Privacy Policy

Updated: February 26, 2019

At Postcard Press (“Postcard Press,” “we,” “us,” or “our”), your privacy is important to us. How we operate represents our mission to be respectful of the world, and we share our values with those who visit our website, www.postcardpress.org, and our social media channels. We respect your privacy, and it is our goal to ensure that there is never a reason to distrust us. We will never misuse, sell, or share your information in any way to which you have not agreed. We’ve developed this Privacy Policy to explain our practices and to be transparent about the third-party services we use. While we endeavor to use third-party services that respect your privacy, we do not have control over their privacy policies and would encourage you to explore those further.

We hope that you will take some time to read through our Privacy Policy carefully. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us at postcardpressorg@gmail.com. If you disagree with any of the terms in our Privacy Policy, please discontinue use of Postcard Press and our services.

Disclosure of Information

Postcard Press will never sell, trade, rent, or provide your personal information to others. IP addresses may be used to gather aggregate statistics about site and article visits in order to analyze visitor habits, traffic patterns, and to administer the site. There is no personal information tied to your IP address for this purpose. We only collect personal information you choose to share with Postcard Press.

Postcard Press will only release personally-identifiable information when we are legally required to do so in order to comply with applicable laws, governmental requests, judicial proceedings, court order, or legal process, etc.

Email Policy and Collection of Email Addresses

Postcard Press is a free website that does not require any information from you to visit. Your name and email address are collected when you sign up for our newsletter; participate in a contest, events, or promotions; submit content; send us a message; and comment on articles. We do not sell, rent, or provide any of this information to third parties. Your email address will only be used in connection with the related activity and in any way to which you have agreed. Postcard Press will only send emails in response to messages and submissions; to update you on contests, events, and promotions you have joined; and if you have opted in to our newsletter mailing list.

If you are concerned about an email you have received from us, please bring it to our attention so that we can investigate and remedy any potential violations.

Other Information
(collected from contests, promotions, submissions, etc.)

Participation in any contests, promotions, or submissions is voluntary. If you choose to participate in any contests and promotions or submit potential content to the website, Postcard Press may collect additional information from you, such as your full name, email address, location, age, social media handles, etc. Information collected from these activities will be used for no other purposes but those necessary to facilitate the activity (e.g., to determine eligibility, contact winners/submitters, measure success and demographics, etc.). This information will never be shared with organizations outside of Postcard Press and will never be used for other Postcard Press purposes unless explicitly approved.  

Data Retention Policy

Postcard Press will retain data previously provided by the user for as long as Postcard Press remains active. Should users want to opt out of the newsletter or other publications, information will be immediately and permanently deleted. Users must opt back in to receive content from Postcard Press.

  • Newsletter: Users opt-in to receive the Postcard Press newsletter. We store email address and first and last names (if provided) via the MailChimp service. To opt out users can click the unsubscribe link provided in the newsletter or email postcardpressorg@gmail.com. Postcard Press will purge the list of inactive users on a monthly basis.
  • Submissions: In order to submit an article proposal, users will be asked to provide identifying information such as name, location, age, email address, website (if applicable), social media handles (if applicable), etc. This information will be used to evaluate proposals, measure demographics, and communicate with the submitter.
    • If a submission is accepted and published, user information will be kept on file for as long as Postcard Press remains active.
    • If proposals are not accepted, user information will remain on file for one year in the event that a proposal is later accepted or Postcard Press would like to offer the opportunity to submit a new proposal. If you would like to have your information removed from our database sooner, you can contact Postcard Press via email.
  • Contests and promotions: In order to voluntarily participate in contests or promotions, Postcard Press may collect name, age, location, email address, etc. This information will be used to determine eligibility, contact winners, and send other communications related to the specific contest or promotion.
    • If selected as a winner or participant in the contest or promotion, information will be retained for one year from the close of the contest. At the end of the year, user information will be purged from our database.
    • If not selected as a winner or participant in the contest or promotion, information will be retained for up to three months after the close of the contest or promotion in case the original contest winners or promotion participants become ineligible. At the end of this three-month period, user information will be purged from the database.
  • Other communications: Other communications includes emails sent by the user to Postcard Press or comments made on Postcard Press articles. Information gathered from these activities may include name, email address, and user handles.
    • Information obtained via email communications sent to Postcard Press will only be kept until the purpose of the communication has been fulfilled.
    • Information obtained via comments made on the Postcard Press website will be retained for as long as Postcard Press remains active.  

GDPR Rights

You have the right to ask us not to retain your information for marketing purposes. As this Privacy Policy makes clear, you will not receive any marketing emails unless you have explicitly opted in. If at any time you want your information removed from Postcard Press’s database, you can contact us by email at postcardpressorg@gmail.com, and your information will be immediately purged from any lists that may contain your data.

Use of Cookies

Postcard Press may receive information from cookies–data your browser stores–when you visit our website. We do not receive any personally-identifiable information. The information gathered from cookies is used to help us improve our website and content, better understand user activity, and provide you with a quality experience.

Site Hosting

Postcard Press is a WordPress site. We utilize its resources, including analytical information–aggregate, non-personally-identifiable data. WordPress’s users can also log in to leave comments, and information such as name and email address may be shared with us. This information will never be used for any other purposes or marketing promotions.

Analytics

Postcard Press uses third-party analytics services–including Google Analytics and Jetpack–to analyze traffic and viewing habits of our readership. This aggregate data does not provide personal information but allows us to analyze your interests and whether or not certain content is successful (or unsuccessful). We use this information to shape our site and provide you with quality articles and information you may enjoy.

External Links

Postcard Press routinely uses external links in our content that provide further context and additional information on the relevant topic. While we endeavor to bring you legitimate and accurate information, we are not responsible for the way in which these external sites operate or their privacy policies. We encourage our readers to be aware of this when leaving our website and to explore the external site’s privacy policy should you have any concerns.

Affiliate Disclaimer

Postcard Press is a member of Amazon Associates and may use affiliate links when appropriate. If you make a purchase using this link, we will receive a small commission at no cost to you. None of your information from this purchase is shared with us. Use of these links does not affect our editorial content. Articles with affiliate links will make note of their use at the bottom of the page.

Children’s Privacy

The privacy of children is especially important to Postcard Press. Individuals must be at least 18 years old to submit content or participate in contests and other promotional events. We do not collect or maintain information for anyone known to be under the age of 18, and further, we ask that minors do not submit any personal information to us. No part of the Postcard Press website is designed to appeal to anyone under the age of 18.

Third-Party Services

Some of the above sections speak to how these services are used. To ensure clarity and transparency in how we interact with them, they are also highlighted here:

  • WordPress – Postcard Press is a WordPress site and utilizes its resources. Some of those resources include providing us with analytics and activity reports on who has visited our website–no personal information is disclosed to us; instead, we know which articles have been read, in which countries our audience is located, and other general demographic information we can use to provide better and more relevant content.
  • Bluehost – Bluehost is a leading web hosting company used to power the Postcard Press website. This service affects us more than it might you, but in the interest of full disclosure, you should review their privacy policy as well.
  • MailChimp – Postcard Press utilizes MailChimp to facilitate our newsletter, i.e., collecting information and delivering emails. Names and email addresses are collected by this service when users sign up on our website via the newsletter popup or sign-up page. Your information will also be stored via MailChimp if you contact us by email to sign up for the newsletter.
  • Google Analytics – Information gathered through Google Analytics includes the user’s IP address, browser and system information, cookies, and general location. Postcard Press utilizes this service to gather demographic and session information to help analyze engagement and determine the type of content relevant to our audience.  
  • Jetpack – Postcard Press also uses Jetpack for analytics, gathering data such as the user’s IP address, browser and system information, cookies, and general locations. Jetpack provides an aggregate look at our audience to help us analyze engagement and provide a better picture of how users interact with our website so that we can create content more relevant to our audience.

Changes to Privacy Policy

Postcard Press reserves the right to change and update this Privacy Policy at any time. When the Privacy Policy is updated, the revision date will be noted at the top of this page and announced within the next published newsletter. We encourage you to review this page periodically.

Contact Us

If you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at postcardpressorg@gmail.com.