Who We Are
This is the website of Pura Vida! eh? Incorporated.
Membership Payments
We neither see nor receive copies of your personal payment information. Those details remain confidential through PayPal. Information about privacy through PayPal’s service is provided here.
Cookies
Unlike the majority of websites, which display out-of-house ads to their visitors and use cookies for this purpose, our website is free of a) ads that aren’t our own, b) sponsored content, and c) affiliate marketing.
Our website uses cookies for the purposes of recognizing you as a member or a visitor, and for providing you with a better online experience. Most of our website’s features, including our Member Login functionality, our Questions and Answers Forum, and our DIY Costa Rica Trip List option, rely on cookies to operate. Most are also run by themes, plugins, and other add-ons to our website that we do not and cannot control, which means the cookies you receive are mainly provided by third parties. Because simple actions like logging into your member account, browsing our recommendations, using our Costa Rica Destination Tool, asking a question, and even visiting our website’s homepage require the use of cookies, it is not possible to explore or use our website without them. If you would prefer not to receive cookies, we kindly (and sadly) ask that you do not visit our website. (Alternatively, you can try setting your browser to remove or reject browser cookies before visiting our website, but you may find that our website doesn’t function properly without them.) By visiting or submitting information through our website, you acknowledge and accept our use of cookies, and the use of third-party cookies.
Data Collection
In addition to our use of cookies (described above), which is a form of data collection, we collect only the information we need to create member accounts, and to be able to use themes, plugins, security and spam-detection services, and other third-party services that help us provide a positive visitor experience.
When you create a DIY Costa Rica account, we ask you to provide a username and password. (Please see the Data Security section below for information regarding username and password confidentiality.) Your first name, last name, and email address will be provided by the payment you made through PayPal.
Our website uses themes, plugins, security and spam-detection services, and other third-party services to run. These services may collect data of their own when you visit our website. For example, when you submit a question or a comment through our Forum, the plugins we use to run the Forum may see the question or comment data that you provide, such as your name, email address, and inquiry. Similarly, when you use our Costa Rica Destination Tool, the plugins we use to operate that tool may see the criteria you select. Other opportunities for data collection include but are not limited to when you browse our website, create an account, log into your account, add items to your trip list, send/open/respond to emails, and click on links. By visiting or submitting information through our website, you acknowledge and accept that data, including your IP address and website browsing behaviors, is being sent to us and the providers of the services we use on our website. For the security of our website and its users, we use only the minimum number of themes, plugins, and other third-party services needed to operate and maintain our website. At any time, you may request a list of the current themes, plugins, and other third-party services that contribute to our website and may opt to collect data, so you can inquire about their Privacy Policies.
Data Selling and/or Sharing
We never sell your personal information, including but not limited to your first name, last name, username, residential address, telephone number, and email address.
We also never intentionally share your personal information with other parties. (Please see the Data Collection section above for information regarding the potential for third-party services to collect personal information submitted to our website.)
Submissions, including but not limited to questions, comments, and their associated data, including but not limited to personal information and/or IP addresses, may be sent to and checked by third-party services that our website utilizes, such as website security and spam detection services.
Data Security
We do not see the password and profile data that you associate with your account for log-in purposes. However, it is possible that people who have access to our website’s database can. Though we strive to maintain a secure website, we cannot fully guarantee that DIY Costa Rica account information cannot be seen by other individuals. For this reason, it is crucial that you choose a password and a username that is 100% unique to your DIY Costa Rica account and not associated with another account that you own. By creating a DIY Costa Rica account, using your DIY Costa Rica account, or simply browsing our website as a visitor or a logged out member, you accept that third parties may be able to see data related to your account or your behavior.
If you need to change your password, you can do so from within your account on the Member Profile page. Enter your new password in the “Password” and “Repeat Password” fields.
If you need to change your username, you can request the creation of a new (complimentary) DIY Costa Rica account, which can be associated with a new username. The account associated with the old username will be deleted.
For ways to delete your account or have us delete from our website and operating system your personal information, please see the Data Removal section below.
Data Retention
If you leave a question or a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so that the conversation can continue to appear in our Forum to benefit future Costa Rica travelers, and so that we have the option to recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically, instead of holding them in a moderation queue.
If you have a DIY Costa Rica account, we store the personal information you provide in your user profile. At any time, you can see, edit, or delete your personal information (except for your username; see the Data Security section above for information about changing and deleting your username). We can also see and edit that information.
Data Removal
At any time, you may delete your DIY Costa Rica account from within your account. To do so, visit the Member Profile page and click on the “Delete Account” link near the bottom of the page. You may also request that we delete from our website and operating system your DIY Costa Rica account and/or personal information, including but not limited to your first name, last name, email address, username, password, residential address, and telephone number. This request will remove data stored by our website but will not include data that we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes. If you wish to have it, you may request an exported file of the personal information that was collected about you, prior to deletion.
Communication
We will only contact you by email, if not through our website’s Forum, and only for purposes related to Costa Rica travel. At any time, you may request that we stop contacting you.
If you leave a question or a comment on our website, including in our Forum, we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also your IP address and browser user agent string to help detect spam.
An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here. After approval of your question or comment, your profile picture (if you use one) will be visible to the public in the context of your question or comment.
Profiling/Automated Processing
Our website does not engage in profiling. Our website does not practice decision-processing without human involvement.
A Summary of Your Rights
As evidenced by this Privacy Policy and covered in further detail above, when visiting our website you have the right to a) be informed of how we collect and process your information, b) access your information, c) amend or correct your information, d) delete your information, e) restrict the collection or processing of your information, f) obtain a copy of your personal information, g) object our use of your information, and h) not be subject to profiling or a decision based solely on automated processing (i.e., without human involvement).
