PRIVACY AND GDPR
We may write reams of words about DJ gear, but we like our serious stuff to be short and very simple to understand. The new European GDPR laws dictate that we spew a load of simple legalese to do with your privacy.
Apologies for the legal nature of the following text – I haven’t got £20m floating around to pay the fine. Anyway…
OUR WORDS FIRST
We barely collect any personal data. We had a mailing list, but Mailchimp closed out account through inactivity.
We use Google analytics occasionally, but the only personally identifiable data this stores is an IP address in the form xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx, which they have now pseudo-anonymised so that we can only ever see the first three out of the four IP numbers.
Our web hosts Siteground also store full IP addresses in their analytics. Our only use of this is to identify site issues and rogue activity. Having this information only tells us who the web host is, and nothing that ties to a user or any of their specific personally identifiable information.
We host our own ads, and only store clicks and impressions. We don’t store the IP address of the click. If we ever need to geo-target, we will use the visitor’s IP address to serve the ad to the right region, but no IP number will be stored if clicked.
The DJWORX site sets cookies for things like remembering your Disqus login (you specifically opt in to that), but we have no control over the cookie itself, nor do we ever get to see any of the data enclosed in it.
The only time we keep and refer to personal data is from Disqus, our commenting engine. We’re sent an email from Disqus every time a comment it made. This email contains the user name, email address, IP address, and full comment. This goes for guests and logged in users alike. As the administrator, I store these emails purely for moderation and security purposes. This data will be stored indefinitely.
To clarify — the only personally identifiable data that guest users supply is an IP address. This give me the option to cross reference against known spammers, trolls, and proxies associated with hacking. In reality, it gives me the host, and where they’re based. This isn’t CSI — I can’t get a street address.
These details are only seen my myself — even the moderators don’t get to see this information. This data is not shared in any way with anyone, and never will be.
At the time of writing, Disqus is still working on their GDPR policy and features. When they’ve updated it, I’ll fill in this section accordingly.
And that’s the end of our shorter and more digestible version. The nutshell version is that I get emails when you comment with your alias, email, and IP, and only use them for moderation and security. Now the longwinded WordPress approved version.
Who we are
My name is Mark Settle, and I own and run https://djworx.com. I am the only person who sees personally identifiable data collected from the DJWORX site.
You can contact me directly at contact@djworx.com. The physical address is:
Mark Settle
DJWORX
1st Floor
60 Main Street
Haworth
W.Yorks
BD22 8DP
UK
What personal data we collect and why we collect it
The DJWORX site uses assorted technologies (WordPress, Disqus, and Advanced Ads) to provide a media platform for our content and your comments, supported by advertising. The site sets cookies (the content of which we never see), and collects no personal data. These cookies are set to improve your user experience, such as remembering your Disqus login information, DJWORX team member information, and ensuring ad rotation.
WordPress only stores information on registered team members who have explicitly signed up. Disqus handles all user information, and Advanced Ads only stores impressions and clicks with no identifying IP addresses.
Comments
When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address to help with spam detection, moderation, and website security.
An anonymised 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://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.
You may also sign in as a guest to comment. We still get an email with our alias, email (real or otherwise) and IP address. The latter is used to identify spammers, hackers, and trolls looking to circumnavigate moderation.
Media
If you upload personal images when creating content or comments, 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.
Cookies
If you leave a comment on our site, you may opt-in to saving your name, email address 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 are a DJWORX content creator and log in to this site, 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.
If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.
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 tracing your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.
Analytics
We have three types of data collection and analytics at pay on DJWORX:
Google: Like most other websites, we use Google Analytics to monitor traffic and improve your experience. While no bio-data is collected, IP addresses and their actions on the site are tracked. In line with GDPR, Google has now pseudo-anonymised the IP number so that we know the host, but not the user.
Advanced Ads: We generate revenue through banner ads. The only information that we currently collect are impressions and clicks. No personal data is collected. We do however reserve the right to use your incoming IP address for geo-targeting ads. We won’t however be storing that data.
Web hosting: Our hosts Siteground closely monitor all actions at an IP level within our package. We use this information for traffic analysis, trouble shooting, and security only.
Who we share your data with
We don’t share, sell, or trade your data with anyone. As the site admin, I’m only person to see the full extent of the data that the site collects.
How long we retain your data
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. This also allows us to cross reference IP addresses with hackers, spammers, and rogue proxies that have been used for hack attempts.
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.
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. Many third parties are now providing this as a service (Facebook and Instagram now do this), and Disqus will probably do this too.
You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This however does not include any data we feel that we need to keep for the security of the site.
Where we send your data
Visitor comments are be checked through Disqus and Akismet, an automated spam detection service. No other data is processed outside of DJWORX.
What third parties we receive data from
We may hold the personal data you supply to us, but we don’t use this data to receive any additional information based on it. The only way we use this data is to track IP numbers that exhibit suspicious activity, and use assorted online IP services to obtain more information. This is limited to country and host. Unlike programmes on the TV, we can’t identify your house from your IP.
SUMMING UP
Despite all this GDPR malarkey, it’s business as usual with no changes to the site or how we operate. We have always taken your privacy very seriously. The only difference now is that the law hurts us very badly indeed if we don’t. Which we do. I mentioned that right?