What are network authentications used for and how do they affect the privacy of my personal data

When we first started to build the Evergreen Content Poster we needed a way to be able to share your content to the social networks you love. The easiest way for us to achieve this is by becoming a partner with Buffer as it allows us to immediately give you the ability to share with the most popular social networks out there, but soon we hope to integrate several others. As such, we want to write this article that allows you to know exactly for what purposes we use those authentications.

First and foremost, we want to address the question of personal data. When authenticated and connected to an API, certain pieces of personal data can be seen by the connected software if it requests it. This includes things like your name, email address, and possibly other information as well. The Evergreen Content Poster does not and will not access any of that personal information.

Definition: The term API refers to an Application Programming Interface. That fancy term simply means that the Evergreen Content Poster plugin can access Buffer’s system and access specific pieces of information from Buffer’s database.

Let us state this as clearly as possible: the Evergreen Content Poster does not collect any personal information about you from the APIs. None whatsoever. We respect your personal privacy and abhor many of the data-mining practices of major corporations. As such, we repeat, the Evergreen Content Poster does not collect any personal information about you from the APIs we use.

The only information collected during the authentication process is a series of unique access tokens that allow our software to contact the APIs on your behalf. These access tokens are stored in the database of your WordPress website. They are not sent to us or stored in our databases.

Once these access tokens are obtained from the authentication, they are used to contact the API and collect information that is used to enhance the functionality of the Evergreen Content Poster plugin. Here is an exhaustive list of every single piece of information that the Evergreen Content Poster plugin collects on your behalf.

1. Buffer authentication is used to be able to connect to Buffer and post to the social networks that are connected to your Buffer account. We don’t have access to those individual accounts themselves, nor do we have access to your Buffer account. This connection only allows us to connect and share your social messages according to the schedule or setup you created within the plugin.
2. From your WordPress installation we sync:
   1. the domain on which the plugin is (de)activated,
   2. the resolution of the person that installed the plugin (so we know for which screen resolutions to optimize first),
   3. the language in which your WordPress installation is installed (so we know which translations need prioritisation)
   4. which social networks you connected via Buffer (so we know which connections we need to prioritise building ourselves)

Right now, this is the only use we have for that authentication. And again, even that information is stored on your server, not ours.

We have absolutely no interest in taking any personal data from our users. We will never collect personal data from our users other than what is required by law or by the IRS (such as your billing information at checkout). Additionally, any information that we do collect will never be shared with third parties.