Privacy and Cookies
I had noble intentions of keeping this hobby site advert free (as it has been for over a year). However I am so hacked off wasting time moderating spam comments and trackbacks aimed at making others money (when I have to pay for this site to be hosted) that I’ve now grumpily added advertising. This means (like the majority of sites) cookies will be created so if you click through to a site from a link/ad on this site, the cookie will identify you have been “referred” from this site, and if I am lucky I may get a few pence commission! So with this in mind I need a privacy policy:
Privacy Policy
Personal data:
Your privacy is important to us me. Yes you’ve heard that before; but in this case it’s true. I do NOT require you to register so I can add you to a mailing list, and you don’t even need to provide an email address when posting a comment. I do NOT use, collect, store or sell personal data.
Log Files:
When you visit a website its server will log the visit. The information recorded includes: IP address (identifies country and ISP provider e.g. BT), date/time of visit, referrer (e.g. Google), and the page the site was exited from – I can’t personally identify you from this information. Most organisations make use of such logs and I may use them to analyse site traffic e.g. to identify number of visitors, and which sites are linking to me.
What is a cookie?
Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer by websites that you visit. They are widely used in order to make websites work, or work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the owners of the site. (as described by the UK regulator -Information Commissioner’s Office) Cookies are also set by other sites whose content is embedded in the page you are visiting e.g. if a site includes Youtube Videos, then Youtube may also set or update a cookie on your computer (the price of free). These are referred to as 3rd party cookies.
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Cookies used on this site
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Google Analytics
These cookies are created by this own site and may be named “_utma”, “_utmb”, “_utmc”, or “_utmz”.
Purpose (as described by the UK regulator, which also uses Google Analytics) : These cookies are used to collect information in an anonymous form about how visitors use the site. . Information includes the number of visitors to the site, where visitors have come from and the pages visited on-site. More about Google on Analytics cookies.
Half the top million websites use Google Analytics (Wikipedia).
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Youtube.Com: provide the option of presenting their videos in enhanced-privacy mode, this means that they will only set a cookie if the video is played, and it will not contain personally identifiable information. If I embed Youtube videos I will use the enhance-privacy mode. See “Enabling privacy-enhanced mode for embedded videos” on this Youtube page.
Twitter.com: this site includes Twitter’s tweet button which uses a Twitter Cookie. For more information please see Twitter’s privacy policy.
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Google Adverts:
This site will serve adverts from Google: on any site with adverts Google uses the DART cookie (FAQ). This enables it to serve ads based on your visits to this and other sites on the Internet ( it is probably the most”personal” cookie served by this site). However, it is likely to reduce the number adverts not relevant to you, and therefore useful. More info/FAQ; Google Opt Out (ads will still be displayed but no longer based on information of your interests).
More information on Googles privacy policy can be found on these pages:
- www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=100557&sourceid=aso
- www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=94149
Affiliate partnerships
To fund this site I may enter into affiliate partnerships (directly or via affiliate marketing companies) with companies I rate. On click through these sites may set cookies whose purpose is to identify e.g. for commision purposes, from which publisher, website and advertisement a click or transaction originated. Obviously, these sites may also set additional cookies for other purposes.
Privacy policy information for partners serving content on this site:
Amazon.com: more info
Amazon.co.uk: privacy andcookies.
Skimlinks: more info info on adding to your site
Links to other websites:
This site provides links to other websites that may be of interest. These sites are not governed by this Privacy Policy and I am not responsible for their security and content. I accept no responsibility or liability for these sites.
Revisions to this notice:
As I update this site I may make modifications to this privacy notice.