Hi.
Welcome! I teach basic needle felting techniques, write fiber processing guides, provide tutorials, and blog about whatever comes to mind (including homeschooling my two kids and my life in general). Oh, and I make things too!
Welcome! I teach basic needle felting techniques, write fiber processing guides, provide tutorials, and blog about whatever comes to mind (including homeschooling my two kids and my life in general). Oh, and I make things too!
This website is owned and operated by one person: Magi Kern, and it’s run on the Squarespace platform. There are no other individuals who access this site on the back-end or any of the 3rd party accounts used to collect/organize analytics data or affiliate data. I only work with reputable 3rd parties who also agree to abide by the rules and regulations for collecting and storing any personal information necessary to help me operate my site. I do not share or sell any of the data I collect (identifiable or otherwise). The 3rd parties for which I am an affiliate have their own policies as far as what they do with your information should you choose to create an account with them and make a purchase. I list out all of the parties with which I’m affiliated in my disclosure.
For those who provide me with their personally identifiable information, either by making a purchase or through signing up for the newsletter, that information is stored in a databank on the Squarespace webserver associated with this website.
If the purchase you made was for a physical item, your name and address is inputted and stored in PirateShip, which I only use for the purpose of creating shipping labels and mailing orders. PirateShip is regulated by the USPS, and they have their own privacy policy - neither they, nor USPS, share or sell your information. Any information collected is only for the purpose of mailing packages and whatever they need to do to track that package along the way. I do not send out printed mailers or catalogs of any kind. The email collected with your purchase is used only for contact purposes to provide you with download links for your digital orders, or to verify shipping addresses if necessary and provide tracking information for physical items. You are not automatically signed up for any newsletters unless you personally opt-in.
Regarding newsletters, I use MailChimp for creating and mailing any email campaigns. Here is their privacy policy for contacts. I follow the CanSpam act of 2003. I do not automatically sign you up for emails if you make a purchase, unless you choose to opt in during check-out. You also can opt out of emails by clicking on the unsubscribe button. Those who unsubscribe also have their emails listed and stored separately so I can make sure that they have been removed from the mailing list. You can either update your personal information or email, or unsubscribe by contacting me, and I will remove you from the list myself. I collect names associated with the emails to help me personalize the newsletters that show up in your inbox, rather than getting an email titled “Dear Name.”
I use Stripe and Paypal to process payments on this website. Privacy/Terms & Conditions are as per each site. I never see any of your payment information, as it’s processed through a 3rd party.
Cookies are little tracking IDs, or tags, that are temporarily installed on your computer when you access a website. Some are known as functional cookies, and are mandatory for the site to work properly - these are not used to track anything, but do things like keep you logged in if you had logged into a tutorial so you don’t have to input the password each time to access it. Squarespace discloses the function of each type of cookie on this page which may be used on this site (I do not use all the features mentioned, so some are not relevant). The other type of cookies used on this site are for analytics and for affiliate tracking.
The only analytics tracking softwares/companies I use are the one built into this website (Squarespace) and that of Google Analytics with anonymized IP. They collect anonymous analytical data which is identified by a randomized anonymous identifier, and do not collect any personally identifiable information. The information collected includes:
country of origin
time and date when the site was accessed
if the user used a desktop, tablet or mobile to access the site
how much time was spent on the website
which specific pages were accessed, and how they got there (social media, search, direct link, etc.)
the type of browser used, and which type of operating system
screen resolution used to view the site
which keywords were searched in order to access my website
This information is stored on the relevant sites only, I am the only one who accesses and sees this data, and is not sold or shared. This analytic information serves as anonymous feedback for me to know if my website is helpful to you, and which content you find the most helpful. The information is used to help me prioritize the content I choose to publish next, come up with new ideas for content, and tweak the website design and content for a better user experience.
I am an affiliate of several sites and companies, all of which I have deemed to be reputable, and have their own privacy policies. For affiliate purposes, they use a temporary cookie (the length of time depends on the company - one is 24 hours, one is 15 days, another 30, as long as the person does not delete their cookies). I found this explanation on Woolery’s privacy policy (of which I am an affiliate) especially helpful: “When a web surfer clicks through your affiliate link, a cookie is set in their browser that contains your affiliate username. Also, their IP address is tracked in the database along with your affiliate name. When this person decides to buy a product, the script will look for this cookie and/or try to match their IP address to identify the affiliate who will be awarded the commission. Visitors sent through your affiliate link may make a purchase later in time and the commission will still be awarded if the cookie is present in their browser and/or they are using the same IP address as the one logged in the database.”
The only thing I see on the back-end is how many people clicked on the affiliate links, whether or not someone made a purchase after clicking on my affiliate link, and which items were purchased. I do not see who made the purchase or any personally identifiable information. It only serves to let me know how I am performing as an affiliate.
On some pages that do not have native commenting enabled (anything that is not a blog post), I use a 3rd party commenting software to include commenting as an option. You’ll see this enabled to leave a review on one of my digital products if you wish, and on certain reference static pages. I believe you need an account with Disqus to leave a comment, and they have their own privacy policy here, as well as the ability to opt in or out of any targeting or personalization information for advertising purposes.
