01What is processed
Three sources, all of them technical. None of them asks you anything or expects you to fill in a field.
- Visit statistics
- The Yandex.Metrica counter records the IP address, the browser's type, language and version, the operating system, the screen resolution, the addresses of the pages opened, the referring source, and the time and length of the visit.
- Web server log
- The server that hands out the pages keeps a technical log: IP address, request time, page address, response code and browser string. It exists for diagnostics and for defence against abuse, is kept briefly, and is never joined to anything else.
- Settings in your browser
- Two entries stay in your browser's storage: the language you chose and the theme you chose. They never leave your device and are never sent to the server.
Nothing records your session, your screen or your mouse: the counter's session replay is deliberately switched off.
02Why it exists
One purpose: to know which pages get read, where people arrive from, and what on the site is broken. It is the same job analytics does for the clients I set it up for — the difference being that here I am the one reading it.
The data is used in aggregate and anonymised: how many people opened a page, not who opened it. There is no advertising, no retargeting and no profiling on this site, and the data is neither sold nor passed to anyone beyond what is described below.
03The counter, and who else sees this
One counter runs on the site: Yandex.Metrica, which belongs to Yandex LLC. By installing it I pass visit data to that service, and it processes the data under its own rules — as an operator in its own right, not on my instructions.
There are no other counters, advertising pixels or third-party scripts on the site. Google Analytics was installed and then deliberately removed: it processes data outside Russia, and a site you can read without your data crossing a border is better than a site that explains why it does.
04Cookies and browser storage
Cookies are small entries a site leaves in your browser so it can recognise it on the next visit. This site sets none of its own: every one of them comes from the counter.
- Yandex.Metrica cookies
- They begin with _ym_ and tell a repeat visit from a first one. They last up to a year, and Yandex sets that period.
- The site's own entries
- sm_locale and hs_theme — the language and the theme you chose. These are not cookies: they sit in your browser’s local storage, are never sent anywhere, and disappear when you clear the site’s data.
05The legal basis
Processing follows Russian Federal Law No. 152-FZ on personal data, the law of the place this site is run from. The basis is my legitimate interest in understanding the audience of my own site, and, for the counter's cookies, your consent — which you give by continuing to use the site with the counter running.
Consent can be withdrawn at any moment and without explanation: opting out by any of the methods below is enough. Nothing follows from it except that your visit does not appear in the statistics.
06How to opt out
Three ways, and any one of them is enough. The site works completely without the counter: nothing breaks and nothing becomes unavailable.
- A blocker
- Any extension that blocks trackers stops the counter. It is the simplest route and it covers every site at once.
- Yandex.Metrica's own opt-out
- Yandex publishes an opt-out page: after it, Metrica stops collecting data about you on every site that runs it.
- Browser settings
- Blocking third-party cookies, browsing privately, or clearing the site’s data — each of these works with no extension at all.
07Your rights
Article 14 of 152-FZ gives you the right to learn whether your data is being processed and what it is, to demand that it be corrected, blocked or destroyed, and to withdraw your consent. If you are reading this from the EEA or the UK, the rights your own law gives you are broadly the same ones, and I will honour a request on either footing rather than argue about which applies.
Write to the address above and I will answer within ten working days. One practical limit is worth knowing: an IP address in the statistics does not let me find a particular person, so a request to erase data from a counter is better addressed to the service itself — and the opt-out page above settles it faster than any letter.
08Changes to this policy
The policy changes when the site does: if a form, a subscription or another third-party service appears, it will be described here before it starts running.
The date of the last change is at the top of this page. There is no notification of changes — there is no mailing list on this site either.
09Getting in touch
Any question about this page, about the counters or about your data goes by email. It is the same address as for work enquiries, and I answer it myself.