Privacy Policy

Last updated

Short version: this site does not ask you for anything, has no accounts, and does not sell data. It uses Google Analytics, which sets cookies and tells Google you were here. Following an affiliate link hands you to a retailer running their own tracking. Both are easy to block, and blocking them changes nothing about how the site works.

The detail follows.

What this site does not collect

There are no accounts, no logins, no newsletter, no comments, and no forms. There is nothing here that asks you for your name, address, phone number, or payment details, so none of that is collected, stored, or sold.

Analytics

This site uses Google Analytics 4, a service provided by Google LLC, to count visits and see which pages are read. This is what makes it possible to know which articles are useful and what to write next.

You should know what that involves, because it is more than counting.

It sets cookies. Google Analytics stores first-party cookies on your device, named _ga and _ga_ followed by an identifier. These are used to tell a returning visit from a new one and to group the pages you view into a single session. They typically last up to two years.

It assigns you an identifier. A randomly generated client ID is stored in that cookie. It is pseudonymous, meaning it is not your name and is not linked to anything you have told this site, but it does distinguish your browser from another one across visits.

What is collected. Pages viewed and when, how you arrived, approximate location derived from IP address, device type, browser, operating system, and screen size. Google collects your IP address in order to derive that approximate location. Google states that it does not log or store IP addresses for Analytics.

Where it goes. The data is processed by Google and may be transferred to and stored on servers in the United States and other countries. It is held under Google’s terms rather than this site’s, and Google may use it for its own purposes as described in their policies. This site sees only aggregate reports.

No attempt is made here to identify individual visitors, and no analytics data is combined with anything else to do so.

How to opt out. Any of these will stop it:

  • Install Google’s Analytics opt-out browser add-on
  • Block cookies for this site in your browser settings
  • Use a browser or extension that blocks tracking scripts, which most content blockers do by default
  • Enable “Do Not Track” or Global Privacy Control, which many blockers act on

Blocking analytics does not affect the site. Everything works identically either way.

Google’s own explanation of how it handles this data is in Google’s Privacy Policy and in how Google uses information from sites that use its services.

Cookies

Two kinds of cookie are involved with this site.

Analytics cookies, described above, set by Google Analytics on this domain.

Affiliate cookies, set by retailers when you follow an affiliate link away from this site, described in the next section.

There are no other cookies. Nothing here requires a login, remembers preferences, or stores anything about you beyond what those two do. Blocking all cookies for this site leaves it fully functional.

Server logs

The web host records standard server logs when a page is served. These typically include the requesting IP address, the time, the page requested, and the browser’s user agent string. This happens at the hosting level on every website and is used for security and diagnosing faults. These logs are not combined with analytics and are not used to build a profile of anyone.

Some pages carry affiliate links. When you follow one, you leave this site, and the retailer you land on applies their own privacy policy and their own tracking.

Retailers generally set a cookie so a later purchase can be credited back. That cookie is set by them, on their domain, not by this site. This site does not receive your name, address, payment details, or the contents of your order. What it may receive is a report that a purchase happened and a commission is due.

If you would rather avoid this, do not use the affiliate links. Nothing here is hidden behind one, and you can search for any product directly. Your browser’s settings for blocking third-party cookies will also apply.

The affiliate disclosure explains the commercial side.

Email

If you email admin@thesolarshop.net, that message and your address are used to reply to you and for nothing else. They are not added to a mailing list, not used for marketing, and not shared. Correspondence is kept only as long as it is useful, then deleted.

Fonts and external resources

Fonts are loaded from your own device rather than from a third-party font service, so no request goes to an outside provider for them. Pages are served as static files. Apart from Google Analytics, described above, a page loads nothing from any other server unless you choose to follow a link away from the site.

Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have rights over personal data held about you, including the right to ask what is held, to have it corrected, or to have it deleted. This includes people in the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom under the GDPR, and residents of California under the CCPA.

This site collects no personal data directly, though the analytics described above involve Google processing your IP address and a pseudonymous identifier. Requests about data held by Google should go to Google. For anything held here, write to admin@thesolarshop.net and it will be dealt with.

This site does not sell personal information, and has no personal information to sell.

Children

This site is not directed at children and does not knowingly collect information from anyone under 13.

Changes

This policy will be updated when the site changes in a way that affects it, for example if a newsletter is added or the analytics provider changes. The date at the top shows when it was last revised. Material changes will be reflected there rather than made quietly.

Contact

Questions about this policy: admin@thesolarshop.net