Privacy Policy

What the Site Collects

Comments

When you leave a comment, the site stores the name, email address and comment you enter, plus your IP address and browser details to help catch spam. Your name and comment are public; your email address never is.

Messages

If you get in touch by email, the site has your address and whatever you choose to include in your message.

Newsletter

The newsletter runs on Substack. If you subscribe, Substack collects your email address under its own privacy policy, and the site can see the subscriber list and basic open and click statistics.

Automatically

Like almost every website, the site and its service providers collect technical information when you visit: your IP address, device and browser type, operating system, language, the pages you view, the site that referred you, and roughly where you are (from your IP address). Much of this is collected with cookies. See the Cookie Policy.

There are no reader accounts and no contact form on the site. Please don’t send sensitive information (health, financial, government ID numbers and the like). The site doesn’t ask for it or use it.

How It’s Used

• To run the website, show comments and reply to them.
• To answer messages.
• To understand which posts people read, so the site can publish more of what’s useful.
• To show ads, which keep the site free, and measure how they perform.
• To earn affiliate commissions when you buy something through a link.
• To keep the site secure and stop spam and abuse.
• To meet legal obligations.

Who Receives It

Advertising

Mediavine manages the ads on the site, working with its advertising partners (details below). Mediavine’s Grow tools (share and save buttons) also run on the site; if you sign in to Grow, Mediavine handles that account under its own policies.

Analytics

Google Analytics measures visits and page views.

Hosting and security

The site’s web host and Cloudflare, which delivers and protects the site, process your IP address and requests to serve pages and block attacks.

Comment avatars

Commenter pictures come from Gravatar (Automattic), which receives a scrambled (hashed) version of your email address when your comment is displayed.

Newsletter

Substack, which runs the newsletter.

Affiliate partners

Amazon and Bookshop.org learn that you arrived from the site when you click an affiliate link. See the Affiliate Disclosure.

Information may also be disclosed if the law requires it, to protect the site or its readers, or to a buyer if the site is ever sold.

The site doesn’t sell names or email addresses. But under several US state privacy laws, letting advertising partners collect data on the site for personalized ads counts as “selling” or “sharing” personal information, or as “targeted advertising.” In that legal sense, the ads on the site do this. You can opt out at any time; see Your Privacy Rights.

Mediavine Programmatic Advertising (Ver 1.1)

The Website works with Mediavine to manage third-party interest-based advertising appearing on the Website. Mediavine serves content and advertisements when you visit the Website, which may use first and third-party cookies. A cookie is a small text file which is sent to your computer or mobile device (referred to in this policy as a “device”) by the web server so that a website can remember some information about your browsing activity on the Website.

First party cookies are created by the website that you are visiting. A third-party cookie is frequently used in behavioral advertising and analytics and is created by a domain other than the website you are visiting. Third-party cookies, tags, pixels, beacons and other similar technologies (collectively, “Tags”) may be placed on the Website to monitor interaction with advertising content and to target and optimize advertising. Each internet browser has functionality so that you can block both first and third-party cookies and clear your browser’s cache. The “help” feature of the menu bar on most browsers will tell you how to stop accepting new cookies, how to receive notification of new cookies, how to disable existing cookies and how to clear your browser’s cache. For more information about cookies and how to disable them, you can consult the information at All About Cookies.

Without cookies you may not be able to take full advantage of the Website content and features. Please note that rejecting cookies does not mean that you will no longer see ads when you visit our Site. In the event you opt-out, you will still see non-personalized advertisements on the Website.

The Website collects the following data using a cookie when serving personalized ads:

• IP Address
• Operating System type
• Operating System version
• Device Type
• Language of the website
• Web browser type
• Email (in hashed form)

Mediavine Partners (companies listed below with whom Mediavine shares data) may also use this data to link to other end user information the partner has independently collected to deliver targeted advertisements. Mediavine Partners may also separately collect data about end users from other sources, such as advertising IDs or pixels, and link that data to data collected from Mediavine publishers in order to provide interest-based advertising across your online experience, including devices, browsers and apps. This data includes usage data, cookie information, device information, information about interactions between users and advertisements and websites, geolocation data, traffic data, and information about a visitor’s referral source to a particular website. Mediavine Partners may also create unique IDs to create audience segments, which are used to provide targeted advertising.

If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices to opt-in or opt-out of this data collection, please visit National Advertising Initiative opt out page. You may also visit Digital Advertising Alliance website and Network Advertising Initiative website to learn more information about interest-based advertising. You may download the AppChoices app at Digital Advertising Alliance’s AppChoices app to opt out in connection with mobile apps, or use the platform controls on your mobile device to opt out.

For specific information about Mediavine Partners, the data each collects and their data collection and privacy policies, please visit Mediavine Partners.

Analytics

The site uses Google Analytics to count visits and see which posts are read. It uses cookies and collects information such as the pages you view, how you arrived, your device and browser, and your approximate location. Google Analytics does not store IP addresses. In the EU, the UK and Switzerland, its cookies are only set once you agree to them in the consent prompt. Anywhere, you can opt out with Google’s opt-out browser add-on, and you can read how Google uses this data in How Google uses information from sites that use its services.

How Long It’s Kept

• Comments stay up while the post is published, unless you ask for yours to be removed.
• Messages are kept only as long as they’re needed to reply and follow up.
• Google Analytics data is deleted automatically after no more than 14 months.
• Security logs kept by the web host and Cloudflare are short-lived.
• Newsletter subscriptions last until you unsubscribe.
• Advertising partners keep data under their own policies (see the Mediavine Partners link above).

Your Privacy Rights

Wherever you live, you can ask to see, correct or delete the personal information the site holds about you (in practice, your comments and messages). Depending on where you live, the law may also give you these rights:

• To know what personal information is collected about you, and to receive a copy.
• To correct inaccurate information.
• To delete your information.
• To opt out of the sale or sharing of your personal information, and of targeted advertising.
• Not to be treated differently for using any of these rights.

The US states with these laws include California, Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia, Oregon, Texas and a growing number of others.

Opt out of ad tracking

Use the “Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information” link that Mediavine shows US visitors on the site’s pages with ads. It opts you out of personalized ads in that browser. You will still see ads, just not personalized ones.

Or turn on Global Privacy Control in your browser. The site’s ad setup treats that signal as an opt-out request for that browser. You can also ask to opt out through the contact page.

Everything else

Get in touch through the contact page and say what you’d like. You may be asked to confirm details (such as the email address you commented with) to make sure the request is yours. Someone you authorize can also make a request for you. Requests are answered within 45 days.

Appeals

If your request is turned down, you can appeal by replying with “Appeal” in the subject line. You’ll get an answer within the time your state’s law allows. If you’re still unhappy, you can contact your state attorney general.

California Residents

This section is the notice California law requires. In the past 12 months the site collected the following categories of personal information:

Identifiers

Name and email address (comments, messages), IP address, and cookie and device identifiers.

Internet activity

Pages viewed, links and ads clicked, the referring site, and browser and device details.

Approximate location

Derived from your IP address. Not your precise location.

Inferences

Interest profiles that advertising partners build for personalized ads.

It came from you, from your browser and device, and from the service providers named above. It was used for the purposes listed in “How It’s Used” and disclosed to the recipients listed in “Who Receives It.” Identifiers, internet activity, approximate location and inferences were “sold” or “shared” with advertising partners through the ads. The site does not collect sensitive personal information, and does not knowingly sell or share the personal information of anyone under 16. Mediavine also publishes its own privacy notices for the ads it manages.

Visitors in the EU and UK

DTH Holdings, LLC is the controller of the personal information described here. Advertising and analytics cookies are only set with your consent, which Mediavine asks for when you first visit from the EU, the UK or Switzerland; you can change that choice at any time through the same prompt. Running and securing the site and handling comments rely on legitimate interests, and answering a message relies on your request.

You have the right to access, correct, delete, restrict or object to the use of your information, to receive a copy of it, and to withdraw consent at any time. You can also complain to your local data protection authority. The site is run from the United States, so your information is processed there. The providers named above use safeguards such as the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework or standard contractual clauses.

Children

The site is written for adults and is not directed to children under 13. It does not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13, or sell or share the personal information of anyone under 16. If you believe a child has given the site personal information, get in touch through the contact page and it will be deleted.

Changes and Contact

This policy is updated when the site changes how it handles information, and the date at the top changes when it is. Questions about this policy or your information? Get in touch through the contact page.