Privacy Statement

Effective September 1, 2014. Last updated July 17, 2024.

Thank you for visiting Talena Winters (also currently hosting My Secret Wish Publishing and the Word Wizard Academy / Author Alchemist). The websites found at the URLs talenawinters.com, mysecretwishpublishing.com, wordwizardacademy.com, and authoralchemist.ca (“Talena Winters”, “My Secret Wish Publishing”, “we”, “us”, or “our”) respects your privacy. This page details what personal information we collect, what we do with your information, and your choices and rights.

By using any of our services or purchasing items from any of our online stores or services (“Websites” or “Services”), you agree that you have read our Terms of Service and this Privacy Policy.

----

Summary of changes as of July 17, 2024:

  • We have updated sections pertaining to our use of Ream and Squarespace to provide membership services. See more about how this affects your personal information under “Section 1 – What do we do with your information?”, “Section 2 – Consent”, “Section 4 – Personal information: Membership Accounts”, and “Section 5 – Third-Party Services: Membership Emails”.

  • We have updated sections pertaining to our use of Printful as a print-on-demand merchandise manufacturer. See more about how this affects your personal information under “Section 4 – Personal Information”.

Summary of changes as of June 5, 2023:

  • We have updated our Google Analytics to use Google Analytics 4. See more about how that affects your personal information under “Section 6 – Cookies: Targeted Online Advertising”.

  • We have added more details about what information we collect and how we use it to provide our Services.

Section 1 – What do we do with your information?

When you visit our website, we collect personal data to power our site analytics and to enable our Services to run properly. When you purchase something from our store, we collect the personal information you give us such as your name, address and email address as part of the buying and selling process. When you browse our store, we also automatically receive your computer’s internet protocol (IP) address in order to provide us with information that helps us learn about your browser and operating system. When you join our membership program, we use the information you provide to fulfill the services promised when you signed up for membership. See “Section 4 - Personal Information” for more information about what personal data is collected.

Email marketing (if applicable): With your permission, we may send you emails about our store, new products and other updates. See section below on “Third Party Services” for more information about how this affects your personal information.

Targeted online marketing (if applicable): With your permission, targeted ads may appear featuring our products on other sites and platforms. See “Targeted Online Marketing” below.

Data storage: We retain your data in order to fulfill our business requirements such as accounting. Every reasonable effort is made to ensure the safety and security of your data. See “Security” below.

Section 2 – Consent

How do you get my consent?

When you visit our website and accept cookies to use our Services, you provide consent to the use of cookies as outlined in “Section 6 - Cookies” below for the purposes of providing our Services to you, as well as for other uses.

When you provide us with personal information to complete a transaction, verify your credit card, place an order, arrange for a delivery, return a purchase, or sign up for membership, you imply that you consent to our collecting it and using it for that specific reason only.

If we ask for your personal information for a secondary reason such as marketing, we will either ask you directly for your expressed consent, or provide you with an opportunity to opt out or change your preferences.

How do I withdraw my consent?

If, after you opt in or sign up to use one of our services or receive marketing materials from us, you change your mind, you may withdraw your consent for us to contact you, for the continued collection, use or disclosure of your information at any time by contacting us at twinters@mysecretwishpublishing.com or mailing us at:

TalenaWinters.com
ATTN: Privacy Compliance Officer
PO Box 6461
Peace River, AB, Canada
T8S 1S3

Section 3 – Disclosure

We may disclose your personal information if we are required by law to do so or if you violate our Terms of Service.

Section 4 – Personal information

When you visit our website, you grant us permission to collect and use your personal information in a variety of ways to provide you our Services. Details about the information we collect and how it is used are below.

Hosting Platform & Data Storage

Our website and store are hosted by Squarespace. They provide us with the online e-commerce platform that allows us to sell our products and services to you.

Your data is stored through Squarespace’s data storage, databases and the general Squarespace application. They store your data on a secure server behind a firewall.

Purchases

When you buy something on this website, we collect personal information from you to fulfill the order. We may collect information such as your billing and shipping address, details relating to your purchase (for example, your book binding preference or clothing size), email address, name, and phone number.

We share this information with Squarespace, our online store hosting provider, so that they can provide website services to us.

We may also share this information with Printful, our print-on-demand merchandise manufacturer, for the purposes of fulfilling your order.

As you go through checkout, this site may auto-complete your shipping and billing address by sharing what you type with the Google Places API and returning suggestions to you to improve your checkout experience.

Customer Accounts

If you create a customer account on this website, we collect personal information to improve our checkout experience and customer service.

This information may include your billing and shipping address(es), details about your orders (for example, what type of book binding you prefer), your email address, name, and phone number.

We share this information with Squarespace, our website hosting provider, so they can provide website services to us.

Membership Accounts

If you create a membership account on this website, we collect personal information to improve our checkout experience and customer service.

This information may include your billing and shipping address(es), details about your orders (for example, your subscription plan), your email address, name, and phone number.

In addition, we request you share information required to fulfill the services promised in your member benefits. This may include, but is not limited to, reading preferences, beverage preferences, and your birthdate. Sharing this information with us is optional and at your own discretion.

We share this information with Squarespace, our subscription service provider, so they can provide membership services to us.

Some of our membership services are provided by Ream (reamstories.com). Those services are subject to Ream’s Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, which you will need to accept to register an account. See “Section 5 – Third-Party Services” below for more.

Section 5 – Third-Party Services

In general, the third-party providers used by us will only collect, use and disclose your information to the extent necessary to allow them to perform the services they provide to us.

However, certain third-party service providers, such as payment gateways and other payment transaction processors, have their own privacy policies in respect to the information we are required to provide to them for your purchase-related transactions.

For these providers, we recommend that you read their privacy policies so you can understand the manner in which your personal information will be handled by these providers. (See “Payment”.)

In particular, remember that certain providers may be located in or have facilities that are located in a different jurisdiction than either you or us. So if you elect to proceed with a transaction that involves the services of a third-party service provider, then your information may become subject to the laws of the jurisdiction(s) in which that service provider or its facilities are located.

As an example, if you are located in Canada and your transaction is processed by a payment gateway located in the United States, then your personal information used in completing that transaction may be subject to disclosure under United States legislation, including the Patriot Act.

Once you leave our store’s website or are redirected to a third-party website or application, you are no longer governed by this Privacy Policy or our website’s Terms of Service.

Fonts

This website serves font files from and renders fonts using Google Fonts and Adobe Fonts. To properly display this site to you, these third parties may receive personal information about you, including:

  • Information about your browser, network, or device

  • Information about this site and the page you’re viewing on it

  • Your IP address

Payment

Squarespace uses third party payment processors to assist it in processing your personally identifiable payment information securely. Such third party processors’ use of your personal information is governed by their respective privacy policies which may or may not contain privacy protections as protective as this privacy policy. Payments are currently processed and managed using the third party vendors below.

All direct payment gateways 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.

For more insight, you may also want to read Squarespace’s Terms of Service here or Privacy Statement here.

Links

When you click on links on the Website, they may direct you away from our site. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of other sites and encourage you to read their privacy statements.

Transactional Emails

We may email you with messages about your order or account activity. For example, we may email you to tell you that:

  • You’ve created a customer account.

  • Your customer account password has been reset or updated.

  • You’ve made a purchase.

  • Your order has shipped.

It’s not possible to unsubscribe from these messages.

We share your contact information with Squarespace, our website hosting provider, so they can send these emails to you on our behalf.

Email Marketing

With your permission, we may send you marketing emails, which you can unsubscribe from by clicking the link at the bottom of the email. We share your contact information with MailerLite, our email marketing provider, so they can send these emails on our behalf.

This information is subject not only to the terms of this Privacy Policy, but to the terms of the Privacy Policy and Terms of Service, and Cookie Policy of our mail service provider, as your information will be stored on their servers. Our mailing list will never be made available to any other person, organization, or entity for the purposes of using, distributing, or copying the information. We hate spam! You have the option to unsubscribe from any email marketing at any time using links provided in every marketing email.

Webform Submissions

When you submit information to this website via webform, we collect the data requested in the webform in order to track and respond to your submissions. We share this information with Squarespace, our online store hosting provider, so that they can provide website services to us. We also share this information with Google and MailerLite for storage and with Zapier for data porting.

Membership Emails

We may email you with messages about your membership or account activity. For example, we may email you to tell you that:

  • You’ve created a membership account.

  • Your account password has been reset or updated.

  • You’ve subscribed to a new plan.

  • You’ve cancelled a plan.

It’s not possible to unsubscribe from these messages.

We share your contact information with Squarespace, our membership services provider, so they can send these emails to you on our behalf.

With your permission, we may send you marketing and update emails related to your membership, as per the information under “Email Marketing” above.

When you join our membership on Ream, you will also receive email notifications and messages about your membership according to the settings you determine on their platform and in compliance with their Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.

Section 6 – Cookies

Cookies. Cookies are small pieces of text sent to your browser when you visit a site. They serve a variety of functions, like enabling us to remember certain information you provide to us as you navigate between pages on the Services. We use cookies on the website and associated domains of www.talenawinters.com, www.mysecretwishpublishing.com and www.authoralchemist.ca and on associated stores and websites for the following purposes (some of which are provided by our hosting platform, Squarespace):

  • Authentication, Customization, Security and Other Functional Cookies. Cookies help us verify your Account and device and determine when you’re logged in, so we can make it easier for you to access the Services and provide the appropriate experiences and features. We also use cookies to help prevent fraudulent use of login credentials and to remember choices you’ve made on the Services, such as your language preference.

  • Performance And Analytics. Cookies help us analyze how the Services are being accessed and used, and enable us to track performance of the Services. For example, we use cookies to determine if you viewed a page or opened an email. This helps us provide you with information that you find interesting.

  • Third Parties. Third Party Services may use cookies to help you sign into their services from our Services. Any such third party cookie usage is governed by the policy of the third party placing the cookie.

  • Ads. We partner with third party publishers, advertising networks and service providers to manage our ads on other sites. Our third party partners may set cookies on your device or browser to gather information about your activities on the Services and other sites you visit, in order to provide you with targeted ads for Talena Winters or My Secret Wish Publishing. For example, if you visit talenawinters.com and also use a social media platform, you may see a Talena Winters ad in your social media newsfeed or timeline.

  • Opting Out. You can set your browser to not accept cookies, but this may limit your ability to use the Services. We currently don’t respond to DNT:1 signals from browsers visiting our Services. You can also opt out of receiving interest-based ads from certain ad networks here (or if located in the European Union, here). When signing up for any of our email marketing, you also have the option of opting out of targeted advertising based on your email address. These preferences can be adjusted at any time.

For information about viewing the cookies Squarespace drops on your device, visit The cookies Squarespace uses.

By using this site, you agree to the use of cookies. If you do not wish to have cookies placed in your browser, adjust your browser security settings.

Squarespace Analytics

This website collects personal data to power our site analytics, including information about your browser, network, and device; web pages you visited prior to coming to this website; and your IP address. This information may also include details about your use of this website, including clicks, internal links, pages visited, scrolling, searches, and timestamps.

We share this information with Squarespace, our website analytics provider, to learn about site traffic and activity.

Targeted online advertising

We have engaged one or more third party service providers to track and analyse both individualized usage and volume statistical information from interactions with our Websites. We also partner with one or more third parties (such as advertisers and ad networks) to display advertising on our Websites and / or to manage and serve advertising on other sites.

These third parties use cookies, web beacons, pixel tags and similar tracking technologies to collect and use certain information about your online activities, either on our Websites and / or other sites or mobile apps, to infer your interests and deliver you targeted advertisements that are more tailored to you based on your browsing activities and inferred interests (“Interest Based Advertising”). For more information about this practice, click here: http://www.aboutads.info/choices/.

Our third party service providers may also use cookies, tags, or web beacons to collect information about your visits to our Websites and / or other sites to measure and track the effectiveness of advertisements and our online marketing activities (for example, by collecting data on how many times you click on one of our ads). The information collected by these third parties may include personal information that enables you to be specifically identified (e.g. by reference to your Google User ID) or to give information about your location or the type of device you are using.

Currently, we use cookies or pixels from the following third-party providers:

Section 7 – Security

To protect your personal information, we take reasonable precautions and follow industry best practices to make sure it is not inappropriately lost, misused, accessed, disclosed, altered or destroyed.

Information provided to complete a purchase transaction is handled by Squarespace.com and either PayPal.com or Stripe.com, and is subject to their respective Terms of Service and Privacy Policies. If you have any concerns about how your information is handled, please contact them.

Comments and User Content Posted to the Website

This website includes commenting functionality on some pages which enables you to post a comment. This website collects personal data when you post a comment, including:

  • Your name (which will be displayed as part of your posted comment)

  • Your email address (optional, to let you know if someone replies to your comment)

  • Your website URL (optional)

This website includes “likes” functionality on some blog posts which enables you to “like” a post. This website collects personal data when you like a post to try to prevent the same person from liking the same post during the same visit, including:

  • Information about your browser, network and device

  • Details about the web page or content you shared or proposed to share

  • Your IP address

If you post any Comments or User Content on the Website, you should be aware that any personally identifiable information you choose to provide there may be read, collected, or used by other users of the Website, as well as other third parties. We are not responsible for the information you choose to submit in these forums. We cannot guarantee that other users have not made copies of and / or will not use such information outside of the Website. We are not responsible for information you choose to post in this forum. 

Social Media

The Website provides users the opportunity to interact and post content through various social media sites including, but not limited to, X, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr, foursquare, Flickr, YouTube and Vimeo. Your interactions with such tools, and any information you provide in connection with these interactions are publicly viewable outside of the Website domain. Each social media site has its own privacy policies which may be more or less protective than this Policy. If you do not wish for this information to be disclosed, then you should not use these tools. We are not responsible for information you choose to post in this forum.

Our site also includes Social Media Features such as the Facebook button and Widgets such as the Share This button, Review on Goodreads button, or interactive mini-programs that run on our site. These Features may collect your IP address, which page you are visiting on our site, and may set a cookie to enable the Feature to function properly. Social Media Features and Widgets are either hosted by a third party or hosted directly on our Site. Your interactions with these Features are governed by the privacy policy of the company providing it.

Section 8 – Age of Consent

By using this site, you represent that you are at least the age of majority in your state or province of residence, or that you are the age of majority in your state or province of residence and you have given us your consent to allow any of your minor dependents to use this site.

Section 9 – Changes to this Privacy Policy

We reserve the right to modify this privacy policy at any time, so please review it frequently. Changes and clarifications will take effect immediately upon their posting on the website. If we make material changes to this policy, we will notify you here that it has been updated, so that you are aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we use and / or disclose it.

If our store is acquired or merged with another company, your information may be transferred to the new owners so that the Store may continue to offer products and services to you.

Questions and Contact Information

If you would like to: access, correct, amend or delete any personal information we have about you, register a complaint, or simply want more information contact our Privacy Compliance Officer through our contact form or by mail at:

TalenaWinters.com
ATTN: Privacy Compliance Officer
PO Box 6461
Peace River, AB, Canada
T8S 1S3