Cookie Policy

Appointed Time Press, LLC seeks to maintain full disclosure and informed consent
in an effort toward transparency with our visitors and users.

This Cookie Policy is to be read and used in accordance with our

Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.

We, Appointed Time Press, LLC (as the website owner), are hereby fully disclosing our use of cookies with informed consent options available to you, the visitor/user. We, Appointed Time Press, LLC, have created and compiled this Cookie Policy to help our visitors/users understand website or internet cookies, and how we use such cookies to serve them. We suggest that you print a copy of this cookie policy for your records, keep it on file, and use the information therein to make wise and informed decisions about how you will interact with our website.

If you do not consent to our use of cookies

PLEASE DO NOT USE THIS SITE.

What are cookies? And how do they work?

Cookies are the “butlers” of the internet world, operating quietly behind the scenes to make your browsing experience smooth and seamless. But that does not mean they do not, or cannot collect your Personally Identifiable Information (PII). And that is where the law puts you as the user in control with informed consent and full disclosure, hence this Cookie Policy.

Cookies are small data files used by websites that enhance functionality and enable optimal performance for a specific user, depending upon that user’s behavior or interaction with that website. The specific functions of any particular website can vary widely depending on its type, purpose, and the services it provides its users and/or visitors.

Cookies function via the browser serving the website by downloading the cookie(s) onto the hard drive of the user’s device upon initial access, use, or interaction with the website. These files are commonly stored on a specific drive on your computer which is designated for cookies. All websites use cookies. However, cookies vary in type, function, and duration, depending on their purpose. Although certain types of cookies may optimize your website experience, they may or may not remember you as a visitor, and they may not be able to identify you via Personally Identifiable Information (PII).

When it comes to user privacy and data protection, the law requires transparency and disclosure with informed consent, providing the user informed consent options. Not all cookies identify users with Personally Identifiable Information (PII) which is legally protected. Such user information is voluntarily disclosed or shared at will. Therefore, when you enter your personal data (PII) information into a website form, comment box, or social media post, a cookie may be used to BOTH remember you and identify you as a user by storing and retrieving that PII from your hard drive. The cookie essentially says, “Oh Hi! It’s you again! Here, let me help you…” This is especially true for websites with registrations, logins, contact form options, and social media posts or shares. The expiration of those cookies may have a perpetual duration, meaning they are permanent until you unsubscribe or delete your account.

Cookies are smart, being function-specific. They are small (even tiny). And most of them are good. They perform only the precise functions they were created to perform. By nature and design they are virtually unobtrusive, and most users never detect their presence. If you spend any amount of time on the internet, your hard drive has stored thousands of cookies, many of which you may not know are there. Once you know where to look for them, they are easily found and can be deleted from your device.

How we use cookies

As the website owner, we are eager to comply with the lawful burden of transparency and disclosure to our visitors and users via this Cookie Policy, offering informed consent options.

The number of cookies used may change depending on browsing use, site interactions, and updates to our website content and code at any given time. Our website updates at scheduled intervals and with automations almost daily. Therefore, we encourage all our users and visitors to perform random cookie audits when in question, which are freely available, to determine which cookies should be allowed, rejected, or deleted.

We use cookies to analyze specific visitor behaviors, optimizing the experience for that particular individual as most websites do. The most common type of cookie we use on our site is “analytical” in nature. These cookies watch behaviors and when they replicated, they make your experience smoother instead of repeating non-essential functions.

We use cookies to identify your website preferences as a user, and specific cookies associated with our forms, social media buttons, etc. may gather your PII to remember who you are the next time you visit. This is only true if you enter personal data into a form, comment box, social media link, or upload personal file (media, docs, etc.) content for us to view. In such cases where uploads and/or downloads are performed, that cookie must gain access your device’s hard drive to send, retrieve, and process that information either to or from us — and that is an access granted willingly and deliberately by you (the user/visitor) with informed consent.

Some of the specific entities generating cookies and their types and functions are listed below:

A.) Website Function Cookies

I.) Our own cookies

We use cookies to make our website work including:

a.) Remembering your search settings

b.) Remembering if you have accepted our terms and conditions

c.) Allowing you to add comments to our site

There is no way to prevent these cookies being set other than to not use our site.

II.) Third party functions

Our site, like most websites, includes functionality provided by third parties. A common example is an embedded YouTube video. Our site includes the following which use cookies:

Google Analytics: they analyze the data of each user/visitor to help us understand their needs and improve website performance.

Yoast SEO: they provide Search Engine Optimization tools that help us reach our target audience and allow browsers to accurately map or index our site.

Amazon: they provide resources and services for those who wish to purchase our products, or the products endorsed by us.

Jetpack: they provide a wide-range of website optimization tools such as SEO, security, tracking, social media connections, comments, readership and discussion, statistical data, analysis, etc.

Akismet: anti-spam service

Contact Form 7: allows data to be collected, processed, sent, stored, and retrieved via our servers.

You-Tube and Vimeo: We embed videos. Cookies allow that video to connect and play.

Disabling these cookies will likely break the functions offered by these third parties.

III.) Social Media or Website Cookies

We do not host social media links on our website, and therefore no social media cookies are in use.

B.) Anonymous Visitor Statistics Cookies

We use cookies to compile visitor statistics such as how many people have visited our website, what type of technology they are using (e.g. Mac or Windows which helps to identify when our site isn’t working as it should for particular technologies), how long they spend on the site, what page they look at, etc. This helps us to continuously improve our website. These so called “analytics” programs also tell us if, on an anonymous basis, how people reached this site (e.g. from a search engine) and whether they have been here before. This aggregate data helps us put more money into developing our services for you.

C.) Affiliate Cookies

We do not use the Amazon Affiliate Program, or any other affiliate program, and therefore affiliate cookies are not in use.

We do not have the technology available to us to turn off specific cookies upon request, or to prevent them from functioning for a specific user. Cookies are what enable our website to perform on a global platform. We must render consistent service to all individuals. Without cookies our site would be rendered virtually useless to any visitor. For example: buttons would not work, links would break, information could not be shared via social media, and contact forms that allow you to reach us would not be able to send data. These are all necessary functions that allow us to serve you as a visitor. Cookies are a key part of what enables those specific functions to perform properly. If you do not want those cookies used, you are entitled to that right. However, we must assume in such cases that you also do not need the functionality of our website, and that you also do not need or want our services rendered to you. As such, the burden lies with you as the end-user/visitor to block, remove, disable, or delete all cookies from this website.

Our burden of responsibility as the website owner is disclosure with informed consent to our visitors/users, granting them informed consent options upon initial access to this site, hence this Cookie Policy.

Cookies used on this site

The cookies used on this site vary in type, purpose, and function:

1.) Session Tokens | Memory Cookies: These are in use only while you are browsing. Once you close your browser, the session ends, and the cookie is deleted. Session cookies do not have an expiration date and therefore, they are recognized for immediate deletion. These are considered transient cookies. Session cookies are performed by our server and platform: https://www.thewordsmithblog.com

2.) Secure Cookies: Secured cookies are transmitted via HTTPS data encryption. These are your friends, and they protect you. Secure cookies are used by our security teams, our firewall, and other security mechanisms employed by our server.

3.) Third-Party Cookie | Tracking Cookie: These are cookies served by third-party entities in several ways, either by those sites we link to, or by companies with whom we do internal business for site function. Third-party cookies are the most common type of cookie our site uses, providing an array of various site functions. Tracking cookies are most commonly generated by our security teams, SEO software, and Google Analytics. These entities are responsible for the greatest percentage of third-party cookies, which the user is subject to by default. Others however, are only generated by specific user interactions. We only use third-party cookies that track your behavior within our site. Third-party tracking cookies are analytical in nature, revealing to us our user’s preferences and behaviors which allow us to better develop our website services. However, please know that once you click on a third-party link, you are leaving our site and are subject to the cookies of that particular business or website entity. We have no jurisdiction over the cookies another site uses or how they use them.

4.) Persistent Cookies: These are cookies that log your website preferences when entering information into registration forms, contact forms, or other social interactions such as comments and the like. They also log pagination files so pages load more quickly upon return visits. Depending on your use and the willful disclosure of your data, they may gather your PII when necessary to remember you upon return visits to our site. In essence, persistent cookies will come and shake your hand when you visit again. You’re no longer a stranger.

Persistent cookies can be third-party cookies that provide user-friendly functions for forms and other data entry, which may or may not be PII (as not all data is personal in nature). Not all persistent cookies gather PII, but many of them do by nature of their use. Persistent cookies are commonly employed for websites that require logins, registrations, form filing, and various social media interactions. We do NOT require registration or login to use our website. But we do have forms that will use a persistent cookie if you choose to fill them out. If you fill out the form again upon return, or fill out another form on our site, it will remember you.

A persistent cookie has a defined expiration date which is set by the author or creator of that particular cookie. Once that cookie reaches expiration, which can range from 30 days (typical) to one year (generous), it will no longer remember you or be able to retrieve your personal data. By deleting your login information or registration information on a site you can enforce the expiration of a persistent cookie.

How we obtain your informed consent

How you are “INFORMED”:

We bear the burden of providing information to the end user. You are informed in two steps:

#1.) Cookie Banner (there is no action on your part with regard to the information provided to you): When you initially visit, access, or call up this site, you will see a banner at the bottom of the page. That cookie banner serves you immediate notice with informed consent options with links to this Cookie Policy and other legal disclosures, which provide the necessary information you need to make an informed decision on how to handle our cookies, and whether or not you want to remain a visitor/user of this site. At this point you may or may not take action.

#2.) Legal Disclosures (you take deliberate action upon the information provided to you): By clicking the “Legal Disclosures” link, you have taken deliberate action toward being explicitly informed, and by having interacted at this level, the cookie banner will disappear.

By either step as described above, you have been “informed”. Again, the burden of use lies with you, the user/visitor. The burden of disclosure lies with us, the website owner.

How we obtain your “CONSENT”:

The burden of consent is upon you, the end user. We obtain your consent in the following two ways:

#1.) EXPLICIT (by taking deliberate actions): Once you click on the “CONSENT & CLOSE” option, the bar will disappear. It will also use a cookie to remember your informed consent option. In doing so, it will not be served to you again for up to 30 days. Once you click the “Legal Disclosures” link you will be taken to the pages informing you of company policies and Terms and Conditions and the bar will again disappear. You have provided explicit consent by either action.

#2.) PASSIVE (you ignore, neglect, or omit actionable items made available): We cannot control how you use our website or whether or not you scroll. We have done our due diligence to notify you of consent options upon visiting our site in accordance with the burden of disclosure by providing a link to legal disclosures and our use of cookies. If you should ignore our cookie banner, AND/OR the settings on your software via your browser, which you are using to view this website, then you have accepted our cookies. We understand this, along with your continued use of our website, to indicate your consensual agreement to the use of our cookies. Again, if you interact with our site at any level, or continue to scroll, this site will use a cookie to remember you. In so doing, the cookie banner will disappear and will not be served to you again for 30 days. Should you wish to block, disable, remove, or delete cookies from our site you can learn how to do this below. However disabling, blocking, removing, or deleting all such cookies will likely mean that our site will not work as intended, or as you would expect, and therefore errors may occur.

How you withdraw your consent:

You may withdraw consent at any time by blocking, disabling, removing, or deleting our cookies via your browser settings or within your hard drive on your device. You may also withdraw consent by making a decision to not visit our site again.

How to block, disable, remove, or delete cookies

As a user/visitor you have explicit legal rights to block, disable, remove, or delete all cookies used by this site. Those options are made available via your browser settings and mechanisms, as the browser is the entity serving the website to your device. All browsers offer these cookie control options by law. We recommend you visit your browser settings (Google, Bing, Yahoo, Internet Explorer, Safari, etc.) to discover how those options and mechanisms are provided to you by that specific company.

Using a DNT (Do Not Track) signal or browser setting (mechanism), or browsing privately (Incognito) does not guarantee a block or disabling of our cookies. Certain browsers allow you to browse privately (Incognito) by employing DNT’s (Do Not Track) signals. There are also browsers used via the “dark web” that are hidden. Although DNT’s may hide or block a user’s IP address, they do not guarantee the blocking of cookies, which are necessary for site function. Our website host, platform, theme, plugins, security, server — and the cumulative technology by which these interact — do not promise to recognize or comply with DNT’s. Therefore, we do not recommend using a DNT mechanism or signal as a fool-proof way of blocking cookies from our site.

How to perform a cookie audit on our site

This is very important. We want you to be able to have the information a cookie audit offers you whenever you want it, or should need it. There are two ways you can perform a cookie audit:

(1.) You can perform one yourself, which requires a tool and your informed consent to use this site. 

(2.) You can hire a third-party to perform an audit for you, which may incur a fee.

Our Main Website Address | Domain (URL): https://www.thewordsmithblog.com

Parked Domains (URL): http://appointedtime.org  |  http://erinpavlicek.com

Parked domains will always link directly back to our main domain. These are NOT separate websites. Many websites have more than one domain name or URL for the sake of being easily found by visitors in search engines. Such is the case with us (Appointed Time Press, LLC).

If you choose to have this site audited by third-party, it should offer you a full disclosure by listing each cookie our site uses with its type, tag, and function. Please understand that such audits may change as we update our servers, platform, plugins, pages, and other internal website functions.

Regardless of which method or means you choose, here are a few things we want you to know and understand when performing a cookie audit on our website (or any other site):

(1.) The number of cookies disclosed by the audit may change with specific users and browsing activities. This can render inconsistent results.

(2.) The specific cookie, its tag, and its function will be revealed. However, understanding those specific tags and functions can be confusing for those who are not tech savvy. If you hire this done, please ask your provider to delineate this information for you in terms you can easily understand.

(3.) When you perform an audit, you will receive a list of all the cookies used during that particular session. However, one cookie may perform several tasks if you used it multiple times within one session. So please understand, the audit will list each cookie’s activity which is solely dependent upon your use.

(4.) A cookie audit may change with website updates and other internal changes that we make at our discretion. Therefore, please do not keep one audit indefinitely with the expectation or belief that it will render the same results twice.

(5.) Please do not expect that any cookie audit, whether professional or otherwise, will be 100% accurate. Leave room for outliers and externally generated errors in the final results. If you receive a report, the service provider of that report should be able to estimate a certain level of accuracy.

(6.) Differing service providers who perform cookie audits will more than likely generate differing results depending on what methods or means they use to scrape our site. Therefore, when it comes to accuracy, obtaining more than one assessment is wise and recommended.

How to address questions or concerns

UPDATED & APPROVED: 03-31-2022
© Appointed Time Press, LLC | All Rights Reserved

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