Privacy Policy

Please find details on our Privacy Policy below.

What personal data we collect and why we collect it

Comments

When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.

An anonymised string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service Privacy Policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.

Media

If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.

Cookies

If you leave a comment on our site you may opt in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.

If you visit our login page, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.

When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.

If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.

We use cookies and similar technologies on this website to improve its performance and enhance your user experience. This policy explains how we do that.

What are cookies?

Cookies are small text files which a website may put on your computer or mobile device when you visit a site or page. The cookie will help the website, or another website, to recognise your device the next time you visit. Web beacons or other similar files can also do the same thing. We use the term “cookies” in this policy to refer to all files that collect information in this way. Cookies serve many functions, for example, they can help us to remember your username and preferences analyse how well our website is performing, or even allow us to recommend content we believe will be most relevant to you. Certain cookies may record personal information. Most cookies won’t collect information that identifies you personally, and will instead allow us to collect more general information such as how users arrive at and use our websites.

What sort of cookies does this website use?

Generally, our cookies perform up to three different functions:

1. Essential cookies

These cookies are essential in order to enable you to move around the website and use its features. Without these type of cookies, services like accessibility support cannot be provided. Because some of our website features will not function without cookies of this type, they are designated as ‘strictly necessary’ and are exempted from the regulations which require your consent to place cookies on your device.

2. Performance Cookies

These cookies allow us to collect information about how visitors use a website, for instance which pages visitors visit most often, and if they get error messages from web pages. These cookies don’t record information that personally identifies a visitor. All information these cookies record is aggregated and anonymous. It is only used to improve how a website works. By using this website you agree we may place these types of cookies on your device, unless you have disabled them.

3. Functionality Cookies

These cookies allow a website to remember choices you make and provide enhanced, personalised features. These cookies can also be used to remember changes you have made to text size, fonts and other parts of web pages that you can customise. The information these cookies record will be anonymised and they cannot track your browsing activity on other websites. By using this website you agree we may place these types of cookies on your device, unless you have disabled them.

Can a website user block cookies?

As we’ve explained above, cookies help you to get the most out of this website. However, if you do wish to disable our cookies then please follow the instructions on www.aboutcookies.org. Please remember that if you do choose to disable cookies, you may find that certain sections of our website do not work properly.

More Information

More detail on how businesses use cookies is available at www.aboutcookies.org. If you have any queries regarding this Cookie Policy please contact us.

Embedded content from other websites

Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.

These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

Who we share your data with

How long we retain your data

If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognise and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.

For users that register on our website (if any), we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.

What rights you have over your data

If you have an account on this site, or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.

Where we send your data

Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.