PRIVACY POLICY AND TERMS OF SERVICE
Empress of Dirt (also referred to here as ‘empressofdirt.net’ and ‘Website’) respects your privacy and is committed to protecting it through this Privacy Policy and Terms of Service. This Privacy Policy governs your use of empressofdirt.net, including any content, information, digital products, communications, or other items, regardless of value, offered through this site, whether as a guest or registered user.
Please read the Privacy Policy and Terms of Service carefully before you start to use the Website. By using the Website or by clicking to accept or agree to the Terms of Use when this option is made available to you, you accept and agree to be bound and abide by the Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.
If you do not want to agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Service, you must not access or use the Website.
In accordance with GDPR law for EU residents:
1. Data shall be processed ‘lawfully, fairly, and in a transparent manner’.
2. Data shall be ‘collected for specified, explicit, and legitimate purposes’.
3. Data processing shall be ‘limited to what is necessary’ for the purpose.
4. Data shall be accurate, kept up to date, and corrected. This applies to entities such as Google and Facebook.
5. Data shall be kept so it identifies a person ‘no longer than is necessary’.
6. Data shall be ‘processed in a manner that ensures appropriate security’.
Children Under the Age of 13
Our Website is not intended for children under 13 years of age. No one under age 13 may provide any information to or on the Website. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you are under 13, do not use or provide any information on this Website or on or through any of its features/register on the Website, make any purchases through the Website, use any of the interactive or public comment features of this Website or provide any information about yourself to us, including your name, address, telephone number, email address, or any screen name or user name you may use.
If we learn we have collected or received personal information from a child under 13 without verification of parental consent, we will delete that information. If you believe we might have any information from or about a child under 13, please contact us at melissa @ empressofdirt.net (without spaces).
Collection of Information
Information on this website is collected both automatically and voluntarily.
We use information you provide to us to deliver the requested product and/or service, to improve our overall performance, and to provide you with offers, promotions, and information.
Automatic collection of information includes cookies, third-party tracking technologies, and server logs.
You may also voluntarily submit data when you leave comments, provide your email address to receive digital files (free digital files or purchase an ebook), communicate via contact forms, respond to polls or surveys, enter search queries on the site, or join our mailing lists.
Personal information is retained only for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected, to comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce agreements. Data may be stored securely on servers located in Canada, the United States, or other jurisdictions where our third-party service providers operate. By using this Website, you consent to such storage and transfer of your data.
Cookies, 3rd-Party Tracking, and Server Logs
Cookies are very small text files that are stored on your computer when you visit some websites. Cookies are used by most websites to tailor content and marketing messages to better suit your needs.
We use cookies on the website to track visitor behavior. If you prefer not to allow the use of cookies, you can change the configuration of your browser to warn you when you receive a cookie or automatically reject them.
We suggest consulting the Help section of your browser or looking at the About Cookies website (https://www.aboutcookies.org/) which offers guidance for all modern browsers.
This page describes how Google uses cookie data from this site: https://policies.google.com/privacy/partners?hl=en
Types of Cookies Used
We use Google Analytics to understand how the website is being used in order to improve the user experience. Information collected looks at visits to articles on this site, geographical location, pages viewed, time spent on site, and other related details.
The information we collect automatically is used for statistical data and will not include personal information. To the extent that you voluntarily provide personal information to us, our systems will associate the automatically collected information with your personal information.
Visitors can opt-out of Google Analytics for Display Advertising and customize Google Display Network ads using Google’s Ad Settings page. Users can completely block Google Analytics tracking using Google’s Analytics Opt-out browser add-on.
Doubleclick Dart Cookie
Google, as a third-party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads on empressofdirt.net. Google’s use of the DART cookie enables it to serve ads to users based on their visit to empressofdirt.net and other sites on the Internet.
Users may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy at the following URL: https://www.google.com/privacy_ads.html
Other 3rd Party Tracking Technologies
Our Website contains advertisements, links to affiliates, and other websites. Empress of Dirt does not claim nor accept responsibility for any privacy policies, practices and/or procedures of other such websites.
Therefore, we encourage all users and visitors to be aware when they leave our website and to read the privacy statements of each and every website that collects personally identifiable information. This Privacy Policy Agreement applies only and solely to the information collected by our website.
The below companies may collect personal information when you interact with our digital property, including IP addresses, digital identifiers, information about your web browsing and app usage and how you interact with our properties and ads for a variety of purpose, such as personalization of offers or advertisements, analytics about how you engage with websites or ads, and other commercial purposes. For more information about the collection, use and sale of your personal data and your rights, please use the below links.
3rd Party and Affiliate Sites Include:
- Raptive advertisers
- Amazon
- AWIN
- Etsy
- Google Adsense
- Payhip
- Refersion
- Rakuten
- RedBubble
Third-Party Links and Affiliates
This Website may contain links to third-party websites and affiliate programs. These links are provided for your convenience only, and we have no control over, and assume no responsibility for, the content, privacy policies, or practices of any third-party sites. Some links are affiliate links, meaning we may receive a commission if you make a purchase through them. This does not affect the price you pay.
Advertising
CMI Marketing, Inc., d/b/a Raptive (“Raptive”) is a service provider of this Site for the purposes of placing advertising on the Site, and Raptive will collect and use certain data for advertising purposes. To learn more about Raptive’s data usage, click here: https://raptive.com/creator-advertising-privacy-statement
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. 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. Cookies do not typically contain any information that personally identifies a user, but personal information that we store about you may be linked to the information stored in and obtained from cookies.
By using this Site, you consent to the use of such cookies and the sharing of data captured by such cookies with Raptive, Google, and our other third party partners. You can view, delete, or add interest categories associated with your browser by visiting: https://adssettings.google.com. You can also opt out of the network cookie using those settings or using the Network Advertising Initiative’s multi-cookie opt-out mechanism at: https://optout.networkadvertising.org. However, these opt-out mechanisms themselves use cookies, and if you clear the cookies from your browser your opt-out will not be maintained.
For European Economic Area Residents
If you reside in a country in the European Economic Area (EEA), then under the GDPR and applicable data protection laws you have the rights, among other things, to access your personal data, have us erase it, and/or restrict its further processing. If you wish to see a list of the advertising partners we work with or change which of those partners track your behavior using cookies, click the ad preferences link at the bottom of the site. (Available in the EU.)
For California Residents
California law gives residents the right to opt out of the “sale” of their personal information to third parties, including for advertising purposes. Under California law, the sharing of your information with a service provider for advertising purposes could be considered a “sale.” To opt out of the sharing of your information for advertising information, click the opt out link provided in the footer of this page. You also have the right to request from us the categories of personal information that we have shared and the categories of third parties to whom the information was provided. To be clear we do not share your name, contact information, or any other sensitive information with third parties, and the categories of third parties that we share information with for advertising purposes are supply side platforms, programmatic advertising exchanges, and demand side platforms.
Log Files
Like many other websites, empressofdirt.net makes use of log files. The information inside the log files includes internet protocol (IP) addresses, type of browser, Internet Service Provider (ISP), date/time stamp, referring/exit pages, and number of clicks to analyze trends, administer the site, track user’s movement around the site, and gather demographic information. IP addresses, and other such information are not linked to any information that is personally identifiable.
Cloudflare is used to help make this website available. [Cloudflare Privacy Policy]
Voluntary Information | Information You Provide Us
This refers to information you choose to provide at empressofdirt.net. This Website has an SSL Certificate which activates the padlock and the https protocol and allows secure connections from a web server to a browser.
How and Why We Collect Information
The Company collects your information in order to record and support your participation in the activities you select. If you register to save a digital book or resource file, sign up for our newsletter, and/or purchase a product from us, leave a comment, or participate in a poll or survey, we collect your information. We use this information to track your preferences and to keep you informed about the products and services you have selected to receive and any related products and/or services. As a visitor to this Website, you can engage in most activities without providing any personal information. It is only when you seek to save resources and/or register for services that you are required to provide information.
Voluntarily provided information may include your name, address, email address, billing, and/or credit card information etc., which may be used when you leave comments, purchase products and/or services and to deliver the services you have requested.
In addition to the server hosting the empressofdirt.net Website, this information may be stored privately on secure servers by the following:
Mailerlite is the service we use to manage and send to our email lists.
Our mailing list requires a double opt-in. This is for your protection. It requires both submitting your email address and confirming you wish to subscribe within a message to that email address.
- Empress of Dirt Newsletter
- New posts by email
- Special Notices
- Free digital files (tip and project sheets)
- Digital products including ebooks
When you sign up for our mailing list or request a digital product, you will receive emails via Mailerlite. The mailing list is stored securely on their server and a current backup copy is kept by Empress of Dirt.
The emails include links to unsubscribe and instructions for making other changes to your subscription.
To be deleted and forgotten, contact melissa @ empressofdirt.net (without spaces) with the email address used for your subscription.
Payhip.com is the service we use to deliver free tip sheets and other digital products.
- Free digital files
- Digital products including ebooks
- Payment records for purchase of digital products including ebooks
You will be contacted after requesting a digital product. Communications include a receipt for your digital file, information on how to obtain the digital file, and a note to thank you for your interest. This lets you know how to reach us, suggests other content or services on the site that may interest you, and provide any free product updates when they become available. Joining our mailing list beyond these initial communications is entirely optional.
To be deleted and forgotten, contact melissa @ empressofdirt.net (without spaces) with the email address used for your subscription. We can remove you completely from mailing lists.
Digital Products and Refund Policy
All digital products, including ebooks, printable files, and other downloadable materials, are delivered electronically and deemed “consumed” upon download. As such, all sales are final and non-refundable, except where required by applicable consumer protection laws. We do not guarantee any specific outcomes or results from use of our digital products.
Payments for Digital Products
Where the information is collected and stored depends on the payment option chosen.
Payhip.com has record that a free digital file or sale has taken place. Both Payhip and empressofdirt must retain sale information for tax purposes for the length of time required by law.
Your payment server will also have record of your actions. This may be PayPal, or another service via Stripe (credit cards, Apple Pay). You would contact these services directly to view payment information.
Comments on empressofdirt.net
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.
If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.
If you wish to remove a comment you have submitted to empressofdirt.net, you can access the comment and delete it. If you have any problem with this, contact me at melissa @ empressofdirt.net (without spaces) with a link to the post and/or comment and I can find the data for you and/or delete it.
We reserve the right to monitor, edit, or remove any comments or content submitted by users that we determine to be inappropriate, offensive, spam, defamatory, or otherwise in violation of these Terms. Comments reflect the views of their authors and not necessarily those of Empress of Dirt.
Emails to Empress of Dirt
If you choose to correspond with us through email, we may retain the content of your email messages together with your email address and our responses. We provide the same protections for these electronic communications that we employ in the maintenance of information received online, mail, and telephone. This also applies when you register for our website, sign up through any of our forms using your email address or make a purchase on this site.
Email Policies
When you sign up for our mailing list or request a digital product, we are committed to keeping your e-mail address confidential. We do not sell, rent, or lease our subscription lists to third parties, and will not disclose your email address to any third parties except where required by law.
We will maintain the information you send via e-mail in accordance with applicable federal law.
In compliance with the CAN-SPAM Act, all e-mails sent from our organization will clearly state who the e-mail is from and provide clear information on how to contact the sender. In addition, all e-mail messages will also contain information on how to remove yourself from our mailing list so that you receive no further e-mail communication from us.
Our emails provide users the opportunity to opt-out of receiving communications from us by reading the Preferences or Unsubscribe links located at the top of any e-mail they receive from us at anytime.
Users who no longer wish to receive our newsletter or promotional materials may opt-out of receiving these communications by clicking on the Preferences or Unsubscribe links in the e-mail.
Site Backups
We save a secure backup copy of this site every day using Vaultpress where they are stored for 30 days and then deleted.
Updates, Acceptance, & Contact Info
Legal Requirements
Empress of Dirt may disclose your personal information, without prior notice to you, only if required to do so pursuant to applicable laws and/or in a good faith belief that such action is deemed necessary or required to:
Conform to decrees, laws and/or statutes or in an effort to comply with any process which may be served upon Empress of Dirt and/or its website; Safeguard and/or preserve all the rights and/or property of Empress of Dirt; and Perform under demanding conditions in an effort to safeguard the personal safety of users of empressofdirt.net and/or the general public.
If at any point in time Empress of Dirt decides to make use of any personally identifiable information on file, in a manner vastly different from that which was stated when this information was initially collected, the user or users shall be promptly notified by email. Users at that time shall have the option as to whether or not to permit the use of their information in this separate manner.
Changes to Privacy Policy Agreement
Empress of Dirt reserves the right to update and/or change the terms of our Privacy Policy, and as such we will post those change to our website homepage at empressofdirt.net, so that our users and/or visitors are always aware of the type of information we collect, how it will be used, and under what circumstances, if any, we may disclose such information.
TERMS OF SERVICE
Limitations on Liability. You understand and agree that, to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, we, or our vendors or service providers (collectively, “we” or “us”), shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or any loss of profits or revenues, whether incurred directly or indirectly, or any loss of data, use, goodwill, or other intangible losses, resulting from your access to or use of or inability to access or use the website.
No Warranties
The Website and all content, materials, products, and services provided through it are provided “as is” and “as available,” without any representations or warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including but not limited to implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, accuracy, or availability.
Limitations on Liability
The information provided on this Website is for general informational and entertainment purposes only. While we strive for accuracy, the content is provided “as is” and without warranties of any kind, express or implied. Nothing on this Website constitutes professional, legal, medical, safety, or financial advice. You assume full responsibility for your use of any information or materials obtained through the Website.
Indemnification
You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Empress of Dirt, its owner, affiliates, service providers, and partners from and against any and all claims, liabilities, damages, losses, costs, or expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of or in any way connected with your use of this Website, violation of these Terms, or infringement of any rights of a third party.
Governing Law and Jurisdiction
This Privacy Policy and Terms of Service are governed by the laws of the Province of Ontario and the federal laws of Canada applicable therein.
Any disputes shall be brought exclusively before the courts of Ontario, sitting in London, Ontario, and you consent to the jurisdiction of those courts.
Acceptance of Terms
By using this Website, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agree to be bound by this Privacy Policy and Terms of Service. Continued use of the Website after any modifications constitute acceptance of the revised terms.
Contact Us
Melissa J Will – Empress of Dirt
PO BOX 20012 78 FRONT ST E
STRATHROY ON N7G 4L6 CANADA
Email Address: melissa @ empressofdirt.net (without spaces)
Updated October 14 2025