Privacy Policy

This policy explains what techprobably.com collects, why, and what a reader can do about it. TechProbably is a personal blog written by Joel Nithushan. There are no user accounts, no logins, no newsletter, and nothing is sold here. Most visitors can read the entire site without submitting anything.

What this site collects

Contact form submissions. The form collects a name, an email address, a subject, and a message. This is delivered to the site owner’s mailbox and used to reply. It is not sold, rented, published, or added to any mailing list.

Server log data. The web host records standard access logs for every request: IP address, browser type and version, the page requested, the referring page, and a timestamp. These are used to diagnose faults and identify abuse.

Comments. Where comments are open on a post, WordPress stores the comment text along with the name, email address, IP address, and browser user agent supplied. The email address is not displayed publicly.

Cookies

A cookie is a small file that a website asks a browser to store, so that something can be remembered between page loads. This site sets very few of its own.

• WordPress cookies, set only when a comment is left, to remember the name and email for next time, or when an administrator logs in.
• Analytics cookies, used to distinguish a returning visitor from a new one. See the next section.
• Advertising cookies, set by Google and its partners to control ad frequency and measure performance.

Cookies can be blocked or deleted in any browser’s settings, usually under Privacy. Doing so will not break this site. Nothing here needs a cookie in order to be read.

Analytics

Three third-party services measure how the site is used. Each receives data directly from the reader’s browser and each is governed by its own privacy policy.

• Google Analytics records pages viewed, approximate location at country or city level, device and browser type, and how a visitor arrived. It reports patterns across visitors and does not identify individuals to the site owner. Policy: policies.google.com/privacy.
• Microsoft Clarity records anonymised session playback and heat maps, meaning how a page was scrolled and where it was clicked. It is used to find layout and usability problems. Clarity masks text entered into form fields by default. Policy: privacy.microsoft.com.
• Jetpack Stats, by Automattic, reports basic traffic counts. Policy: automattic.com/privacy.

Advertising

This site displays advertising served by Google AdSense. Google and its partners use cookies to serve ads based on a reader’s prior visits to this site and to other sites across the web.

Personalised advertising can be turned off at Google Ads Settings. Many other vendors can be opted out of at once at optout.aboutads.info. Opting out stops ads being personalised; it does not stop ads appearing.

Third-party vendors and ad networks other than Google may also serve advertising here. Their cookies are governed by their own privacy policies, not by this one, and are not under the site owner’s control. Ad blockers are not detected or objected to.

Links to other sites

Posts on this site link out frequently, to documentation, repositories, forums, and product pages. Once a reader follows a link they are on another operator’s site under that operator’s policy. This site has no control over what those sites collect and takes no responsibility for their practices.

Children

This site is not directed at children under 13 and does not knowingly collect personal information from them. If a parent or guardian believes a child has submitted information through this site, email joel@techprobably.com and it will be deleted.

How long data is kept

• Contact form messages are kept in the site owner’s mailbox for up to twelve months, then deleted, unless an exchange is still ongoing.
• Comments and their metadata are kept for as long as the post is published, so that replies still make sense in context.
• Server access logs are rotated by the web host, typically within a few weeks.
• Analytics data is retained according to each provider’s own retention settings.

Requesting deletion

Any reader may ask to see what data is held about them, have it corrected, or have it deleted. Email joel@techprobably.com with the request. In practice the only data held directly by this site is contact form email and comments, so these requests are straightforward.

Readers in regions with data protection law of this kind, including the UK and EU, hold these as legal rights rather than courtesies, together with the right to object to processing and to complain to a national data protection authority.

Changes to this policy

This page is revised when the site changes what it uses. The last updated date at the top of the page reflects the most recent revision. Material changes will be noted on the page rather than made silently, and continued use of the site after that point means the revised policy applies.

Contact

Privacy questions go to joel@techprobably.com.