At Bridges and Balloons, we take privacy seriously, and are committed to maintaining the trust and confidence of our visitors to our website and subscribers to our newsletter. We’re definitely not in the business of selling, renting or trading email lists with other companies and businesses for marketing purposes. Here’s our official privacy policy where you’ll find information on how we treat the data that we collect from visitors to our website, or when someone subscribes to our newsletter.
What personal data we collect and why we collect it
You may be asked to enter your email address to sign up to our mailing list. You may also be asked for your name and email when leaving a comment. These actions are entirely optional and not doing them does not prevent you from accessing the site.
Google Analytics
When someone visits bridgesandballoons.com we use a third party service, Google Analytics, to collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns. We do this to find out things such as the number of visitors to the various parts of the site. This information is processed in a way that does not identify anyone. We do not make, and do not allow Google to make, any attempt to find out the identities of those visiting our 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.
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. If you are using Gracatar, after approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public next to your comment. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here.
Newsletter and blog subscribers
At Bridges and Balloons, you can sign up to receive all our blog posts direct to your email inbox. Or you can sign up for a monthly email newsletter, filled with updates, news and giveaways. We collect your email address so we can send you what you signed up for. We don’t rent or trade email lists with other organisations and businesses.
We use a third party provider, MailChimp, to deliver our newsletter. We gather statistics around email opening and clicks using industry standard technologies to help us monitor and improve our e-newsletter. For more information, please see MailChimp’s privacy notice.
You can change your mind at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link in the footer of any email you receive from us, or by contacting us at [email protected].
Links to other websites
This privacy notice does not cover the links within this site linking to other websites. Those sites are not governed by this Privacy Policy, and if you have questions about how a site uses your information, you’ll need to check that site’s privacy statement.
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.
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.
We also hold Google Analytics data indefinitely for the purpose of analysis.
Access to your personal information
You are entitled to access any of the personal information that we hold. Email your request to [email protected]. You can also request for it to be deleted.
Changes to this Privacy Notice
We keep our privacy notice under regular review. This privacy notice was last updated on 13 July 2018.
Cookies Policy
What is a cookie?
Cookies are text files containing small amounts of information which are downloaded to your personal computer, mobile or other device when you visit a website. Cookies are then sent back to the originating website on each subsequent visit, or to another website that recognises that cookie. Cookies are useful because they allow a website to recognise a user’s device. For example, when you first visit Bridges and Balloons, you’ll see a pop-up asking you to sign up to our newsletter. Once you’ve said yes or no, you wont see that pop-up on subsequent visits because the cookies tell us you’ve already answered. If you clear your cookies, you’ll see the pop-up again.
Cookies do lots of different jobs, like letting you navigate between pages efficiently, remembering your preferences, and generally improve the user experience.
You can find more information about cookies at www.allaboutcookies.org and www.youronlinechoices.eu.
How long are cookies stored for?
Persistent cookies – these cookies remain on a user’s device for the period of time specified in the cookie. They are activated each time that the user visits the website that created that particular cookie.
Session cookies – these cookies allow website operators to link the actions of a user during a browser session. A browser session starts when a user opens the browser window and finishes when they close the browser window. Session cookies are created temporarily. Once you close the browser, all session cookies are deleted.
Types of cookies used on this website
Functionality cookies
These cookies remember choices you make to improve your experience. By using the Website, you agree that we can place these types of cookies on your device.
These cookies allow the Website to remember choices you make (such as your user name, language or the region you are in) and provide enhanced, more personal features. These cookies can also be used to remember changes you have made to text size, fonts and other parts of web pages that you can customise. They may also be used to provide services you have asked for such as watching a video or commenting on a blog. The information these cookies collect may be anonymised and they cannot track your browsing activity on other websites.
Third party cookies
These cookies allow third parties to track the success of their application or customise the application for you. Because of how cookies work we cannot access these cookies, nor can the third parties access the data in cookies used on our site.
For example, if you choose to ‘share’ content through Twitter or other social networks you might be sent cookies from these websites. We don’t control the setting of these cookies, so please check those websites for more information about their cookies and how to manage them.
Affiliate Program Participation
Bridges and Balloons does affiliate marketing, which is done by embedding tracking links into the website. If you click on a link for an affiliate partnership, a cookie will be placed on your browser to track any sales for purposes of commissions.
Display Ads
We may use third-party advertising companies to serve content and advertisements when you visit the Website, which may use cookies, as noted above.
Can I decline cookies?
You can adjust the settings on your computer to decline any cookies if you wish. This can be done within the “settings” section of your computer. For more information please read the advice at AboutCookies.org.
Mediavine Programmatic Advertising (Ver 1.1)
The Website works with Mediavine to manage third-party interest-based advertising appearing on the Website. Mediavine serves content and advertisements when you visit the Website, which may use first and third-party cookies. A cookie is a small text file which is sent to your computer or mobile device (referred to in this policy as a “device”) by the web server so that a website can remember some information about your browsing activity on the Website.
First party cookies are created by the website that you are visiting. A third-party cookie is frequently used in behavioral advertising and analytics and is created by a domain other than the website you are visiting. Third-party cookies, tags, pixels, beacons and other similar technologies (collectively, “Tags”) may be placed on the Website to monitor interaction with advertising content and to target and optimize advertising. Each internet browser has functionality so that you can block both first and third-party cookies and clear your browser’s cache. The “help” feature of the menu bar on most browsers will tell you how to stop accepting new cookies, how to receive notification of new cookies, how to disable existing cookies and how to clear your browser’s cache. For more information about cookies and how to disable them, you can consult the information at All About Cookies.
Without cookies you may not be able to take full advantage of the Website content and features. Please note that rejecting cookies does not mean that you will no longer see ads when you visit our Site. In the event you opt-out, you will still see non-personalized advertisements on the Website.
The Website collects the following data using a cookie when serving personalized ads:
- IP Address
- Operating System type
- Operating System version
- Device Type
- Language of the website
- Web browser type
- Email (in hashed form)
Mediavine Partners (companies listed below with whom Mediavine shares data) may also use this data to link to other end user information the partner has independently collected to deliver targeted advertisements. Mediavine Partners may also separately collect data about end users from other sources, such as advertising IDs or pixels, and link that data to data collected from Mediavine publishers in order to provide interest-based advertising across your online experience, including devices, browsers and apps. This data includes usage data, cookie information, device information, information about interactions between users and advertisements and websites, geolocation data, traffic data, and information about a visitor’s referral source to a particular website. Mediavine Partners may also create unique IDs to create audience segments, which are used to provide targeted advertising.
If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices to opt-in or opt-out of this data collection, please visit National Advertising Initiative opt out page. You may also visit Digital Advertising Alliance website and Network Advertising Initiative website to learn more information about interest-based advertising. You may download the AppChoices app at Digital Advertising Alliance’s AppChoices app to opt out in connection with mobile apps, or use the platform controls on your mobile device to opt out.
For specific information about Mediavine Partners, the data each collects and their data collection and privacy policies, please visit Mediavine Partners.
If anything is unclear, please contact me at [email protected]