Privacy policy

This site is run by Safe Online Marketing Ltd (Worcestershire, United Kingdom), the company behind Wayne Atkinson's products. The short version: this site collects very little, asks before measuring anything, and shares nothing. Here's the long version.

What we collect

The contact form. If you use it, we store the name, email address, subject and message you type, plus the time you sent it, in our own database on our own server. We use it for exactly one thing: reading your message and replying to you.

The TRANSMUTE game (optional account). You can play the daily game with no account at all — an anonymous cookie remembers your streak on your device and identifies nobody. If you choose to create a free account we store the email address and display name you give us, your sign-in sessions, and your game history (guesses, streaks, cards collected) so your progress follows you. If you tick the newsletter box we'll also use that address for Wayne's occasional field notes — untick anytime by replying "stop".

Analytics — only if you say yes. We use Google Analytics to see which pages people visit and roughly where in the world readers come from. It only runs if you press Allow analytics on the banner; until then not a single byte goes to Google. If you allow it, Google sets a couple of cookies and receives the usual analytics signals — pages viewed, a random identifier, approximate location, browser and device type — which Google processes on our behalf (and may transfer outside the UK) under its own privacy policy. We see only aggregate numbers, never your name or email. Change your mind anytime via the Cookies link in the footer. Browsers that send the Global Privacy Control signal are treated as a "no" without even being asked.

Server logs. Like almost every web server, ours keeps standard technical logs (IP address, page requested, browser type, timestamp) for security and troubleshooting. These are routinely deleted and never used to profile anyone.

That's the complete list.

What we don't do

• No tracking without consent — analytics runs only after you allow it, and declining changes nothing about how the site works. No advertising pixels, no fingerprinting, no cross-site anything.
• No advertising cookies — beyond the optional analytics cookies above, the only cookies this site sets are strictly functional: a security token on the contact form, and (if you play TRANSMUTE) the cookies that make the game itself work — your anonymous streak and, for account holders, your sign-in session. None of them track you anywhere.
• Almost no third-party requests — every font, image, script and video on this site is served from this site. The exceptions: Google Analytics (only after you consent, as above) and Amazon SES, which delivers our emails (your sign-in link, the newsletter if you asked for it) — it sees the email address it's delivering to, as any postman must.
• No selling or sharing of data — your contact messages and game account details are read by Wayne and nobody else, and are never sold or passed to anyone beyond the processors named above.

How long we keep it

Contact messages are kept for as long as the conversation needs, then periodically cleared out — at most 24 months. Server logs are kept for a few weeks at most. Analytics data is aggregate and expires from Google Analytics after 14 months. Game accounts live until you ask us to delete yours (one email to the address below does it — the whole account, history and all).

Your rights

Under UK data protection law (UK GDPR) you can ask us at any time to show you the personal data we hold about you, correct it, delete it, or stop processing it. There's very little to ask about — but the right is yours. Email [email protected] and we'll sort it promptly.

If you're not happy with how we've handled your data, you can complain to the UK Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.

Links to other sites

The projects shown here link out to their own websites (MarketMasher, RSSMasher and friends). Each of those has its own privacy policy — this one covers wayneatkinson.com only.

Changes

If this policy changes, the date at the top changes with it. Nothing sneaky.