I take your privacy seriously! This page describes the ways in which the site collects or may collect information from you. Much of what appears below is based on the privacy information provided by Automattic, the web development company that offers the WordPress.com blogging platform, where this site is hosted. Quotations below are from Automattic’s explanation of how it collects and uses data on sites like this one. Okay, here goes …

I collect the names and email addresses of those who choose to subscribe to my email list. This information is stored in my account at the online marketing company MailChimp.com; a copy of the information also appears in the notification email MailChimp sends me. Both my MailChimp and email accounts are well protected: I’m one of those 40-random-character-passwords, multi-factor-authentication types. I do not share subscribers’ names or email addresses with anyone outside my own publishing operation. Subscribers may remove themselves from my email list, using the link provided in every email I send. I use my email list to notify interested readers that I have published new work; I do not send email at other times.

Other information collected by this site is a function of how the WordPress platform operates.

If you choose to follow or subscribe to my blog posts, WordPress will collect the necessary signup information, such as your email address.

If you choose to leave a comment on one of my posts or pages, WordPress will collect the text of your comment; the date and time you leave it; the name and email address you provide; your website URL, should you choose to leave one; and your IP address. I must approve comments from all first-time commenters, but WordPress will keep the information necessary to recognize you in the future, allowing your comments to appear automatically, without approval. If you choose to follow responses to your comment(s), WordPress will retain your email address in order to send you notifications when and if responses are posted.

If you use this site to send me a message, I will receive via email the name and email address you provide, the content of your message, and the date and time you submitted the message. Also included is your IP address.

Going beyond the information I have access to, Automattic says that WordPress “collect[s] the information that web browsers, mobile devices, and servers typically make available about visitors to a Site, such as the IP address, browser type, unique device identifiers, language preference, referring site, the date and time of access, operating system, and mobile network information” — log data, in other words. Like many sites, WordPress uses IP addresses to determine users’ general geographic locations, but this info is only made available to me anonymously and in aggregate, as shown to the right.

WordPress also collects and analyzes information (including the “IP address, user agent, referrer,” website address, and  “other information directly provided by the commenter[,] such as their name, username, email address,” and comment text) in order to identify and cordon off spam. Even small sites like mine receive a lot of the stuff.

If you are yourself a WordPress user and are logged in to your account, WordPress will be tracking your use of the platform for its own internal analytics. You can read more about the way it does that here.

This site does use cookies — small text files that are placed on your device to help the site provide a better user experience. In general, cookies are used to retain user preferences, store information for things like shopping carts, and provide anonymized tracking data to third-party applications. Some functions of some websites may not work without them. Nevertheless, you may prefer to disable cookies on this site or others, which you can do by disabling cookies in your web browser. I suggest consulting the Help or Settings area of your browser or taking a look at the About Cookies website, which offers guidance on cookie settings in various browsers.

None of the information that WordPress collects about you and makes available to me will be viewed or shared outside my publishing operation (which, at the moment, is made up of only yours truly).

Thank you!

Becca