Who we are
Our website address is: https://ronaldmcguire.com.
But you knew that already.
What personal data we collect and why we collect it
Nothing. I collect no personal data. There are scripts all over the backend of this site, but I don’t control any of them. If you click a link and go to another site, you’re at their mercy. If you view an ad or click through an ad, the ad network (in this case Litbreaker and its advertisers, will collect data – but it isn’t for me). The same holds true for affiliate links – if you click them, the site you go to, in this case either Amazon.com or Bookshop.org, will each have their own policies.
What this website does collect is anonymous location data, based on IP addresses, in order to produce traffic data. But it is not localized. This is how I know I’m popular in China.
If you subscribe to my newsletter, I’ll of course collect your email address. Kinda have to.
Comments
I don’t allow comments. Been there, tried that, ain’t doin’ it again unless I get a crew to help moderate that stuff.
However, if I do open up comments at some point, here’s what you need to know:
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.
Media
I don’t allow this either, no point. However, if I ever do:
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.
Subscribe form
All I collect is the email you provide and authenticate – you’re not actually subscribed until you’ve done that second part, which involves clicking a link in an email that will be sent to you automatically after you hit the Subscribe button.
Cookies
There are no comments and there is no login page and right now I’m the only person who can edit or add content, but if any of that should change:
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
The IP address information collected is not granular – it will track the country of origin, but nothing more local. So if you’re one of the thousands of visitors from China (or American, or India, or anyplace) I will know nothing more than the country you are in when you visit the site, or the location of the VPN server, should you be using one.
Of course, if user-generated content is ever allowed, and you generate some content on this site, the data will be more granular (see above).
Who we share your data with
Nobody. I can’t speak for the advertisers, ad network, affiliate links, etc., but any data this site collects, including subscriber email addresses, stays here. I don’t like it when my data gets sold, and I won’t do it to anyone else.
How long we retain your data
Again, I’m not allowing any of this, but if I ever do, this is how it will be handled.
As for subscriber emails, these are retained in my database until a user unsubscribes. For the record, I use EmailOctopus to manage my newsletter and subscriber list.
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.
What rights you have over your data
You have every right to unsubscribe, to not visit this site, to avoid clicking on ads or affiliate links. No problem. (But if you click those links I MIGHT make a few bucks.)
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.
Where we send your data
Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service. But trust me on this one, that service didn’t work out too well for me.
How we protect your data
By not collecting it and storing it, that’s how. Subscriber emails are managed by a third-party service, EmailOctopus. They’re a UK-based company and fully GDPR compliant. Scroll to the bottom of their homepage and check out the links under “Legal.”
What third parties we receive data from
This website receives basic traffic data from our ad network service, our affiliate relationships (Amazon and Bookshop.org), and well as via a robust set of traffic analysis tools. None of it has personal user data.