Privacy Policy

• This privacy policy covers my Web sites, blog comments, and messages you send to me through my contact form or directly by email. I am the controller of such information.

• You have these rights in regards to your info:

  1. The right to be informed.
  2. The right to access your info.
  3. The right to correct mistakes in or complete your info.
  4. The right to remove your information.
  5. The right to restrict processing of your info.
  6. The right to move your info.
  7. The right to object to me processing your info.
  8. Rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling.

  You can exercise these rights by using my contact form, or by emailing me if you already have my email address.

• I will see everything you enter into a blog comment, contact form, or email, as well as your IP address and the date and time of your message. If you use the contact form or make a blog comment, I will also see what Web browser you’re using, the address of the page from which you came, and the date and time of your visit. If you use email, I will also see the email program you’re using. (I will not store the Web browser you’re using or the address of the page from which you came.)

• You do not have to give me any information, and you can give me fake information if a form requires you to fill out a field you don’t want to. However, if you do not give me info I need in order to answer your message or blog comment, then I may not be able to answer your message or blog comment properly. If you do not give me your true email address, then I might not be able to reply to you at all. Also, if you submit a message or blog comment, it is not possible to hide the IP address from which you do so, and I will store your IP address in order to protect myself.

• Your info will be used to answer your message or blog comment, to display to the public any blog comment you make, and to fulfill or deny any requests contained in your message or blog comment. Your info may also be used to comply with a lawful request from law enforcement, a lawful court order, or a lawful search warrant; to protect the vital interests of a human being; or to protect my own interests (unless yours are more important).

• If you provide your email address when sending a blog comment, then your email address will be used to display a Gravatar image next to your name, if you have set one. The public will see the image, if you have set one, and an MD5 hash of your email address (because that’s how Gravatar works). The public will NOT see your actual email address. I will also not see your email address as a result of you sending a blog comment. However, as detailed below, Automattic Inc. will see your actual email address as a result of you sending a blog comment, for the purpose of blocking spam.

• Your info will be transferred to the United States if it is not already here. This is because I live in the US. There are no particular safeguards in this area because your info has to enter the US for me to see or answer your message or blog comment.

• Your info will be shared with these companies and organizations (their names link to their privacy policies):

  • Hetzner Online GmbH - my hosting provider, for the purposes of showing you my Web sites and forwarding your message or blog comment (if you send one) to my account at Google LLC. They will see your IP address, the domain name of the site you visit, and the date and time of your visit. If (and only if) you visit without using a secure connection, then they will also see your Web browser, the page you visit, and the page from which you came. My server will redirect most insecure requests to secure versions, including all pages with contact or comment forms. My server with Hetzner Online GmbH is physically located in Ashburn, Virginia, United States, but Hetzner Online GmbH is headquartered in Germany, so any data they see might be transferred to Germany or other countries.

  • Google LLC - my email provider and Web fonts provider, for the purposes of delivering your message or blog comment to me and to provide fonts for some of my Web sites. In the case of fonts, they will see your IP address, Web browser, the domain name of the site you visit, the page you visit, the page from which you came, and the date and time of your visit.

  • Hurricane Electric LLC - my DNS host; they will see your IP address and the domain name of my Web site or mail server in order to tell your device where my Web site or mail server is. They will not see your message or blog comment (unless their employees choose to read my blog on their personal time). I may also share your IP address with them again in order to see who your Internet provider is.

  • Automattic Inc. - only if you send a blog comment; in order to help me block spam and to show your Gravatar (if you have one) to the public. To block spam (with their Akismet product), they will see (if you include it) your name, email address, Web site, and the comment itself. They will also see your IP address, Web browser, the page from which you came, the blog post or page you’re commenting on, the blog which contains the post or page you’re commenting on, and the date and time of your blog comment. To show your Gravatar (if you have one), the MD5 hash of your email address, but not your actual email address, will be sent both to the public and to Automattic Inc. (because that’s how Gravatar works).

  • Fight for the Future - displays political messages on my Web site from time to time, as a means of political activism on my behalf. They will see your IP address, Web browser, the page from which you came, the page you are visiting, and the date and time of your visit. They will not see your message or blog comment (unless their employees or volunteers choose to read my blog on their personal time).

  • My Internet providers and the above companies’ or organizations’ Internet providers

• If you make a blog comment, it will be shared with the public because that is the main function of blog comments. If you provide your email address along with a blog comment, then the MD5 hash of your email address, but not your actual email address, will be shared with the public and with Automattic Inc. (see above) in order to show your Gravatar (if you have one), because that’s how Gravatar works.

• Other than the public (for blog comments only) and the companies and organizations listed above, I will not share your info with anyone unless I need to in order to fulfill your request (or to receive it), if I am required to by law, to protect the vital interests of a human being, to protect my interests (unless yours are more important), or if you tell me I can or instruct me to.

• I will keep your information long enough for me to see and answer your message or blog comment, and for a reasonable period after that in order to answer future messages or blog comments you might send. Except for blog comments, I will periodically remove messages from people who are not still contacting me, unless (a) you have agreed otherwise, (b) I have a lawful reason to not do so, or (c) I know you personally and the messages in question are of a purely personal nature. Blog comments will not be removed (unless you ask me to) because the main function of blog comments is to make the blog comment available to the public indefinitely.

• My Web site does not use cookies or any other form of tracking. (But some applications on my Web sites might use cookies to perform their functions; they will tell you separately if they do.) However, some of the companies and organizations listed above might do so under their own privacy policies. For example, cookies are used by Google LLC (when providing fonts), Automattic Inc. (when providing Gravatar images), and Fight for the Future (to hide political messages you have already seen). These and other companies and organizations may still use cookies or tracking in other cases.

• There is no automated decision making or profiling by me or (to my knowledge) Hetzner Online GmbH. Google LLC and Automattic Inc. might do those things with the contents of your message or blog comment. Automattic Inc. and Fight for the Future might do those things with the information they collect. Hurricane Electric LLC might do those things with your IP address and my domain name.

• I use a strong password and other standard security measures to protect your info. Your info will be encrypted as it is sent from your device to my Web server. If you make a blog comment, it will also be encrypted as it is sent from my Web server to members of the public. However, please be advised that (for both messages and blog comments) your info will be sent to me via email, and even though my mail server will try to encrypt the message in transit, email encryption is very easy for an attacker to disable due to fundamental design flaws in SMTP.

• You have the right to make a complaint with a supervisory authority if you believe that I am violating the GDPR or your jurisdiction’s privacy laws.

• My Web site, blog comment system, contact form, and email addresses are not intended for children or teenagers under the age of 16 years, not even those who are emancipated or have permission from a parent or legal guardian. If you are a parent or legal guardian of an unemancipated child or teenager under the age of 16 years, you may use my contact form, or my email address if you already have it, to have their information removed.

• This privacy policy is governed by the laws and courts of and in Dallas County, Texas, United States, excluding any conflict of laws provisions. Invalid or unenforceable provisions will be changed to the minimum extent necessary and will not cancel the whole policy. There will be no binding arbitration. If this policy is translated into a language other than English, this English language version will prevail if there is a conflict. Nothing in this policy affects your rights under the GDPR or any other law.

This privacy policy is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license, but you may want to change it to match your circumstances before reusing it. Also, I am NOT a lawyer and nothing in this privacy policy should be treated as legal advice. Please talk to a lawyer before reusing this privacy policy.