Impressum
Laura Spilker
c/o Grosch Postflex #1482
Emsdettener Str. 10
48268 Greven
For requests please use my contact form.
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General Information
This blog is following the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) of the EU. All used plugins, including social media plugins and Matomo Analytics, are conforming to the regulation. The website is hosted on a server located in Germany and powered with Greenpeace energy.
Data Protection & Privacy Policy
1. Introduction
1.1 I am committed to safeguarding the privacy of my website visitors and readers.
1.2 This policy applies where I am acting as a data controller with respect to the personal data of such persons; in other words, where I determine the purposes and means of the processing of that personal data.
1.3 This policy also applies to the data that users share with The Recovering Bookworm elsewhere than on this blog (for example, through other websites and networks such as social media). You can find more information on the privacy policies of such external services at
(a) Instagram – https://help.instagram.com/519522125107875;
(b) Storygraph – https://app.thestorygraph.com/privacy; and
(c) Buy Me A Coffee – https://www.buymeacoffee.com/privacy-policy.
1.4 My website incorporates privacy controls which affect how I will process your personal data. By using the privacy controls, you can limit the collection, sharing and analysis of your personal data. You can access the privacy controls above under “Matomo Analytics”.
1.5 I use cookies on my website. Insofar as those cookies are not strictly necessary for the provision of my website and services, I will ask you to consent to the use of cookies when you first visit the website.
1.6 In this policy, “I”, “me” and “my” refer to Laura Spilker, the creator and blogger behind The Recovering Bookworm. For more information about me, see Section 14.
2. Credit
2.1 This document was created using a template from Docular.
3. The personal data that I collect
3.1 In this Section 3 I have set out the general categories of personal data that I process and, in the case of personal data that I did not obtain directly from you, information about the source and specific categories of that data.
3.2 I may process data enabling me to get in touch with you (“contact data“). The contact data may include your name, email address, and/or social media account identifiers. The source of the contact data is you.
3.3 I may process your website user account data (“account data“). The account data may include your account identifier, name, email address and marketing preferences. The primary source of the account data is you, although some elements of the account data may be generated by our website.
3.4 I may not process information relating to transactions, that you enter with external services through links provided on my website (“transaction data“).
3.5 I may process information contained in or relating to any communication that you send to us or that we send to you (“communication data“). The communication data may include the communication content and metadata associated with the communication. My website will generate the metadata associated with communications made using the website contact forms.
3.6 I may process data about your use of our website and services (“usage data“). The usage data may include operating system, referral source, user agent of the browser being used, screen resolution being used, links to outside domains that were clicked, download of files, main language of the browser being used, page generation time, page views and website navigation paths, site searches, as well as information about the timing, frequency and pattern of your service use. The source of the usage data is Matomo Analytics. If you do not want the owner of this website to aggregate and analyze the actions you take here with Matomo Analytics, you can prevent it by opting out above.
4. Purposes of processing and legal bases
4.1 In this Section 4, I have set out the purposes for which I may process personal data and the legal bases of the processing.
4.2 Operations – I may process your personal data for the purposes of operating my website. The legal basis for this processing is my legitimate interests, namely the proper administration of my website, the improvement of the user experience, communication with users, security purposes and making my website, its content and its functions available.
4.3 Publications – I may process account data for the purposes of publishing such data on my website and elsewhere through my services in accordance with your expressed instructions. The legal basis for this processing is consent.
4.4 Relationships and communications – I may process contact data, account data and/or communication data for the purposes of managing my relationships, communicating with you (excluding communicating for the purposes of direct marketing) by email, providing support services and complaint handling. The legal basis for this processing are consent and/or my legitimate interests, namely communications with my website visitors and readers, the maintenance of relationships, and the proper administration of my website.
4.5 Direct marketing – I may process contact data and/or account data for the purposes of creating, targeting and sending direct marketing communications by email, for marketing-related purposes. The legal basis for this processing is consent.
4.6 Research and analysis – I may process usage data for the purposes of researching and analysing the use of my website and services, as well as researching and analysing other interactions with my website. The legal basis for this processing is consent or my legitimate interests, namely monitoring, improving and securing my website.
4.7 Record keeping – I may process your personal data for the purposes of creating and maintaining databases or back-up copies of databases. The legal basis for this processing is my legitimate interests, namely ensuring that I have access to all the information I need to properly and efficiently run this website in accordance with this policy.
4.8 Security – I may process your personal data for the purposes of security. The legal basis of this processing is my legitimate interests, namely the protection of my website, services and business, and the protection of others.
4.9 Legal claims – I may process your personal data where necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims, whether in court proceedings or in an administrative or out-of-court procedure. The legal basis for this processing is my legitimate interests, namely the protection and assertion of my legal rights, your legal rights and the legal rights of others.
4.11 Legal compliance and vital interests – I may also process your personal data where such processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which I am subject or in order to protect your vital interests or the vital interests of another natural person.
5. Providing your personal data to others
5.1 I may disclose your personal data to my insurers and/or professional advisers insofar as reasonably necessary for the purposes of obtaining or maintaining insurance coverage, managing risks, obtaining professional advice.
5.2 Your data held in my website database will be stored on the servers of my hosting services providers at https://ssl.greensta.de/datenschutzerklaerung/ (DE)
5.3 Financial transactions relating to my website and services may be handled by external payment services providers, Buy Me A Coffee. You can find information about the payment services providers’ privacy policies and practices at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/privacy-policy
5.4 In addition to the specific disclosures of personal data set out in this Section 5, we may disclose your personal data where such disclosure is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject, or in order to protect your vital interests or the vital interests of another natural person. We may also disclose your personal data where such disclosure is necessary for the establishment, exercise, or defence of legal claims, whether in court proceedings or in an administrative or out-of-court procedure.
6. International transfers of your personal data
6.1 In this Section 6, we provide information about the circumstances in which your personal data may be transferred to a third country under EU data protection law.
6.2 The hosting facilities for our website are situated in Germany. The European Union made an adequacy determination with respect to the data protection laws of this country. Transfers to this country will be protected by appropriate safeguards, namely the use of the GDRP (General Data Regulation Policy) by the European Union, a copy of which you can obtain from https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2016/679/oj
6.3 You acknowledge that personal data that you submit for publication through my website or services may be available, via the internet, around the world. I cannot prevent the use (or misuse) of such personal data by others.
7. Retaining and deleting personal data
7.1 This Section 7 sets out our data retention policies and procedures, which are designed to help ensure that I comply with my legal obligations in relation to the retention and deletion of personal data.
7.2 Personal data that I process for any purpose or purposes shall not be kept for longer than is necessary for that purpose or those purposes.
7.3 I will retain your personal data as follows:
(a) contact data will be retained for a minimum period of a day following the date of the most recent contact between you and me, and for a maximum of an unlimited period of time following that date;
(b) account data will be retained for a minimum period of a day following the date of closure of the relevant account, and for a maximum of an unlimited period of time following that date;
(c) communication data will be retained for a minimum period of a day following the date of the communication in question, and for a maximum of an unlimited period of time following that date; and
(d) usage data will be retained for twelve months following the date of collection.
7.4 Notwithstanding the other provisions of this Section 7, I may retain your personal data where such retention is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which I am subject, or in order to protect your vital interests or the vital interests of another natural person.
8. Your rights
8.1 In this Section 8, I have listed the rights that you have under data protection law.
8.2 Your principal rights under data protection law are:
(a) the right to access – you can ask for copies of your personal data;
(b) the right to rectification – you can ask me to rectify inaccurate personal data and to complete incomplete personal data;
(c) the right to erasure – you can ask me to erase your personal data;
(d) the right to restrict processing – you can ask me to restrict the processing of your personal data;
(e) the right to object to processing – you can object to the processing of your personal data;
(f) the right to data portability – you can ask that I transfer your personal data to another organisation or to you;
(g) the right to complain to a supervisory authority – you can complain about my processing of your personal data; and
(h) the right to withdraw consent – to the extent that the legal basis of our processing of your personal data is consent, you can withdraw that consent.
8.3 These rights are subject to certain limitations and exceptions. You can learn more about the rights of data subjects by visiting https://edpb.europa.eu/our-work-tools/general-guidance/gdpr-guidelines-recommendations-best-practices_en
8.4 You may exercise any of your rights in relation to your personal data by written notice to me, using the contact details set out below.
9. About cookies
9.1 A cookie is a file containing an identifier (a string of letters and numbers) that is sent by a web server to a web browser and is stored by the browser. The identifier is then sent back to the server each time the browser requests a page from the server.
9.2 Cookies may be either “persistent” cookies or “session” cookies: a persistent cookie will be stored by a web browser and will remain valid until its set expiry date, unless deleted by the user before the expiry date; a session cookie, on the other hand, will expire at the end of the user session, when the web browser is closed.
9.3 Cookies may not contain any information that personally identifies a user, but personal data that I store about you may be linked to the information stored in and obtained from cookies.
10. Cookies that I use
10.1 I use cookies for the following purposes:
(a) security – I use cookies as an element of the security measures to protect my website and services generally. Cookies used for this purpose are: WordPress – Antispam Bee;
(b) analysis – I use cookies to help me to analyse the use and performance of my website. Cookies used for this purpose are: WordPress – Matomo Analytics & Statify;
(c) cookie consent – I use cookies to store your preferences in relation to the use of cookies more generally. Cookies used for this purpose are: WordPress – EU Cookie Law & WP GDPR Compliance
11. Cookies used by my service providers
11.1 My service providers use cookies and those cookies may be stored on your computer when you visit my website.
11.2 I use Matomo Analytics to analyze the use of my website and improve the user experience. This service uses cookies for analysis. You can view the privacy policy of this service provider at https://matomo.org/privacy-policy/.
12. Managing cookies
12.1 Most browsers allow you to refuse to accept cookies and to delete cookies. The methods for doing so vary from browser to browser, and from version to version. You can however obtain up-to-date information about blocking and deleting cookies via these links:
(a) https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95647 (Chrome);
(b) https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/enhanced-tracking-protection-firefox-desktop (Firefox);
(c) https://help.opera.com/en/latest/security-and-privacy/ (Opera);
(d) https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/17442/windows-internet-explorer-delete-manage-cookies (Internet Explorer);
(e) https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/safari/manage-cookies-and-website-data-sfri11471/mac (Safari); and
(f) https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/4468242/microsoft-edge-browsing-data-and-privacy (Edge).
12.2 Blocking all cookies will have a negative impact upon the usability of many websites.
12.3 If you block cookies, you might not be able to use all the features on my website.
13. Amendments
13.1 I may update this policy from time to time by publishing a new version on my website.
13.2 You should check this page occasionally to ensure you are happy with any changes to this policy.
13.3 I may notify you of significant changes to this policy by email, if you have agreed to receive emails from me.
14. My details
14.1 This website is owned and operated by Laura Spilker.
14.2 You can find the Impressum above.
14.3 You can contact me:
(a) using my website contact form;
(b) on social media, using the direct messaging option.