Privacy Policy


Privacy Policy - Summary

I do not collect personally-identifiable information about visitors to this site.

Like most web site, this site generates access logs, which I review for general information about what brings visitors to the site and what pages interest them most. However, the logs only store your IP address. In most cases, that's not traceable to an individual.

This site does use cookies to enable me to analyze visits even better - again, finding out what brings people here and what pages interest them most. The cookie collects anonymous traffic data.

You can avoid both of these tracking methods, if you wish; read on for details.

I do not release this information to anyone else for any purpose. I would only do so if required to by law.

Privacy Policy - Details

As described above, this site collects information through server logs and a cookie. Neither type of data tells me who you are.

Here's an example of a visit to one of my non-Scientology web sites, the Racer Records site. This is a line straight out of one of my web logs.

p1014-ipad92marunouchi.tokyo.ocn.ne.jp - - [01/Aug/2004:01:04:34 -0600] "GET /SampleContractComments.html HTTP/1.1" 200 31832 "http://www.google.co.jp/search?q=Contract%E3%80%80Paper%E3%80%80Sample&hl=ja&lr=&ie=UTF-8&start=40&sa=N" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows 98)"

The part that's most likely to reveal information to me about this visitor is the first part - the p1014-ipad92marunouchi.tokyo.ocn.ne.jp . That's the IP address of the computer that visited the site. For me, the site owner, it's nice information to have - for one thing, it tells me that the person was visiting from Japan (the .jp), which is kind of interesting to me - but it doesn't tell me the person's name or address or anything further than that. (Note that the big long thing in quotes, the google address, tells me that the visitor searched using the terms "Contract", "Paper", and "Sample".)

The cookie is used by Google Analytics. It collects anonymous traffic data. I never see the contents of the cookie.

Hiding Your IP from Server Logs

You can use Tor and Privoxy to browse the web anonymously.

An easier, low-tech solution is to use a computer at an internet cafe or public library.

Disabling Cookies

Most web browsers offer the option of disabiling cookies for a particular web site or all web sites. A web page from Ohio State University has information on disabling cookies for a variety of browsers.

Learn More About Protecting Your Privacy Online

The Gentoo Wiki offers nformation on using Tor and Privoxy.

You can learn much more about protecting your privacy online by reading the Security and Encryption FAQ by "Dr Who".