First, a privacy tip: Bicycling Monterey encourages all internet users to consider doing as we do: make your default browser one that does not track. Our personal choice is Duck Duck Go: https://duckduckgo.com.

By using Duck Duck Go, when you visit our site the Duck may alert you, for example, about Google—i.e., if you are on a post or page that includes a Youtube video (Youtube is a Google company). To learn more about how Duck Duck Go works, visit https://duckduckgo.com. NOTE: You may want to do as we also do: make use of Duck Duck Go’s Duck Player. The Duck Player “lets you watch videos on YouTube without privacy-invading ads, and keeps what you watch from impacting your recommendations.‌” Details: https://duckduckgo.com/duckduckgo-help-pages/duck-player/

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This Bicycling Monterey Privacy Policy page was first published on February 9, 2010. It was last updated  in its entirety in May 2021, with minor subsequent updates last made on September 15, 2024.

Privacy Policy

Our transparency about who we are and what we do, and our website users’ privacy, are important to us ever since Bicycling Monterey was first founded in 2009.

In response to the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that went into effect May 25, 2018—https://gdpr.eu— in 2018 we voluntarily expanded our formerly brief Privacy Policy page into this detailed page. We are happy to provide these additional details. We appreciate that the European Union requires this information be provided for website visitors who reside in the European Union—and that by doing so, the EU also brought greater clarity for all website users, regardless of where they live.

For Privacy Policy updates, or if you

have any questions, please contact us.

Thank you to Automattic (https://automattic.com) for providing WordPress users with a template to help sites be compliant with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) https://gdpr.eu and other laws requiring notification of tracking. Automattic’s recommendations on categories and policies included suggestions specific to a site’s plugins and theme.

Who we are

Bicycling Monterey’s primary website address is https://bikemonterey.org. Alternate domain names include https://bicyclingmonterey.com, https://bicyclingmonterey.org, and https://tipsfortourists.com. The original domain name was https://marilynch.com/blog.

Bicycling Monterey was founded in 2009 as a public service by Mari Lynch, a resident of Monterey County since 1981. To address, write to: Mari Lynch, Founder / Bicycling Monterey / PO Box 3041 / Monterey, CA 93942-3041. For additional contact information, refer to the Contact page of this website.

What personal data we collect and why we collect it

Bicycling Monterey does not intentionally collect personal data from this website’s users unless any item on the numbered list directly below applies.

However, be aware that personal data may be generated from technical processes, i.e., plugins, cookies, third-party embedded content, and any analytics. For information about those, scroll down.

1. Subscribers. If you choose to be on Bicycling Monterey’s subscriber list (see Contact/Subscribe page), we collect your email address so you can receive any future notifications sent to subscribers. You may choose to unsubscribe or opt-out at any time.
   
2. Contact Requests. If you choose to provide your contact information and ask that we contact you, we collect that information so we are able to reply. Likewise, if you email us responses to a questionnaire, we may reply by email, e.g., to acknowledge receipt of your responses.
3. Calendar Submissions. If you choose to provide information and ask that we post it on this site’s Master Calendar for Bicycling Monterey County, we collect that information so we can follow up on your request. For additional details, refer to the submit a calendar listing page.
4. Comments. If you choose to make a comment on this website, certain information will be publicly visible (e.g., your name and the date and time of your comment). Your email address or other contact information will not be publicly visible unless you elect to include it within your comment’s remarks. Optionally, you may also add a URL for your website (if you have one), which may or may not be linked when the comment is posted. In addition, the system automatically collects the data shown in the comments form, and also your IP address and browser user agent string, to help spam detection. Automatically, an anonymized 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 on the Automattic website: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture (if you provided one) is visible to the public in the context of your comment.
5. HER Helmet Thursdays businesses or organizations. If you have a business or organization that chooses to sign up for the HER Helmet Thursdays Project, we will share its public information for the HER Helmet Thursdays listings. (That info will be published, e.g, in Bicycling Monterey’s HER Helmet Thursdays database and on the Bicycling Monterey website.) This only includes the information that your business or organization already shares publicly, including its street address, website address, and general phone number (e.g., not a private cell phone number). No email address will be published unless you specifically request it. (Some HER Helmet Thursdays lodging providers ask that their email address by published.) 
6. Photos or Other Media. If you choose to upload photos or other media to this website or to Bicycling Monterey’s social media sites (e.g., Instagram); or if you choose to provide photos or other media to us to be uploaded to this website or to Bicycling Monterey’s social media sites, and we choose to publish them, be advised: All uploaded files are usually publicly accessible. Avoid providing images to upload that have embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Website visitors can download and extract any location data from images on the website. Also avoid providing images that (e.g., when clicked on) display names or identifying information of minors or adults not intended to be publicly shared (e.g., “Jane Doe at home”).
7. Volunteers. If you choose to volunteer time—unless you tell us that you do not want your name mentioned on this website in relation to being a volunteer—your name may be mentioned, e.g., on the volunteer acknowledgements page,
8. Contributors of Project Supplies. If you choose to contribute project supplies, your name will be included on the contributors of project supplies page, unless you tell us that you prefer to be an Anonymous contributor.
9. Financial Contributors. If you choose to make a financial contribution (see FAQs and ways to contribute), your name will be included, e.g., on the financial contributors page, unless you indicate that you prefer to be an Anonymous contributor.
10. Financial Contributors contributing via PayPal. If you choose to allow PayPal to pass along to us your contact information, we collect that information so we are able to send you a note of thanks. (In addition, you may wish to refer to PayPal’s own privacy policy, just as you’d refer to a privacy policy on any such site.)

Who we share the data with

Bicycling Monterey does not share your personal data with anyone unless that sharing is specified on this page. (For example, as stated above, we list names of all financial contributors unless the contributor asks to be listed as Anonymous.)

Bicycling Monterey is a WordPress.org website.

• By default WordPress does not collect any personal data about visitors.
• By default WordPress only collects the data shown on the User Profile screen from registered users. (And Bicycling Monterey elects to have no registered users, with the exception of this site’s administrators.)
• By default WordPress does not share any personal data with anyone.

Some of the plugins used on this site may collect personal data. Please refer to the section of this page, “About plugins used on this website.”

Plugins, social media, and any analytics associated with this website may use cookies. Please refer to the section of this page, “Cookies associated with this website.”

Also refer to the sections of this page about “Embedded content from other websites” and “Analytics.”

How long we retain the data

We keep calendar submission and other contact form entries for six months and contributor records for ten years.

If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This allows recognizing and approving any follow-up comments automatically, instead of holding them in a moderation queue.

As mentioned elsewhere on this page, Bicycling Monterey currently elects to have no registered users, with the exception of this site’s administrators. For registered users, we would store the personal information provided in a registered user’s profile. Registered users could see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they would not be able to change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.

What rights you have over your data

If you have left comments, etc. on this website, you can request to receive a 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.

You can amend or update your personal information.

You can contact us to be removed from our mailing list.

Where we send the data

Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam-detection service.

How to contact us 

If you have privacy concerns, you may write to Mari Lynch, Founder / Bicycling Monterey / PO Box 3041 / Monterey, CA 93942-3041. For alternate contact information, refer to the Contact page of this website.

How we protect the data

To further protect our users’ data, Bicycling Monterey chooses to have only three website administrators: Bicycling Monterey’s founder, and two additional administrators, in case of death or disability of the founder. These administrators are familiar with data protection.

What data breach procedures we have in place

This site has had no known data breaches. Regarding potential or real data breaches, if you have questions or concerns, please contact Bicycling Monterey. Write to Mari Lynch, Founder / Bicycling Monterey / PO Box 3041 / Monterey, CA 93942-3041. For alternate contact information, refer to the Contact page of this website.

What third parties we receive data from

As of May 19, 2024, we do not receive data from any third party (e.g., we are not using Google Analytics).

Third-party use of personal information

As mentioned elsewhere on this page, any third-party service providers used to service various aspects of this website will have their own privacy policies.

As of May 19, 2024, your personal information is not shared with any third-party applications not mentioned on this page. This may be amended at this website’s sole discretion. To receive any updates, please contact us.

We may share your information with third parties if you explicitly authorize us to share your information.

Except when required by law, we will not sell, distribute, or reveal your email address or other personal information without your consent. However, we may disclose or transfer personal information collected through this website if a third party acquires all or a portion of this website, which may be the result of a merger, consolidation, or purchase of all or a portion of our assets, or in connection with any bankruptcy or reorganization proceeding brought by or against us.

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

We use do not use any automated decision making and/or profiling with user data.

About plugins used on this website

Bicycling Monterey is a WordPress.org website. We use WordPress plugins including the following. To provide additional details about these plugins’ own privacy policies, we have provided the URL for each plugin’s website after their name on the following list. Disclaimer: This is not meant to be interpreted as a recommendation of any plugin or its maker.

When we launched this website in 2009, we kept the number of plugins on this site as few as possible—sufficient plugins for decent website design and function, while still as few plugins as possible in order to reduce potential risks and challenges associated with poorly coded plugins. As our time allows (Bicycling Monterey is an unpaid volunteer gig for us since May 2009—and that’s still the case on May 19, 2024), we may add new plugins and/or delete some of the plugins below.

This is the complete list of plugins used on this website as of May 19, 2024.  To receive any updates to this list, please contact us.

• Akismet, an anti-spam plugin by Automattic – http://wordpress.org/plugins/akismet/ – The following is a privacy statement from 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).”
• Classic Widgets by WordPress contributors – https://github.com/WordPress/classic-widgets/ – “Enables the classic widgets settings screens in Appearance – Widgets and the Customizer. Disables the block editor from managing widgets.”
• Elegant Themes Updater by Elegant Themes – https://www.elegantthemes.com/ – “Enables automatic updates for all Elegant Themes products.”
• pageMash by Joel Starnes – http://joelstarnes.co.uk – “Manage your multitude of pages with pageMash’s slick drag-and-drop style, ajax interface. Allows quick sorting, hiding and organising of parenting.”
• PayPal Donations by Johan Steen – http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/paypal-donations-widgets-plugin – “Easy and simple setup and insertion of PayPal donate buttons with a shortcode or through a sidebar Widget. Donation purpose can be set for each button. A few other customization options are available as well.”
• WP-Optimize by David Anderson, Ruhani Rabin, Team Updraft – http://updraftplus.com/category/wp-optimize/ – “WP-Optimize is WordPress’s #1 most installed optimization plugin. With it, you can clean up your database easily and safely, without manual queries.”

Cookies associated with this website

Bicycling Monterey does not intentionally use cookies. The following is standard language for WordPress websites regarding cookies:

“If you leave a comment on this 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 1 day.”

Embedded content from other websites

This website may include some embedded content (e.g., an embedded video, or embedded social media). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited that other website. Those websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracing your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

Analytics

By default WordPress does not collect any analytics data. However, many web hosting accounts collect some anonymous analytics data.

WordPress plugins such as Google Analytics (which we still choose not to use, as of May 19, 2024) provide analytics services. A list of the plugins used by this website is provided elsewhere on this Privacy Policy page.

About this site’s outbound links

As an information hub and public service website, this site provides many outbound links. We provide those links simply to assist users in readily accessing info they may find of interest.

As mentioned on this site’s page about products and services mentioned, since Bicycling Monterey’s founding in May 2009—and still the case in May 19, 2024—there are no pay-per-click or paid affiliate links on this website.

If you choose to click on links, remember to check the privacy policies on those websites, since they will differ from the Privacy Policy of this site.

Sensitive personal information

At no time should you submit sensitive personal information to this website. This includes your social security number, information regarding race or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious beliefs, health information, criminal background, trade union memberships, and the like. If you choose to submit such information to us, it will be subject to this Privacy Policy.

Children

Without the written permission of a parent or guardian (e.g., required if a minor wishes to contribute a guest post), this website does not knowingly collect any personally identifiable information from individuals under the age of eighteen.

If a parent or guardian believes that this website has unauthorized personally identifiable information about a person under the age of eighteen in its database, please contact us immediately, and we will use our best efforts to promptly remove such information from our records.

We highly value the safety of children and teenagers! We encourage them and their parents or guardians to research best Internet use practices from reliable resources such as Gavin de Becker, author of Protecting the Gift: Keeping Children and Teenagers Safe (and Parents Sane). On de Becker’s website, gavindebecker.com, child safety tips are provided, including FAQs such as “What are your dos and don’ts of placing information on a website?” De Becker’s resources can be one good starting place as you do your own research.

This Bicycling Monterey Privacy Policy page was first published on February 9, 2010. It was last updated  in its entirety in May 2021, with minor subsequent updates last made on May 19, 2024.

“Bicycling Monterey’s primary website address is https://bikemonterey.org. Alternate domain names include https://bicyclingmonterey.com, https://bicyclingmonterey.org, and https://tipsfortourists.com. The original domain name was https://marilynch.com/blog.”