each email.

Our Contact Information

For any inquiries or concerns related to this privacy policy, please contact support@petcitadel.com.

Last Edited on 2021-07-12