Privacy Policy

What I Collect

Information you give me directly

• Contact form submissions. Name, email address, optional phone number, your message, and the timestamp.
• Email newsletter signups. Just your email address. The list is managed by Mailchimp.

Information collected automatically when you visit

• The page URL you viewed (for example, /blog/when-great-becomes-good.html) and a timestamp.
• UTM parameters from the URL (utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign, and so on) if a social link or email link included them.
• The hostname that referred you (such as linkedin.com or google.com), not the full referring URL.
• A SHA-256 hash of your IP address combined with a server-side salt. Your raw IP is not stored anywhere.
• A coarse browser family (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, Opera, or bot). Your full user-agent string is not stored.

This data lives in my own database on my own server. It is not sent to Google Analytics or any third-party analytics provider.

What I Don't Collect

• I don't use cookies for tracking or advertising.
• I don't fingerprint your browser or device.
• I don't store raw IP addresses.
• I don't store full user-agent strings.
• I don't build behavioral profiles or remarketing audiences.
• I don't sell, rent, or share your information with advertisers.

How I Use This Information

• To respond to messages you send through the contact form.
• To send the email newsletter to people who subscribed.
• To understand which articles and topics resonate with readers.
• To measure which social platforms and campaigns are driving traffic.
• To improve the site over time based on what people actually read.

Third-Party Services

These services may receive some information when you load a page on this site. I don't control what they do with it; their own privacy policies apply.

• Mailchimp (privacy policy): if you subscribe to the newsletter, your email and signup information are stored with Mailchimp for list management and delivery.
• Google Fonts (privacy policy): the page loads typography from Google's font CDN. Google may log your IP address as part of that request.
• Font Awesome via Cloudflare CDN (privacy policy): icons are loaded from a CDN. Cloudflare may log your IP address.
• Unsplash (privacy policy): some imagery is loaded from Unsplash's CDN. They may log your IP address.

Cookies and Browser Storage

I don't use tracking cookies, advertising cookies, or behavioral analytics cookies.

The site uses your browser's sessionStorage to remember that you've already viewed a page (so visits aren't double-counted) and to preserve UTM tags from your landing URL across the rest of your session. sessionStorage is wiped automatically when you close the tab. It never leaves your browser.

The admin panel I use to read contact-form messages sets a server-side session cookie when I log in. It is never set on regular visitors.

Data Retention

• Page-visit logs: kept indefinitely so I can analyze long-term trends, but they contain only hashed IPs and aggregate-friendly metadata.
• Contact form submissions: kept until I've responded and our conversation is complete, or until you ask me to delete it.
• Email newsletter subscribers: kept until you unsubscribe. The unsubscribe link is in every email I send.

Your Rights

You can ask me at any time to:

• Tell you what information I have about you.
• Delete your contact submission from my system.
• Remove you from the email list (or just use the unsubscribe link in any email).

Email me at info@matthewabuckley.com and I'll respond within a reasonable timeframe.

Children's Privacy

This site is not directed at children under 13. I don't knowingly collect information from anyone under 13. If you believe a child has submitted information here, please email me and I'll delete it.

Changes to This Policy

If I change anything material on this page, I'll update the "Last updated" date at the top. Significant changes will also be announced in the newsletter.

Contact

Questions about anything on this page? Email info@matthewabuckley.com.