HowCrunch Privacy Policy: Your Data, Our Promise

Welcome to the official HowCrunch Privacy Policy page. At HowCrunch, your privacy is important to us. We believe in providing clear, useful content, and that extends to how we handle your personal information. This policy explains what data we collect, why we collect it, and what rights you have over your data. Think of it as a transparent look behind the scenes ensuring you understand the HowCrunch Privacy Policy fully.

Who We Are: About HowCrunch and Your Privacy

Welcome to HowCrunch! Our website address is https://howcrunch.com. We’re your go-to multilingual knowledge blog, dedicated to sharing practical insights across health, technology, lifestyle, and curious knowledge. We’re committed to making learning approachable for everyone, and that includes being open about our data practices and the HowCrunch Privacy Policy.

Your Comments and Our Privacy Policy

We love hearing from you! When you share your thoughts by leaving comments on our articles, we collect the data you provide in the comments form. This includes your name, email address, and your comment itself.

To help us fight spam and keep our comment section clean and valuable for everyone, we also collect your IP address and information about your browser (like what type of browser you’re using).

An anonymous “hash” created from your email address might be sent to the Gravatar service. This is just to check if you’re using Gravatar and to display your profile picture alongside your comment once it’s approved. You can learn more about their privacy practices here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. We ensure these third-party services align with our commitment to your data privacy.

Media Uploads and Data Privacy

If you’re contributing to HowCrunch by uploading images, please be mindful of embedded location data (EXIF GPS). This is data that some devices automatically include in photos, indicating where the photo was taken. Visitors to our website can download and extract this location data from images. To protect your privacy, we recommend removing such data before uploading. This is an important aspect of our HowCrunch Privacy Policy regarding user-generated content.

Cookies: Enhancing Your Experience with Data Control

Like most websites, HowCrunch uses “cookies.” These are small text files stored on your computer or device that help our site remember things about your visit. They’re not for tracking your every move, but rather to make your experience smoother. Our use of cookies is detailed within this HowCrunch Privacy Policy.

For Your Convenience: If you leave a comment, you can choose to save your name, email address, and website in cookies. This is just a convenience so you don’t have to re-enter your details every time you want to comment. These cookies will last for one year.
Temporary Cookies for Logins: When you visit our login page, we set a temporary cookie to check if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie doesn’t contain any personal data and disappears when you close your browser.
Login & Display Cookies: When you log in (if you have an account), we set a few cookies to remember your login info and your screen display preferences. Login cookies last for two days, and screen option cookies last for a year. If you tick “Remember Me,” your login will stay active for two weeks. If you log out, these login cookies are removed.

Editing & Publishing Cookies: If you edit or publish an article, another cookie is saved in your browser. This cookie simply points to the ID of the article you edited and expires after 1 day. It contains no personal data.

Embedded Content from Other Websites and Your Data

Sometimes, our articles might include content from other websites – things like videos from YouTube, images from flickr, or articles from news sites. This “embedded content” behaves exactly as if you had visited the original website directly.

These external websites might collect data about you, use their own cookies, embed their own third-party tracking, and monitor how you interact with their content. This includes tracking your interaction if you have an account with them and are logged in to their service. We recommend reviewing the privacy policies of any third-party sites you interact with via embedded content, as their data practices are separate from the HowCrunch Privacy Policy.

We value your privacy and aim to minimize data sharing. Generally, HowCrunch does not share your personal data with third parties unless absolutely necessary, in adherence to the HowCrunch Privacy Policy.

Password Resets: If you ever request a password reset, your IP address will be included in the reset email to ensure security and prevent misuse.
Spam Detection: Visitor comments are checked through an automated spam detection service to keep our comment section clean and relevant.

How Long We Keep Your Data

We only retain your data for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected or to comply with legal obligations, as outlined in this HowCrunch Privacy Policy.

Comments: If you leave a comment, the comment itself and its associated details (metadata) are kept indefinitely. This helps us recognize and automatically approve any follow-up comments from you, saving them from getting stuck in a moderation queue.
Registered Users: For anyone who registers an account on HowCrunch, we store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All registered users have the ability to see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (the only exception is their username, which cannot be changed). Our website administrators can also view and edit this information.

Your Rights Over Your Data: Understanding the HowCrunch Privacy Policy

You are in control of your personal data on HowCrunch. Understanding your rights is a key part of the HowCrunch Privacy Policy.

Access 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. This file will include any data you have provided to us.
Erase Your Data: You also have the right to request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. Please note that this right does not apply to any data we are legally or administratively obligated to keep (for example, for security purposes or legal compliance).

To make a request regarding your data, please contact us through our Contact Page.

Where Your Data is Sent

The primary place your data is processed is on our secure servers. As mentioned, visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service (which typically involves sending the comment data to a third-party service for analysis). This process aligns with the HowCrunch Privacy Policy for data handling.