Who I am…
I am a one woman outfit trading under the name The CopySlayer. I think that’s pretty self-explanatory but just incase you want or need further clarification: I’m a freelance writer, editor, proofreader, ghostwriter, copywriter, content writer, plain-english editor and all around purveyor of word services all in one human flesh sack.
I created this website with the help of GreenHosting UK, WordPress, and Blossom Themes. They each have their own privacy things which I will endeavour to translate into plain English for you a bit further down this webpage.
I personally only ‘collect data’ that you give me like your contact details. This is so that we can be in contact about project work, and to answer your enquiries.
If you join my mailing list, you can unsubscribe at any time and if you should ask for it, I can purge your information from all my files: paper and electronic.
Images
I take attribution very seriously, and all the images on my website are licensed from independent artists or commissioned for my sole use. The rights of the images remain with the artists who have licensed them and should not be copied, downloaded, or used by anyone else including you.
If you want to use any of the images on my website for yourself, then you should check out the Gallery of Images and Credits page where a full list of images and weblinks to their sources exists. You are free to contact the artists and photographers yourself and check the licenses available for your needs directly with them.
Celebrating art is kinda my thing, and making sure the credit and money goes where it should too. If this matters to you as well, you can help by showing your appreciation with a shout out on socials and don’t forget to tag us all!
Contact Forms
As I mentioned briefly above, I collect your contact details from my contact forms when you get in touch. If you become a client, I will store your details long term for the duration we work together. I may sometimes contact you afterwards to see if you have any other projects coming up you’d like to work on, subject to you being ok with that, of course.
Cookies
Did someone say cookie? Sneak, swipe, nom… Oh, not that kind of cookie.
Electronic cookies have a bad rap, but they’re really only small, simple files that accompany the pages of my website from the web to your browser on your computer or device. There’s information stored in them that can be transferred back to my site if you ever visit again. Things that help my website run smoothly and improves your experience. They help improve security and help the site to function.
The thing about them is that you won’t be asked in advance if you’re ok with them, they just sort of happen as part of the user experience. Just to allay any fears, I don’t use any advertising cookies on this website, those are the ones that most people are aware of as problematic or annoying.
The only cookie that WordPress informed me that it uses, is when commenting on the blog. If you really enjoy a post of mine and wish to make a comment, there will be an option to input your details so that the site will remember you, but it’s something you can choose to do or not. This sort of cookie will last a year.
Remember that you have the capacity to clear your web history and cookies from your own browser at any time.
Embedded content from other sites
Blogs, articles and papers on this site may include embedded content (e.g music videos, artwork, external links, pdfs, etc.). Embedded content from these other websites behaves in the exact same way as when you visit them directly. Which means that those sites might collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, especially if you have an account and are logged into it.
Examples of sites that do this are: YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, BandCamp, Google etc. But let’s be honest pretty much every website you have an account with tracks this information these days and it’s not a bad thing. It helps them learn how best to serve you, their customer, without having to ask you to fill in annoying surveys.
Analytics
It is useful for me to understand who is interested in my services, so I do use analytics tools that are part of WordPress alongside some plugins that allow me to analyse how many visitors come to my site and how they found me. This helps me to understand how my marketing strategies are working and where my audience is in the world.
Data sharing
I do not share your contact details with anyone. Your information is processed by WordPress through their encryptions, your enquiries come through to my email address. Security and privacy is important to me, and I use Switzerland based email service provider ProtonMail known for their secure email communications and encryptions.
It’s a sad thing today, that we must be vigilant against hackers, but reasonable precautions are taken to ensure your contact details are safe and secure. If a breach were to ever happen, I will contact you straight away to inform you and work with law enforcement agencies to seek justice and renumeration as appropriate.
How long I retain your data
Comments on the blog and all the metadata associated are retained indefinitely. One of the benefits of registered users and commenters is that WordPress can recognise and approve follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in the moderation queue.
What rights you have over your data
If you registered or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data WordPress holds about you, including any data you provided me. You can also request that I erase any personal data held. Although this does not include any data I need to keep for admin, legal, or security reasons.
Third-party websites, businesses and apps that my website utilises &/or works with
WordPress
I’ve already described a few of the ways wordpress processes your information and some of the analytical data that I can view through the tools and plugins above.
Some extra things you might wish to understand about third party data usage:
- Your comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.
- An anonymised string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. It’s something wordpress does automatically. If you do use Gravatar, and your comments are approved, your profile picture will be visible to the public in the context of your comment.
Green Hosting
I’ve always been environmentally conscious and so choosing a local hosting that was also powered by wind turbines was a no brainer for me.
Green Hosting UK has extensive privacy and ethical policies which you can read for yourselves. But the nuts and bolts is that they maintain up-to-date, anti-virus protection, and have other protection systems in place to protect the integrity of the data collected by the website. They do not share information, mine or yours.
Blossom Themes
The theme I’ve used to build this site does not have access to your data.
Social media buttons
My website has various social media buttons that allow you to connect to my social media pages, or to share my content on your own social media if you feel compelled to do so.
This is enabled by coding. The buttons use code coming from Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn and this code can place cookies on your device. The purpose of these cookies is for these social media to store and process your information that can be used to show your personalised adverts on their sites. If you want to understand more about how social networks process your personal data you should read their respective privacy policies regarding cookies and personalised advertising.
What I do to keep your information safe and secure
- Passwords to website, social media, and email accounts are kept secure and protected.
- SSL protection on the website
- Use anti-virus software and firewalls on my computer and other devices
- Shred my paper waste
- Permanently delete old and unused data from the computer every 6 months
Have your say
If you have any concerns about how I, or any of these operators, might be using your data, please get in touch and I will investigate further. It is important to me that my clients information be respected and kept safe, and I will endeavour to do so to the best of my knowledge and ability.