Contacting Us: At any time, you may contact us at ExploreWithCarolyn@gmail.com
Social Media Platforms: Social Medial Platforms refers to any and all social media or related platforms unless otherwise noted in these Policies. ExploreWithCarolyn has accounts on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
Privacy: 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.
Information You Submit Voluntarily: When you follow us on social media, comment on articles posted on our website and social media platforms, subscribe to our email list, purchase our products or services, or otherwise engage with us or our content, we gather personal information. Personal information is information that identifies you as an individual or relates to an identifiable individual. If you disclose any personal information relating to other people to us or to our service providers in connection with our services, you represent that you have the authority to do so and permit us to use the information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
Information you provide to us from your linked accounts: You may link your Facebook, Instagram, Google, other social media platforms, and website accounts to your user profile. If you choose to do this, we will receive your name, email address and profile picture associated with those accounts. This may result in your profile picture appearing on your post.
Automatically-Collected Information: We use a variety of analytic tools to improve our content. Therefore, we automatically collect certain information about you and the devices with which you access our content. For example, when you use the Website, we will 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.
Cookies: We may log information using cookies, which are small data files stored on your browser. 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 personalized experience. We may use cookies to store visitors’ preferences, record user-specific information on what pages users access or visit, ensure that visitors do not receive the same banner ads repeatedly, customize content based on visitors’ browser type, or other information that the visitor sends. Third party service providers may also use cookies, which are governed by their specific privacy policies. Users may, at any time, prevent the setting of cookies by using a corresponding setting on your internet browser and may thus permanently deny the setting of cookies. Furthermore, already set cookies may be deleted at any time via an Internet browser or other software programs. This is possible in all popular Internet browsers. However, if you deactivate the setting of cookies in your Internet browser, not all functions may be entirely usable.
Device Information. We collect information about the computer, mobile device, or other device you use to access our content and services, such as Internet protocol (IP) addresses (the region or general location where your computer or device is accessing the Internet), geolocation information, unique device identifiers, browser type, browser language and other transactional information.
We may use the information collected in the following ways:
- To customize your experience;
- To analyze customer behavior to develop new products and services of interest to you;
- To operate and maintain the Website;
- To create your account, identify you as a user of the Website, and customize the Website for your account;
- To send you promotional information, such as newsletters. Each email promotion will provide information on how to opt-out of future mailings;
- To send you administrative communications, such as administrative emails, confirmation emails, technical notices, updates on policies, or security alerts;
- To respond to your comments or inquiries;
- To provide you with user support;
- To track and measure advertising on the Website and our Social Media Platforms; and/or,
- To protect, investigate, and deter against unauthorized or illegal activity.
Third Party Use of Personal Information: We may share your information with third parties when you explicitly authorize us to share your information. Additionally, the Website may use third-party service providers to service various aspects of the Website, as well as the products and services you purchase. Each third-party service provider’s use of your personal information is dictated by their respective privacy policies. We do not have access to, nor control over, these third parties’ use of cookies or other tracking technologies or how they may be used. We do our best to ensure that the third parties we use are reputable businesses. If there is an issue with any of our third party service providers, please let us know so that we may re-evaluate our future relationship with that provider.
Except when required by law, we will not sell, distribute, or reveal your email address or other personal information without your consent; however, we may disclose or transfer personal information collected through the Website to third parties who acquire all or a portion of our business, which may be the result of a merger, consolidation, or purchase of all or a portion of our assets, or in connection with any bankruptcy or reorganization proceeding brought by or against us.
Your California Privacy Rights: Under the California “Shine The Light” law, California residents may opt-out of our disclosure of personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. As detailed above, you may choose to opt-out of the sharing of your personal information with third parties for marketing purposes at any time by emailing us at ExploreWithCarolyn@gmail.com. Please include all email address(es) you wish to remove from our mailings and phone number(s) in the body of your email or letter, and put “Opt-out” in the subject line. It is important to note that this opt-out request does not prohibit us from sending you important administrative disclosures for non-marketing purposes. We will comply with your request(s) as soon as reasonably practicable.
Accessing, Changing or Updating Personal Information: If you would like to review, correct, restrict or delete personal information that you have previously provided to us, please contact us by email. In your request, please state what personal information you would like to have changed, whether you would like to have your personal information suppressed from our database or otherwise let us know what limitations you would like to put on our use of your personal information. For your protection, we only implement requests with respect to the personal information associated with the particular email address that you use to send us your request, and we may need to verify your identity before implementing your request. We will respond to your request consistent with applicable law.
Please note that we may need to retain certain information for recordkeeping purposes and/or to complete any transactions that you began prior to requesting a change or deletion (e.g., when you make a purchase or enter a promotion, you may not be able to change or delete the Personal Information provided until after the completion of such purchase or promotion).
If you are a resident of California, under 18 and a member of our mailing list, you may ask us to remove content or information that you have posted to our website or affiliated social media account by emailing us. Please note that your request does not ensure complete or comprehensive removal of the content or information, as, for example, some of your content may have been reposted by another user.
You may lodge a complaint with a data protection authority for your country or region or where an alleged infringement of applicable data protection law occurs. A list of EU data protection authorities is available here.
Sensitive Personal Information: Unless specifically requested (for example, in connection with a particular survey), we ask that you not send us, and you not disclose, any sensitive personal information (e.g., social security numbers, information related to racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religion or other beliefs, health, biometrics or genetic characteristics, criminal background or trade union membership) on or through our website or other social media platforms or otherwise to us. Any requested information that includes sensitive information about health, political opinions, ethnicity, race, religion, sex life or sexual orientation can be left unanswered. If you elect to submit such information to us, it will be subject to this privacy policy.
Data Retention: We retain personal information for as long as needed or permitted in light of the purpose(s) for which it was obtained and consistent with applicable law. The criteria used to determine our retention periods include:
- The length of time we have an ongoing relationship with you (for example, for as long as you remain on our mailing list, utilize our services, purchase our products, and/or comment on our content);
- Whether there is a legal obligation to which we are subject (for example, certain laws require us to keep records of your transactions for a certain period of time before we can delete them); or
- Whether retention is advisable considering our legal position (for example, considering applicable statutes of limitations, litigation, or regulatory investigations).
Information Protection: We seek to protect personal information with reasonable organizational, technological, and physical safeguards commensurate to the sensitivity of the personal information. Although we take appropriate measures to safeguard your information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security. To further protect your data, we recommend that you use complex passwords for your accounts with us and for accounts with third parties that you use in connection with your engagement with us. Please do not use the same passwords for other services or share your password with unauthorized people. If you have reason to believe that your interaction with us is no longer secure, please immediately notify us in accordance with the “Contacting Us” section above.
Children’s Guidelines: We do not knowingly collect or store any personal information from children except as permitted by applicable law. If you are a resident of California, USA, under 18 years old and a registered user of our services, please see above “Accessing, Changing or Updating My Personal Information?” If a parent or guardian believes that we have personal identifying information for your child under the age of 18 in our database, please contact us immediately and we will use our best efforts to remove such information promptly. We ask that you provide proof of the legal relationship and/or the age of the child.
International Transfers: We are headquartered in the United States. The information you provide to us or that we obtain as a result of your use of website or affiliated social media platforms is collected in your country and subsequently transferred to the United States. Some countries that are not members of the European Economic Area (EEA) are recognized by the European Commission as providing an adequate level of data protection according to EEA standards (the full list of these countries is available here). For transfers from the EEA to countries not considered adequate by the European Commission, we have put in place adequate measures, including by ensuring that the recipient is bound by EU Standard Contractual Clauses, to protect your personal data. To obtain a copy of these measures click here. In certain circumstances, courts, law enforcement agencies, regulatory agencies, or security authorities in those other countries may be entitled to access your personal information.
Changes to This Privacy Policy: We evaluate this privacy policy periodically in light of changing business practices, technology, and legal requirements. As a result, it is updated from time to time. Any such changes will be posted on this page. If we make a significant or material change in the way we use or share your personal information, you will be notified via email and/or prominent notice on the website at least 30 days prior to the changes taking effect.
Anonymous Data: From time to time, we may use anonymous data, which does not identify you alone, or when combined with data from other parties. This type of anonymous data may be provided to other parties for marketing, advertising, or other uses. Examples of this anonymous data may include analytics or information collected from cookies.
Display Ads: We may use third-party advertising companies to serve content and advertisements when you visit our Website or related social media platforms, which may use cookies, as noted above.
Retargeting Ads: From time to time, the Website may engage in remarketing efforts with third-party companies, such as Google, Facebook, or Instagram, to market our platforms. These companies use cookies to serve ads based on someone’s past visits to the Website or affiliated social media platforms.
Affiliate Program Participation: The Website may engage in affiliate marketing, which is done by embedding tracking links into the Website. If you click on a link for an affiliate partnership, a cookie will be placed on your browser to track any sales for purposes of commissions. ExploreWithCarolyn.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and links to Amazon.com. As part of this Amazon Associates program, the Website will post customized links, provided by Amazon, to track the referrals to their website. This program utilizes cookies to track visits for the purposes of assigning a commission on these sales.
Newsletters: On the Website or other social media platforms, you may subscribe to our newsletter, which may be used for advertising purposes. All newsletters sent 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 us to adapt the content of future newsletters to the interests of the user. This behavior will not be passed on to third parties.
Opt-Out: You may opt-out of future email communications by following the unsubscribe links in our emails. You may also email us to be removed from our mailing list.
Questions: At any time, please contact us at ExploreWithCarolyn@gmail.com for questions related to this Privacy Policy.
Content Comment Policy
We are interested in articulate, well-informed remarks that are relevant to the article or post. We welcome your advice, your criticism, and your unique insights into the issues of the day. We also welcome strong opinions and criticism of our work, and do not hesitate to approve critical comments. However, personal attacks against our staff will not be permitted, and any criticism should relate to the article in question. Additionally, while we invite criticisms of our products and services, we limit these to verified purchasers only.
Our site includes features that allow users to interact with each other through our Website articles and affiliate social media platforms. These features are intended to create a community where you can share your thoughts on what you have read. While we reserve the right to monitor user postings, it is up to our users to ensure that the discourse remains polite and informative. We moderate comments to encourage the free and open exchange or ideas in a climate of mutual respect. We reserve the right, but do not assume any obligation, to withhold or delete the publication of comments that violate our standards.
We ask that you treat other users with respect and that your comments are appropriate for adult, civil conversation. This includes respecting the rights of other to their opinions and to understand that there may be differing points of view. Comments that are obscene, libelous, or defamatory, or include vicious personal attacks, name-calling, or blatant self-promotion, will not be published. Comments or images that are racist, sexist, homophobic, or otherwise offensive will not be published.
If you believe a posted comment is inappropriate, please email us directly at ExploreWithCarolyn@gmail.com. Use “Inappropriate Content” in the subject line, reference the article name in the email, copy the text of the comment you believe is inappropriate into the email, and provide a short explanation of your concerns.
By participating in discussions or posting to the Website or affiliated social media platforms, you agree to our Privacy Policy and agree not to engage in any of the following:
- Use the site to impersonate any person or entity, or misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity;
- Use the site to engage in or to instigate or encourage others to engage in illegal activities or to cause injury or damage to any person or entity;
- Use the site to post or transmit any unlawful, threatening, harassing, abusive, libelous, obscene, or pornographic content;
- Use the site to post or transmit any information or content that violates or infringes the rights of others, including information or content that invades the privacy or violates the right of privacy of any person or that is protected by copyright, trademark, or other proprietary right, without permission;
- Use the site to advertise or solicit to anyone to buy or sell unauthorized products or services, or to make unauthorized donations of any kind;
- Gather for marketing purposes any email address or other personal information that has been posted by other users of the site;
- Engage in personal attacks, harass or threaten another user, or deliberately disrupt the conversation; or
- Use any automated mechanism to collect information from our site in any manner that fails to respect the Robots Exclusion Protocol.
Violation of any of the above will cause you to be banned from further posting on ExploreWithCarolyn.com or our Social Media Platforms.
Disclosures: I am not a travel agent. If you use the services offered, you are responsible for booking your meal, lodging, transportation, and activities. All suggestions have been researched to meet your requirements and the information provided is accurate to the best of my knowledge. I am not responsible for activity hours of operation, costs, information, and/or requirements that change after you receive your package. While, I have done my best to match the information in your package based on your questionnaire answers and the information publicly available about a particular option, it is your responsibility to confirm that a specific suggestion will meet your capabilities and expectations.
Refund Policy: Refund requests will not be considered if submitted prior to the refund date noted in your package. Refunds will be granted for any reason if submitted within 30 days after the refund date noted in your package. Refund dates are clearly noted at the top of the package materials.
Last updated: December 2021.