Data protection
Data protection: what this site collects, which is almost nothing
A description of what actually happens when a page here is requested, rather than a policy written to cover every possibility.
This site is static. Every page is a file prepared in advance and sent as it is, which removes most of the ways a website ordinarily collects information about the people reading it. What follows describes what is and is not collected, in each case as the build actually behaves.
What is not collected
It sets no cookies. It uses no local or session storage in the browser. It carries no analytics of any kind, first-party or third-party, and no advertising or measurement scripts. There are no forms, so nothing is submitted and nothing is stored.
It also embeds no third-party resources. Typefaces are served from this domain rather than from a font service. Images are served from this domain. There are no external scripts, no external stylesheets, no tracking pixels, no maps, no embedded videos and no social widgets. A browser loading a page here contacts this site and nothing else. That is a consequence of how the site is built rather than a preference that could quietly lapse.
That last point is the one most often got wrong elsewhere, and it is worth being specific about because it is checkable: a request for any page of this site produces requests to this domain only.
What the web server necessarily records
Serving a page requires knowing where to send it, so the hosting infrastructure records a request log in the ordinary way. A log line contains the requesting IP address, the date and time, the address requested, the response code and size, and the browser's own user-agent and referrer strings.
This is a technical necessity of the protocol rather than a collection decision, it is not linked to anything else, it is not used to build any profile, and it is not shared with anybody for any purpose. The only recipient is the hosting provider that operates the server, acting on the publisher's instructions.
Those logs are kept only as long as they are useful for keeping the server running and secure, which means a short rolling window for diagnosing faults and identifying abusive traffic, after which they are overwritten. They are not archived, not exported and not consulted for any other reason. No request log from this site has ever been used to identify a reader, and there is no mechanism here by which it could be.
Links to other sites
Sources are cited by link, and a small number of pages elsewhere on this domain link to commercial operators. Following any of those links takes you to a site under somebody else's control, with its own cookies, its own tracking and its own policy, none of which this site can see or influence.
Nothing is passed along in those links beyond what a browser normally sends when following one.
Your rights, and the practical problem with them
You have the rights that data protection law gives you in respect of personal data held about you, including access, correction and erasure. The practical position here is unusual and worth stating honestly rather than dressing up: because the only personal data that exists is a server log line keyed to an IP address, a request to exercise those rights cannot easily be matched to you, and the site holds nothing else with which to identify you.
Enquiries can be addressed to the publisher named on the imprint page. The data controller for the purposes of that law is Rebecca Kennedy, at the address given there.
Complaints
If you are unhappy with how personal data relating to you has been handled, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office, which is the United Kingdom's data protection regulator. You do not need to raise it with the publisher first, although doing so is usually quicker.
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF
Helpline 0303 123 1113
ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint
Cookies, and why there is no banner
UK rules on cookies require consent before non-essential cookies or similar technologies are set. This site sets none, so there is nothing to consent to and no banner is shown. The absence of one here is a consequence of the site's construction and not an oversight.
Changes
If the site ever adds analytics, a form, an embedded third-party resource or anything that sets a cookie, this page is wrong and has to be rewritten at the same time. It is checked against the built site rather than maintained separately, which is the only way a statement of this kind stays true.