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Privacy Policy

This privacy policy describes FellsPress LLC’s (owner) privacy practices for the SectionHiker.com website, including what types of information we gather and track, how we use the information and with whom we share the information. By using the SectionHiker.com website or/and our services, you agree to be bound by the terms of this Privacy Policy, its Terms and Conditions, and consent to the Processing of your Personal Data as described below.

Table of Contents

  1. Definitions used in this Policy
  2. Data protection principles we follow
  3. What rights do you have regarding your Personal Data
  4. What Personal Data we gather about you
  5. How we use your Personal Data
  6. Who else has access to your Personal Data
  7. How we secure your data
  8. Information about cookies
  9. Contact information
  10. The California Consumer Protection Act (CCPA)

Definitions

Personal Data – any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person.
Processing – any operation or set of operations which is performed on Personal Data or on sets of Personal Data.
Data subject – a natural person whose Personal Data is being Processed.
Child – a natural person under 16 years of age.
Data controller – a natural person or organization that determines the purposes and means of the processing of Personal Data.
We/us/SectionHiker.com (either capitalized or not) – a website owned and operated by Fells Press LLC, a company incorporated in Massachusetts, United States.

Data Protection Principles

We promise to follow the following data protection principles:

  • Processing is lawful, fair, transparent. Our Processing activities have lawful grounds. We always consider your rights before Processing Personal Data. We will provide you information regarding Processing upon request.
  • Processing is limited to the purpose. Our Processing activities fit the purpose for which Personal Data was gathered.
  • Processing is done with minimal data. We only gather and Process the minimal amount of Personal Data required for any purpose.
  • Processing is limited with a time period. We will not store your personal data for longer than needed.
  • We will do our best to ensure the accuracy of data.
  • We will do our best to ensure the integrity and confidentiality of data.

Data Subject’s rights

The Data Subject has the following rights:

  1. Right to information – meaning you have to right to know whether your Personal Data is being processed; what data is gathered, from where it is obtained and why and by whom it is processed.
  2. Right to access – meaning you have the right to access the data collected from/about you. This includes your right to request and obtain a copy of your Personal Data gathered. To request this information, send an email to [email protected] with the subject line “Personal Data Request.”
  3. Right to rectification – meaning you have the right to request rectification or erasure of your Personal Data that is inaccurate or incomplete.
  4. Right to erasure – meaning in certain circumstances you can request for your Personal Data to be erased from our records. To request Personal Data Erasure, send an email to [email protected] with the subject line “Personal Data Erasure.”
  5. Right to restrict processing – meaning where certain conditions apply, you have the right to restrict the Processing of your Personal Data.
  6. Right to object to processing – meaning in certain cases you have the right to object to Processing of your Personal Data, for example in the case of direct marketing.
  7. Right to object to automated Processing – meaning you have the right to object to automated Processing, including profiling; and not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated Processing. This right you can exercise whenever there is an outcome of the profiling that produces legal effects concerning or significantly affecting you.
  8. Right to data portability – you have the right to obtain your Personal Data in a machine-readable format or if it is feasible, as a direct transfer from one Processor to another.
  9. Right to lodge a complaint – in the event that we refuse your request under the Rights of Access, we will provide you with a reason as to why. If you are not satisfied with the way your request has been handled please contact us.
  10. Right for the help of supervisory authority – meaning you have the right for the help of a supervisory authority and the right for other legal remedies such as claiming damages.
  11. Right to withdraw consent – you have the right withdraw any given consent for Processing of your Personal Data.

Data we gather

Information you have provided us with:
This includes your e-mail address and name  – mainly information that is necessary for delivering you a service or to enhance your customer experience with us.  We save the information you provide us with in order for you to perform other activities on the website, to send you content and notifications by email, or respond to questions you send us. We also collect information about visitors who write comments. This typically includes the information provided by the commenter such as their name, email address, and the comment itself.

Information automatically collected about you
This includes information that is automatically stored by cookies and other session tools. For example, your device type, or the country you are browsing from. This information is used to improve your customer experience. When you use our services or look at the contents of our website, your activities may be logged.

Information from our partners
We gather information from our trusted processing partners with confirmation that they have legal grounds to share that information with us. This is either information you have provided them directly with or that they have gathered about you on other legal grounds. See the list of our partners here. If you wish to opt-out of their services, visit their privacy policies and follow the instructions provided.

Publicly available information
We might gather information about you that is publicly available.

How we use your Personal Data

We do not sell our users’ private Personal Data. We have never sold our users’ private Personal Data and have no intention of selling it in the future.

We use your Personal Data in order to:

  • provide our service and content to you. This includes, for example, recording and posting your comments; providing you with other products and services that you have requested; providing you with promotional items at your request and communicating with you in relation to those products and services; communicating and interacting with you; and notifying you of changes to any services.
  • enhance your customer experience;
  • fulfill an obligation under law or contract

We use your Personal Data on legitimate grounds and/or with your Consent.

On the grounds of entering into a contract or fulfilling contractual obligations, we Process your Personal Data for the following purposes:

  • to identify you;
  • to provide you a service or to send/offer you a product
  • to communicate by email or ship items to you
  • for payments or invoicing

On the ground of legitimate interest, we Process your Personal Data for the following purposes:

  • to send you offers (from us and/or our carefully selected partners);
  • to administer and analyze our client base (behavior and history) in order to improve the quality, variety, and availability of content, products, and services offered and provided;
  • to conduct surveys concerning client satisfaction or interests

As long as you have not informed us otherwise, we consider offering you products/content/ services that are similar or same to your purchasing history/browsing behavior to be our legitimate interest.

With your consent we Process your Personal Data for the following purposes:

  • to send you newsletters and campaign offers (from us and/or our carefully selected partners);
  • for other purposes we have asked your consent for;

We Process your Personal Data in order to fulfill obligations rising from law and/or use your Personal Data for options provided by law. We reserve the right to anonymize Personal Data gathered and to use any such data. We will use data outside the scope of this Policy only when it is anonymized. We save your billing information and other information gathered about you for as long as needed for accounting purposes or other obligations deriving from law, but not longer than 7 years.

We might process your Personal Data for additional purposes that are not mentioned here, but are compatible with the original purpose for which the data was gathered. To do this, we will ensure that:

  • the link between purposes, context and nature of Personal Data is suitable for further Processing;
  • the further Processing would not harm your interests and
  • there would be appropriate safeguard for Processing.

We will inform you of any further Processing and purposes.

Who else can access your Personal Data

We only work with Processing partners who are able to ensure an adequate level of protection to your Personal Data. Personal Data about you is in some cases provided to our trusted processing partners in order to either make providing the service to you possible or to enhance your customer experience.

Processing partners that may receive Personal Data:

  • Google.com (Apps): Website Email hosting
  • ConstantContact.com: Email newsletters
  • MailMunch.com: Online form management
  • Kinsta.com: Website and database hosting
  • Cloudflare.com: DNS, security, and caching services
  • Bluehost: DNS
  • US Postal Service: Shipping
  • Paypal.com: Payment services and invoicing
  • Youtube: Video hosting
  • Vimeo: Video hosting

Processing partners that do not receive Personal Data:

  • Google Analytics: Website analytics

Connected third parties that do not receive Personal Data:

  • CommissionJunction.com: Affiliate marketing network
  • Awin.com: Affiliate marketing network
  • FirstPromoter.com: Affiliate marketing network
  • Amazon.com: Affiliate marketing program
  • Avantlink.com: Affiliate marketing network
  • ImpactRadius.com: Affiliate marketing network
  • Refersion.com: Affiliate marketing network
  • Viglink.com: Affiliate marketing network
  • Affiliatly.com: Affiliate marketing network
  • Rakuten.com: Affiliate marketing network
  • Shareasale.com: Affiliate marketing network

We disclose your Personal Data to third parties or public officials when we are legally obliged to do so. We might disclose your Personal Data to third parties if you have consented to it or if there are other legal grounds for it.

How we secure your data

We do our best to keep your Personal Data safe.  We use safe protocols for communication and transferring data (such as HTTPS). We use anonymizing and pseudonymizing where suitable. We monitor our systems for possible vulnerabilities and attacks. We use strong passwords and secure internet connections. We host our website with a managed service provider that has stringent security protocols.

Even though we try our best we can not guarantee the security of information. However, we promise to notify the suitable authorities of data breaches. We will also notify you if there is a threat to your rights or interests. We will do everything we reasonably can to prevent security breaches and to assist authorities should any breaches occur.

If you have an account with us, note that you have to keep your username and password secret.

Children

We do not intend to collect or knowingly collect information from children. We do not target children with our services. Children (persons under the age of 14) are not eligible to use the SectionHiker.com website without the supervision of their parents. If you are under the age of 14 please do not submit any personal information to us. If you are under the age of 14 please only use the SectionHiker.com website under the supervision of your parents or guardian. If you are under 13, please do not provide us with any information about yourself. If we discover that we have collected any Personally Identifiable Information regarding a child 12 or under, we will delete the information as soon as possible.

Cookies and other technologies we use

We use cookies and/or similar technologies to analyze customer behavior, administer the website, track users’ movements in the aggregate, and collect information about users in the aggregate. This is done in order to enhance your experience with us.

A cookie is a tiny text file stored on your computer. Cookies store information that is used to help make sites work. Only we can access the cookies created by our website. You can control your cookies at the browser level. Choosing to disable cookies may hinder your use of certain functions.

We use cookies for the following purposes:

  • Necessary cookies help make a website usable by enabling basic functions like page navigation and access to secure areas of the website. The website cannot function properly without these cookies. We also collect anonymized information about website use for use in monitoring website performance, availability, third-party referrals and to protect our copyrighted material from illegal copying and unauthorized reuse.
  • Statistic cookies help website owners to understand how visitors interact with websites by collecting and reporting information anonymously.

You can remove cookies stored in your computer via your browser settings. Alternatively, you can control some 3rd party cookies by using a privacy enhancement platform such as optout.aboutads.info or youronlinechoices.com. For more information about cookies, visit allaboutcookies.org.

We use Google Analytics to measure traffic, monitor website availability, and detect the illegal use of the copyrighted material published on our website. Google has its own Privacy Policy which you can review here. All information collected by Google Analytics has been anonymized to protect your privacy. If you’d like to opt-out of tracking by Google Analytics, visit the Google Analytics opt-out page.

Contact Information

For questions about this privacy policy or to contact our Data Protection Officer, please email [email protected].

  • To request access to the data collected from/about you by the website, please send an email to [email protected] with the subject line “Personal Data Request.” This will help expedite your request.
  • To request Personal Data Erasure, send an email to [email protected] with the subject line “Personal Data Erasure.” This will help expedite your request.

The California Consumer Protection Act (“CCPA”)

The following section on CCPA, Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.100 which is effective January 1, 2020, applies to California residents who have certain rights regarding the personal information (as defined in the CCPA) collected by SectionHiker.com. It does not cover personal information not subject to the CCPA rights identified below, such as personal information we collect from our contractors. Likewise, the CCPA does not extend all the rights identified below to personal information collected from employees, owners, directors, officers, or contractors of businesses in the receipt of business-related services.

Definitions

  1. “Personal information” or “PI” is information that identifies, relates to, describes, is capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular consumer or household.
  2. “Consumer” is a California resident, a natural person who is a California resident for other than temporary or transitory purposes, or someone who is domiciled in California but is currently outside the State for a temporary or transitory purpose.
  3. “Sale” means selling, renting, releasing, disclosing, disseminating, making available, transferring, or otherwise communicating orally, in writing, or by electronic or other means, a consumer’s personal information by the SectionHiker to another business or a third party for monetary or other valuable consideration.

California residents have the following rights under CCPA

1. Right to Opt Out. You have the right, at any time, to direct us to not sell your PI. Under the CCPA, a sale is broadly defined such that it may include allowing third parties to receive certain information, such as cookies, IP addresses, and/or browsing behavior, to deliver targeted advertising on SectionHiker.com or other services.

(1a.) We Do Not Sell PI: SectionHiker.com does not sell your PI and has no intention of selling your PI in the future. For example, we do not provide information based on your PI for targeted advertising such as an IP address, email address, name, browsing history, geolocation information, or social media information, nor do we sponsor raffles, sweepstakes, or promotions with third parties in exchange for your email address or other PI for direct marketing purposes.

(1b.) Pre-existing Opt-out Because SectionHiker.com does not sell PI, it shall be deemed that you have already validly submitted a request to Opt Out.

2. Right to Know or Right to be Informed. Subject to certain exceptions, you have the right to know what specific pieces of PI SectionHiker.com has collected about you in the 12 months preceding your request, along with the categories of sources of that PI, our business or commercial purpose for disclosing your PI, and the categories of third parties with whom we share your PI. You may make this request no more than twice per 12-month period.

3. Right to Request Deletion. You have the right to request deletion of the PI SectionHiker.com has collected from you, subject to certain exceptions under the CCPA including, without limitation:

(3a.) Complying with SectionHiker’s legal or compliance obligations,

(3b.) Detecting fraudulent behavior or security incidents, and

(3c.) Other reasons that are in connection with our lawful internal uses that are consistent with your relationship with us and the context in which the information was collected.

Exercising Your Rights under CCPA

You can exercise any of your rights under CCPA by going to this page or by emailing us at [email protected].

We will take reasonable steps to verify your identity before responding to a request, which may include the following:

1. If you are exercising your Right to Delete or a similar right that does not require the disclosure of specific pieces of information about you:

(1a.) If you are writing to us from the email address that SectionHiker has on record for you, then to complete the verification process, we will ask you to confirm the action you wish us to take before we proceed (such as confirming you would like us to delete your information).

(1b.) If you are not writing to us from the email address that SectionHiker has on record for you, then to complete the verification process, we will ask you to provide 3 specific pieces of data that we have on file for you, such as your name, a physical mail address, or a record of a previous transaction.

2. If you are exercising your Right to Know or a similar right that does require disclosure of specific pieces of information about you:

(2a.) If you are writing to us from the email address that SectionHiker.com has on file for you, then to complete the verification process, we will ask you to both: 1) confirm the action you wish us to take before we proceed and 2) also provide a statement that you “declare under penalty of perjury that you are the person about whom the Right to Know request has been made.”

(2b.) If you are not writing to us from the email address that SectionHiker.com has on file for you, then to complete the verification process, we will ask you to both: 1) provide 3 specific pieces of data that we have on file for you and 2) also provide a statement that you “declare under penalty of perjury that you are the person about whom the Right to Know request has been made.”

3. You are also permitted to designate an authorized agent to submit certain requests on your behalf. In order for an authorized agent to be verified, you must provide the authorized agent with signed, written permission to make such requests or a power of attorney. We may also follow up with you to verify your identity according to the above methods before processing the authorized agent’s request.

4. If we are not able to successfully verify you according to the above methods, then we will not be able to comply with your request.

SectionHiker.com will not discriminate against you if you exercise your rights under CCPA. However, if your request requires us to delete information, please be advised that this will inhibit some SectionHiker.com functionality. Subsequent interaction with SectionHiker.com after deletion may require new requests for your PI.

Other rights of California Residents

If you are a California resident, California Civil Code Section 1798.83 permits you to request information regarding the disclosure of your personal information to third parties for the third parties direct marketing purposes. To make such a request, please send an email to [email protected]. Pursuant to California Civil Code Section 1798.83(c)(2), we do not share your personal information with third parties direct marketing use unless you elect that we do so.

If you are a California resident under the age of 18, and a registered user of any site where this policy is posted, California Business and Professions Code Section 22581 permits you to request and obtain removal of content or information you have publicly posted. To make such a request, please email us at [email protected] with a detailed description of the specific content or information. Please be aware that such a request does not ensure complete or comprehensive removal of the content or information you have posted and that there may be circumstances in which the law does not require or allow removal even if requested.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may change this Privacy Policy at any time by posting revisions to the SectionHiker.com website, and your continued use of the SectionHiker.com website indicates your agreement to the revised terms. Accordingly, we urge you to frequently review this Privacy Policy, and, if you do not agree to the terms of this or any revised policy, please exit the SectionHiker.com website immediately.

Last modification was made 4/18/23.

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