Privacy Policy

Shaping Opinion Podcast Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy describes the policies and procedures of O’Brien Communications and the Shaping Opinion Podcast (“we”, “our” or “us”) on the collection, use and disclosure of your information on www.shapingopinion.com (the “Site”) and the services, features, content or applications we offer (collectively with the Site, the “Services”). We receive information about you from various sources, including: (i) if you register for the Site and the Services, through your user account on the Services (your “Account”); (ii) your use of the Services generally; and (iii) from third party websites and services. When you use the Services, you are consenting to the collection, transfer, manipulation, storage, disclosure and other uses of your information as described in this Privacy Policy.

Our website address is: https://shapingopinion.com.

What personal data do we collect and why?

The information we gather enables us to personalize, improve and continue to operate the Services. In connection with certain aspects of the Services, we may request, collect and/or display some of your Personal Information. We collect the following types of information from our users.

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.

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.

If you have an account and you log in to this site, 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.

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.

Embedded content from other websites

Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.

These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracing your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

Aggregate Information

We collect statistical information about how both unregistered and registered users, collectively, use the Services (“Aggregate Information”). Some of this information is derived from Personal Information. This statistical information is not Personal Information and cannot be tied back to you, your Account or your web browser.

Account Information

If you create an Account or sign up to receive newsletters, you will provide information that could be Personal Information, such as your username, password and email address. You acknowledge that this information may be personal to you, and by creating an account on the Services and providing Personal Information to us, you allow others, including us, to identify you and therefore may not be anonymous. In addition to using your contact information to send you any newsletters you have signed up to receive, we may also use your contact information to send you information about our Services, but only rarely when we feel such information is important. You may unsubscribe from these messages through your Account settings and may opt out of newsletters using the opt-out buttons in the emails, although, regardless, we reserve the right to contact you when we believe it is necessary, such as for Account recovery purposes.

User Content

Some features of the Services may allow you to provide content to the Services, such as written comments. All content submitted by you to the Services may be retained by us indefinitely, even after you terminate your Account. We may continue to disclose such content to third parties in a manner that does not reveal Personal Information, as described in this Privacy Policy.

IP Address Information and Other Information Collected Automatically

We automatically receive and record information from your web browser when you interact with the Services, including your IP address and cookie information. This information is used for fighting spam/malware and also to facilitate collection of data concerning your interaction with the Services (e.g., what links you have clicked on).

Generally, the Services automatically collect usage information, such as the number and frequency of visitors to the Site. We may use this data in aggregate form, that is, as a statistical measure, but not in a manner that would identify you personally. This type of aggregate data enables us and third parties authorized by us to figure out how often individuals use parts of the Services so that we can analyze and improve them.

Email Communications 

We may receive a confirmation when you open an email from us. We use this confirmation to improve our customer service.

How long we retain your data

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.

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.

Visiting Our Website from Outside the United States

This Privacy Policy is intended to cover collection of information on or via our website from residents of the United States. If you are visiting our website from outside the United States, please be aware that your information may be transferred to, stored, and processed in the United States where our servers are located. The data protection and other laws of the United States and other countries might not be as comprehensive as those in your country. Please be assured that we seek to take reasonable steps to ensure that your privacy is protected. By using our services, you understand that your information may be transferred to our facilities and those third parties with whom we share it as described in this privacy policy.

No Rights of Third Parties

This Privacy Policy does not create rights enforceable by third parties or require disclosure of any personal information relating to users of the website.

Where we send your data

Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.

What If I Have Questions or Concerns?

If you have any questions or concerns regarding privacy using the Services, please send us a detailed message to [email protected]. We will make every effort to resolve your concerns. Effective Date: May 19, 2018