Privacy Policy

Who I Am

My website address is: https://liquidstar.org. This is my personal, professional website, and my name is Melody Fassino. I am a private individual and not a business, organization, or data broker of any kind.

What Personal Data I Collect and Why I Collect It

I may collect personal data from users and site visitors, including personal data, such as your name, email address, and personal account preferences; transactional data, such as purchase information; and technical data, such as information about cookies. I may also collect sensitive personal data, such as data concerning your health, if you actively choose to provide it of your own initiative and volition when writing and posting a comment on this website.

All personal data, transactional data, and sensitive personal data that is collected from users and site visitors is only done with active consent. Any data that is collected passively is limited to technical data and is collected in order to protect the security of this website and its users and site visitors.

The following sections address specific methods of data collection that are used by this website.

Server Log Information

When you visit this website, the web servers automatically log certain technical information sent by your browser, such as your IP address, the date and time of your request; the specific pages or files accessed, HTTP status codes (e.g. success or error messages), referral websites (the link that brought you to this website), and your browser type, version, and operating system (User-Agent string). This data is collected primarily to ensure this website operates securely, to detect and block malicious traffic or cyberattacks, and to fix server errors. It may also be used for analytics to determine if my content is reaching intended audiences and how best to reach those intended audiences.

This data is processed locally on our own servers using open-source log analysis tools (such as Webalizer/AWStats). I do not use tracking cookies for this process, I do not build tracking profiles of individual users, and I never sell or share this data with third-party advertising networks.

Comments

When visitors leave comments on the site, I 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.

Contact Forms

Akismet is enabled on the site, and the contact form submission data – IP address, user agent, name, email address, and message – is submitted to the Akismet service (also owned by Automattic) for the sole purpose of spam checking. The actual submission data is stored in the database of this website and is emailed directly to me. This email will include your IP address, timestamp, name, email address, and message.

Cookies

If you leave a comment on my 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 visit my login page, I 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, the site 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 tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website. Please refer to the Privacy Policy of the respective website for details on their privacy practices.

Analytics

Data Used: Please refer to the appropriate Google Analytics documentation for the specific type of data it collects.

Activity Tracked: This feature sends page view events (and potentially video play events) over to Google Analytics for consumption.

Who I Share Your Data With

If you request a password reset, your IP address will be included in the reset email.

Any and all information (including metadata) that you choose to include in or along with a comment that you submit will be posted publicly on this website. All comments are accessible to anyone with an internet connection and the ability to view this website.

I do not share personal information that I collect about you beyond what is detailed elsewhere in this policy. I may disclose your information outside my own databases as required by United States Federal law or laws of the District of Columbia. For example, in response to a legal subpoena, I may share some information that I collect through the above-mentioned technologies (such as your Internet Protocol address) for law enforcement purposes.

How Long I Retain Your Data

If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so I can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.

For users that register on our website (if any), I also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.

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 I hold about you, including any data you have provided to me. You can also request that I erase any personal data that I hold about you. This does not include any data that I am obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.

Where Your Data is Sent

Comments and contact form submissions are checked through the Akismet automated spam detection service.

Contact Information

You can contact me regarding any data privacy-related concerns through the form on my Contact page, by emailing me directly at melody@liquidstar.org, or by submitting a request on the dedicated Privacy Request Form page.

Additional Information About Caching

This site utilizes caching in order to facilitate a faster response time and better user experience. Caching potentially stores a duplicate copy of every web page that is on display on this site. All cache files are temporary, and are never accessed by any third party, except as necessary to obtain technical support from the cache plugin vendor. Cache files expire on a schedule set by the site administrator, but may easily be purged by the admin before their natural expiration, if necessary. I may use QUIC.cloud services to process & cache your data temporarily. Please see https://quic.cloud/privacy-policy/ for more details.

Additional Information About Spam Detection

I collect information about visitors who comment on this website, which uses the Akismet Anti-Spam service. The information I collect typically 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).

Other Additional Information

How I Protect Your Data

Data that is collected through this website is securely stored on servers located within the United States of America. Access to server-side data and the databases is strictly limited to the administrator of the website and, if the need arises, designated data center employees.

What Data Breach Procedures I Have in Place

In the event of a breach of security leading to the accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, or alteration or unauthorized disclosure of or access to personal data, I will promptly assess the risk to users or site visitors rights and freedoms and if appropriate report this breach to the ICO (more information on the ICO website).

What Third Parties I Receive Data From

All content on this website is a work of original thought and creativity. No third party personal data is sourced as part of developing or marketing content.

What Automated Decision-Making and/or Profiling I Do with User Data

I currently do not employ any advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) features on this website. Submitted data may be screened and filtered for potential spam activity through an automated spam detection service.