The Unknown Enthusiast found at https://theunknownenthusiast.com/ (“Website”) is governed by the following privacy policy (“Privacy Policy”).

We strongly believe in keeping your personal information confidential. The purpose of this Privacy Policy is to inform you which personally identifiable information we collect and how it may be used. This Privacy Policy only applies to this Website. You can use this website without disclosing any of your personal information. “Personal Information” is information about an individual, such as their name, address, phone number and email address. Personal Information does not include anonymous information, such as the type of browser or device being used or your IP address.

WHAT INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT?

We collect as little information as possible from users of The Unknown Enthusiast.

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 message.

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.

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. No personal information is stored in these cookies and addresses — it’s simply a way to identify your computer.

HOW YOUR INFORMATION MAY BE USED

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 unauthorized or illegal activity.

THIRD-PARTY USE OF 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. Google Analytics may capture your IP address, but no other personal information is captured by Google Analytics.

Convertkit– this service is used for delivery of email updates and newsletters. We store your email address for purposes of delivering such communications. Please refer to Covertkit’s privacy policy for further 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 in 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; however, we may disclose or transfer personal information collected through the Website to third parties who acquire all or a portion of our business, which may be the result of a merger, consolidation, or purchase of all or a portion of our assets, or in connection with any bankruptcy or reorganisation proceeding brought by or against us.

Google Adsense — We use Google AdSense on this website. It is an advertising program of the company Google Inc. Google AdSense uses cookies to display ads that are customised to you.

Through this cookie, Google can collect certain information on your user behaviour on our website. These include:

  • Information on how you interact with an ad (clicks, impressions, mouse movements)
  • Information if an ad has already been displayed in your browser. This data helps to prevent an ad from showing multiple times.

Google retains your IP address, as well as various activities you perform on the website. Cookies store this information with the interactions on our website. According to Google, the company collects and saves the given information securely on its internal servers in the USA.

You can always clear or deactivate cookies that are on your computer. How exactly this can be done depends on the browser.

If you have a Google account, you can deactivate personalised adverts on the website https://adssettings.google.com/authenticated. You will continue to see ads, but they will stop being customised to your interests. Nevertheless, the ads are displayed based on a few factors, such as your location, the browser type and the used search terms.

You can learn more about what data Google generally collects and what they are used for at https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en-GB.

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 include analytics or information collected from cookies.

PUBLICLY VISIBLE INFORMATION

If you leave a comment, your name and website address (if entered) will be publicly visible. Your email address will never be available publicly.

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, customise 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 in their 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.

Affiliate Program Participation

The Website may engage in 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.

The Unknown Enthusiast is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and links to Amazon.com.  As part of this Amazon Associates program, the Website will post customised links, provided by Amazon, to track the referrals to their website. This program utilises cookies to track visits for the purposes of assigning commission on these sales.

Newsletters

On the Website, you may subscribe to our newsletter, which may be used for advertising purposes. All newsletters sent may contain tracking pixels. The pixel is embedded in emails and allows for an analysis of the success of online marketing campaigns. Because of these tracking pixels, we may see if and when you open an email and which links within the email you click. This behaviour will not be passed on to third parties.

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 through our contact form to be removed from our mailing list.

Access – You may access the personal information we have about you by submitting a request here.

Amend – You may contact us here 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 here.

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

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 16. If a parent or guardian believes that the Website has personally identifiable information of a child under the age of 16 in its database, please contact us immediately through our contact form and we will use our best efforts to promptly remove such information from our records.

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.

CONTACT INFORMATION

At any time, please contact us for questions related to this Privacy Policy.

Last updated: August 8, 2023.