1. Introduction
Welcome to simulatornews.com (“we,” “us,” “our”). We are committed to protecting your personal information and your right to privacy. This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, and what rights you have in relation to it. This policy applies to all information collected through our website (simulatornews.com) and any related services.
By using our website, you agree to the collection and use of information in accordance with this policy.
2. Information We Collect
We collect personal information that you voluntarily provide to us as well as information that is automatically collected when you use our website.
a) Information You Provide to Us
- Comments: When you leave comments on the site, you must create an account. We collect the data shown in the comments form, including your username, and email address.
- User Accounts: To post comments, you are required to create an account. When you register, we collect information such as your chosen username and your email address.
- Contact Form Submissions: If you use our contact form to submit news tips or for account inquiries, we collect your name, email address, and any information you provide in the message body.
- Media: If you upload images to the website (for example, as part of a user profile), please be aware that any embedded location data (EXIF GPS) may be accessible to other visitors. We advise you to remove this data before uploading.
b) Information We Collect Automatically
- Log and Usage Data: Like most websites, we automatically collect your IP address and browser user agent string when you comment to help with spam detection.
- Cookies and Similar Technologies: We use cookies to operate and improve our website. For more details, see the “Cookies Policy” section below.
- Analytics Data: We use Google Analytics to collect information about your use of our website. This service collects information such as your IP address, browser type, the pages you visit, and the time you spend on those pages. This data is aggregated and anonymized and helps us understand our audience and improve our content. You can learn more about Google’s practices here: https://policies.google.com/privacy. You can opt out of Google Analytics by installing their browser add-on: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
3. How We Use Your Information
We use the information we collect for the following purposes:
- To Provide and Maintain Our Service: To manage user accounts, publish comments, and operate the website.
- To Improve Our Website: To understand how users interact with our content and to improve user experience.
- For Spam Protection: We use your IP address, email, and comment content to protect our site from spam using services like Akismet and StopForumSpam.
- To Communicate With You: To respond to your inquiries, questions, and comments submitted through our contact form.
- For Advertising: To display relevant advertisements to support our website.
4. Cookies Policy
Cookies are small text files stored on your device. We use them for several purposes:
- Comments: If you leave a comment, you may opt-in to saving your name, email address, and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so you do not have to fill in your details again. These cookies last for one year.
- Login and Sessions: When you visit our login page, we 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 set several cookies to save your login information and 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. Logging out removes these cookies.
- Content Editing: If you are an editor or publisher, an additional cookie is saved in your browser when you edit or publish an article. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.
- Advertising: Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to our website or other websites. See the “Advertising” section for more details.
You can instruct your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. However, if you do not accept cookies, you may not be able to use some portions of our Service.
5. Advertising and Third-Party Services
a) Google AdSense
We use Google AdSense to display advertisements on our website.
- Google uses cookies, such as the DoubleClick cookie, to serve ads tailored to you based on your visit to this site and other sites on the Internet.
- You may opt out of personalized advertising by visiting Google’s Ad Settings: https://www.google.com/settings/ads.
b) Spam Detection
Visitor comments are checked through automated spam detection services. We use:
- Akismet Anti-Spam: Comment data (IP address, user agent, referrer, and Site URL, along with other information directly provided by the commenter like their name, username, email address, and the comment itself) is shared with Automattic’s Akismet service. Their privacy policy is here: https://automattic.com/privacy/.
- StopForumSpam: We may use this service to check submitted data against a database of known spam sources to prevent abuse.
c) Gravatar
An anonymized string created from your email address (a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. After your comment is approved, your Gravatar profile picture is visible to the public next to your comment. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/.
d) Embedded Content from Other Websites
Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g., videos from YouTube, images from Imgur, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if you have 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 tracking your interaction if you have an account and are logged in to that website.
6. Who We Share Your Data With
We do not sell your personal data. We only share it with third-party partners for the essential operation of our website, as described in this policy:
- Service Providers: Google (Analytics, AdSense), Automattic (Gravatar, Akismet).
- Spam Detection Services: Akismet, StopForumSpam.
7. How Long We Retain Your Data
- Comments: 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.
- User Accounts: For users that register on our website, we store the personal information they provide in their user profile. This data is retained as long as the account is active. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username).
- Contact Form Submissions: We retain submissions for a reasonable period to address the inquiry but do not use this information for marketing purposes.
- Analytics Records: We retain analytics data for 24 months.
8. Your Rights Over Your Data
If you have an account on this site, or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported 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.
To exercise these rights, please visit your account dashboard or contact us through our contact form.
9. Data Security
We use administrative, technical, and physical security measures to help protect your personal information. While we have taken reasonable steps to secure the personal information you provide to us, please be aware that despite our efforts, no security measures are perfect or impenetrable, and no method of data transmission can be guaranteed against any interception or other type of misuse.
10. Children’s Privacy
Our service is not intended for use by children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from children under 13. If you become aware that a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us. If we become aware that we have collected personal information from a child under 13 without verification of parental consent, we will take steps to remove that information from our servers.
11. Changes to This Privacy Policy
We may update our Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page and updating the “Effective Date” at the top. You are advised to review this Privacy Policy periodically for any changes.
12. Contact Us
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, you can contact us via our website’s contact form or by emailing us at: [email protected]