Privacy Policy & Disclaimer

Privacy Policy

IT’S FIVE O’CLOCK HERE (“Website”) is governed by the following privacy policy (“Privacy Policy”).

We respect your privacy and are committed to protecting it. The purpose of this Privacy Policy is to inform you what information we may collect and how it may be used. This statement only applies to this Website.

Who We Are

It’s Five O’Clock Here is a travel and drinks blog operating at the web address: https://www.itsfivehere.com. It is written and managed by Julianne Kanter, who can be contacted at itsfivehere@gmail.com.

What Information Do We Collect And How Is It Used?

  • Information You Voluntarily Submit to the Website: We may collect personal information from you such as your name or email address. For example, you may voluntarily submit information to the Website by leaving a comment, subscribing to the newsletter, or submitting a contact form.
  • Information We Collect from Others: We may receive information about you from other sources. For example, if you use third-party software through the site, they may transfer information to us for fulfillment.
  • Automatically-Collected Information: We automatically collect certain information about you and the device with which you access the Website. For example, when you use the Website, we will log your IP address, operating system type, browser type, referring website, pages you viewed, and the dates/times when you accessed the Website. We may also collect information about actions you take when using the Website, such as links clicked.
  • Cookies: We may log information using cookies, which are small data files stored on your browser by the Website. We may use both session cookies, which expire when you close your browser, and persistent cookies, which stay on your browser until deleted, to provide you with a more personalized experience on the Website.
  • Comments: When you 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 assist in spam detection. 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 here: https://automattic.com/privacy. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.

How Your Information May Be Used

We may use the information collected in the following ways:

  • To operate and maintain the Website;
  • To send you promotional information, such as newsletters. Each email promotion will provide information on how to opt-out of future mailings;
  • To send you administrative communications, such as administrative emails, confirmation emails, technical notices, updates on policies, or security alerts;
  • To respond to your comments or inquiries;
  • To provide you with user support;
  • To track and measure statistics/advertising on the Website;
  • To protect, investigate, and deter against unauthorized or illegal activity.

Third-Party Use of Personal Information

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

Additionally, the Website may use third-party service providers to service various aspects of the Website. Each third-party service provider’s use of your personal information is dictated by their respective privacy policies. The Website currently uses the following third-party service providers:

  • Google Analytics – this service tracks Website usage and provides information such as referring websites and user actions on the Website. Google Analytics may capture your IP address, but no other personal information is captured by Google Analytics. For more information, please see Google Analytics’s Privacy Policy.
  • WordPress (Blog Publishing Platform) – We use WordPress.org to publish this blog and allow comments on our site. WordPress requires visitors who want to post a comment to enter a name and email address. By default WordPress does not share any personal data with anyone. For more information about how WordPress processes data, please see the WordPress.org Privacy Policy.
  • Jetpack (Activity Tracking) – This service provides us with anonymous information regarding post and page views, outbound link clicks, referring URLs, search engine terms, and user’s country. For more information, please see Jetpack’s Privacy Policy.
  • Gravatar (Comment Provider) – When you 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 assist in spam detection. 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 here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.
  • Embedded Content From Other Sites – 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 tracing your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.
  • Bluehost (Web Hosting Provider) – Bluehost is a data processor. They own the servers where our customers’ data is stored, so they also have access to this data. Bluehost, as a web hosting provider, may occasionally need to process the data, whether manually (fixing a problem somewhere) or automatically (creating backups). You can read Bluehost’s full Privacy Policy here.

At this time, your personal information is not shared with any other third-party applications. This list may be amended from time to time in the Website’s sole discretion.

Except when required by law, we will not sell, distribute, or reveal your email addresses or other personal information without your consent; however, we may disclose or transfer personal information collected through the Website to third parties who acquire all or a portion of our business, 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.

ADVERTISING & AFFILIATE PARTNERS

Some of our advertising partners and/or affiliate programs may use cookies on our site. It’s Five O’Clock Here has no access to or control over cookies that are used by third-party advertisers and affiliates. Some of the affiliate or referral programs we use operate by use of a referral link. When the link is clicked, any purchases made by a visitor can be tracked back to It’s Five O’Clock Here in order to track any sales for purposes of commissions for the referral. Our advertising partners/affiliate programs include:

  • Amazon Associates – IT’S FIVE O’CLOCK HERE is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and links to Amazon.com. As part of this Amazon Associates program, the Website will post customized links, provided by Amazon, to track the referrals to their website. This program utilizes cookies to track visits for the purposes of assigning commission on these sales. For more information, please see Amazon’s Privacy Policy.
  • Commission Junction (Affiliate Partner)– It’s Five O’Clock Here is a participant in the Commission Junction affiliate program, an affiliate network that provides a means for us to earn commissions by linking to affiliated sites and products. For more information, please see Commission Junction’s Privacy Policy.
  • Booking.com (Affiliate Partner)– It’s Five O’Clock Here is a participant in the Booking.com affiliate program, a program that provides a means for us to earn commissions by linking to affiliated sites and products. For more information, please see Booking.com’s Privacy Policy.
  • Boardbooster (Referral Partner)– It’s Five O’Clock Here is a participant in the Boardbooster referral program, a program that provides a means for us to earn commissions by referring others to their site and products. For more information, please see Boardbooster’s Privacy Policy.

Note: Each advertising and affiliate partner has its own privacy policy in place. For more detailed information on their practices, please see their respective privacy policies.

Links to Other Websites: It’s Five O’Clock Here contains links to other blogs and websites. These blogs and websites are not governed by this Privacy Policy but instead have their own. It’s Five O’Clock Here has no control over how other blogs and websites collect and use your information.

Anonymous Data

From time to time, we may use anonymous data, which does not identify you alone, or when combined with data from other parties. This type of anonymous data may be provided to other parties for marketing, advertising, or other uses. Examples of this anonymous data may include analytics or information collected from cookies.

Publicly Visible Information

When visitors leave a comment on the Website, certain information may be publicly visible.

Cookies

We may log information using cookies, which are small data files stored on your browser by the Website. We may use both session cookies, which expire when you close your browser, and persistent cookies, which stay on your browser until deleted, to provide you with a more personalized experience on the Website.

The Website uses cookies to store visitors’ preferences, record user-specific information on what pages users access or visit, ensure that visitors are not repeatedly sent the same banner ads, customize Website content based on visitors’ browser type or other information that the visitor sends. Cookies may also be used by third-party services, such as Google Analytics, as described herein.

Users may, at any time, prevent the setting of cookies, by the Website, by using a corresponding setting of your internet browser and may thus permanently deny the setting of cookies. Furthermore, already set cookies may be deleted at any time via an Internet browser or other software programs. This is possible in all popular Internet browsers. However, if users deactivate the setting of cookies in your Internet browser, not all functions of our Website may be entirely usable.

Advertising

Display Ads
We may use third-party advertising companies to serve content and advertisements when you visit the Website, which may use cookies. No personally identifiable information is shared with the Website’s ad providers.

Retargeting Ads
From time to time, the Website may engage in remarketing efforts with third-party companies, such as Google, Facebook, or Instagram, in order to market the Website. These companies use cookies to serve ads based on someone’s past visits to the Website.

Sponsored Content Tracking Pixels
This Website may engage in sponsored campaigns with various influencer networks, brands, and agencies. All sponsored content is duly disclosed in accordance with the FTC’s requirements. From time to time, these sponsored campaigns utilize tracking pixels (aka web beacons), which may contain cookies to collect data regarding usage and audience. This information is collected by the sponsoring company to track the results of the campaign. No personally identifiable information collected by the Website is used in conjunction with these tracking pixels.

Affiliate Program Participation
The Website may engage in affiliate marketing, which is done by embedding tracking links into the Website. If you click on a link for an affiliate partnership, a cookie will be placed on your browser to track any sales for purposes of commissions. A list of affiliate programs that It’s Five O’Clock Here participates in can be found in the Advertising & Affiliate Partners section above.

Newsletters
On the Website, you may subscribe to our newsletter, which may be used for advertising purposes. All newsletters sent may contain tracking pixels. The pixel is embedded in emails and allows an analysis of the success of online marketing campaigns. Because of these tracking pixels, we may see if and when you open an email and which links within the email you click. Also, this allows the Website to adapt the content of future newsletters to the interests of the user. This behavior will not be passed on to third parties.

How We Protect Your Data

SSL Certificate – is a service provided and installed through Bluehost, our web host. Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) is the secure version of HTTP, the protocol over which data is sent between your browser and the website you are connected to. The “S” at the end of HTTPS stands for “Secure” meaning all communication between your browser and the Website are encrypted.

Wordfence Security – This security plugin is used on It’s Five O’Clock Here to protect our website against security threats like hacking, malware, DDOS and brute force attacks. It comes with a website application firewall, which filters all traffic to our website and blocks suspicious requests.

Akismet – This anti-spam plugin is used on It’s Five O’Clock Here to protect against spam.

Though we try our best we cannot guarantee the security of information. However, we promise to notify suitable authorities of data breaches. We will also notify you if there is a threat to your rights or interests. We will do everything we reasonably can to prevent security breaches and to assist authorities should any breaches occur.

Rights Related To Your Personal Information

Opt-out – You may opt-out of future email communications by following the unsubscribe links in our emails. You may also notify me at itsfivehere@gmail.com to be removed from our mailing list.

Access – You may access the personal information we have about you by submitting a request to itsfivehere@gmail.com.

Amend – You may contact me at itsfivehere@gmail.com to amend or update your personal information.

Forget – In certain situations, you may request that we erase or forget your personal data. To do so, please submit a request to itsfivehere@gmail.com.

Please note that we may need to retain certain information for recordkeeping purposes or to complete transactions, or when required by law.

Sensitive Personal Information

If you leave a comment, certain information (your name as you provide it) may be publicly visible, however your email address will not be. We will not contact you using your email as this goes against GDPR regulations, so if you wish to be contacted by It’s Five O’Clock Here, please contact us directly at itsfivehere@gmail.comPlease do not request that we contact you in the comments.

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

Children’s Information

The Website does not knowingly collect any personally identifiable information from children under the age of 16. If a parent or guardian believes that the Website has personally identifiable information of a child under the age of 16 in its database, please contact me immediately at itsfivehere@gmail.com and we will use our best efforts to promptly remove such information from our records.

Disclosure

From time to time It’s Five O’Clock Here works with travel brands, tourism boards, bars, and restaurants in order to experience and promote specific destinations, activities, accommodations, etc. Sometimes I receive compensation as a result of these partnerships, which can be in the form of cash; free activities, tastings, or products; tours; accommodation; etc.

Our promise to our readers:  I will always disclose any financial stake in a post.  Similarly, I will always tell you if something was received for free OR paid for by a sponsor.  We want you to feel that this blog is trustworthy, authentic, and useful.

Regardless of who foots the bill, I will always provide you with honest and unbiased opinions of my experiences. When I partner with outside brands, I always retain full editorial control and I will never work with brands I do not personally believe in or support. Everything recommended to you I personally use/do/have done/believe in myself.

All such partnerships are disclosed in each relevant blog post.

How do we travel?  Unless otherwise noted, we pay for our own trips and expenses.

All content and images on this site are the intellectual property of Julianne Kanter, the site owner, unless otherwise stated, and all rights are reserved.

Contact Information

If there are any questions regarding this Privacy Policy and Disclosure, you may contact me at any time at itsfivehere@gmail.com.

Last Updated on May 23, 2018