This policy explains what happens to personal data when you read this site or write to it. It is written to be short enough to finish.
The short version
Reading the site requires no account and no registration. We do not sell personal data, we do not build advertising profiles of readers, and we do not set tracking cookies for advertising purposes. The data that does exist is mostly the technical minimum needed to serve a page, plus whatever you choose to put in an email.
What is collected
Server logs. Like any web server, ours records requests: the address of the page, the time, the browser and operating system reported by your software, the referring page, and an IP address. This exists to deliver pages, keep the site available and investigate abuse or attacks. Logs are kept for a limited period and then deleted.
Correspondence. If you write to the editorial address, we receive your email address, your message and anything you attach. We keep it for as long as the matter is open and, where a message changed a file, for as long as we may need to explain that change.
Enquiry form. Some pages carry a button that opens a form. If you complete it, the data you enter is transmitted to the service that operates the form, which acts as an independent controller of what you submit to it, and you may be contacted by a provider on that basis. Do not submit anything through such a form that you would not want a commercial party to hold. Closing the form without sending it transmits nothing.
Measurement. Where aggregate traffic measurement is used, it is configured to report totals rather than to follow individuals across other sites.
Cookies and local storage
The site works without cookies for ordinary reading. Where a small amount of data is stored in your browser, it is for functional purposes such as remembering that you dismissed a notice. You can delete this data at any time in your browser settings, and doing so does not stop you from reading anything here.
Why we may process data, in legal terms
For serving pages, keeping the site secure and answering correspondence, the basis is legitimate interest in operating a publication and replying to the people who write to it. Where you submit a form or send a message, that submission is your own act and the data in it is processed to deal with what you asked. Where consent is required for a particular technology, it is asked for before that technology runs.
Who else sees it
Technical suppliers see what their role requires: the hosting provider that serves the pages, the mail provider that carries email, and the operator of the enquiry form for data submitted through it. They act on instructions or as independent controllers of what you send them directly. Data may be disclosed if the law requires it. It is not sold.
Your rights
If you are in the European Union or another jurisdiction with comparable law, you can ask for access to the personal data we hold about you, its correction, its deletion, a restriction on its use, or a copy of it, and you may object to processing based on legitimate interest. Write to [email protected] and say what you want; we will answer within the period the law allows. You also have the right to complain to the data protection authority of the country where you live.
Because the site has no accounts, an email is usually the only record connecting you to anything here, and deleting that correspondence is usually all that a deletion request involves.
Children
The site is written for adults and is not directed at children.
Changes
If this policy changes, the modified date at the top of the page changes with it. Material changes will be described on the page rather than folded in silently.