Privacy Policy

• I am thoughtful about the personal information we ask you to provide and the personal information that we collect about you through the operation of our services.
• I store personal information for only as long as I have a reason to keep it.
• I aim to make it as simple as possible for you to control what information on your website is shared publicly (or kept private), indexed by search engines, and permanently deleted.
• I help protect you from overreaching government demands for your personal information.
• I aim for full transparency on how we gather, use, and share your personal information.

Below is ruthbenghiat.com’s privacy policy, which incorporates and clarifies these principles.

Who We Are and What This Policy Covers

I am Ruth Ben-Ghiat and this website is my blog and promotional website. This Privacy Policy applies to information collected about you when you use my website (including ruthbenghiat.com).
Below I explain how I collect, use, and share information about you, along with the choices that you have with respect to that information. Please note that this Privacy Policy does not apply to any of the products or services that have a separate privacy policy. If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us.

Information We Collect

I only collect information about you if we have a reason to do so–for example, to provide an optimal web viewing experience or to communicate with you. The website collects information in three ways: if and when you provide information to it, automatically through operating the website, and from outside sources. Let’s go over the information that the website collects.

Information You Provide to Us

It’s probably no surprise that the website collects information that you provide. The amount and type of information depends on the context and how we use the information. Here are some examples:

• Content Information: You may also provide information about you in the messages you send via the contact form. For example, if you write a message that includes biographic information about you, I will have that information. This might be obvious to you…but it’s not to everyone!
• Communications Information: When visitors submit messages on the site contact form we collect the data shown in the form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.

Information The Website Collects Automatically

Some information is collected automatically:

• Log Information: Like most online service providers, this website collects information that web browsers, mobile devices, and servers typically make available, such as the browser type, IP address, unique device identifiers, language preference, referring site, the date and time of access, operating system, and mobile network information. The website collects log information whenever you visit.
• Usage Information: The website collects information about your usage. For example, the website collects information about the actions that users perform on a site–in other words, who did what, when and to what thing on a site (e.g., [comment] posted by “[name of user]” at [time/date]). The website also collects information about what happens when you view it (e.g., page views, comments, button clicks) along with information about your device (e.g., mobile screen size, name of cellular network, and mobile device manufacturer). I use this information to, for example, provide the website to you, as well as get insights on how people use it, so I can make the service better.
• Location Information: The website may determine the approximate location of your device from your IP address. The website collects and uses this information to, for example, calculate how many people visit the website from certain geographic regions. The website may also collect information about your precise location via our mobile apps (if, for example, you post a photograph with location information) if you allow us to do so through your mobile device operating system’s permissions.
• Information from Cookies & Other Technologies: As is common practice with almost all professional websites this site uses cookies, which are tiny files that are downloaded to your computer, to improve your experience. This page describes what information they gather, how we use it and why we sometimes need to store these cookies. We will also share how you can prevent these cookies from being stored however this may downgrade or ‘break’ certain elements of the sites functionality.
  • How We Use Cookies: We use cookies for a variety of reasons detailed below. Unfortunately in most cases there are no industry standard options for disabling cookies without completely disabling the functionality and features they add to this site. It is recommended that you leave on all cookies if you are not sure whether you need them or not in case they are used to provide a service that you use.
    • Email newsletters related cookies: This site offers newsletter or email subscription services and cookies may be used to remember if you are already registered and whether to show certain notifications which might only be valid to subscribed/unsubscribed users.
    • Forms related cookies: When you submit data to through a form such as those found on contact pages or comment forms cookies may be set to remember your user details for future correspondence.
  • Third Party Cookies: In some special cases we also use cookies provided by trusted third parties. The following section details which third party cookies you might encounter through this site.
    • This site uses Google Analytics which is one of the most widespread and trusted analytics solution on the web for helping us to understand how you use the site and ways that we can improve your experience. These cookies may track things such as how long you spend on the site and the pages that you visit so we can continue to produce engaging content. For more information on Google Analytics cookies, see the official Google Analytics page.
    • From time to time we test new features and make subtle changes to the way that the site is delivered. When we are still testing new features these cookies may be used to ensure that you receive a consistent experience whilst on the site whilst ensuring we understand which optimisations our users appreciate the most.
    • We also use social media buttons and/or plugins on this site that allow you to connect with your social network in various ways. For these to work the following social media sites including; {List the social networks whose features you have integrated with your site?:12}, will set cookies through our site which may be used to enhance your profile on their site or contribute to the data they hold for various purposes outlined in their respective privacy policies.
  • More Information on Cookies: Hopefully that has clarified things for you and as was previously mentioned if there is something that you aren’t sure whether you need or not it’s usually safer to leave cookies enabled in case it does interact with one of the features you use on our site. This Cookies Policy was created with the help of the Generator of GDPR Cookies Policy Template and the GDPR Cookies Policy Template based on the Privacy Policy Generator from TermsFeed.
• Information used to prevent spam in comments: The website collects information about visitors who use the contact form because that uses our anti-spam service. The information we collect typically includes the commenter’s IP address, user agent, referrer, and Site URL.

How We Use Information

I use information about you as mentioned above and as follows:

• To provide the website–for example, allow you to contact me, view a page, or respond to your inquiry;
• To further develop our website–for example by monitoring web traffic to ensure that our website renders well for all users.
• To monitor and analyze trends and better understand how users interact with the website, which helps to improve the website and make it easier to use;
• and to monitor and protect the security of our Services, detect and prevent fraudulent transactions and other illegal activities, fight spam, and protect the rights and property of ruthbenghiat.com and others.

Sharing Information

How We Share Information

I do not sell users’ private personal information. I share information about you in the limited circumstances spelled out below and with appropriate safeguards on your privacy:

• Subsidiaries, Employees, and Independent Contractors: I may disclose information about you to subsidiaries, employees, and individuals who are independent contractors that need to know the information in order to help us provide the website or to process the information on my behalf. I require any subsidiaries, employees, and independent contractors to follow this Privacy Policy for personal information that is shared with them.
• Third Party Vendors: The website may share information about you with third party vendors who need to know information about you in order to provide their services. This group includes vendors that  that help understand and enhance our the website (like analytics providers).
• As Required by Law: I may disclose information about you in response to a subpoena, court order, or other governmental request.
• To Protect Rights and Property: I may disclose information about you when I believe in good faith that disclosure is reasonably necessary to protect the property or rights of ruthbenghiat.com, third parties, or the public at large. For example, if I have a good faith belief that there is an imminent danger of death or serious physical injury, I may disclose information related to the emergency without delay.
• Business Transfers: In connection with any merger, sale of company assets, or acquisition of all or a portion of our business by another company, or in the unlikely event that ruthbenghiat.com goes out of business or enters bankruptcy, user information would likely be one of the assets that is transferred or acquired by a third party. If any of these events were to happen, this Privacy Policy would continue to apply to your information and the party receiving your information may continue to use your information, but only consistent with this Privacy Policy.
• With Your Consent: I may share and disclose information with your consent or at your direction. For example, I may share your information with third parties with which you authorize my to do so, such as passing along information you provide in a message on my contact form to relevant parties at your request.
• Aggregated and De-Identified Information: I may share information that has been aggregated or reasonably de-identified, so that the information could not reasonably be used to identify you. For instance, I may publish aggregate statistics about the use of the website.

Security

While no online service is 100% secure, I work very hard to protect information about you against unauthorized access, use, alteration, or destruction, and take reasonable measures to do so.

Choices

You have several choices available when it comes to information about you:

• Limit the Information that You Provide: You can choose not to provide optional information when using the contact form. Please keep in mind that if you do not provide some information, such as contact information, I may not be able to respond.
• Set Your Browser to Reject Cookies: At this time, ruthbenghiat.com does attempt to respond to “do not track” signals across all of our Services. However, you can prevent the setting of cookies by adjusting the settings on your browser (see your browser Help for how to do this). Be aware that disabling cookies will affect the functionality of this and many other websites that you visit. Disabling cookies will usually result in also disabling certain functionality and features of the this site. Therefore it is recommended that you do not disable cookies.

Other Things You Should Know

Transferring Information

ruthbenghiat.com is a worldwide service. By accessing or using the website or otherwise providing information to me, you consent to the processing, transfer, and storage of information in and to the U.S. and other countries, which may have rights and protections that are different from those in your home country.

Analytics Services Provided by Others

Other parties may also provide analytics services via our Services. These analytics providers may set tracking technologies (like cookies) to collect information about your use of the website and across other websites and online services. These technologies allow these third parties to recognize your device to compile information about you or others who use your device. This information allows this website and other companies to, among other things, analyze and track usage, determine the popularity of certain content, and deliver advertisements that may be more targeted to your interests. Please note this Privacy Policy only covers the collection of information by ruthbenghiat.com and does not cover the collection of information by any third party advertisers or analytics providers.

Right to your Data and to be Forgotten

We believe your data is yours and fully support policies which follow that spirit. If you would like a copy of any data we have collected on you or would like us to permanently erase any of it, please contact us.

One More Thing: This Policy Is Adapted from Automattic.com

Privacy Policy Changes

Although most changes are likely to be minor, ruthbenghiat.com may change its Privacy Policy from time to time. ruthbenghiat.com encourages visitors to frequently check this page for any changes to its Privacy Policy. If I make changes, I will notify you by revising the change log below, and, in some cases, I may provide additional notice (such as adding a statement to our homepage or sending you a notification through e-mail or your dashboard). Your continued use of the website after any change in this Privacy Policy will constitute your consent to such change.
Change log:

• April 16, 2019: Copied from Automattic.com and revised to suit ruthbenghiat.com
• May 2, 2019: Further revised to suit ruthbenghiat.com