downthetubes Privacy Policy

This page was last updated 13th November 2023

Who we are

We are Crucible Comic Press. Our website address is: https://downthetubes.net

What personal data we collect and why we collect it

Comments

When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.

An anonymised 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 here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.

Media

If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.

Contact forms

We don’t currently have a contact form, but we do have offer an occasional newsletter, run through Substack, who abide by GDPR regulations. We do not share this list with any third party.

We also offer the option to sign up for downthetubes Newsfeed. This service collects your preferred email address and offers the option to unsubscribe at any time.

Cookies

If you leave a comment on 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 and you log in to this 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 one day.

See also – downthetubes Cookie Policy | downthtetubes Cookie  Information – this page details all the Cookies active on this site

Embedded content from other websites

Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). 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.

We mainly embed videos from Youtube and Vimeo.

Analytics

Who we share your data with

We use Google Analytics to collect visitor on site visitors. Collecting Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is against the Google Analytics Terms of Service. If you are interested in Google’s commitment to GDPR then a good place to start is this website:  How Google complies with data protection laws.

We added an obligatory pop-up GDPR compliance notice to run Google Ads in November 2023.

We offer links to products on Amazon. These links are generated by Amazon. Details of Amazon’s GDPR compliance measure are here. Amazon does not share any details of buyers via an Affiliate account with its Affiliates.

We also offer links to selected products offered by Forbidden Planet. Details of their privacy policy are here. Forbidden Planet does not share any details of buyers via an Affiliate account with its Affiliates.

How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way

We offer Affiliate Links to uk.Bookshop.org such as this example for “How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way, encouraging support for independent bookshops. They believe that bookshops are essential to a healthy culture. They are where authors can connect with readers, where we discover new writers, where children get hooked on the thrill of reading that can last a lifetime. They are also anchors for our high streets and communities – owned, staffed, run and full of real people who have a genuine love of books and reading. Their FAQ is here.

We sometimes also feature Affiliate ads for Cafepress and Waterstones, the latter through a third party affiliate service. Neither share share any details of buyers.

How long we retain your data

If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognise and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.

For users that register on our website (if any), we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.

How long we retain your data

If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognise and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.

For users that register on our website (if any), we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.

What rights 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.

Where we send your data

Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service. We use Askimet.

Your contact information

You can contact at us by email in the first instance and further contact information will be provided on request.

As of 15th May 2018 we are in the process of registering a physical company address for this site.

Additional information

How we protect your data

Data collected by this site is stored by WordPress and our hosting company, GoDaddy. Our newsletter is serviced by Mailchimp. We regularly collect a back up file of newsletter subscribers and store it offline.

The Follow-It service retains information on Followers, which we have access to

As of 20th August 2018, we do not sell anything directly through downthetubes to our readers. If that changes, we will update this Privacy Information page.

What data breach procedures we have in place

Since our newsletter data is held by Substack, we are reliant on them for securing that list. Google Analytics data is held by Google; Amazon, ukBookshop.org CafePress and Waterstones sales data is held by those companies.

What third parties we receive data from

We receive anonymised visitor data to the downthetubes web site from WordPress and Google (via Google Analytics). We receive anonymised sales data from Amazon, Cafepress, Forbidden Planet, Jetpack Ads and Waterstones.

What automated decision making and/or profiling we do with user data

As of 15th May 2018, we do not make any automated decision making and/or profiling with user data. If this changes, we will update this Privacy Information page.

Industry regulatory disclosure requirements

As of 20th August 2018, we don’t think we have any reason to believe that this aspect of GDPR requirements applies to this site. If this changes, we will update this Privacy Information page.

Our British and Irish Comic Shop Map

Our British and Irish Comic Shop Map is created using Google Maps. Embedded Google Maps behave in the exact same way as if you has visited Google Maps site. Google may collect data about visitors, use cookies and tracking, included your logged-in experience interaction with Google platform. Google Maps are regulated under terms of Google Privacy Policy.

Source: Akismet

We collect information about visitors who comment on Sites that use our Akismet anti-spam service. The information we collect depends on how the User sets up Akismet for the Site, but typically includes the commenter’s IP address, user agent, referrer, and Site URL (along with other information directly provided by the commenter such as their name, username, email address, and the comment itself).

Source: Photo Gallery

Your name, email address and IP address are collected and stored in our website database when you comment on and/or rate images on our website.

Source: Really Simple SSL

Really Simple SSL and Really Simple SSL add-ons do not process any personal identifiable information, so the GDPR does not apply to these plugins or usage of these plugins on your website. You can find our privacy policy here.

See also – downthetubes Cookie Policy | downthetubes Cookie Information – this page details all the Cookies active on this site