This page was last updated: March 18, 2022.
For details of software terms and conditions, please see this page.
Your privacy and trust is important to us. Below is information on data collection related to this website, as well as the principles behind any product recommendations which Greg Benz may make.
Changes to Privacy Policy
If we change our privacy policy, we will post those changes to this privacy statement, the home page, and other places we deem appropriate so that you are aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it. We reserve the right to modify this privacy statement at any time, so please review it frequently. If we make material changes to this policy, we will notify you here, by email, or by means of notice on our home page.
What we collect
We collect both anonymized and personal data. Anonymized data refers to information which is not currently associated with you as an individual. Existing information may be de-anonymized under certain circumstances, such as providing your email address to subscribe or personal information to make a purchase.
Personal data refers to information which may be associated with you as an individual. Personal data may include IP address, information provided by you (such as email address when signing up for the newsletter or mailing address when making a purchase, purchase and download history, emails or social media messages you may send us, web pages visited, email metrics (such as opening emails or clicking links), etc. The intended use of this information is primarily to provide you with a better experience (such as allowing you to download updated versions of purchased products or not sending you emails or advertisements that are not likely relevant to you).
This information is generally stored on servers controlled by the 3rd party services below. However, we have access to some of this data and may have local copies for backup or tax accounting purposes. Good faith efforts are made to protect any such information, such as use of passwords, security audits, etc.
What do we do with your information?
In general, we collect information in order to offer better quality products and communication and share it with those who may be interested. We do not sell your information to third parties.
We may share your Personal Data with third party service providers to facilitate the operations of Greg Benz Photography LLC, including: providing you with the products and services that we offer you through our website, conducting quality assurance testing, facilitating creation of accounts, providing technical support, providing you customer support, understanding behavior on the Site, and/or to providing other services to us.
When you sign up for our newsletter, we collect your email address and (if you choose to provide it) your first name. That information is used to send you newsletters and offers.
When you make a purchase, we collect the personal information you give us such as your name, address and email address as part of the buying process. You are also invited to optionally join our newsletter and receive information (such as news about free updates to your purchase), but you must complete “double opt-in” to receive such emails. Our payment platforms may collect information such as billing or IP addresses to process payment, prevent fraud, or comply with local laws. See below for more detail.
We use analytic services such as Google Analytics to improve the quality of our products and communication. See below for more detail.
We may use services such as Facebook to target advertisements to users who may be interested in a particular product or other information, as well as to avoid placing ads with those who are likely not interested (such as avoiding sending advertisements for a product a customer has already purchased, or sending too many advertisements to the same person). This helps to improve the efficiency of our ad spending, and minimize placing ads which may be unwanted. See below for more detail.
We may share data between the services below as needed, such as to use DPD purchase history to provide more personalized emails via Drip (so as to avoid sending emails to people who would likely not be interested in a given email message) or to target ads (such as to inform you of an offer which may be of interest to you or to avoid sending you ads for a product you already own).
Our technology platforms and providers may collect information (for example, Facebook may collect data when you visit my Facebook page and DPD may use cookies to help simplify the process of downloading software such as Lumenzia). These vendors have their own privacy policies. See the section on 3rd party website below for more details.
Email and CAN-SPAM Compliance
In compliance with the CAN-SPAM Act, all our emails clearly state who the sender is and provide clear information on how to contact us.
If after you opt-in, you change your mind, you may withdraw your consent for us to contact you at any time. You may unsubscribe by using the link at the bottom of all newsletter emails.
Other Contact & Communication
Users contacting this website and/or its owners do so at their own discretion and provide any such personal details requested at their own risk. Your personal data is kept private and stored securely to the extent possible. Email is not an inherently safe method of communication, and users are advised that that they email at their own risk. This website and its owners use any information submitted to provide you with further information about the products / services they offer or to assist you in answering any questions or queries you may have submitted. This includes using your details to subscribe you to any email newsletter program the website operates but only if this was made clear to you and your express permission was granted when submitting any form to email process. This is by no means an entire list of your user rights in regard to receiving email marketing material. Your details are not passed on to any unrelated third parties.
Payment details
This website does not accept any payments on site. Payment is processed via leading PCI-compliant providers such as Stripe and PayPal. We do not receive any of your payment details. Once the payment is confirmed, our download vendor DPD (aka “Digital Product Delivery”) finalizes the purchase and sends you the links via email to access your purchased content. Although DPD is a secure site, no payment information is stored on their servers (per their policy and use of 3rd party payment services such as Stripe). DPD and payment processors may require and collect mailing, IP address, name, email and other contact information to confirm legitimate payments, comply with local law, or meet other such payment obligations. Details of your purchase (including address if given, IP address, name and email) are stored on DPD.com. This constitutes an account from which you can download future updates. You may be invited to join our newsletter, but signup requires you to complete a double opt-in process. Signing up allows us to provide you with notification of updates and other information which may be of interest to you. Apart from this use of your email, your private information is not used in any way, and is not shared with any other unrelated entities or individuals.
Security
To protect your personal information, we take reasonable precautions and follow industry best practices to make sure it is not inappropriately lost, misused, accessed, disclosed, altered or destroyed. Although no method of transmission over the Internet or electronic storage is 100% secure, we follow all PCI-DSS requirements and implement additional generally accepted industry standards. Transactions are processed by leading payment providers such as PayPal and Stripe.
Cookies and Advertising
Cookies are small pieces of text used to store information on web browsers. Cookies are used to store and receive identifiers and other information on computers, phones, and other devices. Other personalized data collection technologies identifiers associated with your device, Google and Facebook pixels, etc are used for similar purposes.
We may use cookies to help us show ads or otherwise target communications and track the effectiveness of those communications, so that we may communicate to those who may be most interested in our products or services in an effective way. For example: Cookies may allow us to help prevent showing Facebook ads to people who have previously purchased our products, or to recommend products and services based to those who may be interested. Cookies also allow us to limit the number of times that you see an ad so you don’t see the same ad over and over again.
Other cookies may be used to ensure the proper functioning of this or related sites. For example, DPD.com may use cookies to help simplify the delivery of software downloads purchased from this site without the need for logging in or additional proof of purchase.
Other cookies may be stored to your computer’s hard drive by external vendors if/when this website uses affiliate programs, sponsored links, or advertisements. Such cookies are used for conversion and referral tracking, and most commonly expire within 30 days.
You can instruct your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. The Help feature on most browsers provides information on how to accept cookies, disable cookies or to notify you when receiving a new cookie. You can turn off cookies in your web browser using the following links.
You may also wish to surf the web using privacy tools designed to minimize data sharing by default, such as Incognito mode in Chrome or Private Browse tabs in Firefox.
Advertisements based on cookies are known as “interest based ads”. You may wish to use tools provided by the DAA, DAAC & EDAA to opt out of specific marketing platforms. Note that these tools provide a comprehensive list of cookies used in your browser, most or all of which will likely be unrelated to this site. Opting out of interest-based ads will not prevent you from seeing ads, it will simply prevent ads from shown to you based on cookies, which may include advertisements from this website for products which may be of interest to you. It is still possible that you might be shown a general ad from this website, unrelated to your use or blocking of cookies.
Third party services / websites
We may use third party services (each of which have their own privacy policies) such as: Instagram (social media and advertising), Google/Alphabet (bulk analytics and advertising), WordPress (website), Teachable (online course platform), Cloudflare (content delivery network), Facebook (social media and advertising), YouTube (social media and advertising), Zapier (integration of these other various platforms), DPD (aka “Digital Product Delivery, shopping cart platform), PayPal (payment processor), Stripe (payment processor), LeadPages (landing page creator), 500px (social media), Flickr (social media), Sumo/SumoMe (email subscription and other forms), Drip (email provider), affiliate programs including but not limited to Amazon and B&H, and Twitter. Good faith effort has been made here to link to the privacy policies for each vendor, but that is subject to change or the link may not be the most appropriate for you – so please verify. Applicability to you will depend on which websites/URLs you visit or services you may use/purchase from us. This list of service providers may not be complete and is subject to change frequently as we continue to update and improve our site and services.
Our website also includes hyperlinks to, and details of, third-party websites. We have no control over, and are not responsible for, the privacy policies and practices of third parties. The owners of this website cannot guarantee or verify the contents of any externally linked website, despite their best efforts. Users should therefore note they click on external links at their own risk and this website and its owners cannot be held liable for any damages or implications caused by visiting any external links mentioned.
This website and/or its associated social media accounts may at times use shortened links. Users are advised to take caution and use good judgement before clicking any shortened urls published on social media platforms by this website and its owners, as these platforms are not under our direct control.
Analytics
This site uses analytics services such as (but not limited to) “Google Analytics” to collect information about how this site is used.
Google’s ability to use and share information collected by Google Analytics about your visits to this site is restricted by the Google Analytics Terms of Use and the Google Privacy Policy. You can prevent Google Analytics from recognizing you on return visits to this site by disabling cookies on your browser (see the links in the section above on cookies). If you choose, you can opt out by turning off cookies in the preferences settings in your web browser (or see Google’s opt out information). For more information on Google Analytics, please visit Google Analytics.
Visitor data is used only by personnel/services who support Greg Benz Photography. Your privacy is important, and your information will not be sold to third parties.
This site may use the Invisible reCAPTCHA on your site and that their use of the Invisible reCAPTCHA is subject to the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Remarketing
We may use remarketing services to advertise on third party web sites to you after you visited our site. We, and our third party vendors, use cookies to inform, optimize and serve ads based on your past visits to our Service.
We may use Google AdWords remarketing service provided by Google Inc. You may opt-out of Google Analytics for Display Advertising and customize the Google Display Network ads by visiting the Google Ads Settings page: http://www.google.com/
We may use remarketing services provided by Facebook Inc. You can learn more about interest-based advertising from Facebook by visiting this page: https://www.facebook.com/help/
International Transfer
Your information, including Personal Information, may be transferred to — and maintained on — computers located outside of your state, province, country or other governmental jurisdiction where the data protection laws may differ than those from your jurisdiction. If you are located outside United States and choose to provide information to us, please note that we transfer information, including Personal Information, to the United States and process it there. Your consent to this Privacy Policy followed by your submission of such information represents your agreement to that transfer.
Legal Compliance
We may disclose your information as legally required in order to comply with an applicable statute, regulation, rule or law, a subpoena, a search warrant, a court or regulatory order, or another valid legal process. We may disclose personal information when we have reason to believe it is necessary to identify, contact, or bring legal action against someone who may be violating our Terms of Service, uncover fraud, or to protect the safety and/or security of our users, website, or the general public.
Your rights in respect of your personal data
This section applies if you are located in the EU. In accordance with applicable privacy law, you have the following rights in respect of your personal information that we hold:
Right of access and portability: the right to obtain access to and to receive your personal information. Please use the links above to request your information from the services where it is stored.
Right to rectification: the right to obtain rectification of your personal information without undue delay where that personal information is inaccurate or incomplete.
Right to erasure: the right to obtain the erasure of your personal information without undue delay in certain circumstances, such as where the personal information is no longer necessary in relation to the purposes for which it was collected or processed.
Right to restriction: the right to obtain the restriction of the processing undertaken by us on your personal information in certain circumstances, such as where the accuracy of the personal information is contested by you, for a period enabling us to verify the accuracy of that personal information.
Right to object: the right to object, on grounds relating to your particular situation, to the processing of your personal information, and to object to processing of your personal information for direct marketing purposes, to the extent it is related to such direct marketing.
If you wish to exercise one of these rights, please contact us or the 3rd party services noted above. You also have the right to lodge a complaint to your local data protection authority. Further information about how to contact your local data protection authority is available at http://ec.europa.eu/justice/data-protection/bodies/authorities/index_en.htm.
Updates to this privacy policy
This Privacy Policy may be updated from time to time to reflect the changes in the business and practices, and so you should review this page periodically. If we make material changes to this policy, we will notify you here that it has been updated.
If our website, products, or business is acquired or merged with another company, your information may be transferred to the new owners so that we may continue to sell products to you.
IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS, YOU MUST NOT USE OUR WEBSITE OR OUR SERVICES. BY USING OUR WEBSITE AND OUR SERVICES, YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU HAVE READ AND UNDERSTAND OUR LEGAL NOTICES AND YOU AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS.
Affiliate links
All product reviews are written by Greg Benz unless otherwise noted. I love photography, and I’m sure you do too or you wouldn’t be reading this. This website and my related social media sites require extensive investment of my time and money. One small way I try to recover that investment is through affiliate links. These links do not affect the price you pay (the vendor just gives me a very small percentage for sending them the business). I link to Amazon and B&H Photo because that’s where I buy 99% of my photography gear (because they consistently have good prices, quick shipping, are reliable, and above all else have excellent customer service). I will always give you my clear and honest opinion about any product I discuss without any bias. I review products I actually use – no one pays me for reviews, and don’t sell sponsored content/posts. I appreciate you taking the time to visit my site, and don’t want to do anything to compromise the trust you place in me. Please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns.
