August 9th, 2022

 

PLEASE REVIEW THIS POLICY CAREFULLY

 

The following describes how Smokies Marketing Affiliate LLC (“Company Name,” "us," "our," “I,” “me” or “my”) uses and disseminates information you provide through www.travelingthesmokies.com and its sub-domains and affiliated sites, as well as Smokies Marketing Affiliate LLC pages and accounts on Twitter®, Facebook®, LinkedIn®, Instagram®, GETTR®, and Truth Social® (the “Sites). If you ever have questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact me at the information below. Please also review my full Terms and Conditions, which also govern your use of the Sites. By using this Site, you are consenting to this Privacy Policy.

 

COLLECTION OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

 

Unless I expressly note otherwise, I do not collect personally-identifiable information from users of my Sites. When you visit my Sites, some information about your computer hardware and software is inherently automatically collected, such as your IP address, domain name, browser type, access time and referring website addresses. I typically do not use this information for any purpose, but an example of when I may use this information is in implementing improvements and analyzing the Sites and for troubleshooting purposes. I also utilize this information to monitor and improve services and to ensure that your use of the Sites is in compliance with my Terms and Conditions. Most of our services do not require any form of registration, allowing you to visit the Sites without telling us who you are. However, some services, such as email opt-ins may require you to provide us with Personal Data. In such a case, you may choose to without any Personal Data requested by us, but it may not be possible for you to gain access to certain parts of the site or content. We require only the information that is reasonably required to enter into a contract with you. We will not require you to provide consent for any unnecessary processing as a condition of entering into a contract with us. We collect such Non-personal and Personal Information for the following purposes:

1. To provide and operate the Services;

2. To provide our Users with ongoing customer assistance and technical support;

3. To be able to contact our Visitors and Users with general or personalized service-related notices and promotional messages;

4. To create aggregated statistical data and other aggregated and/or inferred Non-personal Information, which we or our business partners may use to provide and improve our respective services;

5. To comply with any applicable laws and regulations.

Our company is hosted on the Wix.com platform. Wix.com provides us with the online platform that allows us to sell our products and services to you. Your data may be stored through Wix.com’s data storage, databases and the general Wix.com applications. They store your data on secure servers behind a firewall. All direct payment gateways offered by Wix.com and used by our company adhere to the standards set by PCI-DSS as managed by the PCI Security Standards Council, which is a joint effort of brands like Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover. PCI-DSS requirements help ensure the secure handling of credit card information by our store and its service providers.

 

INTERNATIONAL PRIVACY LAWS AND YOUR RIGHTS UNDER THE GDPR

 

If you are visiting the Site from outside the United States, please be aware that you are sending information to the United States where my servers are located. Information you submit may then be transferred within the United States or back out of the United States to other countries outside of your country of residence, depending on the type of information and how it is stored by me. These countries (including the United States) may not necessarily have data protection laws as comprehensive protective as your country of residence; however, my collection, storage, and use of your data will at all times continue to be governed by this Privacy Policy. If you are a member of the European Union (EU), you have special rights under the GDPR. Those include: You have the right to object to the processing of your data and the right to portability of your data. All complaints must be sent to your support email address or email address of your GDPR representative or data processor. You also have the right to erasure, rectification, access, or to seek restrictions to the processing of your personal data in our system. To the extent you provide consent to our processing of your personal data, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. Any withdrawal of consent does not apply to data collected lawfully prior to such consent. You have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority containing jurisdiction over GDPR related issues.

 

COOKIES: WHAT THEY ARE, AND WHY THEY ARE NEEDED

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A cookie is a data text file sent from a website to your browser, for the purpose of identifying the user and allows access to portions of the website, thus alleviating the need to continually log in with your username and password. Cookies may be stored within your system. To the extent I use cookies, I can only access information from a cookie sent by one of the Sites, not other websites. I may use cookies to personalize your visit to my Sites, because tracking usage allows me to best determine the needs of my customers and advertisers.

 

MY POLICY WITH MINORS

 

My Sites are not intended for individuals under the age of 18. If you are under 18, you may only use the Sites under the supervision of a parent or guardian. I do not collect or maintain information from anyone known to be under the age of 18, and no part of this website is designed to attract anyone under the age of 18. I do not sell products or services intended for purchase by children. If I discover or are otherwise notified that I have received any such information from a child in violation of this policy, I will delete that information.

 

DATA RETENTION

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I only retain Personal Data collected from Users for as long as (the User’s account is active) or otherwise for a limited period of time as long as I need it to fulfill the purposes for which I have initially collected it, unless otherwise required by law. I will retain and use information as necessary to comply with my legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce my agreements for a period of 5 years. If you don’t want us to process your data anymore, please contact us at info@smokiesmarketingaffiliate.com.

 

AFFILIATE MARKETING

 

Many of the posts and pages on www.travelingthesmokies.com (TTS) contain affiliate links which means that if you click on an affiliate link and choose to purchase something, I may receive a small commission. However, this does not result in additional charges for you (the reader). Links to products or businesses within TTS blog posts or pages may or may not be noted as an affiliate in every reference. The affiliate money earned per month helps pay the fees to keep this website up and running. TTS participates in the Awin, Commission Junction and Impact. All are affiliate advertising programs designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to participating companies and products. Advertisers selected for this affiliate program with TTS are relevant and/or pertinent to TTS content and audience. The Federal Trade Commission revised their guidelines regarding endorsements in order to protect the public from misleading advertising. As a part of those guidelines, I am disclosing that I may use the blog to promote products and services as a source of income and if I do, I only promote products and services that I love, use myself and or want to recommend to you, my readers.

 

USE OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

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If you do choose to provide your personal information, I will not willingly share your information with companies outside my organization, except as described in this Privacy Policy. You may at times receive communications from me related to products and services that I believe might interest you. While I believe these services may enhance your time spent at the Sites, you will at all times have the option and ability to opt out from receiving these communications by specifically choosing to do so via a link which will be provided within emails that I send to you. I may disclose total aggregated user statistics in order to describe my services to potential advertisers, other third parties, affiliate companies, and for other lawful purposes. The information I gather from you may be used in several ways, either now or in the future, to gain a better understanding of my Sites’ users and their usage pattern as a whole, for site administration and troubleshooting, to process transactions, contest entries and other matters you initiate, to identify preferences in content and advertising, to target editorial, advertising or other content (such as promotions, special offers or other content) I think might be of interest to you. I may also use information I gather from you to communicate changes and improvements to my website or any registration you have made. You have the right to request access to the information we have for you. You can do this by contacting us at sherr@smokiesmarketingaffiliate.com. We will make sure to provide you with a copy of the data we process about you in order to comply with your request, we may ask you to verify your identity. We will fulfill your request by sending your copy electronically, unless the request specifies a different method. If you believe that the information, we have about it is incorrect, or if you wish to remove your private information (such as an email address provided in an opt-in), you may contact us at sherr@smokiesmarketingaffiliate.com. Any data that is no longer needed for the purposes specified herein will be deleted. I do not give away, sell, rent or lease any users’ personally identifiable information to any merchant, advertiser or web publisher. However, non-personally identifiable user information (such as usage pattern, browser type and your computer) may be shared with third party businesses or advertisers with which I have a business or contractual relationship. I reserve the right to disclose personal information when needed to comply with the law or a legal process, cooperate with investigations of purported unlawful activities, to identify persons violating the law, in connection with the sale of part or all of Smokies Marketing Affiliate LLC’s or its affiliates assets, or to enforce my Terms and Conditions. Please keep in mind that if you disclose personally identifiable information in a public manner through the Sites, this information may be collected and used by others accessing those portions of the Sites. I do not monitor information you disclose on the Sites nor do I accept any liability associated with your voluntary disclosure of the same. You are responsible for reviewing the privacy statements and policies of other websites you choose to link to or from the Sites, so that you may understand how those sites collect, use and store your information. I am not responsible for the privacy statements, policies or content of any other websites. Websites containing co-branding (referencing my name and a third party’s name) contain content delivered by the third party and not me.

 

NOTICE OF PRIVACY RIGHTS TO CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS

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California law requires that I provide you with a summary of your privacy rights under the California Online Privacy Protection Act (the “Act”) and the California Business and Professions Code. As required by the Act, I will provide you with the categories of personally identifiable information that I collect through this website and the categories of third-party persons or entities with whom such personally identifiable information may be shared for direct marketing purposes at your request. California law requires me to inform you, at your request: (1) the categories of personally identifiable information I collect and what third parties I share that information with; (2) the names and addresses of those third parties; and (3) examples of the products marketed by those companies. The Act further requires me to allow you to control who I can and cannot share that information with. To obtain this information, please send a request by email or standard mail to the address found below. When contacting me please indicate your name, address, email address, and what personally identifiable information you do not want me to share with third parties. Please allow thirty (30) days for a response. Also, please note that there is no charge for controlling the sharing of your personally identifiable information or requesting this notice.

 

LIMITATIONS

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By using the Sites, you agree that I am not responsible for: (i) any disclosure of your personal information made by you to a third party through your use of the Sites; (ii) any disclosure of your personal information obtained illegally from me; or (iii) any accidental disclosure of your personal information made by me.

 

POLICY CHANGES

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I may modify this Privacy Policy from time to time. Any modifications will be effective immediately when I post them. I will take steps to notify users of any modifications, however, you are responsible for reviewing any modified terms. When I update my Policy, I will note the date of revisions at the top of the Policy. Your continued use of a Site following any changes means you accept and agree to any changes. For your convenience and future reference, the date of the Privacy Policy is included so that you can compare any different versions of the Privacy Policy to determine any changes made to the Privacy Policy. YOUR

 

COMMENTS AND CONCERNS

 

This website is operated by Smokies Marketing Affiliate LLC. All other feedback, comments, requests for technical support and other communications relating to the Sites should be directed to: sherr@smokiesmarketingaffiliate.com. If you would like to: access, correct, amend or delete any personal information we have about you, you are invited to contact us at sherr@smokiesmarketingaffiliate.com