Privacy Policy
Effective Date: November 24, 2025
ArborTIMES™ (“we,” “our,” or “us”) is committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains what personal information we collect, how we use it, and what rights you have regarding your information when you visit https://arbortimes.org (“the Site”).
Who We Are
ArborTIMES™ is a digital media publication covering the tree care industry.
Our website address is: https://arbortimes.org
Information We Collect
Comments
When visitors leave comments on the Site, we collect the information shown in the comments form, along with the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help detect and prevent spam.
An anonymized hash of your email address may be shared with the Gravatar service to check if you have a profile there. After your comment is approved, your profile picture (if applicable) is publicly visible next to your comment.
You may review Gravatar’s privacy policy at: https://automattic.com/privacy/
Media Uploads
If you upload images to the Site, avoid including embedded location data (EXIF GPS). Visitors may download and extract such data from images on the Site.
Cookies
We use cookies to improve your experience and support essential site functionality.
Editor cookies: When you edit or publish an article, a cookie may be stored to record the post ID; it expires after one day.
Comment cookies: If you leave a comment, you may opt to save your name, email, and website in cookies for future convenience. These last for one year.
Login cookies: When you visit our login page, a temporary cookie checks whether your browser accepts cookies. Additional cookies are set when you log in to store your login information and display preferences.
Login cookies last two days.
Display preference cookies last one year.
Selecting “Remember Me” extends login persistence to two weeks.
Embedded Content From Other Websites
Articles on this Site may include embedded content (such as videos, posts, or images). Embedded content behaves exactly as if you visited the other website directly.
These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, and track your interactions with embedded content—including if you are logged into your account on that external service. We encourage you to review their privacy policies.
Information We Share
We do not sell or rent your personal information.
We may share your information only in the following cases:
Legal requirements: We may disclose information if required to comply with applicable laws, enforce our policies, or protect our rights and security.
Password reset requests: Your IP address may appear in the reset email.
Service providers: We may use third-party vendors for hosting, analytics, email communication, or spam detection. These partners receive only the data necessary to perform their services.
How Long We Retain Your Data
Comments: Comments and their metadata are stored indefinitely so that follow-up comments may be recognized and approved automatically.
User accounts: For users who register on the Site (if applicable), we store the personal information they provide in their profile. All users may view, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except usernames, which cannot be changed). Site administrators can also view and edit this information.
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.
Where Your Data is Sent
Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service, which may process your data on servers located outside your country.
Security
We use reasonable technical and organizational measures to safeguard your information; however, no method of transmission over the internet is 100 percent secure.
Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The “Effective Date” above will always indicate the latest version. Continued use of the Site signifies acceptance of any changes.
Contact Us
If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or your personal data, please contact us at info@arbortimes.org.
