Privacy Policy

Who we are

Our website address is: https://thesovereigner.net.

Our contact information is here: Contact Us

What personal data we collect and why we collect it

The following personal data is collected automatically when you visit our website:

Analysis of website traffic

We use a program called Jetpack (which works with WordPress.com and is owned by Automattic) to analyse our website traffic and provide us with website statistics. It collects the following data: IP address, WordPress.com user ID (if you have a wordpress.com account and are logged into it while browsing this website ), WordPress.com username (if logged in), user agent, visiting URL, referring URL, timestamp of event, browser language, country code.

We, as the site owner, do not have access to any of this information via these website statistics. For example, we can see that a specific post has 285 views, but we cannot see which specific users/accounts viewed that post.

Jetpack also tracks the following website user activity: post and page views, outbound link clicks, referring URLs and search engine terms, and country. Jetpack also tracks performance on each page load. This is exclusively for aggregate performance tracking across Jetpack sites in order to make sure that the plugin and code is not causing performance issues. This includes the tracking of page load times and resource loading duration (image files, Javascript files, CSS files, etc.). By default, DNT is currently not honoured.

View the Automattic Privacy Policy here: Automattic Privacy Policy

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. As such, 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.

Personalised advertising

We use Google Adsense to place adverts on this website. It collects data and uses cookies in order to show you ads which are more relevant to you, based on your browsing history. Data collected includes your IP address, browser type, browser language, the date and time, and one or more cookies that may uniquely identify your browser.

Google may aggregate this data with other data it has collected from your browsing of other websites using Google products to build up a profile of your browsing habits online. This will affect the advertising it shows you on this website and on other websites (for example, which Adsense ads you see on other websites may be affected by what you have looked at on this website).

Click here for full details on the data collected and stored by Google, and how they set and use cookies: Google Advertising – data collection and processing

You can opt out of receiving personalized ads by Google. To do this, you can click on the little triangle beside the cross in the top right-hand corner of all the ads, or click here: Google Ad Settings

And view Google’s privacy policy here: Google Privacy Policy

 

Cookies

This website sets various cookies on your browser. Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer or other device when websites are loaded in a browser. They are widely used to “remember” you and your preferences. As such, they give website visitors a more efficient experience. For example, if you click ‘Allow cookies’ on the cookie notice that popped up at the bottom of the screen when you first came to this website, then a cookie will have been set that remembers your choice and doesn’t show you the notice again for a while.

Some cookies placed are first-party cookies, set by our website (such as those used to analyse the traffic on this website). Others are third-party cookies, set by external websites. Cookies are either ‘session cookies’, cookies which are deleted when you close your browser, or ‘persistent’ cookies, which last for longer. For example, the cookie that is placed if you click ‘Allow cookies’ on the cookie notice is a ‘persistent’ cookie as it lasts for one month and is then automatically deleted.

Most cookies are set automatically when you browse this website. However, some cookies are only set when you take a particular action. If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. This saves you from having have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.

Cookies set when you’re on this website are listed below:

FIRST PARTY COOKIES (SET BY OUR WEBSITE)

If you click ‘Allow cookies’ on the pop-up cookie notice, we set a persistent cookie which last for a month recording this choice. (After a month, the cookie expires and you’ll see the cookie notice again.)

THIRD PARTY COOKIES (SET BY OTHER WEBSITES)

Since we use Google Adsense to place adverts on this website, Google also place cookies on your browser when you visit us. Click here for details about the types of cookies used by Google and their partners and how they use them.

Also, the companies through which you can share our posts (via the sharing buttons at the bottom of each post) may set cookies on your browser. These are: Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, Google, Reddit, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Pinterest, Skype, Telegram, and Firefox.

Managing cookies in your browser

It is possible for you to delete cookies from your browser by going into the settings for that browser. It is also possible to block cookies from being set. Some browsers provide this service automatically (e.g., Brave), while others require you to install an additional program to block cookies. (e.g., Firefox). Here’s a few links to help:

Another option is to switch some cookies off through the Your Online Choices site. You may need to do this again each time you use a different IP address or device.

 

Further personal data is collected only when you perform certain actions, as follows:

Comments

If you leave a comment on any of the page son this website, we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also your 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 (owned by Automattic) to see if you are using it. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.

The Jetpack program (also owned by Automattic) also collects the following information: commenter’s name, email address, and site URL (if provided), timestamp, and IP address. This information is stored in cookies (see information on cookies, above). As mentioned above, 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.

Jetpack also sends the following information to the Akismet anti-spam service (also owned by Automattic) for the sole purpose of spam checking: commenter’s name, email address, site URL, IP address, and user agent.

View the Automattic Privacy Policy here (covers Gravatar and Jetpack): Automattic Privacy Policy

Links to external websites

If you click on one of our links to go to an external website, then it is up to you to read their privacy policies and terms and conditions, etc.

Sharing website content via email and social media

When sharing content via email (using the share buttons at the bottom of most pages) the following information is collected by Jetpack (owned by Automattic): the sharing party’s name and email address, IP address (for spam checking), user agent (for spam checking), and email body/content. This content will be sent to Akismet (also owned by Automattic) so that a spam check can be performed.

If you use the share buttons on this websites to share our content via any social media, then information will be collected by those social media companies. You will need to check their privacy policies for how they use your data. As for when you click external links, we do not take responsibility for how other companies and websites process your data.

 

Who we share your data with

Analysis of website traffic

As mentioned above, we use a program provided by Jetpack (owned by Automattic) to analyse our website traffic, so we share your data with them. See above – ‘What personal data we collect and what we do with it’ for more details and links to their privacy policies.

 

How long we retain your data

Analysis of website traffic

As mentioned above, we use a program called Jetpack which is owned by Automattic to analyse our website traffic and provide us with website statistics. The logs of these statistics — containing visitor IP addresses and WordPress.com usernames (if available) — are retained by Automattic for 28 days and are used for the sole purpose of powering this [traffic analysis] feature.

Comments

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

Personalised advertising

Data collected by Google in process of providing us with Adsense adverts is kept for varying lengths of time. Click here for full details on the data collected and stored by Google: Google Advertising – data collection and processing

 

What rights you have over your data

Comments

If you 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.

 

Where we send your data

Comments

Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service. We currently use Akismet and you can view their privacy policy here: Akismet Privacy Policy

 

 

How we protect your data

This site uses secure socket layer (SSL) technology to keep all data safe, our security certificate is always up-to-date and we use several other small programs to ensure the security of this website and its associated data.

 

If you have any questions about our privacy policy or related issues, don’t hesitate to contact us: Contact Us

Last updated: December 2018