forbytten blogs

Privacy

Last updated

1 Introduction

“forbytten blogs” <forbytten.GitLab.io> (the “Site”) is principally a personal blog and hence forbytten (“me” or “I”) does not collect any personal information about visitors, such as their IP address or name, nor do I conduct any type of visitor fingerprinting. However, I do use third party services to deliver the Site and hence use of the Site is subject to the respective third party privacy policies and any data the third parties may collect. Below I describe each of the third parties used, link to their privacy policies and describe what they allow me to know about visitors, if anything.

2 GitLab

The Site is hosted by GitLab using a feature known as GitLab Pages. Currently, as of the time of publication, this feature provides me with zero information about website visitors as far as I am aware. However, GitLab itself may collect information as a result of you visiting the Site, as per the GitLab privacy policy

3 Google

3.1 Font serving

The Site uses fonts hosted by Google and their privacy policy can be found here. If you object to the use of the fonts and any potential information Google may collect as a result, you may choose to employ technical measures to block the relevant domains. You will still be able to access all information on the Site but it will fall back to the default fonts for your browser and operating system, which on some platforms may be inferior to the fonts I have chosen, but should still be legible.

3.2 Google Search console

One thing that GitLab lacks is the provision of any SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for the purposes of ensuring the Site is indexed and discoverable by search engines. Hence, I have explicitly registered the Site with the Google Search Console. The console allows me to view high level, anonymized data about visitors who arrive at the Site via Google Search, such as:

  1. The number of page impressions and clicks over time. In other words, how often the Site appeared in search results and how often someone clicked on a result for the Site. I have no access to any further information about such visitors, such as their IP address.

  2. Top search queries that resulted in the Site appearing in search results. I have no access to any information about who submitted such search queries, nor any control over which queries Google chooses to display. Please note, however, if you include personal information in your search query, such as your name, and my website appears in the search results, Google may choose to display your search query in the top search queries and, hence, I may potentially see such information.

  3. The number of page impressions and clicks from each country.

  4. The number of page impressions and clicks from desktop vs mobile devices.

4 Cloudflare Web Analytics

In launching the Site, it is informative to know whether anyone is visiting it and what pages may attract interest, if any. Whilst the aforementioned Google Search Console provides some information on this, it has some limitations:

  1. It only provides information about visitors who arrived via a Google Search and only provides information about their initial arrival, not what pages they may visit once on the Site.
  2. There’s a delay of at least a couple of days before information is available.

The Site therefore uses Cloudflare Web Analytics which at the time of writing, is marketed as “Privacy First” on their website:

‘Privacy First […] Cloudflare Web Analytics does not use any client-side state, such as cookies or localStorage, to collect usage metrics. We also don’t “fingerprint” individuals via their IP address, User Agent string, or any other data for the purpose of displaying analytics’

Cloudflare’s official privacy policy is also available on their website.

The Cloudflare Web Analytics deployed on the Site relies on JavaScript. If you object to its use, you may choose to employ technical measures to block the JavaScript and/or the associated domains. You will still be able to access all information on the Site.

Cloudflare Web Analytics privacy first marketing from their official website

5 Disclaimer

Whilst the information on this page is accurate to the best of my knowledge at the time of publication, the definitive source for what data is collected by each third party service is their respective privacy policies linked in the above text. If there is any discrepancy, the third party service’s policy takes precedence.