Whose privates are we talking about here?
This here website, https://jeffrey-ricker.com.
What personal data we collect and why we collect it—and who is this “we” anyway?
It’s just me and a team of expertly trained hamsters.
Just kidding. The hamsters do all the work. I just delegate.
But seriously, no hamsters. What do we collect? Read on….
Contact forms
I don’t have a contact form (well, I did, but the amount of spam was unbelievable). I do, however, collect signups for my email newsletter on the home page and elsewhere. I use MailChimp for that. Read their privacy policy here.
Cookies (the kind without chocolate chips, alas)
When you visit the site, it uses various analytics tools such as Google Analytics (more on that below) to tell me how visitors like you are using the site. These tools use ‘cookies,’ which are text files placed on your computer, to collect standard internet log information and visitor behavior information in an anonymous form. The information generated by the cookie about your use of the website (including your IP address) is transmitted to Google and sometimes other vendors. This information is then used to evaluate visitors’ use of the website and to compile statistical reports on website activity.
I won’t ever (not ever) use the statistical analytics tool to track or to collect any personally identifiable information of visitors to the site. The web analytics vendors do not associate your IP address with any other data held by them. Neither I nor the web analytics vendors will link, or seek to link, an IP address with the identity of a computer user. We will not associate any data gathered from this site with any personally identifying information from any source unless you explicitly submit that information via a fill-in form on the website, like that Contact form I mentioned above.
Also, don’t forget you have the ability to accept, decline, or delete cookies by modifying your browser’s settings. Most (if not all) browsers give you the power to surf the web in private or “incognito” mode, too.
Power! You has it.
Please keep in mind, if you turn off or delete cookies, some of the site’s functions may no longer work the way they’re supposed to.
Finally, here’s a recipe for butternut squash chocolate chip cookies, which are awesome.
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 tracing your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.
Analytics
I use Google Analytics (just like everybody else, right?) to figure out who’s visiting the website and what they’re clicking around on, basically. When you visit, Google sets cookies to keep track of when you click on links, how long you spend on the site, and when you make return visits. Read more exhaustive details about that here.
For more on how to modify or delete those cookies, see the “Cookie” section above.
Who we share your data with
Here are the tools I use to keep this so-called website running that require sharing some of the data I collect here to make them work, along with their related privacy policies:
Here’s some specific details about the nifty bits of Jetpack I use in particular:
WordPress.com Stats
Data Used: IP address, WordPress.com user ID (if logged in), WordPress.com username (if logged in), user agent, visiting URL, referring URL, timestamp of event, browser language, country code. Important: The site owner does not have access to any of this information via this feature. For example, a site owner can see that a specific post has 285 views, but he/she cannot see which specific users/accounts viewed that post. Stats logs — containing visitor IP addresses and WordPress.com usernames (if available) — are retained by Automattic for 28 days and are used for the sole purpose of powering this feature.
Activity Tracked: Post and page views, video plays (if videos are hosted by WordPress.com), outbound link clicks, referring URLs and search engine terms, and country. When this module is enabled, Jetpack also tracks performance on each page load that includes the Javascript file used for tracking stats. This is exclusively for aggregate performance tracking across Jetpack sites in order to make sure that our plugin and code is not causing performance issues. This includes the tracking of page load times and resource loading duration (image files, Javascript files, CSS files, etc.). The site owner has the ability to force this feature to honor DNT settings of visitors. And I’ve added a line of code to do just that. So, if you have the “do not track” option selected in your web browser’s settings, that should do the trick.
How long we retain your data
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.
What rights you have over your data
If you have an account on this site, you can request 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.
Contact me
You can reach me either using the Contact form on this website, or send an email to [email protected].
What is the airspeed of a—
Let me just stop you right there.