Privacy Policy

Last updated: March 2026

This site is a personal website and blog operated by Colin Smillie from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. This privacy policy explains what data this site collects, why, and how it’s handled. The short version: this site collects minimal data, doesn’t sell anything, and doesn’t share your information with anyone.

What This Site Collects

Google Analytics (GA4)

This site uses Google Analytics 4 (GA4), managed through Google Site Kit, to understand how visitors find and use the site. GA4 collects:

  • Pages visited and time spent on each page
  • How you arrived at the site (search engine, direct link, social media, referral)
  • General geographic location (city/country level, not precise location)
  • Device type, browser, and operating system
  • Interactions like clicks on outbound links and file downloads

GA4 does not collect personally identifiable information. Google Analytics uses first-party cookies to distinguish between visitors. IP addresses are not stored by GA4. This data is used solely to understand which content is useful and how people find the site. It is not used for advertising or shared with third parties.

You can opt out of Google Analytics tracking by installing the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on.

Matomo Analytics

This site also uses Matomo, a privacy-focused, open-source analytics platform. Matomo is self-hosted on infrastructure I control at analytics.ideawarehouse.ca, which means your analytics data is never sent to a third party. Matomo collects similar information to GA4:

  • Pages visited and time spent on each page
  • Referral source (search engine, direct link, social media)
  • General geographic location (city/country level)
  • Device type, browser, and operating system

Matomo is configured to respect your browser’s Do Not Track setting. IP addresses are anonymized before storage. All analytics data remains on the self-hosted server and is not shared with anyone.

Contact Form

If you use the contact form, your name, email address, and message are sent directly to me via email. This information is not stored in a database or shared with anyone. I use it only to respond to your message.

Comments

If you leave a comment on a blog post, your name, email address, and comment text are stored by WordPress. Your email address is not displayed publicly. Comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service (Akismet).

Server Logs

The web server automatically logs basic request data including IP addresses, browser type, and pages requested. These logs are used for security monitoring and are retained for a limited period by the hosting provider.

What This Site Does Not Do

  • This site does not sell products or services directly, and does not process payments
  • This site does not run advertising or use advertising trackers
  • This site does not sell, rent, or share your personal information with third parties
  • This site does not use your data for profiling or automated decision-making

Cookies

This site uses a small number of cookies:

  • Google Analytics cookies (_ga, _ga_*): Used to distinguish visitors and track site usage. Expire after 2 years.
  • Matomo cookies (_pk_id.*, _pk_ses.*): Used by the self-hosted Matomo instance to distinguish visitors and track sessions. _pk_id expires after 13 months; _pk_ses expires after 30 minutes.
  • WordPress cookies: Used for comment functionality and site administration. Not set for regular visitors unless you leave a comment.

Your Rights

You have the right to request access to, correction of, or deletion of any personal information this site holds about you. In practice, the only personal information this site might have is a comment you’ve left or a message you’ve sent through the contact form. If you’d like anything removed, get in touch and I’ll take care of it.

Third-Party Services

This site uses the following third-party services that may process data according to their own privacy policies:

Contact

If you have questions about this privacy policy or how your data is handled, you can reach me through the contact page or on LinkedIn.

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