Last updated:
At PA Association of Blind Merchants (https://pablindmerchants.org), we respect your privacy and are committed to protecting the personal information you share with us. This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, and your choices.
Information We Collect
Comments and User Information
When visitors leave comments on our site, we collect the data shown in the comments form (such as name, email, and comment text), as well as the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help with spam detection and site security.
An anonymized string (hash) created from your email address may be provided to the Gravatar service to check if you are using it. The Gravatar 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.
Media Uploads
If you upload images or files to the website, avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS). Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.
Cookies Policy
We use cookies to provide a smoother browsing experience and remember your preferences. Cookies are small text files stored in your browser.
- Comments: If you leave a comment, you may opt-in to saving your name, email, and website in cookies. These last for one year for your convenience.
- Login Page: A temporary cookie checks if your browser accepts cookies. It contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.
- Login & Preferences: Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for one year. If you select “Remember Me,” your login will persist for two weeks. Logging out removes login cookies.
- Publishing: If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie stores the post ID of the article you edited. It expires after one day and contains no personal data.
You can manage or disable cookies through your browser settings; note that some site features may not function properly without cookies.
Embedded Content from Other Websites
Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g., videos, images, articles). Embedded content from other websites behaves exactly as if the visitor had 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 if you have an account and are logged in to that website. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of third-party sites you visit.
How We Use and Share Your Data
- Spam protection: Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.
- Password resets: If you request a password reset, your IP address will be included in the reset email.
We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to third parties for marketing purposes.
How Long We Retain Your Data
- Comments: Comments and their metadata are retained indefinitely to help us recognize and automatically approve follow-up comments.
- Registered users: For users that register on our website (if any), we store the personal information provided 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.
Your Privacy Rights
If you have an account on this site, or have left comments, you can request an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided. 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 make a request, please contact us through our Contact Page.
Protecting Your Data
We take reasonable measures to protect your personal information from unauthorized access, misuse, or disclosure. However, no method of transmission over the Internet or electronic storage is 100% secure.
Updates to This Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Any changes will be posted on this page with an updated “Last updated” date. We encourage you to review this page periodically to stay informed about how we are protecting your information.