For a privacy question or request, email ralph.losey@gmail.com. Please identify the website involved and provide only the information needed to understand your request. Do not send identification documents unless they are reasonably needed and specifically requested.
Information collected and why
You can read public articles without subscribing or creating an account. Browsing still involves technical information needed to deliver, secure, and measure use of the websites.
- Comments and other public contributions. If you comment, the site receives what you submit, including your name, email address, optional website address, and comment. Your comment and displayed identity may become public. The email address you enter in the comment form is not displayed publicly with your comment. Do not put an email address in the comment text unless you want readers to see it. Comment processing can also involve your IP address and browser information, including for spam prevention.
- Subscriptions. If you subscribe to posts or comments, WordPress.com/Jetpack processes your email address and subscription choices to deliver updates. You can unsubscribe through the link in an email or manage your subscription through WordPress.com.
- Direct messages. If you email Ralph, he receives your address, message, and attachments and uses them to respond or handle the matter you raised. Email sent to the contact address is handled through Gmail.
- Technical and usage information. Hosting and related services may process IP addresses, browser and device information, referring pages, pages visited, dates and times, and interactions such as searches or likes. This supports site delivery, security, troubleshooting, and readership statistics.
- Polls or surveys. Where a page offers a WordPress/Crowdsignal poll or survey, submitting a response sends the answers and associated technical information to that service. Participation is optional. Any additional information requested should be apparent from the form.
Please do not put confidential client information, sensitive personal information, or another person's private information in a comment or other submission. These are public educational websites, not a confidential professional intake service.
Cookies and embedded services
WordPress.com is operated by Automattic. Services used on these websites include Jetpack for comments, subscriptions and readership statistics; Akismet for filtering comment spam; Gravatar for profile pictures beside comments; VideoPress for hosted videos; and Crowdsignal for polls. Automattic describes its processing of visitor information in its visitor privacy notice and cookie policy. Those notices supplement, rather than replace, this notice.
Cookies and similar technologies support sign-in, subscriptions, security, remembered preferences and usage measurement. Your browser lets you block or remove cookies; doing so may affect some features.
Articles may contain third-party content, such as YouTube videos or externally hosted documents and images. Loading or interacting with that content may send technical information to its provider and may involve cookies, even if you do not follow a link away from the article. An ordinary external link takes you to a separate service whose privacy practices apply there. The same is true of links to Custom GPTs on ChatGPT: conversations there are handled by that service, not by a comment form on these websites. Review the provider's notice before submitting personal information.
Ralph does not operate a separate advertising, affiliate-marketing, or third-party visitor-tracking program on these websites. WordPress/Jetpack's built-in services still process information as described above; that is not a promise of anonymous or tracking-free browsing.
Sharing and public availability
Ralph does not sell mailing lists or other visitor personal information. Information may be handled by the service providers needed to run the sites, deliver subscriptions, prevent spam, or respond to messages. Information may also be disclosed when legally required or reasonably necessary to investigate abuse, protect rights, or address a security incident.
Public articles and public comments can be read, copied, linked to, or indexed by others. This can include search engines and AI-related services. Ralph favors broad access to his published writings, but cannot control every third party's collection, retention, or use of public material. That position does not make subscriber email addresses, private correspondence, or unpublished drafts public, and this notice is not permission to use private visitor information for AI training. Removing material from a site does not necessarily remove copies already held elsewhere.
Retention and security
Published comments may remain with the articles they discuss. Ralph Losey may remove comments at his discretion. Subscription information is retained as needed to administer subscriptions. Correspondence and administrative records are retained as reasonably needed for their purpose, security, or applicable legal requirements. Service providers maintain their own retention and backup practices. A deletion from the active site may take additional time to disappear from backup copies.
Reasonable safeguards are used, but no website or email system can guarantee absolute security. Providers may process information in the United States and other countries where they operate, which may have different privacy laws from your location.