Privacy Policy

Your privacy is important to VarHowto. Therefore, we write this privacy document.

— Revised on [vh_modified_date]

Information we collect

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.

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 (via Jetpack)

We use jetpack.com for contact forms.

Data Used: Akismet is enabled on the site, the contact form submission data — IP address, user agent, name, email address, website, and message — is submitted to the Akismet service (also owned by Automattic) for the sole purpose of spam checking. The actual submission data is stored in the database of the site on which it was submitted and is emailed directly to the owner of the form (i.e. the site author who published the page on which the contact form resides). This email will include the submitter’s IP address, timestamp, name, email address, website, and message.

Data Synced: Post and post meta data associated with a user’s contact form submission. Akismet is enabled on the site, the IP address and user agent originally submitted with the comment are synced, as well, as they are stored in post meta.

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.

We enabled user registration. If you visit our login page or a page with login/register forms, 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.

For failed login attempts, we also set a cookie (jpp_math_pass) for 1 day to remember if/when a user has successfully completed a math captcha to prove that they’re a real human.

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.

Third party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on a user’s prior visits to your website or other websites. Google’s use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to your users based on their visit to your sites and/or other sites on the Internet. Users may opt out of personalized advertising by visiting Ads Settings. (Alternatively, you can opt out of a third-party vendor’s use of cookies for personalized advertising by visiting www.aboutads.info.)

To learn how to delete or control cookies, please visit https://aboutcookies.org/.

Analytics (via Google Analytics)

We use Google Analytics to collect page view events for consumption.

Please refer to the Google Analytics documentation for the specific type of data it collects. The IP anonymization that Google Analytics offers is enabled.

You can opt out here.

Embedded GIF (via giphy.com)

We use giphy.com to show GIFs.

Data Used: An iframe is inserted into the page, using an HTTP connection. The iframe is governed by Giphy’s privacy policy.

Activity Tracked: We don’t track any activity. For details of what Giphy tracks, refer to their privacy policy.

Protect (via Jetpack)

We use jetpack.com to protect us against brute force attack protection.

Data Used: In order to check login activity and potentially block fraudulent attempts, the following information is used: attempting user’s IP address, attempting user’s email address/username (i.e. according to the value they were attempting to use during the login process), and all IP-related HTTP headers attached to the attempting user.

Activity Tracked: Failed login attempts/ (these include IP address and user agent). We also set a cookie (jpp_math_pass) for 1 day to remember if/when a user has successfully completed a math captcha to prove that they’re a real human.

Data Synced: Failed login attempts, which contain the user’s IP address, attempted username or email address, and user agent information.

reCAPTCHA (via Google)

We have implemented reCAPTCHA v3 for login security. The use of reCAPTCHA v3 is subject to the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

Email Subscriptions (via Jetpack)

Data Used: To initiate and process subscriptions, the following information is used: subscriber’s email address and the ID of the post or comment (depending on the specific subscription being processed). In the event of a new subscription being initiated, we also collect some basic server data, including all of the subscribing user’s HTTP request headers, the IP address from which the subscribing user is viewing the page, and the URI which was given in order to access the page (REQUEST_URI and DOCUMENT_URI). This server data used for the exclusive purpose of monitoring and preventing abuse and spam.

Activity Tracked: Functionality cookies are set for a duration of 347 days to remember a visitor’s blog and post subscription choices if, in fact, they have an active subscription.

Ads (via Google AdSense)

Advertisements are very important to use to be sustainable.

We use Google AdSense to serve the advertisements if aproved. We do not use any other third-party ad serving.

Google uses cookies to serve ads based on a user’s prior visits to your website or other websites.

Google’s use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to your users based on their visit to your sites and/or other sites on the Internet.

Users may opt out of personalized advertising by visiting Ads Settings. (Alternatively, users can opt out of a third-party vendor’s use of cookies for personalized advertising by visiting www.aboutads.info.)

We do not pass any information that can identify users to Google, including:

• that Google could use or recognize as personally identifiable information; or
• that permanently identifies a particular device (such as a mobile phone’s unique device identifier if such an identifier cannot be reset).

Log information

Like most online service providers, we collect information that web browsers, mobile devices, and servers typically make available, including the browser type, IP address, unique device identifiers, language preference, referring site, the date and time of access, operating system, and mobile network information.

Sharing (via Jetpack)

Data Used: When official sharing buttons are active on the site, each button loads content directly from its service in order to display the button as well as information and tools for the sharing party. As a result, each service can in turn collect information about the sharing party. When a non-official Facebook or a Pinterest sharing button is active on the site, information such as the sharing party’s IP address as well as the page URL will be available for each service, so sharing counts can be displayed next to the button.

Activity Tracked: Email shares will be sent to Akismet (also owned by Automattic) and logged there. See above for the specific data sent to Akismet.

Likes (via Jetpack)

Data Used: IP address, WordPress.com user ID, WordPress.com username, WordPress.com-connected site ID (on which the post was liked), post ID (of the post that was liked), user agent, timestamp of event, browser language, country code.

Activity Tracked: We track when, and which user, likes a specific post.

How long we keep information

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 (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.

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

Contact information

Should you have any questions, please reach us through the contact form.