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Privacy Policy

Revised

Contents. Each line links to its section.

Contents

Here is how All Things FDE ("we", "us") handles information about visitors to allthingsfde.com (the "Site").

What we collect

  • Request data. To deliver and protect the Site, our hosting provider processes the standard details of each request: IP address, browser type, the page asked for and the referring address.
  • Browser and device type. From the user agent your browser sends, our server takes the browser name and version, the operating system and the device type (desktop, mobile or tablet). The user agent itself is not recorded.
  • First-party analytics. A small script of our own on each page reports to our own server the pages you view, the page address (including campaign tags such as utm_source) and the page you came from, your screen and window size, how far down a page you scroll, how long a page is in view, whether a recommendation on a page comes into view, and the links and buttons you click: their text, their address and where on the page you clicked. The script loads nothing from other companies, sets no cookies itself and stores nothing in your browser.
  • Approximate location. Our server learns from our hosting provider the country, region and city your connection appears to come from, and records only that approximate location, never your IP address.

Our analytics processor

Our analytics processor is PostHog, Inc. Our server sends it the events described above along with the visitor ID, the device key and the approximate location, and PostHog stores and processes them for us in the United States. It never receives your IP address, your user agent, your name or your email address.

A company we have a business connection with uses the same analytics account for its own website: our analytics account is shared with it, and it can see the events described here. How we make money names it.

If an article links to a company we recommend, the link goes first to an address on this Site. Our server records the click, meaning the page, the link's place on it and which of the company's pages it leads to, then forwards you to that company's website. The forwarding address includes a one-time click ID, your visitor ID, this Site's name, the page you came from and a signature showing the link came from this Site, which lets that company connect your visit there with your visits here. When the rules under Your privacy choices apply to you, no visitor ID is included. How we make money names the company and explains the connection.

We use one first-party cookie, set by our own server on allthingsfde.com. It contains a random visitor ID, how many visits you have made, when you last visited and a check code proving our server set it. That lets us count visits and tell new visitors from returning ones. Page scripts cannot read it, it goes only to this Site over secure connections, and it expires 400 days after your last visit. You can remove it in your browser settings whenever you like.

The device key

With each event our server computes a device key: a keyed one-way hash (HMAC-SHA256) of your IP address and user agent, shortened to 32 characters. The same browser on the same connection gives the same key, so it can link visits that probably come from one device, on this Site and on other websites that share our analytics. The key cannot be turned back into your IP address or user agent, and neither of those is stored or sent to our analytics provider. Many people can share one connection, for example in an office or on a mobile network, so the key is an approximate signal, not an identity.

Writing to us

The contact page asks for your email address and your message, and for your name only if you want to give it. Along with those, our server records the approximate country your connection appears to come from, as our hosting provider reports it. Your IP address and user agent are not stored with the message.

We use what you send only to read it and to reply to you. We store it with a database service provider in the United States, keep it for up to 12 months and then delete it. We never use it for marketing, and we share it with no one except the service providers that store and deliver it for us.

You can ask for a message to be deleted sooner through the same contact page; tell us the email address you used.

Your privacy choices

  • Global Privacy Control. We honor the Global Privacy Control signal. When your browser sends it, we set no cookie (and delete an earlier one), compute no device key, include no visitor ID in links to a company we recommend, and count your page views only under an anonymous ID that changes daily and is different on every site, so your visits are not followed.
  • Visitors from Europe, the UK and Switzerland. Visits that appear to come from the European Union, the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, and visits whose location we cannot tell, get the same treatment automatically.
  • Your rights. Laws such as the California Consumer Privacy Act and the GDPR may give you rights of access, correction and deletion, depending on where you live.

Disclosure

We do not sell your personal information. Request data is processed by our hosting provider and analytics events by our analytics provider, on our behalf, as described above, and information is disclosed when required by law. Our database provider likewise stores messages sent through the contact form on our behalf.

Children's privacy

The Site is for adults. We do not knowingly collect information from children under 13.

Contact

Privacy requests, including deletion of a message you wrote to us, go through our contact page.