What personal data we collect and why we collect it
Comments
When visitors leave comments on the site, we 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 anonymised 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.
Media
If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.
Cookies
Yay, Cookies! I use cookies to personalise content and ads, to provide social media features and to analyse my traffic. I also share information about your use of our site with my social media, advertising and analytics partners who may combine it with other information that you’ve provided to them or that they’ve collected from your use of their services.
Cookies are small text files that can be used by websites to make a user’s experience more efficient.
The law states that I can store cookies on your device if they are strictly necessary for the operation of this site. For all other types of cookies I need your permission.
This site uses different types of cookies. Some cookies are placed by third party services that appear on my pages.
If you leave a comment on this site 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 website will set 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 website will 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.
If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.
Embedded content from other websites
Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). 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 about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.
Analytics
This website makes use of Google Analytics to help us understand where traffic comes from, what readers like, and how to improve the website. Google Analytics does place cookies on your end as to track user behaviour and generate statistics with that data.
Who we share your data with
I do not actively share data with anyone. Third party plugins or functions that run on this website (i.e. ads, social media buttons, etc.) may however place cookies and use your data for their own purposes. Those cookies can be opted in and out of.
How long we retain your data
If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so I can recognise and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.
For users that register on our website, the website also stores 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 I 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.
Social Media sharing plugins and widgets
I embed Facebook Comments plugin to allow you to leave comment at our website using your Facebook account. This plugin may collect your IP address, your web browser User Agent, store and retrieve cookies on your browser, embed additional tracking, and monitor your interaction with the commenting interface, including correlating your Facebook account with whatever action you take within the interface (such as “liking” someone’s comment, replying to other comments), if you are logged into Facebook. For more information about how this data may be used, please see Facebook’s data privacy policy: https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/update
The website collects the data related to the Facebook Comment you post, only from your consent that you grant before posting Facebook Comment at our website. This data includes your Facebook account name, unique Facebook account identifier, unique identifier associated to the posted Facebook comment, unique open graph object identifier of the web page at which you posted the comment, unique identifier associated to the parent comment if you reply to an existing comment. This data is used to show recent Facebook Comments made all over our website. You can revoke this consent at any time by un-checking the opt-in displayed above comment box
I embed a Facebook widget to allow you to see number of likes/shares/recommends and “like/share/recommend” our web pages. This widget may collect your IP address, your web browser User Agent, store and retrieve cookies on your browser, embed additional tracking, and monitor your interaction with the widget, including correlating your Facebook account with whatever action you take within the widget (such as “liking/sharing/recommending” our webpage), if you are logged in to Facebook. For more information about how this data may be used, please see Facebook’s data privacy policy: https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/update
I use a Twitter Tweet widget at this website. As a result, this website makes requests to Twitter’s servers for you to be able to tweet our webpages using your Twitter account. These requests make your IP address visible to Twitter, who may use it in accordance with their data privacy policy: https://twitter.com/en/privacy#update
I use Pinterest Save widget at this website to allow you to pin images to Pinterest from our webpages. These requests may track your IP address in accordance with their data privacy policy: https://policy.pinterest.com/en/privacy-policy
I use the Reddit Badge widget at this website which may log information when you interact with the widget. This may include your IP address, user-agent string, browser type, operating system, referral URLs, device information (e.g., device IDs), pages visited, links clicked, user interactions (e.g., voting data), the requested URL and hardware settings, in accordance with their privacy policy: https://www.redditinc.com/policies/privacy-policy
How we protect your data
This website and all the databases it uses are hosted by the German webhosting provider webgo GmbH. Their datacenter is located in Germany and therefore compliant with Germany’s laws and guidelines concerning data protection and privacy. More information on their physical and digital safety measures can be found here: https://www.webgo.de/technik/rechenzentrum/