Privacy Policy

I’m Jo Myers-Walker, artist, and owner of this website at theleftbankstudio.com. The wonderful technology that makes it easier for an artist to have a website and mailing list, also works behind the scenes in ways that you might not realize affect your privacy. On this page, my website assistants and I have tried to list the ways that information about you may be collected by the technology associated with this website, and used by me and by the companies providing the services. You can use this knowledge to decide whether or not to visit the website or use the services that are described, or take other steps to protect your privacy.

I’m not an expert on data privacy! The information on this page reflects how we believe these things work. The examples given on this page are illustrative, not an exhaustive list, of the data that I, and the services I use, may collect and use about you. When we talk about services like WordPress.com and MailChimp, those companies’ actual Privacy Policies, found on their respective websites, are the best sources for complete information about them and the specific data they collect. We have tried to provide links to those policies.

We’ve tried to include all the aspects of this we can think of and will add more if they come to our attention. I reserve the right to correct any errors, inaccuracies, or omissions in the information provided here.

WordPress.com

    Jo Myers-Walker’s Blog (“The Virtual Left Bank Studio”), including all the pages of this website at theleftbankstudio.com, is hosted on WordPress.com which is owned by a company called Automattic. WordPress.com collects information about you (a “visitor”) when you visit and navigate this site.
       
    My website assistants and I can view collective visitor information in the statistics reports that WordPress.com provides, such as the countries where visitors appear to be located, what search terms or links brought them to the site, what pages and files they viewed, and what links they clicked within the website. We don’t believe we can use this information to personally identify anyone. We can use the statistics to get an idea of how many people are visiting the site, how they found it, and what they want to look at.
       
    WordPress.com stores cookies on your computer or other device, and allows other “third party” websites to set them too, if your browser settings allow it. WordPress.com and the third party companies can then use the cookies to track what you do online, for various purposes (this is explained in their surprisingly readable Cookie Policy, linked below). You may be able to adjust your browser settings to avoid cookies being stored although this may affect how some parts of the website work.
       
    The ways that WordPress.com collects and uses visitor information are explained in more detail in Automattic’s Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy.

Social Sharing Buttons

    If you click on a social sharing button on this website to share a post or page on a service like Facebook or Twitter, information about your sharing activity may be available to viewers of those other websites, and used by those companies in ways that are described in their policies.
    My website assistants and I can see the number of times that pages and posts were shared using these buttons, but we don’t believe WordPress.com provides us any other information on who did the sharing.

MailChimp

    (Note:  In the past, I’ve used my MailChimp list to notify subscribers when I had a new PDF newsletter posted on my blog. It is not much used any more.)
       
    The mailing list sign-up form (note: I’ve removed the link to this form from my website since the mailing list is not currently in use) is hosted by MailChimp and in addition to name and email information, they may store information like your apparent location when you signed up. MailChimp also stores information about which subscribers open an email sent through their service (for HTML emails) and what links you click (for either HTML or text-only emails), and which subscribers unsubscribe or are removed for other reasons (such as emails bouncing or being reported as spam). My website assistants and I can see this information and it helps give us an idea of the level of interest in the mailings.
       
    I don’t want to send mailing list emails to anyone who doesn’t want to receive them. If you fill out and submit the sign-up form, you have to then respond to a confirmation email before you’re added to the list (“Double Opt-In”). Every email sent through MailChimp should have an “Unsubscribe” link and an “Update your profile” link at the bottom which you can use to remove yourself from future mailings or to update your information.
       
    The ways that MailChimp collects and uses information are explained in more detail in their Privacy Policy.
    • MailChimp Privacy Policy
      https://mailchimp.com/legal/privacy/
      (As a mailing list subscriber, MailChimp refers to you as a “contact,” and the “Privacy for Contacts” section applies to you.)

“Following”/subscribing to the blog via WordPress.com

    Note that the MailChimp mailing list is different than “following” or subscribing to the blog through WordPress.com. If you use WordPress.com’s follow/subscribe feature to receive notifications of new blog posts, the Automattic company policies linked earlier on this page would apply. My website assistants and I can see information about who currently follows/subscribes to the blog, including their WordPress.com username (if applicable) or email address, and how long they have been subscribed. There should be an “Unsubscribe” link at the bottom of every email from this service that you can use to remove yourself from future notifications.

Other websites

    My website often includes links that direct you to a different website that I thought might be relevant or interesting. I am not responsible for the content or privacy policies of other websites, and this privacy policy does not apply to them. You can look at the other websites’ privacy policies for information on their practices. I am not responsible for the republishing of the content of this blog and website on other websites or media without my permission.

This privacy policy is effective May 25, 2018 and is subject to change without notice. If you have any concerns or questions please contact me at jomyerswalker@gmail.com. Thank you for visiting my website!