Privacy Policy

Words are wonderful, but jargon is annoying. We believe in making words free, and understandable, at that. So we’ve done our best to keep our policies clear and concise. Still, we have to have them, and we’d like you to understand what, precisely, we’re doing with any information we collect from you. So read on, please.

This privacy statement (“Privacy Policy”) covers all websites (such as but not limited to https://www.candlemarkandgleam.com and all subdomains thereof) owned and operated by Candlemark & Gleam LLC (“we”, “us”, “our”) and all associated services. The current owner of Candlemark & Gleam LLC is Athena Andreadis, whom you can contact in any of the circumstances described below at morlocks AT candlemarkandgleam.com.

We use information you share with us for our internal business purposes. We do not sell your information. This notice tells you what information we collect, how we use it, and steps we take to protect and secure it.

By using or accessing the Website, you agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy. Capitalized terms not defined in this Privacy Policy have the meanings set forth in the Terms of Service.

The Website may provide links or references to websites operated by third parties. Once you enter another website, please be aware that Candlemark & Gleam is not responsible for the privacy practices of these other sites. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of each site that you visit through a link on our Website.

Information we automatically collect

Non-personally-identifying
Like most website operators, we collect non-personally-identifying information such as browser type, language preference, referring site, and the date and time of each visitor request.

We collect this to understand how our visitors use our service, and use it to make decisions about how to change and adapt the service.

From time to time, we may release non-personally-identifying information in aggregate form (for instance, by publishing trends in site usage) to explain our reasoning in making decisions. We will not release individual information, only aggregate information.

Personally-identifying
We automatically collect personally-identifying information, such as IP address, provided by your browser and your computer.

We collect this information for several purposes:

• To diagnose and repair network issues with your use of the site;
• To estimate the number of users accessing the service from specific geographic regions;
• To help prevent fraud and abuse.

Information you are required to provide to us on registration

You are not required to register in order to buy Candlemark & Gleam products. You may, however, choose to create an account in order to take advantage of certain services and to receive updates from the site.

In order to register for the service, you must give us your email address. We will use your email address to send confirmation of certain actions, such as when you change your password. We will contact you when it’s necessary to complete a transaction that you’ve initiated, or if there’s a critical or administrative issue affecting your use of the service.

Once you have created your account, you can choose to subscribe to certain events and have notifications of those events sent to you via email. You will be able to change your mind and opt out of receiving notifications via email at any time.

When you register, you may also be requested to give us your date of birth. This is to make sure we aren’t accidentally collecting information from children, which is prohibited by United States law. We save this information so that we can prove we’re complying with that law.

When you register, you may be asked to verify that you are 18 years of age or older. We save this information so that we can prove we’re complying with any applicable decency/consent laws.

We will never sell or provide your email address or your date of birth to any third party, with exceptions as set forth below.

Optional information you provide to us

As you use the service, you have the option to provide more personal information, through your profile, your entries, your submitted content, or comments you make. Providing this information is strictly optional.

We will show this information to others viewing the site, in accordance with the privacy options you’ve selected for the information. We may also use this information, in aggregate, to make decisions about how to change and adapt the service.

From time to time, we may release information in aggregate form (for instance, by publishing trends in site usage) to explain our reasoning in making decisions. We will not release individual information, only aggregate information.
We will not sell or provide this information to any third party, with exceptions as set forth below.

By choosing to make any personally-identifying information public, you recognize and accept that other people, not affiliated with us, may use this data to contact you. We can’t be responsible for the use of any information you post publicly. We recommend that you think carefully about what information you post in any online venue, including our site.

From time to time, we may allow you to provide us with your login credentials for a site that is not owned and operated by us in order to allow you to integrate data from that external service to your Candlemark & Gleam account. Examples of this include, but are not limited to, an entry crosspost feature or microblogging updater. Providing us with this information is completely optional. Your login credentials are only used for the purposes of these features, and are not used for any other purpose.

User-generated content
You may elect to submit User Generated Content via the Website. If at any time you share User Generated Content on areas of the site that are generally accessible to other Website users, such content is considered “Public User Generated Content.” If you share User Generated Content solely on areas of the site that are accessible to other Candlemark & Gleam users only if such users have a non-public access code (e.g., private Groups), or if you share Personal Information with Candlemark & Gleam that you do not share on public areas of the Website, such content is considered “Private User Generated Content.”

You have control over what information about yourself you choose to share on the Website. Please be aware that when you post Public User Generated Content on the Website, such content may be viewed by other users and by the general public, including any such content that contains personal information. All such sharing of information and content is done at your own risk.

We may use User Generated Content in accordance with the User Generated Content License set forth in the Terms of Service, provided that (i) we will not distribute or display your Private User Generated Content other than in the areas of the Website to which you have submitted such content (e.g., within private Groups) and (ii) if we distribute Public User Generated Content to third parties for publication in print media, we will not associate your Personal Information with such Public User Generated Content without your permission.

You may modify or delete your User Generated Content in accordance with the instructions on the Website. Please be aware that even if Candlemark & Gleam deletes such User Generated Content from its ‘live’ databases, such information may still be stored on other databases (including those kept for archival purposes). We will not retrieve deleted content from our archives in order to publish it on the Website or elsewhere, but please be aware that any Public User Generated Content that you delete but that has been published or distributed in media other than the Website prior to deletion may remain publicly available on areas other than the Website in accordance with the User Generated Content License.

Disclosure of personally-identifying information

We disclose personally-identifying information only to those of our employees and contractors who (i) need to know that information in order to operate the service and (ii) have agreed not to disclose it to others. Some of these employees and contractors may be located outside your home country. By using this website, you consent to the transfer of your information to them.

If all of our assets were transferred or acquired, your information would be one of the assets that is transferred or acquired by a third party.

We may disclose potentially personally-identifying and personally-identifying information when that release is required by law or by court order, or when we believe in good faith that disclosure is reasonably necessary to protect the property, safety, or rights of us, third parties, or the public at large.

Special rules regarding children

The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (‘COPPA’) requires that we inform parents on how we collect and disclose the personal information of children under the age of 13.

We do not permit children under the age of 13 to use our service. To prevent this, we collect date of birth at the time of account creation. If your child under the age of 13 has misrepresented their age at account creation, please contact us at morlocks AT candlemarkandgleam.com. After confirming your identity, we will remove the account.

Cookies

A cookie is a string of information that a website stores on a visitor’s computer, and that the visitor’s browser provides to the website each time the visitor returns. We use cookies to help us identify and track visitors, their usage of the website, and their website access preferences. We also use cookies to govern logging into your account.

Visitors who do not wish to have cookies placed on their computers should set their browsers to refuse cookies before using the site, with the drawback that certain features of the site may not function properly without the aid of cookies.

Confidentiality and security

No data transmission over the Internet can ever be guaranteed to be 100% secure. You use this service at your own risk. However, we do take steps to ensure security on our systems.

Your account information is password-protected. We recommend that you choose a strong and secure password. We use industry-standard encryption to safeguard any transmission between your computer and ours.

We do not process payments ourselves; instead, we use vetted third-party processors. This means that we do not have access to your credit card information, nor is your credit card information stored in any of our databases. You must re-enter your payment information whenever you wish to make a purchase.

If we learn of a system security breach, we will notify you electronically so you can take appropriate steps to protect yourself. Depending on where you live, you may have a legal right to receive notice of a security breach in writing. To receive free written notice, you should contact us at morlocks AT candlemarkandgleam.com.

Deleting your information

You can change or delete any optional information that you’ve provided us at any time. If you change or delete any optional information you’ve provided, the change will take place immediately.

You can also choose to delete your account entirely. If you choose to delete your account entirely, we will retain any personally-identifying information for a limited amount of time before removing it entirely. This is to allow you to undelete your account and continue using the service if you so choose. After this time, all your personally-identifying information will be removed entirely from our service, with the exception of any records we must retain to document compliance with regulatory requirements.

As part of the day to day operation of Candlemark & Gleam, we will make regular copies of the data contained in the databases for backup purposes. These backups can potentially contain deleted data for several weeks or months. These backups will also be governed by the rules for disclosure of personally-identifying information.

Outside Vendors

Site Features
We reserve the right to contract with third-party vendors to provide site features we are unable to provide ourselves. We will only share personal information with third-party vendors to the extent that is necessary for such affiliates to provide these site features. We require our third-party vendors to provide the same level of privacy protection that we do, and they do not have the right to share or use personal information for any purpose other than for an authorized transaction. Some of our third-party vendors may be located outside of your home country. By using this website, you consent to the transfer of such information to them.

We will clearly identify which site features are provided by third-party vendors, and provide you a way to opt out of using those site features.

We may provide ways for you to optionally integrate third party applications or services into your account. If you choose to do so, any data you provide to that third party is governed by the privacy policy of the person creating or hosting that application or service.

Business Vendors
From time to time, we may contract with outside vendors to provide business services that will assist us in administering and maintaining the Candlemark & Gleam service. We will list all of our business vendors in this privacy policy, as well as providing links to their privacy policies and information on how to opt out of your information being included in those services.

Our current business vendors are:

• Google Business Services: We use Google Business Services for their Google Analytics service. For information on how Google Business Services may use your information, see Google’s Privacy Center (https://www.google.com/intl/en_ALL/privacy.html). Google Analytics collects aggregate data on site usage, such as browser type and the navigational paths our users use, which helps us make decisions about how to improve the site. Some users may also have added Google Analytics code to their profiles. To opt out of your site use being included in our Google Analytics report, you can use a browser plugin to block the JavaScript being served by google-analytics.com.

Changes

We may change our privacy policy from time to time. If these changes are minor, we will post them to this page. If the changes are major, we will post them to this page and notify users through our Candlemark & Gleam blog. Your continued use of this site after any change in this Privacy Policy will constitute your acceptance of such change.

Contacting us

If you have questions about this policy, you can contact us at morlocks AT candlemarkandgleam.com.

Creative Commons

This privacy policy is based on one developed by Automattic (https://automattic.com/privacy/) and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 License.

Last updated December 31, 2022