Who we are
Cookies are integral to the way modern websites work. Most personalisation and social media integration on websites relies on cookies in one way or another.
However they can be used in a way that doesn’t benefit visitors, and they are often used to track people across the web, and build up profiles that are very valuable to brands and advertisers for targeted marketing.
This is often seen as an invasion of privacy, and because cookies are a fairly quiet technology – this can be happening to you without you realising it, or being able to stop it if you wanted to.
To help you become more aware of this activity, and give you a say in whether you want to allow it to happen, new EU-wide privacy legislation was put in place in 2011. This has become known as the Cookie Law.
The Cookie Law requires that websites give you clear, detailed information about how they use cookies, and provide ways for you to signal whether or not you want to allow such use. The website is then required by law to respect your wishes. This might mean they block the cookies you don’t like, or they don’t let you access the site – however you should expect to be given the choice.
Some websites will allow you to choose which types of cookies to allow or block, although in some cases if you do this you may not be able to use or see all of a website.
If a website you visit is not giving you sufficient information or choice, and the company that owns it is based in the EU, then it may be breaking the law, and you can take action against the owner.
This website has been created to help people understand better what cookies are and how they are used by different websites. You can use it to look up your favourite websites, and soon you will be able to search for information about specific cookies to understand what they are used for.
Suggested text: Our website address is: https://stephenaitken.com.
Comments
Suggested text: 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
Suggested text: 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.
Cookies
Suggested text: 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
Suggested text: 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.
Who we share your data with
Suggested text: If you request a password reset, your IP address will be included in the reset email.
How long we retain your data
Suggested text: 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
Suggested text: 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 your data is sent
Suggested text: Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.