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Privacy Policy

Last Updated: 22 January 2025

We are committed to safeguarding your personal data and ensuring transparency in how we process it. If this policy changes significantly, we will notify you via the website or other means of communication.

Introduction

This Privacy Policy applies to all visitors and users of theshiningwalls.net and its subdomains. This includes those who subscribe to our mailing lists, interact with our content, or use affiliate links provided on the site. It explains what data we collect, why we collect it, and how we protect your rights under applicable privacy laws, including the GDPR and CCPA.

The Shinining Walls is operated by RCG Websites LTD, a company registered in England and Wales with a registered address at 86-90 Paul Street, London, EC2A 4NE. For specific information about certain practices, please refer to the following supporting documents:

By using The Shinining Walls, you consent to the practices in this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with any part of this policy, please refrain from using our website or services.

What Personal Data We Collect

We collect personal data from you when you interact with our website and services. In most cases, we anonymize technical and usage data to protect your privacy while still allowing us to optimize our services. The types of data we collect include:

  • Contact Information: Such as your name and email address when you subscribe to our mailing list or contact us directly.
  • Technical Information: Including your IP address, browser type, operating system, and device information. This data is automatically collected when you use our site and helps us optimize performance and troubleshoot issues.
  • Usage Data: Information about your interactions with our website, such as pages visited, time spent on pages, and referral sources, is collected via analytics tools.
  • Comment Data: If you leave a comment on our site, we collect the data shown in the comments form and your IP address to help with spam detection.

We only collect the data necessary to provide and improve our services. Please refer to our cookie policy for more details about cookies and similar technologies.

Legal Bases for Processing Personal Data

We process your personal data based on the following legal bases, as outlined in Article 6 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR):

  1. Consent (Article 6 (1) (a) GDPR): When you subscribe to our mailing list or consent to cookies and tracking technologies, you explicitly agree to the processing of your data for specified purposes. For example, consent is required to send newsletters via AWeber or to enable non-essential cookies, such as those used by Google Analytics or Google AdSense.
  2. Contractual Necessity (Article 6 (1) (b) GDPR): When you use our website, your data may be processed to fulfill contractual obligations or provide requested services. For example, if you leave a comment, we process your data to display and manage it appropriately.
  3. Legal Obligation (Article 6 (1) (c) GDPR): We may process your data to comply with legal obligations, such as maintaining business records or responding to lawful data requests. For example, we may retain transaction data for tax purposes.
  4. Legitimate Interests (Article 6 (1) (f) GDPR): In some instances, we process your data to pursue our legitimate interests, provided they do not override your fundamental rights and freedoms. For example, using security tools like Wordfence to ensure the safety of our website.

How We Use Your Data

We use the personal data we collect for the following purposes:

  • To Provide and Improve Our Services: To ensure the functionality of our website, analyze performance, and troubleshoot technical issues.
  • To Manage Your Subscriptions: To send newsletters, updates, and other communications if you subscribe to our mailing list.
  • To Monitor Website Usage: To analyze trends and user behavior through analytics tools, improving the user experience and optimizing our content.
  • To Ensure Security: To detect, prevent, and address security or technical issues, including spam detection for comments.
  • To Comply with Legal Obligations: To meet regulatory requirements and respond to legal requests where necessary.

Your data will not be used for purposes other than those explicitly stated unless we obtain your consent.

How We Share Your Data

We share your personal data only when necessary to provide our services or as required by law. The categories of recipients include:

  • Service Providers: We share data with third-party providers who assist in running our website, such as hosting providers, email marketing services (e.g., AWeber), and analytics platforms (e.g., Google Analytics). These providers process data on our behalf and are bound by data protection agreements.
  • Advertising Networks: Data may be shared with advertising platforms (e.g., Google AdSense) to display personalized ads based on your interests. Consent is required before such data is processed.
  • Legal and Regulatory Authorities: We may disclose data if required by law, to comply with legal obligations or to respond to valid requests by authorities.
  • Business Transfers: In the event of a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, your data may be transferred to the new owner, subject to the same protections outlined in this policy.

We do not sell your personal data to third parties. Any data sharing is conducted in accordance with applicable laws and is limited to what is necessary to fulfill its purpose.

Website Functionality

This section outlines the services and tools that assist our website’s functionality, enabling users to interact effectively with its features.

Website Hosting

This website is hosted on a dedicated server in Sofia, Bulgaria. We may collect specific personal data, such as IP addresses, for security, performance monitoring, and server management purposes.

Cloudflare CDN

We use Cloudflare to provide a Content Delivery Network (CDN) and enhance the performance and security of our website. Cloudflare may process visitor data, including IP addresses, for traffic routing and security purposes. Cloudflare may also use cookies or similar technologies to detect malicious activity and ensure the website functions properly. For more information, please refer to Cloudflare’s Privacy Policy.

Real Cookie Banner

To manage the cookies and similar technologies used (tracking pixels, web beacons, etc.) and related consents, we use the consent tool “Real Cookie Banner”. Details on how “Real Cookie Banner” works can be found at https://devowl.io/rcb/data-processing/.

The legal basis for the processing of personal data in this context are Art. 6 (1) (c) GDPR and Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR. Our legitimate interest is the management of the cookies and similar technologies used and the related consents.

The provision of personal data is neither contractually required nor necessary for the conclusion of a contract. You are not obliged to provide the personal data. If you do not provide the personal data, we will not be able to manage your consents.

Wordfence

Wordfence secures this website from attacks of various kinds. This requires processing the user’s IP address and metadata. This data can be used to protect against brute force attacks. The legitimate interest of using this service is to enable essential security of the website. The Wordfence privacy policy can be found here.

WordPress Comments

WordPress is the content management system for this website and offers the possibility to write comments under blog posts and similar content. These can contain personal data like the name, email address, and website of a commentator. The personal data can be used to display your information again if you want to write another comment on this website.

Gravatar

Gravatar allows displaying images of people who have, for example, written a comment or logged into an account. The image is retrieved based on the user’s provided email address if an image has been stored on gravatar.com for this email address. 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. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here.

Google Fonts

We use self-hosted Google Fonts to ensure fast and reliable typography while minimizing external data processing. Since these fonts are hosted locally on our server, no personal data is sent to or collected by Google in relation to font usage on our main site. However, YouTube embeds on our website, advertisements, and AWeber landing pages connected to our mailing list may load Google Fonts via Google’s servers. When this occurs, Google may collect your IP address and other technical information to deliver these fonts. For more information about Google Fonts and its general privacy practices, please visit Google Fonts Privacy.

YouTube Embeds

YouTube enables the embedding of content published on youtube.com into websites to enhance the website with videos. This requires processing the user’s IP address and metadata such as user IDs, consent, video player settings, connected devices, interactions with the service, push notifications, and used accounts. This data can be used to collect visited websites and detailed statistics about user behavior and can be used to improve Google’s services. It can also be used for profiling, e.g., to provide personalized services, such as ads based on your interests or recommendations. This data may be linked by Google to the data of users logged in to Google’s websites (e.g., youtube.com and google.com).

Google provides personal information to their affiliates and other trusted businesses or persons to process it for them, based on Google’s instructions and in compliance with Google’s privacy policy.

Advertising

Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this site or other websites. Google’s use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visit to theshiningwalls.net and/or other sites on the Internet. You may opt out of personalized advertising by visiting Ads Settings.

Google AdSense

We use Google AdSense to serve advertisements on this site. Google may set cookies to allow them to recognize your computer each time they send you an online advertisement. They may compile non-personal identification information about you or others who use your computer. This information allows ad networks to, among other things, deliver targeted advertisements that they believe will be of most interest to you. For more information, please refer to the Google Privacy Policy. Click here for an NAI-approved Opt-Out mechanism for Interest-Based Advertising.

Mailing Lists and AWeber

We use AWeber to manage our mailing lists and send newsletters. When you subscribe to our mailing list:

  • We collect and process your email address and, optionally, your name to send you updates, news, and promotional content.
  • AWeber may use cookies or similar technologies to track email open and click-through rates for analytics purposes.

For more information on AWeber’s privacy practices, please review their Privacy Policy.

Affiliate Links

Our website includes affiliate links to products and services provided by third-party websites, such as Amazon and other affiliate networks. When you click on these links, we may receive a commission or other compensation for qualifying purchases.

Please note that these third-party websites have their own privacy policies governing how they collect, use, and share your data. We recommend reviewing these policies for further information:

Analytics and Security Tools

This section details the tools integrated into our website for analytics, security, and spam prevention, ensuring a safe and optimized user experience.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic. Google uses the data collected to track and monitor the use of theshiningwalls.net. This data is shared with other Google services. Google may use the collected data to contextualize and personalize the ads of its own advertising network. For more information on Google’s privacy practices, please visit the Google Privacy Terms web page. We also encourage you to review Google’s policy for safeguarding your data.

Google Recaptcha

Google reCAPTCHA is a solution for preventing spam and detecting bots, e.g., when entering data into online forms. This requires processing the user’s IP address and metadata such as user ID, consent, and security tokens. This data can be used to collect visited websites and improve Google’s services. This data may be linked by Google to the data of users logged in to Google’s websites (e.g., google.com and youtube.com). It can also be used for profiling, e.g., to provide personalized services, such as ads based on your interests or recommendations. Google provides personal information to their affiliates and other trusted businesses or persons to process it for them, based on Google’s instructions and in compliance with Google’s privacy policy.

Social Media Sharing and Follow Buttons

We use the Hubbub social sharing plugin to enable visitors to easily share our content on various social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, and Bluesky. This plugin is designed to prioritize privacy and does not track your activity or collect personal data.

When you interact with these social sharing buttons, the respective social media platforms may collect certain data, such as your IP address and the URL you are sharing. For more details, please refer to the privacy policies of the social media platforms you interact with.

We do not store or process any data collected by these social platforms through the Hubbub plugin.

International Data Transfers

As part of providing our services, your personal data may be transferred to and processed in countries outside your own, including countries that may not have equivalent data protection laws. Specifically, data may be processed in:

  • The United Kingdom (where our company is based).
  • The European Union.
  • The United States (for service providers such as Google Analytics, Google AdSense, and AWeber).

We ensure that any transfers of personal data outside of the European Economic Area (EEA) are protected by appropriate safeguards, including:

  • Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs): Agreements that ensure data protection measures meet EU standards.
  • Data Privacy Framework Certification: For U.S.-based service providers, where applicable, to ensure compliance with data transfer requirements.

If no adequate safeguards are available, we will request your explicit consent before transferring your personal data to such jurisdictions. Contact us for more details about international data transfers.

Data Retention

We retain your personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected, including:

  • Providing our services to you.
  • Complying with legal, regulatory, tax, accounting, or reporting requirements.
  • Resolving disputes and enforcing our agreements.

When we no longer need your personal data, we will securely delete or anonymize it in accordance with applicable laws. The exact retention periods depend on the type of data and the purposes for which it was collected:

  • Contact Information: Retained for as long as you are subscribed to our mailing list or require customer support.
  • Technical Information and Usage Data: Retained for up to 24 months to monitor website performance and analyze user behavior.
  • Comment Data: Indefinitely retained unless you request its deletion.

Please get in touch with us if you have any questions about our data retention practices.

Your Privacy Rights

We respect your rights regarding your personal data and aim to provide transparency and control over how it is processed. Depending on your location, you may have the following rights under privacy laws such as the GDPR (European Union) and CCPA (California, USA):

Rights Under GDPR (for EU/UK users)

  • Access: Request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
  • Correction: Request corrections to inaccurate or incomplete personal data.
  • Deletion: Request that we delete your personal data where it is no longer necessary for the purposes for which it was collected.
  • Restriction: Request that we restrict the processing of your data in certain circumstances.
  • Portability: Request a copy of your data in a commonly used format to transfer to another provider.
  • Objection: Object to the processing of your data based on legitimate interests or for direct marketing purposes.
  • Withdraw Consent: Where processing is based on consent, you may withdraw your consent at any time.

Rights Under CCPA (for California residents)

  • Access: Request details about the categories and specific personal information we collected about you.
  • Deletion: Request the deletion of your personal information, subject to certain exceptions.
  • Opt-Out: Opt out of selling your personal information (note: we do not sell personal data).
  • Non-Discrimination: You have the right to not be discriminated against for exercising your privacy rights.

How to Exercise Your Rights

To exercise your privacy rights, please get in touch with us at:

We will respond to verified requests in accordance with applicable laws. Please note that we may need to verify your identity to fulfill your request.

Data Security

We take the security of your personal data seriously and implement appropriate measures to protect it against unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction. Our security practices include:

  • Encryption: Sensitive data transmitted through our website, such as subscription details, is encrypted using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology.
  • Access Control: Only authorized personnel have access to personal data and are bound by confidentiality agreements.
  • Regular Monitoring: We regularly monitor our systems for potential vulnerabilities and ensure they are patched promptly.
  • Secure Hosting: Our website is hosted on secure servers provided by trusted hosting providers, which comply with industry standards for data protection.

Despite these efforts, no electronic transmission or storage method is 100% secure. While we strive to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee absolute security. If you suspect any unauthorized use of your data or a potential security breach, please contact us immediately.

Children’s Privacy

The Shinining Walls is not directed at children under 13 (or the age of majority in your jurisdiction), and we do not knowingly collect personal data from children. If you are a parent or guardian and believe that your child has provided us with personal information, please contact us immediately.

If we become aware that we have collected personal data from children without verification of parental consent, we will take steps to remove that information from our servers.

If you have questions or concerns about our Children’s Privacy practices, please reach out to us for further clarification.

Updates to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy occasionally to reflect changes in our practices, services, or legal obligations. When we make significant updates, we will notify you in the following ways:

  • Website Notification: A prominent notice will be posted on our website.
  • Direct Communication: If appropriate, we may notify you via email or other direct communication methods.

The “Last Updated” date at the top of this policy indicates the most recent changes. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we are protecting your personal data.

Your continued use of The Shinining Walls after any changes signifies your acceptance of the updated Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with any updates, you should discontinue using our website and services.

Don’t hesitate to contact us with any questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy or its updates.

Contact Information

Please get in touch with us if you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy, your personal data, or your rights. We aim to address all inquiries promptly and transparently.

Contact Us:

We hope you enjoy using our website knowing we are committed to protecting your privacy and ensuring you have control over your personal data.