Policies

Privacy Policy

Maria Weir Photography found at https://www.mariaweirphotography.com/ (“Website”) is governed by the following privacy policy (“Privacy Policy”).

We respect the privacy of our visitors and are committed to protecting it. The purpose of this privacy policy is to outline the types of personal information received and collected and how it may be used. This statement only applies to this Website.

Privacy Policy
Maria’s Search for Happiness found at https://www.mariassearchforhappiness.com/ (“Website”) is governed by the following privacy policy (“Privacy Policy”).

INFORMATION WE COLLECT AND HOW IT IS USED

Information You Voluntarily Submit to the Website: We may collect personal information from you such as your name or email address. For example, you may voluntarily submit information to the Website by leaving a comment, subscribing to a newsletter, or submitting a contact form.

You provide information to the Website when you:

view, click on, or download any content on any page of the Website on a device;
search for any content or page of the Website;
comment or participate in other community features on any page of the Website;
view, click on, or purchase linked products through affiliate links on any page of the Website;
sign up to receive emails;
allow data access permissions;
communicate with us by submitting a contact form and providing phone, email, or other personal information;
share or ‘like’ any content on any page of the Website;
provide and rate reviews on any page of the Website.

As a result of those actions, you might supply us with such information as:

identifying information such as your name, address, phone numbers, email address;
your age;
your location information;
your IP address;
personal description and photograph in your public profile when making comments or reviews on any page of the Website;
device log files and configurations;
any other information you voluntarily provide directly on the Website.

Automatically-Collected Information: We automatically collect certain information about you and the device with which you access the Website. For example, when you use the Website, we will log your IP address, operating system type, browser type, referring website, pages you viewed, and the dates/times when you accessed the Website. We may also collect information about actions you take when using the Website, such as links clicked.

Examples of information we collect and analyze include:

the internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer to the internet;
the location of your device or computer;
content interaction information, such as information about specific pages viewed on the Website, terms searched, time duration on specific pages of the Website, content downloads, streams, and playback details, including duration and number of simultaneous streams and downloads, and network details for streaming and download quality, including information about your internet service provider;
device metrics such as when a device is in use, application usage, connectivity data, and any errors or event failures;
the occurrences of technical errors, your interactions with service features and content, location of your device running an application, dates and times of information given such as comments or reviews;
activity on third party websites or interactions with embedded third party content on the Website;
version and time zone settings;
information such as accepted cookies that identify new or returning users;
the full Uniform Resource Locator (URL) or link address, through, and from the Website, including date and time; products and content you viewed or searched for; page response times, download errors, length of visits to certain pages, and page interaction information (such as scrolling and clicks).

Your personal information is used to operate, provide, develop, and improve the products, services, and content of the Website. We may use the information collected in the following ways:

To operate and maintain the Website;
To send you promotional information, such as newsletters. Each email promotion will provide information on how to opt-out of future mailings;
To send you administrative communications, such as administrative emails, confirmation emails, technical notices, updates on policies, or security alerts;
To respond to your comments or inquiries;
To provide you with user support;
To track and measure advertising on the Website;
To protect, investigate, and deter against unauthorised or illegal activity;
To communicate with you about products, services, and promotional offers;
To provide functionality, analyze performance, fix errors, and improve the usability and effectiveness of the Website;
To recommend content, features, products, and services that might be of interest to you and personalize your experience with the Website;
To comply with laws when required;
To personalize and target ads to the user with the use of third party advertising;
To communicate with you. For example, if a user submits a contact form, we use the personal information provided to respond and communicate with the user.

Embedded content/information from other websites/sources: 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.

Examples of information we receive from other websites/sources include:

account information such as your name and photograph when making a comment or submitting a contact form through another website;
information about your interactions with products and services offered by our affiliates or partners;
search results and links, including paid listings (such as Sponsored Links);
information about internet-connected devices and services.

Cookies: We may log information using cookies, which are small data files stored on your browser by the Website. 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 the Website.

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.

We may also use device identifiers and other technologies on devices, applications, and our web pages to collect browsing, usage, cookies, or other technical information.

PUBLICLY VISIBLE INFORMATION

If you leave a comment on the Website, certain information may be publicly visible. To leave a comment, you must choose a username and input your email address for comment confirmation. Your email address will never be available publicly or viewed publicly.

RIGHTS RELATED TO YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

Opt-out – You may opt-out of future email communications by following the unsubscribe links in our emails. You may also notify us at info@mariaweirphotography.com to be removed from our mailing list.

Access – You may access the personal information we have about you by submitting a request to info@mariaweirphotography.com.

Examples of information you can access include:

personally identifiable information (including name and email notification settings – if subscribed to a newsletter);
your content, devices, and related settings, and communications and personalized advertising preferences; and
content that you recently viewed, if applicable.

Amend – You may contact us at info@mariaweirphotography.com to amend or update your personal information.

Forget – In certain situations, you may request that we erase or forget your personal data. To do so, please submit a request to info@mariaweirphotography.com.

Please note that we may need to retain certain information for record-keeping purposes or to complete transactions, or when required by law.

Steps You Can Take to Protect Your Privacy: If you do not want certain information to be available to the Website, you can take certain steps to ensure that some, if not all, of your information is protected and kept private. Some of the ways in which you can ensure your information is better protected would include: changing your browser and/or account settings to not allow cookies, your location information, or general personal information. You can also opt-out of certain data collection tools such as Interest-Based Advertising, as explained in this policy. Aside from the Website practices outlined in this policy, it is up to the user to research and take the necessary steps to protect their personal information.

SENSITIVE PERSONAL INFORMATION

At no time should you submit sensitive personal information to the Website. This includes your social security 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.

CHILDREN’S INFORMATION

The Website does not knowingly collect any personally identifiable information from children under the age of 13. We discourage anyone under the age of 13 from using, visiting, or participating in any aspect of the Website for the purpose of protecting the user and other children. If a parent or guardian believes that the Website has personally identifiable information of a child under the age of 13 in its database, please contact us immediately at info@mariaweirphotography.com and we will use our best efforts to promptly remove such information from our records.

CONTACT INFORMATION

If you require any more information or have any questions about our privacy policy, please contact us by email at info@mariaweirphotography.com.

Any and all information collected by third parties, independent of the disclosures and agreements within this Privacy Policy, is dependent upon the agreements between the third parties and the users. The Website is not liable for the protection, nor the use, of any information collected or obtained solely by third party or third party partners, including but not limited to: any public information provided by the user such as comments, product reviews, or images; any personal information given or collected such as email addresses, passwords, login information, first names, last names, addresses, or website searches/product searches.

THIRD-PARTY PERSONAL INFORMATION

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

Additionally, the 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.

The 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 the Website. Examples of information collected by Google Analytics are as follows, but not limited to, device type, location, referring website, operating system type, duration of time spent on pages, actions taken such as pages you clicked on, and dates/times you accessed pages.

UpdraftPlus – this is a WordPress plugin that is used to backup information on and related to the Website for security purposes. This plugin connects all content on the Website, including publicly made comments, reviews, and other forms of public interaction related to the Website, to privately stored databases and approved backup file locations.

Smash Balloon Instagram Feed – this is a plugin that displays content on the Website and may collect basic information when a user clicks on the content. This plugin also displays and may collect information such as likes or comments on Instagram posts to display on the Website.

17th Avenue – this is an online service that provides the layout and framework for the functionality and look of the Website.

Genesis Framework – this is an online service that provides the layout and framework for the functionality and look of the Website.

Ninja Forms – this is a plugin service that provides the layout and framework for some of the form sections on this Website. Information collected by this service is willingly provided by the user when they submit information such as an email address, name, or website through a form.

Contact Form 7 – this is a WordPress plugin that allows users to submit a contact form through the Website.

Siteground – this is an online service that provides website hosting services as well as various other services such as: security, backups, and functionality capabilities.

Jetpack – this service is used for delivery of email updates. We store your name and email address for purposes of delivering such communications. Please refer to Jetpack’s privacy policy for further information.

Cookie Notice & Compliance for GDPR/CCPA – this service provides basic user privacy protection and content related to the functionality of the Website. This service also collects information willingly provided by the user when they acknowledge, dismiss, or accept the compliance banner displayed on this Website. This service also collects basic user information for the purposes of recording consent given when a user continues to use the Website after the compliance banner appears. Examples of information collected by this service include but are not limited to IP Address and location information.

At this time, your personal information is not shared with any other third-party applications. This list may be amended from time to time at the Website’s sole discretion.

Except when required by law, we will not sell, distribute, or reveal your email addresses or other personal information without your consent. Additionally, we only share your information as described in this policy. This Website only processes your information for the purposes described in this policy, which include “business purposes” under the CCPA. These purposes include:

Protecting against security threats, abuse, and illegal activity. This Website uses and may disclose information to detect, prevent and respond to security incidents, and for protecting against other malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity. For example, to protect our services, the Website may receive or disclose information about IP addresses that malicious actors have compromised.
Auditing and measurement. The Website uses information for analytics and measurement to understand how our services are used, as well as to fulfill obligations to our partners like publishers, advertisers, developers, or rights holders. We may disclose non-personally identifiable information publicly and with these partners, including for auditing purposes.
Maintaining our services. The Website uses information to ensure the functionality is working as intended for the users, such as troubleshooting and fixing 404 page errors.
Use of service providers. The Website shares information with service providers to perform services on our behalf, in compliance with our Privacy Policy and other appropriate confidentiality and security measures. For example, we may rely on service providers to help in troubleshooting errors or for functionality purposes.

ANONYMOUS DATA

From time to time, we may use anonymous data, which does not identify you alone, or when combined with data from other parties. This type of anonymous data may be provided to other parties for marketing, advertising, or other uses. Examples of this anonymous data may include analytics or information collected from cookies.

COOKIES

The 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 the 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 your Internet browser, not all functions of our Website may be entirely usable.

CCPA COMPLIANCE

This California Consumer Privacy Act disclosure (“Disclosure”) supplements the Website Privacy Notice and is effective as of January 1, 2020. The Website Privacy Notice describes the personal information that we collect, the sources from which we collect it, the purposes for which we use it, the limited circumstances under which we share personal information, and with whom we share it. These additional disclosures are required by the California Consumer Privacy Act:

Categories of personal information collected: The personal information that is collected by the Website, or has been collected from users by the Website within the twelve months prior to the effective date of this Disclosure, fall into the following categories established by the California Consumer Privacy Act:

identifiers such as your IP address or other protected classifications, for example if you sign up to receive email newsletters and enter in your name, an alias, phone number or your email address;
age, gender, or other protected classifications;
Internet or other electronic network activity information, including content interaction information, such as content downloads;
geolocation data, such as the location of your device or computer;

Categories of personal information disclosed for a business purpose: The personal information that the Website disclosed about users for a business purpose in the twelve months prior to the effective date of this Disclosure fall into the following categories established by the California Consumer Privacy Act:

identifiers such as your name or IP address;
personal information, such as your email address, name, or alias, for example if the user signs up to receive email newsletters, the name, alias, or email address provided by the user would be entered into a private third party email marketing database for the sole purpose of sending email newsletters to the user;
your age, gender, or other protected classifications, for example if you choose to participate in a survey distributed by a survey provider;
commercial information, such as the details of a product or service you purchased if a third party service provider is assisting to provide that product or service to you;
internet or other electronic network activity information, such as if we use a service provider to help us gather crash reports for analyzing the health of the Website;
geolocation data, for example if we use Google Analytics or another third party to analyze the general or specific location of a user’s device to better market content towards that user.

Right to Request Access to or Deletion of Personal Information: You may have the right under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) to request disclosure and/or deletion of any data, including categories and specific personal information related to the user, that is collected by this Website. If you wish to do any of these things, please contact us at info@mariaweirphotography.com. Depending on your data choices, certain services may be limited or unavailable. The Website will not discriminate against any consumer for exercising their rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act.

CHANGES TO THIS POLICY

This policy is updated from time to time. Information about when this policy was last updated is always found at the bottom of the page. At this time we do not send out email notifications to subscribers when there is a policy change, but we plan to do so in the near future. When this policy is updated and notifications are sent out to newsletter subscribers, we will do our best to be transparent about what specific changes were made.

Terms of Use

Your use of and interaction with the Website has to comply with all applicable laws and regulations. You acknowledge and agree that we may occasionally send you communications if you give us permission. For example, if you sign up to receive email newsletters or fill out a contact form or comment on a page, then you are giving us permission to respond and communicate with you using the information you provided.

We will do our best to ensure that all comments and communications made by users on the Website are filtered and approved or disapproved before being made public. In no event shall the Website or its owners be made liable for any comments or communications made by users, legal or illegal.

PHOTOS

All photographs are the property of Maria Weir Photography (the owner of this website), unless otherwise stated.

For clients wishing to obtain additional digital copies of images they’ve already purchased, please contact me directly at info@mariaweirphotography.com.

Last updated August 16th, 2021