Disclosure and Privacy Policy

THE NITTY-GRITTY

In a nutshell:

1. Stuff that gets sent to me. I often get products for review here at MsBookish (usually books but hey, I’m hopeful for other things).

Rest assured, you’ll always know where I got whatever it is I happen to be blogging about, whether it’s from a third party like a publicist, publisher, manufacturer or author, or my mom, or a long-lost great-great-grand-uncle*, or out of my own pocket (in which case, I’ll probably also tell you where I bought it, why I bought it, my experiences buying it and whether I received adequate customer service while buying it.  Consider yourself warned.)

*but only if he puts me in his will

Note: I talk a bit about my husband and my children in my posts. To the best of my knowledge, I’ve never disclosed where I got them from, so I will do so here. For the record, neither my husband nor any of my children were provided to me by a publicist, publisher, manufacturer or author. Not that I regret this, of course, but it does mean they’re nonreturnable.

As for where my children did come from, I’m sorry to say, but if you don’t know the answer to that one, you’re probably too young to be reading this blog. And my husband? Why, I found my blue-eyed boy doing his stuff inside a martial arts dojo, of course; before he met me, he virtually lived inside the dojo 24/7. So, as you can see, I was a Very Good Thing to have happened to him.

2. The content of my posts. I do not write nice, glowy things about a book or product because some third-party sent me that book or product to review. I write nice, glowy things about stuff because I happen to like the stuff I’m writing about. I will also occasionally write bad, non-glowy things about stuff, too, if I don’t happen to like the stuff I’m writing about. On the whole, I tend to be nice and glowy when I’m writing. That’s just a personality thing; I always call that glass half-full.

3. Paying the bills (aka I wish). Scattered throughout my posts are links to a number of online book stores. Occasionally, I might have links to other stores. If I can, I create an affiliate link. What this means is that, if you click on the link and decide to buy the product I’m talking about, or any other product in that particular store, I earn a small amount  in the form of a commission. When I say “a small amount”, I mean “a small amount” – Amazon, for example, pays pennies for each book purchase (well, okay, maybe sometimes a dime) – but if you’re in a shopping frame of mind, please feel free to support MsBookish.com and click through one of my links before you go on a shopping spree. Pennies do, after all, add up. Very slowly, mind you, but slow is better than not at all, in my opinion.

4. Advertising or sponsorship. These are clearly marked. If you look, you will see them. Rest assured, they are never hidden (because, you know, it would be rather pointless from the perspective of the advertiser or sponsor if I hid the ads …). Some of my ads are affiliate links, in which case, see point 3 above.

And by the way, if you’re an advertiser or sponsor and would like to place an ad on MsBookish.com, please let me know. I’d REALLY love to hear from you.

5. When you make a comment. You’ll notice, when you make a comment on any post at MsBookish.com, that you need to enter a valid email address. (And if you haven’t been making comments, why not? I love reading my comments, and I try to reply to them, too. So stop reading this, go make a comment, then come back to finish reading. Everything should still be here when you get back.)

For the record, I do not collect your email address for any nefarious purpose – in other words, I don’t put them into a list to sell to some internet marketer for big bucks.

However, if I happen to reply to your comment personally, you WILL get a brief email telling you what I just said and inviting you back to add another comment if you so wish. And if you win one of my giveaways, I WILL use your email address to contact you; thankfully, you will NOT get a long distance call from me at 2:00 am (aka as the time for cheap long distance calls) informing you that you have just won something. (I can hear your sigh of relief all the way here.)

Which is why you need to enter a valid email, by the way, and not your phone number.

Please note: none of the nitty-gritty above is in any way a substitute for the full legalese, which is set out in all its glory below.

DISCLOSURE

Reviews

From time to time MsBookish.com posts reviews of products. Where a product has been provided by a third-party, the review post will disclose the provision of the product at the end of the review. A review of a product that has been provided by a third-party in no way affects the contents of the review.

Affiliate Links

Some links to products or services appearing on MsBookish.com may be affiliate links to third-party sites. In such cases, MsBookish.com may earn a commission when visitors make a purchase on a third-party site after clicking through an affiliate link on MsBookish.com. MsBookish.com thanks all visitors for their support in doing so, as such commissions help defray the cost of running MsBookish.com.

PRIVACY

Website Visitors

Like most website operators, MsBookish.com collects non-personally-identifying information of the sort that web browsers and servers typically make available, such as the browser type, language preference, referring site, and the date and time of each visitor request. MsBookish.com’s purpose in collecting non-personally identifying information is to better understand how MsBookish.com’s visitors use its website.

MsBookish.com also collects potentially personally-identifying information like Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. MsBookish.com does not use such information to identify its visitors, however, and does not disclose such information, other than under the same circumstances that it uses and discloses personally-identifying information, as described below.

Gathering of Personally-Identifying Information

Visitors to MsBookish.com wishing to leave a comment on any of the posts on this site are required to leave a valid email address. MsBookish.com does not gather this information to be disclosed to any third parties. However, please note that when visitors leave a comment on a post and it is replied to at the site by the author of the post in question, visitors will receive an automatic email advising them that their comment has been replied to.

Aggregated Statistics

MsBookish.com uses an analytics program to collect aggregated statistics about the behavior of visitors to MsBookish.com. MsBookish.com may display this aggregate information publicly or provide it to others; however, MsBookish.com does not disclose personally-identifying information.

Protection of Personally-Identifying Information

MsBookish.com will not rent or sell potentially personally-identifying and personally-identifying information to anyone. MsBookish.com discloses potentially personally-identifying and personally-identifying information only when required to do so by law, or when MsBookish.com believes in good faith that disclosure is reasonably necessary to protect the property or rights of MsBookish.com, third parties or the public at large.

Cookies

A cookie is a string of information that a website stores on a visitor’s computer, and that the visitor’s browser provides to the website each time the visitor returns. MsBookish.com uses cookies to help MsBookish.com identify and track visitors, their usage of MsBookish.com website, and their website access preferences. MsBookish.com visitors who do not wish to have cookies placed on their computers should set their browsers to refuse cookies before using MsBookish.com, with the drawback that certain features of MsBookish.com may not function properly without the aid of cookies.

Ads

MsBookish is occasionally sponsored by advertisers whose ads are displayed on the sidebar of the site. Additionally, posts may contain links to advertisers. Ads or links to advertisers appearing on MsBookish.com may be delivered to users by advertising partners, who may set cookies. These cookies allow the ad server to recognize your computer each time they send you an online advertisement to compile 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. This Privacy Policy covers the use of cookies by MsBookish.com and does not cover the use of cookies by any advertisers or any other third-party sites.

Application of this Privacy and Disclosure Policy

This Privacy and Disclosure policy applies only to MsBookish.com and does not apply any third-party site linked to from MsBookish.com. Visitors are encouraged to check the privacy and disclosure policies of sites that they visit should they be concerned about privacy and disclosure issues.

Privacy and Disclosure Policy Changes

Although most changes are likely to be minor, MsBookish.com may change its Privacy and Disclosure Policy from time to time, and in MsBookish.com’s sole discretion. MsBookish.com encourages visitors to frequently check this page for any changes to its Privacy and Disclosure Policy.

MsBookish.com thanks Wordpress.com for the use of their privacy policy as a template for the drafting of this Privacy and Disclosure Policy. The Nitty Gritty section, though, is all my own.