The Short Version
This is a website. The operator of this website is not collecting your personal data for some insidious purpose. The operator uses a managed hosting service to run a WordPress site, and there are a number of third-party gadgets working in the background. If the hosting service sees a security problem, the site operator will shut down whatever component is at issue. If you are concerned about your privacy, I encourage you to stay off the internet; but you are here and I will do what I can to respect your privacy on this website.
Who we are
Our website address is: https://ericgleske.net.
What personal data we collect and why we collect it
Note: Most of this is boilerplate that comes from setting up a WP site. My own, non-boilerplate comments are italicized, like this one here is.
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 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.
There’s stuff that happens in the background that is fairly standard if you want things like avatars to show up when you comment. Heck, just commenting leaves data. If you don’t like leaving data breadcrumbs, go buy a book. It’s good for authors if more people do that, anyway.
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.
See above comment about data breadcrumbs. Regardless, I’m not sure if I’ll let folks upload images, so this may be moot.
Contact forms
As I type this, I’m not using contact forms on this site, unless you count comments or user signups ; if I begin using contact forms generally, my overall philosophy about respecting your privacy and not sharing your information that applies to other elements of this website will apply for contact forms. Also: any caveats about third-party software that make those forms work in a managed WordPress environment will apply, too.
Cookies
If you leave a comment on our 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 visit our login page, we 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, we 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
How long we retain your data
I can’t speak for WordPress machines in the background, or the data centers that this sits on, but if I have your data, I may retain it for a while. At least until I stop retaining it. What data are you giving me? Name, contact info? That’s about it, I should imagine. I don’t encourage folks to give me, say, their banking information – not that I would do anything with it, but I can’t say that I’m better prepared than the next online Joe to safeguard your data. So, give me only what you want, and plan on me having it.
With whom we share your data
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 on our website (if any), 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.
No doubt this site will eventually be scraped like every other public site out there. If you leave any public data, expect it to always be out there. This, by the way, is good advice to follow for ANY online activity.
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.
See my comments above. I’m not running this site to collect data for any purpose other than interpersonal communications. If you don’t want your email address in comments, I’ll help you remove it. If you send me, via this site or other means, personal information, contact information, etc., with the intent that it was confidential, I will respect your confidentiality to the full extent I am able to.
Where we send your data
Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.
This is one of those things that happens in the background, over which I have little control. One of the hazards of being online, folks.
Your contact information
I can be contacted at: egleske at gmail dot com.
Additional information
Ted Williams hit .406 for the regular season in 1941. The last man to hit .400…but you knew that, right?
How we protect your data
I use strong passwords and I do my best to practice safe data on my machines. The WP site has its own systems. But it’s not Fort Knox here, which is why I don’t want to be collecting anything you don’t want out there.
What data breach procedures we have in place
None, per se. If I become aware of a data breach, I will shut the site down until the hosting service can provide assurances that the breach is filled with something more permanent than a tinker’s dam. If you don’t give me your data, then if/when this site is breached, your data are safe.
I will add that I regularly find myself deleting users who sign up and then change their passwords, often with email addresses that end in .ru. Generally speaking, if you sign up as a user, and don’t contact me, and I don’t recognize who you are, you’re likely to get deleted.
What third parties we receive data from
I assume Gravatar, for one. And possibly sites linked in comments.
What automated decision making and/or profiling we do with user data
I get notified of requests for user accounts, and, once established, requests to make comments.
Industry regulatory disclosure requirements
Look, this is a just my own little corner of the interwebs. To be honest, I don’t know if there is a disclosure requirement, so this will have to do. (I know a lawyer in the future will want to kill me for this.) This is a personal website, run on a public platform – WordPress – and automagically maintained by the elves at 1&1 hosting, with whom I have a contract for hosting and WP maintenance and domain registration so that I, the lay person, can have a presence on the web. I don’t expect too much in the way of interaction, so there will be a very limited amount of user data I have to worry about. WordPress and 1&1 have their own systems in place to keep their customers’ data safe, so I figure you’re about as safe as I am around here.