Privacy

This is a personal website. It does not sell your data, does not run advertising networks, and does not set tracking cookies for third-party advertisers.

The site uses Vercel Web Analytics to count page visits and a small set of deliberate events — which project was opened, whether a link out to a demo or repository was followed, whether a signup was started or completed, whether a checkout was opened.

No third-party advertising or social pixels run on this site, and no cookies are set for analytics.

The first time you arrive, your browser generates a random identifier and stores it — along with where you arrived from and which page you landed on — in this site's local storage. It is not a cookie and is not sent to anyone else's servers.

That identifier travels with the events above, so I can tell that a visit which began with a particular post is the same visit that later opened a particular product. If you join the mailing list or send a message, it is submitted with the form; if you buy something, it is passed to Stripe with the order. Those steps are where it stops being anonymous: from then on it is linked to your email address or your order, and it counts as personal information about you.

I do this because it is the only way to know which writing actually leads anywhere. It is not sold, shared, or used to advertise to you.

If your browser sends a Global Privacy Control signal, no identifier is generated at all and none of the above happens. Clearing this site's data in your browser erases it, and a new one is only created if you have not opted out.

If you send a message, the name, email address and message you type are transmitted by email so I can read and reply to them. That is the only reason they are collected, and they are not added to any mailing list.

Delivery is handled by Resend, which processes the message in transit.

If you join the Valentine Dispatch, your email address and the interests you selected are stored so I can send you the right things — along with the page you signed up on and where you first arrived from, as described above.

The list is kept in a private Google Sheet that only I can open; Google stores it on my behalf. Nothing is sent to you automatically when you join. When the Dispatch starts going out, every email will include a one-click unsubscribe, and unsubscribing deletes you from the list. Until then, or at any time, email me and you will be removed.

Nothing is currently sold through this site. When it is, checkout will be handled entirely by Stripe on Stripe's own pages. Card details are never entered on, transmitted to, or stored by this site.

The identifier described above is attached to the checkout so I can see which page led to a purchase. Stripe records it against the payment and returns it to me with the order; Stripe's own privacy policy governs everything else it collects.

Email MailAndrewValentine@gmail.com to ask what is held about you, to have it corrected, or to have it deleted. There is no form to fill in and no account to close — a plain email is enough.

Browser-level tracking protection, ad blockers and Global Privacy Control signals are all respected; nothing on this site attempts to work around them. If you want the connection between your visits broken without changing any settings, clearing this site's data does it immediately.