last updated 10/02/23
Privacy Policy
By using our site, you consent to our privacy policy. You may use our site anonymously.

What information do we collect?

Comments
When you leave comments on the site, we collect the data shown in the comments form and your computer’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 at https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.

Contact Forms & Order Forms
All contact forms and order forms on this site were created on either Jotform or InfusionSoft and embedded here. The information collected includes the information requested on the form, the date it was submitted, and your computer’s IP address. The information collected on the form is often transferred to our database housed with InfusionSoft. When you complete a financial transaction online with us using a credit card, we store the following in our InfusionSoft database: your name, date of payment, authorization and cancellation codes, transaction’s reference number, type of payment, the last four digits of the credit card, the credit card expiration date, the cardholder name, billing address and shipping address. We DO NOT store the CVV number for credit cards. We generally retain this information indefinitely in case questions arise about the transaction. Your information will not be sold, exchanged, transferred, or given to any other company for any reason whatsoever, without your consent, other than for the express purpose of delivering the purchased product or service requested. Only our internal staff and service providers (Jotform and InfusionSoft) have access to this information. Our service providers do not provide your data to anyone else. For more information, read our service providers' privacy policies: Jotform, InfusionSoft, and PayPal.

Cookies
Cookies are small text files that a site or its service provider transfers to your computer’s hard drive through your Web browser (if you allow) that enables the sites or service providers systems to recognize your browser and capture and remember certain information. If you prefer, you can refuse cookies via your browser’s privacy settings. Like most websites, if you turn your cookies off, some of our services may not function properly. However, you can still place orders over the telephone. Below are the various ways this site uses cookies.
This site uses Google Analytics, a service that uses cookies to transmit website traffic data to Google servers. It helps us compile aggregate data about site traffic and site interactions in order to offer better site experiences and tools in the future. Google Analytics does not identify individual users or associate your IP address with any other data held by Google. You may opt out of Google Analytics cookies with the Google Analytics Opt-Out Add-on at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout. Visit https://policies.google.com/privacy to read more about how Google uses data when you visit this site.
An InfusionSoft-generated cookie collects your computer's IP address to track when website visitors become contacts in our database. Visitor information is kept in our database for 90 days. After that, InfusionSoft archives it, but it is no longer accessible to us.
A "Facebook Pixel" (another name for a cookie) helps us track traffic to our site from any Facebook ads we may run. Read Facebook's cookie policy at https://www.facebook.com/policies/cookies/.
A LinkedIn cookie helps us track traffic to our site from any LinkedIn ads we may run. Read LinkedIn's cookie policy at https://www.linkedin.com/legal/cookie-policy.
If you leave a comment on the news portion of 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 have an account to log into the news portion of our 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.

Embedded Content from Other Websites
Articles on this site may include embedded content, such as videos, images, articles, and so forth. 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.

What do we use your information for?
Any of the information we collect from you may be used in one of the following ways:
Processing financial transactions and fulfilling requests submitted via forms. Your information, whether public or private, will not be sold, exchanged, transferred, or given to any other company for any reason whatsoever, without your consent, other than for the express purpose of delivering the purchased product or service requested.
Adding you to our newsletter distribution list if you complete a sign-up form. Emails provided during financial transactions are not added to our list. If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from receiving future emails, we include detailed unsubscribe instructions at the bottom of each email.
Tracking how visitors use our site to help us improve it over time.

What rights do 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. If you would like your data removed from our database, call us at 704.844.6080.

Where do we send your data?
In addition to the software service providers noted above, visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.

How do we protect your information?
We implement a variety of security measures to maintain the safety of your personal information when you place an order or enter, submit, or access your personal information. All financial transactions on our site are completed via secure Infusions Payments or PayPal. All form data is submitted using either JotForm’s or InfusionSoft’s encryption. Our database is accessible only to those authorized with special access rights to our system and who are required to keep the information confidential.
However, no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be totally secure. Although we strive to protect your personal information, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information that you send to us, and you do so at your own risk. After a transaction, your private information (credit cards, social security numbers, financials, etc.) will not be stored on our servers.
Your privacy is important to us, but due to the existing legal regulatory and security environment, SPARK Publications cannot guarantee that your private communications and other personally identifiable information will not be disclosed to third parties. Under certain circumstances, the government or third parties may intercept or access transmissions or private communications. Additionally, in the unlikely event SPARK Publications needs to investigate or resolve possible problems or inquiries, it can disclose any information about you to private entities, law enforcement, or other government officials as SPARK Publications, in its sole discretion, believes necessary or appropriate, or to comply with a current judicial proceeding, a court order or legal process served on SPARK Publications.

What happens if I change my information provided to SPARK Publications?
You can change your information by contacting us or following the instructions included at the bottom of our emails to you. We will maintain copies of user information to the extent retained as part of our website’s standard backup/archive process. In addition, these procedures will not remove such of your information that has been provided by you to, or collected from you by, the websites of our business partners. We are not responsible for ensuring the removal or deletion from the websites of our business partners of your information provided by us to our business partners as permitted by you.

Do we disclose any information to outside parties?
We do not sell, trade, or otherwise transfer to outside parties your e-mail address or financial information. This does not include trusted third parties who assist us in operating our website, conducting our business, or servicing you, so long as those parties agree to keep this information confidential. We may also release your information when we believe release is appropriate to comply with the law, enforce our site policies, or protect ours or others’ rights, property, or safety. However, non-personally identifiable visitor information may be provided to other parties for marketing, advertising, or other uses.

Is my information protected on sites linked to the SPARK Publications website?
No. This site often contains links to other websites. SPARK Publications cannot be responsible for their content or for private information that you may choose to share with them. SPARK Publications encourages you to investigate and ask questions before disclosing personal information to third parties on any website.

Legal Disclaimer
On occasion, this site provides information designed to help users cope with their own legal, business, financial, and other needs. This information is not the same as retaining experts in those fields for advice. Although we go to great lengths to ensure the information is accurate, we strongly recommend you consult an expert, including but not limited to a lawyer, accountant, financial services consultant, or other professional as appropriate. Nothing contained in this web site is to be considered as the rendering of legal, financial, professional, or other advice for specific cases, and users are responsible for obtaining such advice from their own legal, financial, or other counsel. Such information contained on this site is intended for educational, background, and informational purposes only.

Changes to our Privacy Policy
If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will modify the “Last updated” date above.

Contacting Us
If there are any questions regarding this privacy policy you may contact us at 2116 Crown Centre Drive, Suite 300, Charlotte, NC 28227 or 704.844.6080.

Privacy Policy Created with help from Free Privacy Policy