This page sets out what Simmerstead collects when you visit, why it is collected, and what you can ask us to do about it.
Scope
The scope here is this domain. Linked sites are outside it and publish their own policies; social platforms collect on their own account and show us only aggregate figures.
What the site collects
Your browser sends technical information to our server on every request: IP address, browser and device type, the pages you open, the referring address, and how long you stay. This is ordinary web-server behaviour and we do not tie it to a name.
Anything else comes from you deliberately – a subscription email address, or the message you send us.
Why we hold it
- Deliver the site and keep it standing.
- Judge, across the whole audience, which soups and stews pages are worth keeping.
- Handle your message and respond to it.
- Mail the newsletter to the people who asked for it.
- Respond to a lawful request when we receive one.
Who else sees it
Four outside services touch this data, each under its own privacy policy: Google Analytics (aggregate statistics), Google AdSense (advertising), our hosting provider (server logs), and our email provider (newsletter delivery). They may set their own cookies.
The services above are operated by companies based in the United States, so data reaching them is processed there. Each publishes its own transfer safeguards, which is the mechanism relied on rather than any arrangement of ours.
The newsletter
The newsletter works on one address and nothing else: no name is asked for, and the address is used to send the newsletter and for nothing besides. It is not passed to anyone, and the unsubscribe link at the foot of every issue removes it from the list rather than flagging it.
Lawful basis
Under European and United Kingdom rules the processing here rests on three grounds: your consent for the newsletter and optional cookies, our legitimate interest in running and measuring the site, and legal obligation where the law imposes one. Withdrawing consent is always available to you.
How long anything lasts
Nothing is kept indefinitely on purpose. The host rotates its logs, Google Analytics applies its configured retention period, subscription addresses remain until you unsubscribe, and correspondence goes once it has served its purpose.
On profiling
There is no automated decision-making and no significant profiling. The aggregate statistics described above are counts, not judgements about individuals.
Your rights
You can ask for a copy of what we hold, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it. Every newsletter carries an unsubscribe link that works. Your browser settings control cookies. Readers in the EEA, the UK and California have additional statutory rights, and we honour them for everyone.
Minors
Readers under 13 are not the audience for Simmerstead and we do not knowingly hold their data. A message from a parent or guardian is enough to have anything of the sort erased.
No sale of data
No personal information is sold or passed on for independent marketing by someone else, and no data broker features anywhere. Readers in California can take that as the CCPA position: there is no sale to opt out of.
Keeping it safe
We use reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect what we hold. No system on the internet is perfectly secure, and we will not pretend otherwise.
If something goes wrong
Complaints are best raised with us first, through the contact page, because that is quickest. You keep the right to go straight to your data protection authority instead.
Revisions
Policies drift when tools change, so this one is updated rather than left to rot. The date at the top is the date that matters.
Contact
Questions about any of this go through our contact page.