Privacy Policy

At MacStories, Inc. (‘MacStories’), your privacy is important to us. We take your privacy seriously and only ask you to provide the personal information necessary to provide the services we offer. Also, we store personal information for only as long as we have a reason to keep it and aim to make it as simple as possible for you to control your personal information.

Who We Are and What This Policy Covers

MacStories consists of four websites: MacStories, Club MacStories, AppStories, and Dialog. This Privacy Policy applies to information we collect about you when you use any of these websites and their related content, products and services, which we refer to herein as the ‘Services.’

Information We Collect

We only collect information about you if we have a reason to do so, including in connection with providing the Services, communicating with you, or improving the Services.

We collect information if and when you provide information to us. We also collect a limited amount of information automatically.

Information You Provide to Us

We collect information that you provide to us, including:

• Account information you provide if you sign up to be a member of Club MacStories or subscribe to Appstories+, including your name and email address
• Information you provide if you enter a giveaway or other promotion related to the Services
• Information you provide in response to polls, surveys, and similar communications with us
• Transaction and billing information if you purchase something from us

We also collect some information automatically:

• Log Information: Like most online service providers, we collect information that web browsers, mobile devices, and servers typically make available, such as the browser type, IP address, which is stored for seven days only, referring site, the date and time of access, and operating system.
• We also collect information about what happens when you use our Services (for example, page views) along with information about your device (for example, mobile screen size). We use this information to, for example, provide our Services to you, as well as get insights on how people use our Services, so we can make our Services better.

How We Use The Information We Collect

We use information about you as mentioned above and as follows:

• To provide our Services – for example, to set up and maintain your Club MacStories account
• To limit certain parts of club.macstories.net to Club MacStories members and AppStories+ subscribers
• To monitor and analyze trends and better understand how users interact with our Services, which helps us improve our Services
• To monitor and protect the security of our Services, detect and prevent fraudulent transactions and other illegal activities, and protect the rights and property of MacStories

Sharing Information

We do not sell our users’ private personal information.

We share information about you in the limited circumstances spelled out below and with appropriate safeguards on your privacy:

• We may disclose information about you with our team of editors, writers, and developers who need to know the information to help us provide our Services or process information on our behalf. We require our team to follow this Privacy Policy for personal information that we share with them.
• Third-Party Vendors: We may share information about you with third-party vendors who need to know information about you in order to provide their services to us. This group includes vendors that help us provide our Services to you and those that help us understand and enhance our Services including:
  • Stripe, which processes your credit and debit card information. Stripe Privacy Policy.
  • Memberful, which administers Club MacStories and AppStories+. Memberful Privacy Policy.
  • E-junkie, which provides shopping cart and transactional services for MacStories Pixel. E-junkie Privacy Policy.
  • Mailchimp, which provides email newsletter distributions services for Club MacStories. Mailchimp Privacy Policy.
  • Google Analytics, which provides website analytics. Google Analytics Privacy Policy.
• As Required by Law: We may disclose information about you in response to a subpoena, court order, or other governmental request.
• To Protect Rights and Property: We may disclose information about you when we believe in good faith that disclosure is reasonably necessary to protect the property or rights of MacStories, third parties, or the public at large.
• Business Transfers: In connection with any merger, sale of company assets, or acquisition of all or a portion of our business by another company, or in the unlikely event that MacStories goes out of business or enters bankruptcy, user information would likely be one of the assets that is transferred or acquired by a third party. If any of these events were to happen, this Privacy Policy would continue to apply to your information and the party receiving your information may continue to use your information, but only consistent with this Privacy Policy.
• With Your Consent: We may share and disclose information and content you create with your consent. For example, we may share your information as part of another MacStories publication, or with third parties when you authorize us to do so.
• Aggregated and De-Identified Information: We may share information that has been aggregated or reasonably de-identified, so that the information could not reasonably be used to identify you. For instance, we may share aggregate statistics about the use of our Services with prospective sponsors of our Services.

Information Shared Publicly

Information that you choose to make public is disclosed publicly. For example, if you submit a question or other information for inclusion in a Club MacStories newsletter and do not request anonymity, that information will be disclosed.

Security

We work very hard to protect information about you against unauthorized access, use, alteration, or destruction, and take reasonable measures to do so.

Transferring Information

MacStories is a worldwide service. By accessing or using the Services or otherwise providing information to us, you consent to the processing, transfer, and storage of information in and to Italy, the U.S., and other countries, which may have rights and protections that are different from those in your home country.

Ads and Analytics Services Provided by Others

MacStories uses analytics providers to collect information about your use of our Services. This information allows us to, among other things, analyze and track usage and determine the popularity of certain content. Please note this Privacy Policy only covers the collection of information by MacStories and does not cover the collection of information by any third-party sponsors or analytics providers.

Affiliate Links

Historically, we have participated in affiliate linking programs, which paid a small commission when readers used the links on MacStories.net and our other Services to purchase linked items. The majority of those affiliate links were to apps in Apple’s App Store. We have also participated in Amazon’s affiliate program and others, though to a much lesser extent than Apple’s App Store program.

As of November 25, 2019, our Services no longer use affiliate links in any of the content we publish. Existing affiliate links to apps continue to take readers to linked apps in the App Store, but because Apple discontinued its app affiliate program in 2018, we no longer earn income from those links. The majority of the remaining Amazon and other affiliate links on the site no longer generate income either. As a result, we will not modify past links, but will no longer include affiliate links in content published on or after November 25, 2019.

Privacy Policy Changes

Although most changes are likely to be minor, MacStories may change its Privacy Policy from time to time. MacStories encourages visitors to check this page for any changes to its Privacy Policy.

Credit

This policy is adapted from the Automattic Privacy Policy which is made available under a Creative Commons Sharealike license.