Privacy Policy for cmbellhq.com

Effective Date: May 11, 2025

1. Introduction

Welcome to cmbellhq.com (the “Site”). This website is owned and operated by C.M. Bell (“we,” “us,” or “our”). We are committed to protecting the privacy of our visitors. This Privacy Policy outlines how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you visit our Site.

Please read this Privacy Policy carefully. If you do not agree with the terms of this privacy policy, please do not access the site.

We reserve the right to make changes to this Privacy Policy at any time and for any reason. We will alert you about any changes by updating the “Effective Date” of this Privacy Policy.

2. Who We Are

Our website address is: https://cmbellhq.com.
This is the official online presence for C.M. Bell and the Eldritch Sagas.

3. What Information We Collect and Why We Collect It

We primarily collect information to understand how visitors use our Site so we can improve it and provide a better user experience. We do not actively collect personal information for the purpose of saving it, beyond what is necessary for the functioning of the website, for analytics, and for services you voluntarily sign up for (like our mailing list).

a. Information You Provide Voluntarily:

• Mailing List: If you subscribe to our mailing list (managed through Mailchimp), we collect your email address and potentially your name (if requested). This information is used to send you newsletters, updates, promotional materials (such as reader magnets), and other information related to C.M. Bell and Eldritch Sagas. You can unsubscribe from our mailing list at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link in the emails.
• Contact Forms: If you contact us through a contact form on the Site, we may collect your name, email address, and any other information you provide in your message. We use this information solely to respond to your inquiries.
• Comments: When visitors leave comments on the site, we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection. 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. 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.

b. Information Collected Automatically:

• Log Files and Website Analytics (Google Analytics): Like many websites, we use log files and a third-party analytics service, Google Analytics, to help us understand how visitors use the Site. The information collected may include your IP address (which may be anonymized), browser type, Internet Service Provider (ISP), date/time stamp, referring/exit pages, and possibly the number of clicks. This information is used to analyze trends, administer the site, track users’ movement around the site, and gather demographic information. We do not link this automatically-collected data to personally identifiable information, other than what is standard for the operation of WordPress.com and Google Analytics.
  • For more information on how Google uses data when you use our partners’ sites or apps, visit: http://www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners/
  • You can opt-out of Google Analytics tracking by visiting: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
• Cookies and Web Beacons: Our Site, being hosted on WordPress.com, uses cookies to store information such as visitors’ preferences and the pages on the website that the visitor accessed or visited. WordPress.com and its partners may use cookies for various purposes including functionality, security, analytics, and advertising. Google Analytics also uses cookies to collect data. These cookies are used to make advertising messages more relevant to you and your interests. You can choose to disable cookies through your individual browser options. More detailed information about cookie management with specific web browsers can be found at the browsers’ respective websites.
  • If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website 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 visit our login page (if applicable), 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.
• WordPress.com Platform:
  Our website is built on the WordPress.com platform. WordPress.com has its own data collection and privacy practices. We encourage you to review the WordPress.com Privacy Policy: https://automattic.com/privacy/.

c. 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 tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

4. Who We Share Your Data With

We do not sell, trade, or rent your personal identification information to others. We may share generic aggregated demographic information not linked to any personal identification information regarding visitors and users with our business partners, trusted affiliates, and advertisers for the purposes outlined above.

Your data may be shared with the following third-party service providers:

• WordPress.com (Automattic): As our website hosting and platform provider. Their privacy policy can be found at https://automattic.com/privacy/.
• Google Analytics: For website traffic analysis. Google’s privacy policy is available at https://policies.google.com/privacy.
• Mailchimp: For managing our email newsletter. Mailchimp’s privacy policy is available at https://mailchimp.com/legal/privacy/.

These third parties are contractually obligated to keep your information confidential and use it only for the purposes for which we disclose it to them.

5. How Long We Retain Your Data

• If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.
• For users that register on our website (if any), 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.
• Information collected for our mailing list (e.g., your email address) is retained as long as you remain subscribed. You can unsubscribe at any time.
• Google Analytics retains data according to their standard data retention policies, which you can learn more about through Google’s documentation. We use the default data retention settings provided by Google Analytics.
• Data from contact form submissions may be kept for customer service purposes for a reasonable period but we do not use the information submitted through them for marketing purposes unless explicitly stated.

6. What Rights You Have Over Your Data

You have certain rights regarding your personal information, subject to local law. These may include the right to:

• Access the personal information we hold about you.
• Request that we correct or update any inaccurate personal information.
• Request that we delete your personal information (e.g., if you unsubscribe from our mailing list, your data will be removed from Mailchimp’s active lists according to their procedures).
• Opt-out of the collection of certain data (e.g., by disabling cookies or using the Google Analytics opt-out).
• 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. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.

To exercise these rights, please contact us using the contact information below.

7. Where Your Data Is Sent

Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.
As we use third-party services like WordPress.com, Google Analytics, and Mailchimp, your information may be transferred to — and maintained on — computers located outside of your state, province, country, or other governmental jurisdiction where the data protection laws may differ from those in your jurisdiction.

8. Our Contact Information

If you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us at:
cm@cmbellhq.com

9. Additional Information

a. How we protect your data:
We take reasonable precautions to protect your information. Our site is hosted on WordPress.com, which implements various security measures. We also rely on the security measures implemented by our third-party service providers like Google and Mailchimp. However, no method of transmission over the Internet or method of electronic storage is 100% secure.

b. What data breach procedures we have in place:
In the event of a data breach involving our direct systems (if any) or notification from our third-party providers of a breach affecting your data, we will take steps to notify affected individuals as required by applicable law and to mitigate any potential harm.

c. What third parties we receive data from:
We receive aggregated and anonymized analytics data from Google Analytics.

10. Policy Updates

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page and updating the “Effective Date” at the top. You are advised to review this Privacy Policy periodically for any changes.

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