Personal Information Collected by this Site
Who cares?
This page is an attempt to comply with the European Union’s GDPR privacy laws.
TL;DR
I’m not Facebook. This site is not being used to stalk you. But few web technologies are truly private. Details below.
All site visitors
The web server hosting this site logs your IP address, page views, and browser and hardware information. Please be aware that almost every web server does this by default. Below I refer to this information as the usual stuff.
Blog comments and contact form
When you leave a comment, or fill out the subscribe form for the email list, this site collects everything you enter in the forms, along with the usual stuff.
Embedded content from other websites
Pages on this site may include embedded videos hosted by YouTube.
I embed videos in a manner that does not allow cookies. This limits the information that YouTube can collect about you. It also prevents them from collecting anything unless you click on the video. If you click, Youtube logs the usual stuff and your interactions with the video. If you happen to be logged in to Youtube or any other Google site, then Youtube will know exactly who you are.
YouTube has its own privacy policy; it’s a friendly and long-winded way of saying they own your soul. If this troubles you, you should avoid watching videos on the web, unless you’re using private browsing mode and a VPN.
Analytics
This site uses Google Analytics, mostly to satisfy my curiosity about the amount of traffic, where it’s coming from, and what pages people are viewing. Google analytics uses cookies, and records more detailed information than what web servers automatically record. Google anonymizes all personally identifying data, which means that it does not share with me your IP address or any other data that might be used to link your viewing activity to you personally. See Google’s privacy policy for Analytics.
You should be aware that most websites use Google Analytics or the equivalent.
Content delivery network
This site comes to you via Cloudflare’s content delivery network, which speeds performance and enhances site security. Cloudflare uses cookies, and logs all the usual stuff. Cloudflare promises in its own privacy policyto use this information only for purposes critical to its function.
Other automated systems that see your data
Comments and their metadata are vetted by Akismet, an automated cloud-based spam detection service, which may retain some data for up to 90 days. Data includes all the usual stuff, plus the comment and everything else entered in the form. Akismet promises in its own privacy policyto use this this information only for purposes critical to the software’s function.
Contents of the events list subscribe form, along with the usual stuff, are sent to Mailer Lite, which manages my mailing list. Mailer Lite promises in its own privacy policyto safeguard your information. Mailer Lite stores your data indefinitely, unless you unsubscribe from the list. Mailer Lite actively polices its customers (like me) to ensure that no one uses its services to violate privacy laws.
Who else I share your data with
No one.
How long I retain your data
If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are kept indefinitely. Server logs store the usual stuff for 30 days, in case it’s needed for troubleshooting. This information includes an IP address but nothing I can use to identify you personally.
What rights you have over your data
If you have left comments, you can ask me to send an exported file of your personal data stored by this site. You can also request that I delete it. This does not include any data collected by third parties such as Google (analytics), or YouTube (video watching data), or Akismet (spam-detection service). I do not have access to this data. You can remove all your data from my events email list simply by unsubscribing, via any of the emails.
If you have not left comments or subscribed to the email list, then this site stores no personalized data about you, so there’s nothing that I can send you or delete.
How I protect your data
Your data is kept alongside my own critical data, on a server protected by three firewall layers, anonymized behind a global content delivery network that conceals the origin server’s location and IP address. Site data is accessible only to me. All communication with the site is encrypted by SSL.
For what it’s worth
Ordinary website operators (like me) won’t be able to identify you by your IP address and the other usual stuff, as long as you’ve never filled out a comment form or subscription form with your email or name. But someone doing more serious digging might be able to figure it out, and anyone with subpoena power can do it easily. If your anonymity is truly important, you should use TORor a good VPN.
Please resist the urge to share your social security number, your revolutionary conspiracies, or the combination to your wall safe in the blog comments. Thank you.