Like most websites out there, this site sets cookies on your computer. These are used to help me make the site better, more useful and friendlier to use. Cookies are also set by my analytics provider, Google, to help analyse patterns of use among readers of this website. While this is personal information, because it means each user has a distinct identity, the data is entirely anonymous in terms of what is stored. This means that I might be able to see that a user in a given country has looked at a certain page, or that readers tend to read a blog post and then look at other parts of the site, but not who you are.
The site also keeps logs. This is a standard technical feature, recording IP address, what page (if any) you followed a link from, what page you visited and the time. The IP address is personal information because, combined with other records held by your ISP, it may identify your household or mobile phone. I am not able to access records allowing me to make such an identification. Logs are used to detect people attempting to hack the site or identify previous attacks, and might be shared with service providers or law enforcement in such an instance. They are also used for analytics purposes, giving me a picture of what pages people have been reading when.
The comment facility on the blog section is provided by Disqus. If you use this feature, cookies may be set by Disqus and your comment is stored, together with logging information, on Disqus's systems.
The information obtained through cookies and logs is used solely to attempt to make this site as useful and enjoyable as possible. It is never shared by me other than when compelled by law, or when trying to handle misuse. If you decline to consent to use of cookies, cookies will not be set by this site itself, and the Google Analytics scripts will not run.