Privacy

Table of Contents

Privacy: Information We Collect About Visitors to Our Users’ Sites

We use wordpress.com as our web host. WordPress.com helps us to collect information about visitors to The Friar in a few different ways–we collect certain information that the visitors provide to the Site, we collect some information automatically, and we collect any information that our Users provide to us about their visitors.

Information a Visitor Provides to a Site

We’ll start with information that visitors provide directly to the The Friar, which primarily happens when visitors type into a text field on a page, like a comment field or a sign-up form.

Here are the most common ways in which a visitor directly provides information to the The Friar:

Follower and Subscriber Information: When a visitor signs up to follow or subscribe to the The Friar using Jetpack or WordPress.com, we collect the sign-up information requested by the Site, which typically includes an email address.
Site Comments: When a visitor leaves a comment on the The Friar, we collect that comment, and other information that the visitor provides along with the comment, such as the visitor’s name and email address.
Prayer Requests: When a visitor completes a prayer request using our form, we collect that information and post it, usually as the person submits.
Other Information Entered on the Site: We may also collect other information that a visitor enters on the the The Friar–such as a contact form submission, a search query, or Site registration.

Information We Automatically Collect from the Site

WordPress.com also automatically collects some information about visitors to the The Friar. The information automatically collected depends on which of our services the Site uses. We’ve listed the services used by the Friar below:

Technical Data from a Visitor’s Computer and Etcetera: We collect the information that web browsers, mobile devices, and servers typically make available about visitors to a Site, such as the IP address, browser type, unique device identifiers, language preference, referring site, the date and time of access, operating system, and mobile network information.
Visitor Interactions: We collect information about a visitor’s interactions with a Site, including the “likes” and “ratings” left by visitors to a Site using WordPress.com or Jetpack.
Location Information: We may determine the approximate location of a visitor’s device from the IP address. We collect and use this information to, for example, tally for our Users how many people visit their Sites from certain geographic regions. If you’d like, you can read more about our Site Stats feature for WordPress.com sites and Jetpack sites.
Akismet Commenter Information: We collect information about visitors who comment on Sites that use our Akismet anti-spam service. The information we collect depends on how the User sets up Akismet for the Site, but typically includes the commenter’s IP address, user agent, referrer, and Site URL (along with other information directly provided by the commenter such as their name, username, email address…oh, and the comment itself, of course).
Intense Debate Commenter Information: We collect information about visitors who comment on Sites that use our Intense Debate service. The information that we collect depends on how the User sets up Intense Debate for the Site, but typically includes the IP address and account information on the Site, along with the comment.
Jetpack Site Activity: We collect visitor activities related to the management of the Site, such as login attempts/actions and comment submission and management actions. For more information, please see the Jetpack Privacy Center.
Information from Cookies and Other Technologies: A cookie is a string of information that a Site stores on a visitor’s computer, and that the visitor’s browser provides to the Site each time the visitor returns. Pixel tags (also called web beacons) are small blocks of code placed on Sites. Automattic uses cookies and other technologies like pixel tags to help identify and track visitors and Site usage, and to deliver targeted ads when ads are enabled for free WordPress.com sites or when ads are enabled on a Site through WordAds or Jetpack Ads (see the “Other Tools” section below for more details). For more information about our use of cookies and other technologies for tracking, including how visitors can control the use of cookies, please see our Cookie Policy.

Other Information Provided by Our Users

We use WordPress.com to host our site. They also collect any other information that our Users provide to us about visitors to their Sites. For example, a User may upload a directory or other information about Site visitors and customers to the “backend” administrative platform for managing the Site.

How We Use Visitor Information

WordPress.com uses information about The Friar visitors in order to provide our Services to the The Friar. The Friar uses WordPress.com Services to, for example, create and manage The Friar, flag and fight comments from spammers, and collect information through prayer requests submitted to The Friar.

In addition to the above, WordPress.com uses some information about Site visitors who are also our Users as described in our Privacy Policy.

The Friar, and our host, WordPress.com, may also use and share information that has been aggregated or reasonably de-identified, so that the information could not reasonably be used to identify any individual. For instance, we may publish aggregate statistics about the use of our services.

How We Share Visitor Information

We may share information collected about Site visitors in the limited circumstances spelled out below:

Subsidiaries, Employees, and Independent Contractors: WordPress.com may disclose Site visitor information to our subsidiaries, our employees, and individuals who are our independent contractors that need to know the information in order to help us provide our services to our Users and their Sites, or to process the information on our behalf. We require our subsidiaries, employees, and independent contractors to follow this Privacy Notice for information about visitors that we share with them.
Third Party Vendors: WordPress.com may share Site visitor information with third party vendors who need to know this information in order to provide their services to us. This group includes vendors that help us provide our services to our Users and their Sites. We require vendors to agree to privacy commitments in order to share information with them.
Legal Requests: WordPress.com may disclose Site visitor information in response to a subpoena, court order, or other governmental request. For more information on how we respond to requests for information, please see our Legal Guidelines.
To Protect Rights, Property, and Others: WordPress.com may disclose Site visitor information when we believe in good faith that disclosure is reasonably necessary to protect the property or rights of Automattic, our Users, third parties, or the public at large. For example, if we have a good faith belief that there is an imminent danger of death or serious physical injury, we may disclose information related to the emergency without delay.
Business Transfers: In connection with any merger, sale of company assets, or acquisition of all or a portion of our business by another company, or in the unlikely event that Automattic goes out of business or enters bankruptcy, Site visitor information would likely be one of the assets that is transferred or acquired by a third party. If any of these events were to happen, this Privacy Notice would continue to apply to Site visitor information and the party receiving this information may continue to use this information, but only consistent with this Privacy Notice.
Information Shared Publicly: Information that visitors choose to make public is–you guessed it–disclosed publicly. That means, of course, that information like visitor comments and “likes” are all available to others, including information about the visitor that is displayed in connection with a comment or “like” (such as a visitor’s WordPress.com username and Gravatar). We provide a “firehose” stream of public data (including comments) from Sites to provide that data to firehose subscribers, who may view and analyze the content, but do not have rights to re-publish it publicly. Public information may also be indexed by search engines or used by third parties.

How Long We Keep Visitor Information

If we are not legally required to keep it, we generally discard information about Site visitors when no longer needed for the purposes for which we collect and use it on behalf of our users — those purposes which are described in the “How We Use Visitor Information” section above.

For example, we keep the web server logs that record information about a visitor to one of our user’s Sites — such as the visitor’s IP address, browser type, and operating system — for approximately 30 days. We retain the logs for this period of time in order to, among other things, investigate issues if something goes wrong on a user’s Site.

As another example, when a Site visitor views The Friar, wordpress.com uses their IP address in order to update The Friar site Stats with information about their visit, like what country they are in. We keep that IP address for approximately 30 days to give us time to calculate your monthly Site Stats and address any issues with those counts.

Other Tools

The Friar may integrate other tools and services (such as Google Analytics and third party plugins). Please note that this Privacy Notice only covers the collection of information by The Friar, and while we do our best to identify what is collected by third party applications, other information may be collected.

The Friar may set tracking technologies (like cookies) to collect information about visitors’ use of a Site and across other websites and online services, such as a visitor’s IP address, web browser, mobile network information, pages viewed, time spent on pages, links clicked, and conversion information. This information may be used by those companies to, among other things, analyze and track usage, determine the popularity of certain content, and deliver advertisements that may be more targeted to visitor interests. For more information about how to manage and delete cookies, visit aboutcookies.org, and for more information on interest-based ads, including information about how visitors may be able to opt out of having their web browsing information used for behavioral advertising purposes, please visit aboutads.info/choices (US based) and youronlinechoices.eu (EU based).