Privacy Policy

1. Data We Collect

Information You Provide to Us:

• Account Information: When you create an account, we collect your username, email address, and password (encrypted).
• Profile Information: Optional bio, profile preferences, and newsletter subscription status.
• User-Generated Content: Comments, tool submissions, article submissions, ratings, and reviews you post on our platform.
• Contact Information: When you contact us through our contact forms or email, we collect your name, email address, and message content.
• Newsletter Subscription: Email address and subscription preferences for our newsletter service.

Information We Collect Automatically:

• Usage Data: Pages visited, time spent on pages, click patterns, and interaction data with our website features.
• Device Information: Browser type, operating system, device type, screen resolution, and language preferences.
• Log Data: IP address, access times, pages requested, user agent, and referring website information.
• Cookies and Tracking: We use cookies and similar technologies to enhance your experience and analyze website performance.

2. How We Use Your Data

We use your personal information for the following purposes:

• Service Provision: Create and manage your account, enable community features, and provide personalized content recommendations.
• Communication: Send you newsletters, updates about new AI tools, and respond to your inquiries and support requests.
• Platform Improvement: Analyze usage patterns to improve our website functionality, user experience, and content quality.
• Security: Detect and prevent fraud, abuse, and security threats to protect our community.
• Legal Compliance: Comply with applicable laws, regulations, and legal processes.

Third-Party Services:

• Google AdSense: We use Google AdSense to display advertisements. Google may collect and use data to personalize ads based on your interests. You can control ad personalization in your Google Account settings.
• Google Analytics: We use Google Analytics to understand how visitors interact with our website. This helps us improve our content and user experience.
• MailerLite: We use MailerLite for email marketing and newsletter delivery. Your email and subscription preferences are shared with MailerLite to provide this service.
• Google Gemini AI: We use Google's Gemini AI to enhance content and provide AI-powered features. Data processed by Gemini is subject to Google's privacy policies.

3. Cookies and Tracking Technologies

We use cookies and similar technologies to:

• Essential Cookies: Enable core website functionality, maintain your login session, and remember your preferences.
• Analytics Cookies: Understand how you use our website through Google Analytics to improve our services.
• Advertising Cookies: Deliver relevant advertisements through Google AdSense based on your interests and browsing behavior.
• Performance Cookies: Monitor website performance, loading times, and identify technical issues.

You can control cookies through your browser settings. However, disabling certain cookies may limit your ability to use some features of our website.

4. Your Rights (GDPR/CCPA Compliance)

Depending on your location, you may have the following rights regarding your personal data:

Under GDPR (EU Residents):

• Right to Access: Request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
• Right to Rectification: Request correction of inaccurate or incomplete personal data.
• Right to Erasure: Request deletion of your personal data under certain circumstances.
• Right to Restrict Processing: Request limitation of how we process your data.
• Right to Data Portability: Request transfer of your data to another service provider.
• Right to Object: Object to processing of your data for direct marketing or legitimate interests.
• Right to Withdraw Consent: Withdraw consent for data processing where consent is the legal basis.

Under CCPA (California Residents):

• Right to Know: Request information about the personal information we collect, use, and disclose.
• Right to Delete: Request deletion of your personal information, subject to certain exceptions.
• Right to Opt-Out: Opt-out of the sale of your personal information (we do not sell personal information).
• Right to Non-Discrimination: Not receive discriminatory treatment for exercising your privacy rights.

To exercise these rights, please contact us using the information provided in the "Contact Information" section below.

5. Data Security

We implement reasonable technical and organizational security measures to protect your personal information against unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction. These measures include:

• Encryption: We use SSL/TLS encryption to protect data transmitted between your browser and our servers.
• Access Controls: Limited access to personal data on a need-to-know basis with secure authentication systems.
• Regular Security Updates: We regularly update our systems and software to address security vulnerabilities.
• Data Minimization: We collect and retain only the data necessary for our stated purposes.
• Secure Storage: Personal data is stored on secure servers with appropriate safeguards.

6. Data Retention

We retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this Privacy Policy, unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law. Specifically:

• Account Data: Retained until you delete your account or request data deletion.
• User-Generated Content: May be retained even after account deletion to maintain community integrity.
• Analytics Data: Typically retained for 26 months in Google Analytics.
• Email Marketing Data: Retained until you unsubscribe from our newsletter.
• Legal Compliance: Some data may be retained longer to comply with legal obligations.

7. Third-Party Links and Services

Our website may contain links to third-party websites, AI tools, and services. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of these external sites. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of any third-party services before providing your personal information.

8. Children's Privacy

Our service is not intended for children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If we become aware that we have collected personal information from a child under 13, we will take steps to delete such information from our files.

9. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or for other operational, legal, or regulatory reasons. We will notify you of any material changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page and updating the "Last Updated" date. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically.

10. Contact Information

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, want to exercise your privacy rights, or need to contact us regarding your personal data, please reach out to us:

11. Legal Basis for Processing (GDPR)

For EU residents, we process your personal data based on the following legal grounds:

• Consent: When you provide explicit consent for newsletter subscriptions or optional features.
• Contract Performance: To provide our services and maintain your account.
• Legitimate Interests: To improve our services, prevent fraud, and ensure platform security.
• Legal Obligation: To comply with applicable laws and regulations.