You agree to the privacy policy below, and the Privacy Policy for Substack, the technology provider.

Our Privacy Policy

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PLEASE READ THIS PRIVACY POLICY CAREFULLY AND IN ITS ENTIRETY BEFORE USING SAMVANDERWIELEN.COM and/or all of Sam Vander Wielen LLC's associated websites and pages (hereinafter collectively referred to as the “Site”).

This Privacy Policy is here to better serve those who are concerned with how their information is used online. The following describes what type of information we collect, what it’s used for, and the measures we take to protect it.

By using the Site, you're agreeing to be bound to this Privacy Policy, as written herein. Your continued use constitutes consent. Therefore, please make sure you read the entire policy before continuing your use.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us pursuant to Section 18 below.

1. Definitions

“Company”, “We”, “I”, “Our”, and/or “Us” means Sam Vander Wielen LLC, the owner of the Site, and samvanderwielen.com.

“Content” means any and all written, visual, video, or audio information contained on samvanderwielen.com, including, but not limited to, any and all emails received from Sam Vander Wielen, Sam Vander Wielen LLC, or samvanderwielen.com, and any and all written or downloadable material purchased, viewed, or otherwise offered on samvanderwielen.com, such as blog posts, graphics, designs, guides, forms, documents, information, templates and materials.

“Personal Information” means information that can be used on its own or in conjunction with other information to identify, contact, or locate a single person, or to identify an individual in context. For example, personal information includes your name, address, email address, telephone number, etc.

“Site, Courses, Services, and Products” means samvanderwielen.com, Content, email list, social media posts, blog posts, courses, coaching services, BizStorming Sessions, DIY legal templates or guides, guides, eBooks, forms, worksheets, workbooks, website materials, the Ultimate Bundle™, and/or templates available on the Site.

“Site” means samvanderwielen.com, fearlesslylegal.com, legallylegit.com, and/or https://samvanderwielen.mykajabi.com and any and all of its pages, tabs, or sub-pages.

“You” and/or “Your” means the user, customer, or viewer of the Site.

2. Ownership & Consent:

The Site and its Content are owned by Sam Vander Wielen LLC.

We may change or update it at any time, which will be reflected in the "Updated" date at the bottom of this policy.

Sam Vander Wielen LLC is committed to protecting your Personal Information. We will only collect it in accordance with the terms of this Privacy Policy.

3. What kind of Personal Information do we collect?

Personal Information You Provide: 

When using the Site, and in filling out forms, purchasing products, providing comments, or contacting us, you may be asked to enter your name, email address, website address, mailing address, payment or credit card information. We use this information to deliver the product purchased, or information requested, to improve the performance and applicability of the Site, and to provide you with educational content, newsletters, promotions, and special offers. 

Personal Information Automatically Collected:

Through use of the Site, the Company may use data collection technology, such as Google Analytics, to collect information related to your use of the Site. Generally speaking, this includes information about your geographic location and Site behavior. Google Analytics also provides us with information about what type of device or software you use, your IP address (with location information), and whether you view the Site on mobile, tablet, or desktop.

We collect this information for statistical purposes only and to improve the viewer experience.

4. What if the Personal Information we have about you is incorrect or you want to update it?

If the Personal Information we have collected about you is incorrect or incomplete in any way, or you would like to update what we have, please contact us at help@samvanderwielen.com. We will make the appropriate corrections when notified, as long as the corrections requested to be made are not incorrect or fraudulent in any way.

5. When do we collect Personal Information?

We collect Personal Information from you when you purchase, order, or sign up on and for the Site, Courses, Services, and Products, download our freebies or resources, subscribe to our newsletter, fill out a form, browse the Site, view Content, make purchases, or enter your information on the Site. If you're just viewing the Site, you won't be required to provide personal information to browse.

If you're outside of the EU: if you sign-up to receive any freebies, downloads, DIY legal templates, courses, or services from the Company, or register for any free or paid events or webinars with us, you will automatically be added to our email list to receive free email messages from us. You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking "UNSUBSCRIBE" at the bottom of each email. If you have any questions, or difficulty unsubscribing from those emails, email us at help@samvanderwielen.com to be unsubscribed from future messages.

If you're IN the EU: if you sign-up to receive any freebies, downloads, DIY legal templates, courses, or services from the Company, or register for any free or paid events or webinars with us, you will only be added to our email list to receive free email messages from us if you affirmatively consent to receiving such messages. You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking "UNSUBSCRIBE" at the bottom of each email. If you have any questions, or difficulty unsubscribing from those emails, email us at help@samvanderwielen.com to be unsubscribed from future messages.

6. How do we use your Personal Information?

When using the Site, Courses, Services, and Products, we may use the Personal Information we collect from you when you register, make a purchase, sign up for our newsletter, respond to a survey or marketing communication (typically by email), browse the Site, or use certain other Site features in the following ways:

  • To personalize your experience and to allow us to deliver the type of content and product offerings in which you are most interested.

  • To improve our Site in order to better serve you.

  • To allow us to better serve you in response to your customer service requests.

  • To administer a contest, promotion, survey, or other Site feature.

  • To quickly process your transactions on and for the Site, Courses, Services, and Products.

  • To send periodic emails regarding the Site, Courses, Services, and Products.

  • To tailor social media advertisements to you, like Facebook ads.

  • Newsletter Sponsorships - We engage others to serve newsletter advertisements and perform related services across the web and in mobile applications. You can learn more about interest-based ads, or opt out of having your web browsing information used for behavioral advertising purposes by companies that participate in the Digital Advertising Alliance, by visiting www.aboutads.info/choices

    • Opting Out of Targeted Advertising, Sharing, and Sales - We process personal information to understand and improve your experience with our Services and to serve you targeted advertisements. Some of these activities may be considered "sales" or "sharing" of your personal information or "targeted advertising" under certain privacy laws. To opt out of preference-based advertising, use the form linked here. Note, this will not stop you from seeing sponsorships or advertisements in our newsletters, but those ads will be selected randomly rather than based on your known preferences.

7. Do we share your Personal Information with anyone?

We do not sell, trade, or otherwise transfer to outside (third) parties your Personal Information unless we provide you with advance written notice or need to do so in order to comply with the law or an investigation. This does not include website hosting partners and other parties who assist us in operating our website, conducting our business, or serving our users, so long as those parties agree to keep this information confidential. We may also release Personal Information when its release is appropriate or necessary to comply with the law, enforce our Site policies, this Privacy Policy, our Terms & Conditions, or protect our rights or others' rights, property, or safety.

However, non-personally identifiable visitor information may be provided to other parties for marketing, advertising, or other uses. If you make your personal information available to third parties through our Site, Courses, Services, and Products, Sam Vander Wielen LLC is not responsible for any unauthorized use by that third party.

It's also important to note that we do not allow third-party behavioral tracking.

8. How do we protect your Personal Information?

We aim to make your visit to our Site as safe as possible. The Site uses commercially acceptable methods of security protection to protect your information. The Site is scanned for security breaches using, for example, malware. We also use a SSL certificate and never transmit your credit card information by email. 

Your Personal Information is contained behind secured networks and is only accessible by a limited number of persons who have special access rights to such systems, and are required to keep the Personal Information confidential. By viewing, using, or purchasing on or from the Site, Courses, Services, and Products, you acknowledge that Sam Vander Wielen LLC and its staff and independent contractors may access your Personal Information.

In addition, all sensitive credit card or payment information you supply is encrypted via Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology.

We implement a variety of security measures when a user places an order to maintain the safety of your Personal Information. All transactions are processed through a gateway provider and are not stored or processed on our servers.

9. Do we use 'cookies' or pixels?

Cookies. Yes. Cookies are small files that a site or its service provider transfers to your computer's hard drive through your Web browser (if you allow) that enables the site's or service provider's systems to recognize your browser and capture and remember certain information. For instance, we use cookies to help us remember and process the items in your shopping cart. They are also used to help us understand your preferences based on previous or current Site activity, which enables us to provide you with improved services. We also use cookies to help us compile aggregate data about Site traffic and Site interaction so that we can offer better site experiences and tools in the future.

We use cookies to:

  • Help remember and process the items in the shopping cart.

  • Compile aggregate data about site traffic and site interactions in order to offer better Site experiences and tools in the future. We may also use trusted third-party services that track this information on our behalf.

You can choose to have your computer warn you each time a cookie is being sent, or you can choose to turn off all cookies. You do this through your browser settings. Since each browser is a little different, look at your browser's Help Menu to learn the correct way to modify your cookies.

While you may disable the use of cookies through your browser’s settings or options page, you may lose some of the features and functionality of the Site, Courses, Services, and Products, as cookies are necessary to help track and enhance your experience on the Site.

Pixels. Yes. The Company uses social media pixels (Facebook pixels) to track visitors to the Site so we can tailor advertisements towards those visitors on social media platforms. The Company reserves the right to use pixels in accordance with the terms of the social media platform.

10. Third-Party Links:

Occasionally, at our discretion, we may include or offer third-party products, services, or links to articles/blogs/sites on our Site. These third-party sites may or may not have separate and independent privacy policies. We, therefore, have no responsibility or liability for the content and activities of these linked sites. Nonetheless, we seek to protect the integrity of our Site and welcome any feedback about any issues you experience with linked-to sites.

11. Password Privacy:

While using the Site, Courses, Services, or Products, you may create a username and/or password for login. It is your responsibility to keep the username and password safe. You are also responsible for any actions which occur through the use of your username/password, whether completed by you directly or through the use of your account. You shall notify us immediately by email (help@samvanderwielen.com) of any unauthorized use of your login information or any other security breach. Please log out at the end of each session to prevent any unauthorized use of your account or login information. 

You may not share your username/password or login information with anyone other than yourself. We are not responsible or liable for any loss or damages as a result of your failure to protect your login information or your unauthorized sharing of same.

12. Google:

Google's advertising requirements can be summed up by Google's Advertising Principles. They are put in place to provide a positive experience for you. We are not currently using Google Ads on the Site, although this may change in the future.

We have implemented the following through Google Analytics: Demographics and Interests Reporting.

We, along with third-party vendors such as Google use first-party cookies (such as the Google Analytics cookies) and third-party cookies (such as the DoubleClick cookie) or other third-party identifiers together to compile data regarding user interactions with ad impressions and other ad service functions as they relate to our website.

To Opt-Out of Google Ads: You can set preferences for how Google advertises to you using the Google Ad Settings page. Alternatively, you can opt-out by visiting the Network Advertising Initiative Opt-Out page or by using the Google Analytics Opt-Out Browser add-on.

13. California Online Privacy Protection Act (“CalOPPA”):

CalOPPA stretches well beyond California to require any person or company that operates websites collecting Personal Information from California viewers/consumers to post a conspicuous privacy policy on its website stating exactly the information being collected and those individuals or companies with whom it is being shared. Read more about CalOPPA here.

Pursuant to CalOPPA, we agree to the following:

Users can visit our site anonymously.

There is a link to this Privacy Policy on the footer of our homepage.

Our Privacy Policy link includes the word 'Privacy' and can easily be found on the page specified above. It is titled "Privacy Policy" very clearly.

Updates to this Privacy Policy:

You will be notified of any Privacy Policy changes on our Privacy Policy Page (see bottom “Updated On” date).

14. Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”):

When it comes to the collection of Personal Information from children under the age of 13 years old, the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) puts parents in control. The Federal Trade Commission, United States' consumer protection agency, enforces the COPPA Rule, which spells out what operators of websites and online services must do to protect children's privacy and safety online.

We do not specifically market to children under the age of 13. In fact, we require that you are at least 18 years old to use the Site and our Courses, Services, or Products. Please STOP and do not use, view, purchase, or otherwise browse the Site, Courses, Services, or Products if you are under 18 years old.

If you are a parent and you believe your child 13-years-old or younger has provided us with Personal Information, please contact us immediately to have it removed by emailing us at help@samvanderwielen.com.

15. Fair Information Practices:

In order to comply with Fair Information Practices we will take the following responsive action, should a data breach occur:

We will notify you via email within 10 business days of any known breach.

16. CAN-SPAM Act of 2003:

The CAN-SPAM Act is a U.S. law which establishes rules for commercial email messages, gives recipients the right to stop certain commercial emails from being sent to them, and outlines certain penalties for commercial entities or persons who violate the law.

We collect your email address and name so we can:

Send information, respond to inquiries, and/or other requests or questions.

Process orders and to send information and updates pertaining to orders of a course, product, or service.

Send you additional information related to your course, product and/or service.

Market to our mailing list or continue to send emails to our clients after the original transaction has occurred.

Email you a newsletter with free information and advertising certain Products, Services, or Courses we have going on.

In accordance with the CAN-SPAM Act, we agree to the following:

We will not use false or misleading subjects or email addresses.

We will identify the message as an advertisement in some reasonable way.

We will include the physical address of our business or site headquarters.

We will monitor third-party email marketing services for compliance. We use ConvertKit.

We honor opt-out/unsubscribe requests quickly.

We allow users to unsubscribe by using the appropriate link at the bottom of each email.

TO UNSUBSCRIBE:

If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from receiving future emails, you can email us at help@samvanderwielen.com or follow the instructions at the bottom of any email you receive from us and we will promptly remove you from future correspondence(s). However, because we use an email marketing/management system (ConvertKit), unsubscribing from one list or set of emails may not unsubscribe you from receiving ALL future emails. If you experience any problems unsubscribing, please email help@samvanderwielen.com and we will promptly handle your removal.

17. Your General Data Protection Regulation ("GDPR") Rights

If you are located within the European Union ("EU"), you are entitled to certain rights under the GDPR. You have the right to:

  • Know how long we'll keep your information. We'll keep your personal information until the earlier of: (1) you either ask us to delete your information or (2) the Company decides it no longer needs the data and the cost of retaining it outweighs the value to keeping it.

  • Access, rectify or erase your personal information.

  • Withdraw your consent to the Company's processing of your data, which shall have no effect on the lawfulness of the processing of your personal information prior to your withdrawal.

  • Lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority that has jurisdiction over GDPR issues.

  • Provide only your personal information which is reasonably required to enter into a contract with us. The Company will not ask for your consent to provide unnecessary personal information on the condition of entering into a contractual relationship with the Company.

18. Contact Us:

If there are any questions regarding this Privacy Policy, you may contact us using the following information:

SAM VANDER WIELEN LLC

Last Updated on August 10, 2023

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