Last updated: April 2020

A Note About this Policy:

It’s true, the internet is full of sleazy behavior and is home to some sketchy blogs. But mostly, the internet is full of websites that collect various forms of information from every person and device that visits these websites – including you and me, and all of our devices. It’s safe to say that basically every website in the world does this, to varying extents, and most of it is not at all sleazy or malicious. (It’s actually necessary for the functioning of modern internet, and thus, one could argue, for the functioning of the modern world.)

But it’s important for us to know that data collection is happening on every blog and website we visit, and to have an idea of how to control it. If you have any questions about this policy, you’re welcome to get in touch with me at [email protected].

(Or even write me a paper note. Tilted Map is owned by Ketti Wilhelm Communications, LLC, which is registered in the state of Illinois at the following address: 540 N. Dearborn Street, Unit 101191, Chicago, IL, USA, 60610)

The first purpose of this Privacy Policy is for me (Ketti) to let you know that this is classy blog and I don’t do anything sleazy with your information. The way I operate this website, including the amount and type of information this site collects, is in line with the standard practices of thousands (or millions?) of legitimate websites. I take my readers’ privacy seriously. (And I’m motivated to do so – I could get in a lot of trouble if I didn’t.)

The second purpose is to make sure I’m following the law, and the law wants me to tell you all of this.

For example, here are two answers you may have clicked on this Privacy Policy looking for:

Yes, I do use affiliate marketing, but only to promote products that I use or have used and truly find worthwhile. This helps me earn an income operating this site (at no cost to users of this site), which I hope you find useful and entertaining. For more info, please see the sections about Affiliate Marketing below, or read the bottom section on my Resources page, where I describe how affiliate links work in plain English.

Yes, this website uses cookies (it’s almost impossible not to; they’re used for basic the basic functions of any modern website – for things like tell me how many visitors I get to my site). But you can delete or block cookies (from my site, other sites, or all sites) whenever you like through your browser settings. I never sell, trade, or rent any information you submit on my blog or anywhere else. For more info, please see the sections about cookies below.

The Privacy Policy below gives further information about affiliate marketing, cookie use, and much more – including how I collect, use, store, and disclose data collected from visitors to my blog, and what rights and choices visitors have regarding that data.

So let’s get into the official stuff:

Privacy Policy

Who we are

This website, located at https://www.tiltedmap.com (referred to herein as “Tilted Map,” “tiltedmap.com,” “the Website,” “the Site,” “the blog,” “this blog,” “my blog,” “my Site,” “our Site,” etc., whether capitalized or not), is governed by the following Privacy Policy.

This site is owned and run by myself, Ketti Wilhelm, and my company, Ketti Wilhelm Communications LLC, which is legally registered in the US state of Illinois. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by tiltedmap.com. For any questions regarding this policy, you may contact me directly at [email protected].

External Web Sites

We are not responsible for any content republished from this website on other blogs or websites without our permission. Should this happen, it is a violation of our copyright.

Please note also that this website contains links to other, external websites and blogs. We are not aware of nor responsible for the privacy practices of these sites. Therefore, we encourage users to be aware that when leaving our site they should read the privacy statements of each web site, which might collect personally identifying information.

As a user of this blog and website, you have the rights to:

  • be informed about how your data is collected and used
  • have access to your data
  • request that we amend your stored personal data
  • request that we delete or forget your data
  • request that we stop sending you newsletters, email updates, or blog posts via email

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

If you have questions about this policy or would like to request any of the above actions regarding your personal information, please contact us directly at [email protected].

Children’s Information

This website does not knowingly collect any personally identifiable information from children under the age of 18. If a parent or guardian believes that the Website has personally identifiable information of a child under the age of 18 in its database, please contact us immediately at [email protected]. We will use our best efforts to promptly remove such information from our records.

Sensitive Personal Information

We do not collect any sensitive personal data – such as health data, credit card numbers, social security numbers, information regarding race or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious beliefs, health information, criminal background, or trade union memberships. Please do not send us any such sensitive data. If you elect to submit such information to this website, it will be subject to this Privacy Policy.

What personal data we collect and why we collect it

We may collect your personal information – including your first and last name, your email address, and/or the address of your own website (if applicable) – only when you voluntarily submit this information on the Website, such as by leaving a comment on a blog post or page, subscribing to an emailing list, submitting a contact form, or writing us an email.

It is always your choice to submit any of these kinds of personal information to us, and your submission of any information is your active consent for us to collect the information. It is not necessary for you to submit any such personal information in order to use and enjoy this website.

We do not sell, trade, or rent your personal information to others. We collect only the personal data that you may volunteer while using our services. We may use IP addresses to compile and provide aggregate statistics about our visitors and traffic patterns, and administer the site.

Data Protection

We use commercially reasonable methods to ensure the security of any information you provide to us, as well as the security of the data that we collect automatically. This includes, but is not limited to, using standard security protocols and working only with reputable third-party vendors.

How Data is Collected and Used

We do not share personal information with third parties, nor do we store any information about your visit to this blog, except to analyze and optimize your content and reading experience, including through the use of cookies, and to send you emails that you have specifically requested and consented to receive.

You can turn off the use of cookies at any time by changing your browser settings.

All personal data is kept indefinitely, unless otherwise noted.

Your information may be collected through:

  • Comments

If you leave a comment on this site, we collect the data that you enter in the comment form, including your name, your website or blog address (if provided), your email address, and the comment itself, and may also collect your IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection. If you leave a comment, the comment and its related data are retained indefinitely, unless you contact us to request this data be amended or deleted.

We will never sell or give away this information, nor will we ever sell or give away your e-mail address should you subscribe to our newsletter or contact us for any other reason.

Should you choose to voluntarily disclose personal information on our site in the comments, please be aware that that information can be viewed publicly and can be collected and used by third parties without our knowledge. Such activities are beyond the control of this policy.

If you leave a comment on a blog post or on a page, certain information (your name, as you provide it) may be publicly visible, however your email address will not be, unless you enter it in the comment field (instead of merely in the provided email address field). We will not contact you using your email when you submit a comment, as this goes against GDPR regulations, unless you leave the box checked requesting to be notified of responses to your comment. So if you wish to be contacted, please contact me directly through any of the means described on my Contact Page. (Please do not use the comments to request that I contact you.)

Furthermore, this site uses the anti-spam plugin service Akismet to prevent bogus comments from polluting the site (more about that below. You may also read Akismet’s privacy policy here.)

  • Mailing List Subscription

If you subscribed to our email list, you will receive our newsletters, individual blogs posts and/or other communications via email. You can unsubscribe from our mailing list at any time by following the “unsubscribe” link in any of our emails, or by contacting us directly.

  • Media

If you upload images to the website, such as in a comment, these images could be visible to any other visitors to the site, and any way in which they are used by other visitors is beyond the purview of this Privacy Policy and beyond our control or responsibility. You should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Other visitors to the website could download and extract any location data from images on the website.

  • Contact forms

We do not currently use contact forms, although we may at any point decide to do so, in which case the change would be noted here. If you wish to reach us, you may email [email protected].

  • Cookies

We may log information using cookies, which are data files stored in your browser by websites. We may use both session cookies, which expire when you close your browser, as well as persistent cookies, which stay on your browser until they are deleted, to provide you with a more personalized experience on the website.

You can delete the cookies on your browser, including those stored by this website, at any time through your browser settings.

Additionally, you may, at any time, prevent the setting of cookies by this Website via the corresponding setting in your internet browser to permanently deny the setting of cookies. 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.

We use cookies to track analytics, including through the third-party services Google Analytics and the Monster Insights plug-in.

Also, this website uses cookies to customize website content based on visitors’ browser type, use of a desktop computer, tablet or mobile device, or other information that the visitor’s device may send. Cookies may also be used by third-party services, such as Google Analytics, as described herein.

  • Pixels and other tracking technology

Additionally, we reserve the right to use technological equivalents of cookies, including social media pixels. These pixels allow social media sites to track visitors to outside websites in order to tailor advertising messages users see while visiting that social media site. We reserve the right to use these pixels in compliance with the policies of the various social media sites.

Advertising

We reserve the right to accept sponsored blog posts, display ads, or other forms of advertising on this website. (At this time we do not accept sponsored posts or display ads, or other advertising except for Affiliate Marketing, including participating in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. Please see the Affiliate marketing section of this policy for details.) Should this policy change, the change would be noted here in a timely manner, and noted on the applicable content, and the Updated date at the bottom of this policy would reflect the change.

Retargeting Ads

From time to time, we may engage in remarketing efforts with third-party companies, such as Google, Facebook, or Instagram, in order to promote and market this Website and/or our blog posts. These companies may use cookies to serve ads based on someone’s past visits to the Website.

Affiliate Program Participation, Also Known as “Affiliate Links” and “Affiliate Marketing”

In some instances, we may use affiliate links when we recommend products, services, or activities. If you purchase something through one of these affiliate links, we receive a commission at no additional cost to you. This is a very common practice across websites. This is done by embedding tracking links into this 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.

Amazon is one of such affiliate programs in which we participate, as detailed below:

Amazon Associates Program

Tiltedmap.com 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 the Amazon Associates program, this Website posts customized links, provided by Amazon, to track referrals to their website. This program utilizes cookies to track visits for the purposes of assigning commissions on these sales.

Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc., or its affiliates.

Third-Party Service Providers

We may share your information with third parties when you explicitly authorize us to do so (such as by subscribing to our mailing list). Additionally, we 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.

This website uses the following third-party service providers, and may use others, as well. We only work with legitimate and reputable third-parties.

Google Analytics

This service tracks website usage and provides information such as referring blogs/websites and user actions on this blog and all pages of this website. Google Analytics may capture your IP address, but no other personal information is captured by Google Analytics. We receive aggregated third-party data from Google Analytics.

MailChimp

We use this service for delivery of email updates and newsletters. Your email address in stored in our account with MailChimp for the purpose of delivering such requested communications. Please refer to MailChimp’s privacy policy, which at the time of publishing this policy was available here, for further information.

You can unsubscribe from our newsletter (or from receiving our blog posts by email) by clicking on the unsubscribe link provided at the end of each email. Unsubscribing does not automatically remove your information from our account with MailChimp, although we make an effort to do so manually following an unsubscribe. Please contact us at [email protected] if you wish to request that we manually delete your information from our MailChimp account.

Akismet

As mentioned above, Akismet is an anti-spam service that collects information from visitors who comment on pages or blog posts on this site. The information they collect includes the commenter’s IP address, user agent, referrer, and site URL (along with other information directly provided by the commenter such as their name, username, email address, and the comment itself). For more information about this plugin, please see their privacy policy.

Smash Balloon Instagram Feed

The Instagram Feed plugin by Smash Balloon LLC uses Instagram API on this website’s front end. All the data received from Instagram via API is cached in the WordPress database for some short period to provide front end optimization. You may request us to delete your Instagram data if it is accidentally cached in our website database with hashtag feed data. Instagram saves some cookies in browsers of website visitors via API data. These cookies are mostly used for security purposes. They are regulated under terms of Instagram’s Privacy Policy. Smash Balloon’s Privacy Policy is available here.

Please be aware that we do not have any responsibility for the privacy practices of other sites linked to on this website.

Ko-Fo

We use Ko-Fi, a website that allows people to make a financial contribution to support artists, creatives, and other service providers, should they desire to do so. Supporting this site’s author through Ko-Fi is entirely optional. You are able to use all of the content on this website regardless of whether you contribute financially through Ko-Fi or any other means. Any information you provide while making a contribution to support our work through Ko-Fi is entirely governed by Ko-Fi’s policies. Please see the Ko-Fi website to contact them directly for further information.

Embedded content from other websites

Additionally, articles or pages on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, social media posts, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor had visited the other website. These websites may collect data about users of tiltedmap.com, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, or monitor your interaction through this embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

GDPR

Tiltedmap.com abides by GDPR regulations. Therefore, if you are an EU resident and you wish to access or request deletion of your information (e.g. comments), please get in touch with us at [email protected]. If you do so, we will be happy to amend/remove your information/comments/email address from this website and/or from our mailing list. We do not retain secondary copies of commenters’/blog readers’ contact information without their permission. Nor do we resell or share your contact information with third parties, other than the ones listed (including MailChimp, a third-party service that we use to send emails).  Similarly, if you opt-out of our mailing list, or contact us to request that we remove you, your information will be permanently deleted from our database and from our account on MailChimp. (Deletion of your information on MailChimp is not automatic if you unsubscribe from our emails. We have to do this manually, and we will do so in a timely manner if you unsubscribe or contact us to request this. Please let us know if you have concerns, we will happily confirm that your data has been deleted.)

To the best of our knowledge, all of our affiliates are GDPR compliant.

Further information on your rights under GDPR

If you are within the European Union, you are entitled to certain information and have certain rights under the General Data Protection Regulation.

Those rights include:

We will retain any information you choose to provide to us until the earlier of:

(a) you asking us to delete the information,

(b) our decision to cease using our existing data providers, or

(c) the Company decides the value in retaining the data is outweighed by the costs of retaining it.

You have the right to request access to your data that we store. Additionally, you have the rights to either rectify or erase your personal data.

You have the right to seek restrictions on the processing of your data.

You have the right to object to the processing of your data and the right to the portability of your data.

To the extent that you provided consent to our processing of your personal data, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. This would not affect the lawfulness of any processing based upon consent that occurred prior to your withdrawal of consent.

You have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority that has jurisdiction over issues related to GDPR.

We require only the information that is reasonably required to enter into a contract with you. We will not require you to provide consent for any unnecessary processing as a condition of entering into a contract with us.

Should you wish to have your information deleted, please email us at [email protected] to submit such a request.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

This privacy policy is subject to change without notice.

From time to time, we will make updates. When this happens, we will inform readers by revising the Updated Date at the bottom of this Policy. If we make any change to this policy that, in our sole discretion, is very material, we will provide additional notice.

Please review this Privacy Policy whenever you access or use our website to stay informed about our information practices and the ways you can help us help protect your privacy. It is our readers’ responsibility to check this policy, and use of this website implies a reader’s consent to the Privacy Policy, including to any updates to the Policy.

Contact us:

For any questions about this privacy policy or about your rights regarding it, please contact us directly at [email protected].

Last updated: April 2020