When I visit a website, I expect its owner to respect my privacy and keep things between us unless there are compelling reasons to involve third parties. I do not want what I have said and done to become common knowledge without my permission. After all, some information might be sensitive or read out of context and misconstrued. Others should not be able to pry into matters that do not concern them.
I believe that you think similarly. As the owner of this website, SmallShow, hosted by GoDaddy United Kingdom, I respect your opinions and seek to address your concerns.
Table of contents
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
Background
We gain access to any website on the public internet using a web browser through the hypertext transfer protocol – http: or https: (secured). Internet Explorer, Edge, Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Opera are common browsers in everyday use.
Most websites use small text files called cookies that they deposit on your computer while surfing the internet. Cookies help to provide a fruitful experience for users and are part of the technology that makes the internet work so well for us.
Some cookies are essential; some sites would not work as they ought without them. Others record things like your preferences as a user and anonymised data to third party applications like Google Analytics, which help technical specialists analyse how and when users access websites, by whom and from where.
You can disable cookies in your browser. Refer to the relevant help pages if you need advice or consult the About Cookies website.
Privacy for us all
I want to keep things private when I visit a website. I expect confidentiality; what I disclose about myself directly or indirectly, knowingly or unwittingly during my visit matters to me.
Likewise, of concern is how the website owner might use my data since some of it may be sensitive. Therefore, I question whether any website I visit will handle my data carefully and diligently and keep it safely beyond the reach of others who have no business seeing it. I hope so, sincerely.
I believe that we think alike. As the owner of this website, I respect your opinions and share your concerns.
Legal framework
National governments and other organisations like the European Union have introduced legislation progressively to regulate the internet and curtail misuse by fraudsters and others with malicious and sinister intentions.
The General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (GDPR) governs the law on data protection and privacy for all individuals within the European Union and the European Economic Area. GDPR took effect from 25 May 2018 onwards.
The European Commission has produced a summary to help people understand the legislation. The Information Commissioner’s Office offers this guide in the UK.
My legal obligations to you
I have legal obligations towards you when you visit my website, and you have rights under the law. It is my legal and moral duty to comply with the law. GDPR requires me to provide policies about privacy and the use of cookies.
According to accepted standard practices, privacy and cookie policies are lengthy documents drafted strictly in legal terms. These documents are not read easily by people outside the legal profession.
Be aware that I am not a lawyer, nor have I undergone any legal training, but what follows should enable you to get the gist of these policies. It should give you a simple but clear picture of how my website operates, although it is no substitute for a proper formal document.
I treat your privacy as I treat my own and will do my utmost to safeguard any information that you provide, directly or indirectly. Any reasonable and responsible person would do the same, I believe. Similarly, I will not divulge personal data unless the law makes it clear that I should.
What you should know
I have built this website using WordPress using themes and plugins supplied by WordPress.org and have tried to keep any personal information that it holds about you to a minimum, consistent with smooth operation. To this end, I have minimised links to social media.
I can operate thus, since:
- Users do not have accounts – with all that entails.
- I have no product to sell until my software is ready for release in 2025, so I do not need to collect sensitive financial information from anyone.
- You can comment on any post provided that you supply your email address. If posted, comments will remain for the lifetime of the blog.
- I moderate all comments before they are published, reserving the right to exclude any that I deem irrelevant, inappropriate or unsuitable for publication.
- You can send emails via a contact form. The website passes emails to Akismet to check the contents, discarding spam and storing only those that pass its tests. I will try to reply to any reasonable request that emerges as promptly as I can.
If you feel uncomfortable about any aspect, my advice would be to stop using the website immediately.
External websites
This website has links to other websites over which I have no control since they do not belong to me. Therefore, I cannot safeguard your privacy once you have left my website. Be sure to check the policies of any third-party website and exercise caution during your visit.
Information kept
Typically, this will include:
- Blog post comments (accompanied by your name, email, browser and IP address) – if they have passed content moderation which I moderate.
- Web traffic statistics obtained using the Google SiteKit WordPress plugin.
- Data from third-party hosted services.
- Anti-spam services. e.g. Akismet.
- Contents of Contact forms.
- Location of the web host. i.e. GoDaddy United Kingdom
Summary of your rights
- You have the right to be informed that my website will keep and use data relating to you.
- You can:
- Ask to access the data that this website holds about you.
- Request to make changes if you think that it is incorrect or incomplete.
- Insist that the website forgets all about you by deleting your data permanently.
- Object to the processing of your data and its use for particular purposes.
- Complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office using reference number ZA788792. I would urge you to contact me before taking this action please, to allow me time to try to resolve your problem amicably.
- You could forbid automated decision making and profiling, but this website does not undertake these actions.
For further independent advice, contact Citizens Advice and the Information Commissioner’s Office.
In the first instance, please contact me using the contact form provided. I promise to deal with your concerns promptly and effectively, to remove the need for any formal complaint.
Revision date: 27 August 2024