With the amount of information that has come to light in the last year (2013) about how much the US government snoops in on what you're doing, I thought I'd take a moment and describe this site's basic privacy policy and practices. For the long and the short of it, see below:
The short of it:
In a nutshell, these boil down to a few basic points: the software that runs this website requires cookies to ensure you have a pleasant visit. I do not track individual visits, other than to record where you came from and what you've seen on my site. No, I do not know who you are, nor, frankly, do I really care. This is my website where I put things that interest me. If you're so offended, go elsewhere.
Now, for the long of it:
- I do not knowingly disclose any information about your visit to this site with anyone other than the advertisers in the blog section and Google via Google Analytics. I hope you click on an advertisement and send a few sheckles my way, but if you have "Do Not Track" headers implemented in your browser, you shouldn't be tracked or offered ads. Use the contact page to let me know otherwise.
- Speaking of the contact page, any information you provide there will be sent over a secure (HTTPS) connection. The data will be stored on this server in a database using minimal cryptography standards (or none) and a copy emailed to my personal email without any encryption or obfuscation. If you need to contact me about something that warrants a level of privacy that this setup cannot fulfill, please consider calling me, sending me an encrypted email (my keys are on the GPG servers) or visiting me in person.
- Speaking of tracking your visit; I have no way to obfuscate your request for this server as it bounces around the net from your browser to this site. However, I have taken the opportunity to install an SSL certificate and will redirect your requests to the SSL version of the site, once your request reaches my server. From that point on, HTTP communication between your browser and this server will be encrypted. For what it's worth, the encryption is good enough that it should discourage most hackers, but I found out today (September 5, 2013) that the NSA has the ability to crack even that. Again, if this worries you, write down my phone number & address and give me a ring or visit me.
- Elaborating on tracking your visit, I utilize Google Analytics. I do not track any personally identifiable information about you; the closest that Google Analytics lets me see about you is in which city Google *thinks* your request originated.
- I put a cookie in your computer. Hope your browser enjoys the snack. If anything, this cookie reveals more personally identifiable information about the server and the programs it is running than about you. Don't like it? Don't visit.
- As far as I know, the government has not hacked this server or hooked a little black box up to it. But I'm not guaranteeing it, because I rent this VPS.
There is nothing on this site designed to force you to provide more personally identifiable information that would be revealed via Caller ID on your phone or in the "from" line of an email.