Who we are

At Traveling Brenda, accessible from https://travelingbrenda.com, one of our main priorities is the privacy of our visitors. This Privacy Policy document contains types of information that is collected and recorded by Traveling Brenda and how we use it.

Consent

By using our website, you hereby consent to our Privacy Policy and agree to its terms.

What personal data we collect and why we collect it

Comments

When visitors leave comments on the site we 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://automatic.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

We use the Contact Form to manage contact form submissions. The information is sent as email messages that only a select few are allowed to access. The information is also stored in the database on our hosting server for backup and later reference purposes.

Cookies

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.

If you visit our login page, we 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, we 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.

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.

Analytics

We store user input data sent through the contact forms on this website, along with meta information about the submissions, including the time stamp, the origin IP address, and the user agent (browser). Also, third party services may collect information about website visitors. We currently use Google Analytics. You can read more about Google’s Privacy Policy here.

How long we retain your data

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

For users that register on our website, we 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.

Information collected using Google Analytics is retained for 26 months.

Information submitted through forms, such as email forms or contact forms are retained until such a time as the data subject chooses to unsubscribe or invokes their right under GDPR to be forgotten. 

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 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

Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.

GDPR Data Protection Rights

We would like to make sure you are fully aware of all of your data protection rights. Every user is entitled to the following:

The right to access – You have the right to request copies of your personal data. We may charge you a small fee for this service.

The right to rectification – You have the right to request that we correct any information you believe is inaccurate. You also have the right to request that we complete the information you believe is incomplete.

The right to erasure – You have the right to request that we erase your personal data, under certain conditions.

The right to restrict processing – You have the right to request that we restrict the processing of your personal data, under certain conditions.

The right to object to processing – You have the right to object to our processing of your personal data, under certain conditions.

The right to data portability – You have the right to request that we transfer the data that we have collected to another organization, or directly to you, under certain conditions.

If you make a request, we have one month to respond to you. If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact us.

Affiliate Disclosure

TravelingBrenda contains affiliate links. Meaning TravelingBrenda receives commissions for purchases made through those links, at no cost to you. Please understand that we have experience with all of these companies, and recommend them because they are helpful and useful, not because of the small commissions we make if you decide to buy something.

AI Use Disclosure

Each piece of content on our website is subject to a rigorous editing process by the author/owner of the website. While AI is occasionally used to help craft articles, from the generation of a “first draft” to spelling and grammar checks, the ideation and final piece of content has been developed by and subject to human review and editing, with the AI merely being an assisting instrument. Accordingly, I/we reserve all rights relating to copyright. 

Indemnification

You shall indemnify and hold us harmless from and against any losses, damages, settlements, liabilities, costs, charges, assessments, and expenses, as well as third-party claims and causes of action, including, without limitation, attorney’s fees, arising out of any breach by you of any of these Terms and Conditions, or any use by you of the Site, Product, or Service. You shall provide us with such assistance, without charge, as we may request in connection with any such defense, including, without limitation, providing us with such information, documents, records, and reasonable access to you, as we deem necessary. You shall not settle any third-party claim or waive any defense without our prior written consent.