We take our responsibilities very seriously when it comes to the privacy of Stitch Club members and TextileArtist.org newsletter subscribers. We understand why you might have concerns about the use of data mining, tracking and cookies.
We limit our use of data mining, tracking and cookies to the bare minimum needed to run our small, niche, family-run online business. These are needed to help improve your experience of our services and website.
Without Facebook, Instagram and Google, TextileArtist.org wouldn’t be able to function. Social media and search engines allow people interested in textile art to find us and benefit from the services we provide.
Our use of Facebook advertising and Google analytics allows us to find a community whose lives can be enhanced by what we do. Analysis helps us continue to improve by understanding how our audience is using our services.
We also use third-party software such as Circle.so, which we use to host the Stitch Club members area, and Samcart, which is our payment gateway. These also use data mining and cookies in a similar way, which is standard practice for small online businesses.
Circle.so uses just two advertising trackers and three cookies (which facilitate website functionality, like not having to login every single time you visit Stitch Club). It also uses Google Analytics to understand the behaviour of users, to enhance their experience of the software.
Circle.so also gives you the option to turn off all tracking when you first log in, by asking if you’re ok with the privacy settings. You can simply choose ‘No’ if you want to do this.
The trackers and cookies on TextileArtist.org are associated with plugins we use to make the site secure and help us identify hackers. We use far fewer trackers and cookies than most websites, and only those that are necessary.