1. Introduction
Lost Island Press (“us”, “we”, “Company”) is committed to respecting the privacy rights of visitors and other users of our website, http://lostislandpress.com (the “Site”). This Privacy Policy (“Policy”) is designed to give you confidence as you visit and use the Site, and to demonstrate our commitment to fair information practices. This Policy is only applicable to the Site, and not to any other websites that you may be able to access from the Site, each of which may have data collection and use practices and policies that differ materially from this Policy.
2. Information Collection Practices
In operating the Site, we collect personal information from you in four situations. The first is if you sign up to receive a free ebook at which time we collect your first name and email address. The second is if you leave a comment to a blog post during which you may be asked for a name and other information. The third is when you submit information to us through our forms, such as applying to become a VIP reader, entering a writing contest, submitting fan art, etc. You are not required to provide us with information via these three methods to use and enjoy the Site.
(a) 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.
(b) Media. If you upload images to the website, such as through our fanart submission form, 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.
(c) 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.
(d) Embedded Content. 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.
3. Use and Sharing of Information
(a) Personal Information. We do not disclose personally identifiable information to any third parties other than those that we use to facilitate the functioning of the site such as a hosting company and email program for mailings.
(b) Manuscripts. Books submitted to us for publication are kept confidential from the public and only shared among team members and judges at the Company.
(c) Anonymous Information. We use anonymous information to analyze our Site traffic. In addition, we may use anonymous IP addresses to help diagnose problems with our server, to administer our site, or to display the content according to your preferences. Traffic and transaction information may also be shared with business partners and advertisers on an aggregate and anonymous basis.
(d) Cookies. Promotions or advertisements displayed on our site may contain cookies. We do not have access to or control over information collected by outside advertisers on our site.
(e) Disclosure of Personal Information. We may disclose any information we have for you if required to do so by law or in the good-faith belief that such action is necessary to (1) conform to the edicts of the law or comply with legal process served on us, (2) protect and defend our rights or property or the users of the Site, or (3) act under exigent circumstances to protect the safety of the public or users of the Site.
4. Security
The Site has security measures in place to prevent the loss, misuse, and alteration of the information that we obtain from you, but we make no assurances about our ability to prevent any such loss to you or to any third party arising out of any such loss, misuse, or alteration.
5. Website Areas Beyond Company‘s Control
From time to time, the Site may contain links to other websites. If you choose to visit those websites, it is important to understand that our privacy practices and terms of use do not extend to those sites. It is your responsibility to review the privacy policies at those websites to confirm that you understand and agree with their practices.
6. Contact Information and Policy Updates
If you have any questions about this Policy or our practices related to this Site, please contact us at info@lostislandpress.com.
We reserve the right, at any time, to add to, change, update, or modify this Policy to reflect changes in our Privacy Policy. We shall post any such changes on the Site in a conspicuous area. You may then choose whether you wish to accept said policy changes or discontinue using the Site. Any such change, update, or modification will be effective 30 days after posting on the Site. It is your responsibility to review this Policy from time to time to ensure that you continue to agree with all of its terms.
(a) If you have signed up for email communications from us, we will notify you of the privacy policy changes by email as well.
7. Data Retention
We retain the data collected from visitors and users as follows:
(a) Comments. 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.
(b) User Profiles. For users that register on our website (if any), we 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.
8. Your Data Rights
(a) Exported 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.
(b) Erasure Requests. 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.
9. Data Processing Location
Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.