Privacy Policy

Your privacy is important. I only store the minimum amount of data necessary to run this blog with a satisfactory user experience.

This Privacy Notice explains which information about the visitors of this blog is collected and how it is processed. In the following I will refer to this blog and the associated web pages as “this website”.

Who I am

I am Raimund Krämer, a software developer and occasional coach who likes to write about his experiences and share insights about software development.

My contact information:

Raimund Krämer
Hölderlinstr. 7
81369 München
GERMANY

Phone: +4915783846605
Email: contact(at)raimund-kraemer(dot)dev

The third-party blog platform and services in use

This website uses the open source software WordPress and services by Automattic, including but not limited to WordPress.com. Cookies and other stored data, like user-submitted comments or email lists for newsletters, are collected, stored, and managed using these services. In the following I will refer to Automattic’s platform for creating websites and blogs and the associated services as “the platform”. Note that by using this website you are indirectly using the platform, and are accessing servers of the platform which may be located outside of your country as well as outside of the European Union.

Automattic has published a Privacy Notice for visitors to their users’ sites, which includes this website; with me being a user of their platform to run my blog (i.e., this website), and you being the visitor of my website. This Privacy Notice is based on the information from their aforementioned page, which is released under a Creative Commons Share Alike license, and since this Privacy Notice is in parts directly adapted from contents of their page it is also released under the same license.

The main platform features and services used to run this website are:

WordPress.com, a platform for creating websites and blogs.
Jetpack, a set of software tools, including for security and performance, that allows website owners with different hosting providers to connect their websites to features and tools available through WordPress.com and WooCommerce Shipping & Tax.
Crowdsignal helps site owners create quizzes, surveys, and polls that fit their brand and vision.
Intense Debate gives site owners tools to manage comments on their websites.
Akismet helps keep spam under control by filtering out spam comments–hundreds of millions, every day!

I have a DPA (data processing agreement) with the platform provider with which they assure compliance with the GDPR in their use of personal data.

Information collected about this website’s visitors

Information about this this website’s visitors is collected in a few different ways:

The platform collects certain information that the visitors provide to this website.
The platform collects some information automatically.

Information a visitor provides to this website

Information may be provided by a visitor via a text field on the website, for example a comment field.

The most common ways are:

Follower and subscriber information: When a visitor signs up to follow or subscribe to this website using Jetpack or WordPress.com, the platform collects the sign-up information requested by the website, which typically includes an email address.
Site comments: When a visitor leaves a comment on this website, the platform collects that comments, and other information that the visitor provides along with the comment, such as the visitor’s name and email address.
Crowdsignal survey responses: When a visitor completes a poll, quiz, or other type of survey offered on this website using Crowdsignal.com, the platform collects the visitor’s responses to those surveys, and other information that the survey owner requires for a poll/quiz/survey response, like an email address.
Other information entered on the site: The platform may also collect other information that a visitor enters on this website–such as a contact form submission or a search query.

Information the platform automatically collects about visitors to this website

I keep the collected information to a minimum to operate this website to the best of my knowledge of, and familiarity with, the configuration of the platform.

Technical data from a visitor’s computer etc.: The platform collects the information that web browsers, mobile devices, and servers typically make available about visitors to a website, including this website, such as the IP address, browser type, unique device identifiers, language preference, referring site, the date and time of access, operating system, and mobile network information.
Visitor interactions: The platform collects information about a visitor’s interactions with the website, including the “likes” and “ratings” left by visitors to this website (and possibly other sites powered by the platform) using WordPress.com or Jetpack.
Location information: The platform may determine the approximate location of a visitor’s device from the IP address. The platform collects and uses this information to, for example, tally for its Users (including me) how many people visit their Sites (including this website) from certain geographic regions. If you’d like, you can read more about the platform’s Site Stats feature for WordPress.com sites and Jetpack sites.
Akismet commenter information: The platform collects information about visitors who comment on Sites that use the plaform’s Akismet anti-spam service. The information the platform collects depends on how I set up Akismet for the Site, but typically includes the commenter’s IP address, user agent, referrer, and Site URL (along with other information directly provided by the commenter such as their name, username, email address, and the comment itself).
Crowdsignal response information: The platform collects information about visitors who respond to a Crowdsignal survey. The information that the platform collects typically includes IP address, browser type, operating system, user agent, and the web page last visited.
Intense Debate commenter information: The platform collects information about visitors who comment on this website if it used the platform’s Intense Debate service. The information that the platform collects depends on how I set up Intense Debate for this website, but typically includes the IP address and account information on this website, along with the comment.
Jetpack site activity: The platform collects visitor activities related to the management of this website, such as login attempts/actions and comment submission and management actions. For more information, please see the Jetpack Privacy Center.
Information from Cookies and other technologies: A cookie is a string of information that a Site (like this website) stores on a visitor’s computer, and that the visitor’s browser provides to this website each time the visitor returns. Pixel tags (also called web beacons) are small blocks of code placed on Sites. Automattic uses cookies and other technologies like pixel tags to help identify and track visitors and Site usage. I do not use the platform’s features for targeted ads. For more information about the platform’s use of cookies and other technologies for tracking, including how visitors can control the use of cookies, please see the platform’s Cookie Policy as well as this website’s cookie policy.

How I as the owner of this website use visitor information

I, as the owner of this website, use information about visitors in order to provide the website, primarily the blog. This includes managing this website, allowing visitors to add comments on blog posts or other website content, flag and fight comments from spammers, and collect information through polls, quizzes, and other surveys.

How the platform uses visitor information

The platform provider Automattic uses information about visitors in order to provide their services to me and my website. They also use some information about visitors of this website who are also users of the platform (like me and other bloggers and website owners) as described in their Privacy Policy. They may also use and share information that has been aggregated or reasonably de-identified, so that the information could not reasonably be used to identify any individual. For instance, they may publish aggregate statistics about the use of their services.

How I as the owner of this website share visitor information

I share information about visitors collected via this website with the platform provider Automattic in order to manage this website via the means provided by the platform. This sharing happens automatically via the technical means provided by the platform and as described in this Privacy Notice, and perhaps in more detail in their Privacy Policy.

How the platform shares visitor information

The following excerpt of the Privacy Notice for visitors to sites of the platform’s users (including this website), published by Automattic, describes how they may share information collected about visitors of this website:

We may share information collected about Site visitors in the limited circumstances spelled out below:

Subsidiaries, Employees, and Independent Contractors: We may disclose Site visitor information to our subsidiaries, our employees, and individuals who are our independent contractors that need to know the information in order to help us provide our services to our Users and their Sites, or to process the information on our behalf. We require our subsidiaries, employees, and independent contractors to follow this Privacy Notice for information about visitors that we share with them.

Third Party Vendors: We may share Site visitor information with third party vendors who need to know this information in order to provide their services to us. This group includes vendors that help us provide our services to our Users and their Sites. We require vendors to agree to privacy commitments in order to share information with them.

Legal Requests: We may disclose Site visitor information in response to a subpoena, court order, or other governmental request. For more information on how we respond to requests for information, please see our Legal Guidelines.

To Protect Rights, Property, and Others: We may disclose Site visitor information when we believe in good faith that disclosure is reasonably necessary to protect the property or rights of Automattic, our Users, third parties, or the public at large. For example, if we have a good faith belief that there is an imminent danger of death or serious physical injury, we may disclose information related to the emergency without delay.

Business Transfers: In connection with any merger, sale of company assets, or acquisition of all or a portion of our business by another company, or in the unlikely event that Automattic goes out of business or enters bankruptcy, Site visitor information would likely be one of the assets that is transferred or acquired by a third party. If any of these events were to happen, this Privacy Notice would continue to apply to Site visitor information and the party receiving this information may continue to use this information, but only consistent with this Privacy Notice.

Information Shared Publicly: Information that visitors choose to make public is–you guessed it–disclosed publicly. That means, of course, that information like visitor comments and “likes” are all available to others, including information about the visitor that is displayed in connection with a comment or “like” (such as a visitor’s WordPress.com username and Gravatar). We provide a “firehose” stream of public data (including comments) from Sites to provide that data to firehose subscribers, who may view and analyze the content, but do not have rights to re-publish it publicly. Public information may also be indexed by search engines or used by third parties.

How long I as the owner of this website keep visitor information

Any information publicly provided by visitors, like comments and “likes” on blog posts, may be kept for as long as the platform allows.

I do not keep any other visitor information in excess of what the platform requires in order for me to run this website, primarily the blog.

How long the platform keeps visitor information

The following excerpt of the Privacy Notice for visitors to sites of the platform’s users (including this website), published by Automattic, describes how long they keep information collected about visitors of this website:

If we are not legally required to keep it, we generally discard information about Site visitors when no longer needed for the purposes for which we collect and use it on behalf of our users — those purposes which are described in the “How We Use Visitor Information” section above.

For example, we keep the web server logs that record information about a visitor to one of our user’s Sites — such as the visitor’s IP address, browser type, and operating system — for approximately 30 days. We retain the logs for this period of time in order to, among other things, investigate issues if something goes wrong on a user’s Site.

As another example, when a Site visitor views your Site we use their IP address in order to update your Site Stats with information about their visit, like what country they are in. We keep that IP address for approximately 30 days to give us time to calculate your monthly Site Stats and address any issues with those counts.

Use of cookies

This website uses cookies as described in the Cookie Policy. For more information about how to manage and delete cookies, visit aboutcookies.org, and for more information on interest-based ads, including information about how visitors may be able to opt out of having their web browsing information used for behavioral advertising purposes, please visit aboutads.info/choices (US based) and youronlinechoices.eu (EU based).

Other resources

You can read more about how Automattic’s products and the platform’s services operate by visiting the pages linked in this Privacy Notice, especially the links to the mentioned services near the top of this Privacy Notice.