What personal data I collect and why I collect it
The following is primarily WordPress legal boilerplate, customized for the kind of site I keep. In plain English, I’m collecting very little data about visitors to this site, and will happily delete anything of yours (that is possible for me to delete) if you ask. The data I collect is mainly information you’ve given me for my mailing list, and personal information you give me when you leave a comment (when that option is enabled).
Mailing list
I collect names and emails for my mailing list so that I can send you emails about my books and creative projects. These emails will NEVER be used for any other reason, and will never be sold or revealed to others. You can remove yourself at any time using the “unsubscribe” link in any email. I use a third party mailing list service, Mailerlite, to maintain my mailing lists.
Comments
When comments are enabled on the site, I collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.
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: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.
Cookies
When comments are enabled and you leave a comment, you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.
If you have an account and you log in to this site, the site sets a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.
When you log in, the site also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.
Embedded content from other websites
Articles on this site may occasionally include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.) from other websites. Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.
These websites may collect data, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and otherwise retrieve information on your interaction with that embedded content, including tracing your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.
How long your data will be retained
If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.
For users that register (if any – this is not currently an option), we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.
What rights you have over your data
If you have an account on this site, or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.
Where we send your data
Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service. Mailing list information is maintained through Mailerlite for that purpose only.
Questions?
Please contact me if you have any questions about collections and usage of your data on this site.