Last updated: October, 2019

Who we are

The Pear Papers (“Website”) found at https://thepearpapers.com/ is governed by the following privacy policy. This policy only applies to this website. Unless otherwise defined in this Privacy Policy, terms used in this Privacy Policy have the same meanings as in our Terms of Use.

We don’t ask you for personal information unless we truly need it. We don’t share your personal information with anyone except to comply with the law, develop our products, or protect our rights. We don’t store personal information on our servers unless required for the on-going operation of our site. We respect your privacy and are committed to protecting it. The purpose of this Privacy Policy is to inform you what personally identifiable information we may collect and how it may be used.

What information we collect and how it is used

We only collect necessary information about you, for instance, to provide our Services, to communicate with you, or to make our Services better. We collect information in three ways – if and when you provide information to us, automatically through operating our Services, and from outside sources.

1) Information you provide to us

Account information – We ask for basic personal information from you such as your name and email address to set up an account on our Website. 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.

Public profile – If you create an account with us, we collect information that you provide on your public profile. With your account, you are able to create a public user profile, which allows you to create a username and password. We will store the username, but your password will not be visible in our records. For example, if you subscribe to us, your username is part of that public profile, along with any other information you add to your public profile such as, an avatar, a profile description, and/or a link to your website. Users may see your username, avatar, profile description and website information. Your email address will never be available publicly.  The information in your public profile is, obviously, public. So please keep that in mind before deciding what information you would like to include on there.

Comments – When you leave comments on the Website we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also your IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection. 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. 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.

Media – If you upload images to the website, 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.

Blog posts – Depending on the Services you use, you may also provide us with information about you in draft and published content. For example, if you write a blog post that includes biographic information about you, we will have that information, and so will anyone with access to the Internet if you choose to publish the post publicly.

Contact forms – We store a copy of all our communications. When you communicate with us via form or email, your name, email and the content of the message box are recorded.

2) Automatically Collected Information

Log information – We automatically collect certain information about you and the device with which you access the Website. For example, when you use the Website, we log your IP address, operating system type, browser type, referring website, pages you viewed, and the dates/times when you accessed the Website. We may also collect information about actions you take when using the Website, such as links clicked.

Usage information – We collect information when you use our Service. For example, we may collect information about the actions that Authors take when using the Website such as creating a post, deleting a post, etc. In other words, we keep track of who did what, when and to what thing on the Website. We use this information to provide our Services to you, as well as get insights on how people use our Services, so we can make our Services better.

Location Information –  We may determine the approximate location of your device from your IP address. We collect and use this information to, for example, calculate how many people visit our Services from certain geographic regions.

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. Pixel tags (also called web beacons) are small blocks of code placed on websites and emails. We may log information using such cookies. We may use both session cookies, which expire when you close your browser, and persistent cookies, which stay on your browser until deleted, to provide you with a more personalised experience on the Website. If you have an account and you 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.

For more information on Cookies and how to control them, please visit https://automattic.com/cookies/

Newsletters – All newsletters sent to subscribers may contain tracking pixels. The pixel is embedded in emails and allows an analysis of the success of online marketing campaigns. Because of these tracking pixels, we may see if and when you open an email and which links within the email you click. Also, this allows the Website to adapt the content of future newsletters to your interests. This behaviour will not be passed on to third parties.

3) Third-party use of personal information

External links – Our Service may contain links to other sites that are not operated by us. If you click on a third party link, you will be directed to that third party’s site. We strongly advise you to review the Privacy Policy of every site you visit. We have no control over, and assume no responsibility for the content, privacy policies or practices of any third party sites or services.

Embedded content – Articles on this Website 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.

Analytics – This Website uses Google Analytics to track user behaviour. This service tracks Website usage and provides information such as referring websites and user actions on the Website. Google Analytics may capture your IP address, but no other personal information is captured by Google Analytics. You may opt out of Analytics by indicating your choice on the cookie banner that appears when you first visit the Website. Analytics cookies are saved on your browser for a year. If you change your mind at any time, you can easily delete this cookie from your web browser. At this point, the next time you visit the Website, the cookie banner will appear again, allowing you to opt out of Analytics.

Security – Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service. Our Website uses Sucuri Security and Anti-spam plugins to screen for spam and malware. Please refer to their respective privacy policies for further information.

Why we collect information about you

1) Purposes for Using Information

We use information about you as mentioned above and for the purposes listed below:

• To provide our Services, for example, to set up and maintain your account;
• To further develop and improve our Services, for example, by adding new features that we think our users will enjoy;
• To monitor and analyse trends and better understand how users interact with our Services, which helps us improve our Services and make them easier to use;
• To monitor and prevent any problems with our Services, protect the security of our Services, detect and prevent fraudulent transactions and other illegal activities, fight spam, and protect the rights and property of The Pear Papers and others, which may result in us declining a transaction or the use of our Services;
• To communicate with you, for example through an email, about new posts and others we think will be of interest to you or solicit your feedback and
• To personalise your experience using our Services, provide content recommendations (for example, through our ‘You may also like’ suggestions).

2) Legal Basis for Collecting and Using Information

Our use of your information is based on the grounds that:

• The use is necessary in order to fulfil our commitments to you under the applicable Terms of Use or other agreements with you or is necessary to administer your account, for example, in order to enable access to our website on your device; or
• The use is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation; or
• The use is necessary in order to protect your vital interests or those of another person; or
• We have a legitimate interest in using your information, for example, to provide and update our Services; to improve our Services so that we can offer you an even better user experience; to safeguard our Services; to communicate with you; to understand our user retention and attrition; to monitor and prevent any problems with our Services; and to personalise your experience; or
• You have given us your consent — for example before we place certain cookies on your device and access and analyse them later on, as described in our Cookies and Analytics sections.

Who we share your data with

We do not sell our users’ private personal information. We only share information about you in the limited circumstances spelled out below.

We may disclose information about you in response to a subpoena, court order, or other governmental request. We may also disclose information about you when we believe in good faith that disclosure is reasonably necessary to protect the property or rights of The Pear Papers, 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.

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. 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.

Privacy Policy changes

Although most changes are likely to be minor, The Pear Papers may change its Privacy Policy from time to time. We encourage visitors to frequently check this page for any changes to the Privacy Policy.  We will notify you of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page. Changes to this Privacy Policy are effective when they are posted on this page.

How to reach us

You can usually access, correct, or delete your personal data using your account settings and tools that we offer. If you aren’t able to do that, have a question about this Privacy Policy, or would like to contact us about any of the rights mentioned in the ‘What rights you have over your data’ section above, please contact us.