Privacy Policy

Who I am

I am writer Matthew Cross. I created this website to share my blog dedicated to new and young Sci Fi readers.

The only information that I actively collect is in the comments sections. But my website uses cookies to improve the visitor experience. I also link to other websites, and the hosts of those websites may have different policies and conduct different activities.

My website address is: https://matthewcrosswrites.com. If you have any problems or concerns with my website, e-mail me at matthewcrosswrites@gmail.com.

What personal data my site collects and why it collects it

Comments

If you leave a comment on the site, it collects the data shown in the comments form, your IP address and your browser user agent string to help with spam detection. I try to keep the site clean and friendly for my friends and guests.

I also use Gravatar to make sure commentors are real people using real e-mail addresses. An anonymized string created from your e-mail address (also called a hash) may be provided to Gravatar to see if you are using that e-mail address. Here is the Gravatar service privacy policy: https://automattic.com/privacy/. Once I approve your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public with that comment.

I don’t use your comment e-mail address or profile picture for marketing or any other use. Someday, I may add a newsletter. If I do, I will not use the old comment data to collect e-mail addresses. Instead, I will ask new visitors if they want to share their e-mail address and receive a free newsletter.

You don’t want to get spam. And I don’t want to send it.

Media

If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Other visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.

Cookies

If you leave a comment on my site, you may opt-in to saving your name, e-mail address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.

If you visit my login page, it will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.

When you log in, my site will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me,” your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.

If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.

Embedded content from other websites

Articles on this site may include embedded content (things like videos, images, articles and so on). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if you saw it visiting the other website.

These other websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

Analytics

Right now, I don’t collect any analytics. But soon, I plan to use Google or a plug-in to this website to collect anonymous data so I can get an idea of who my visitors are, what states or countries they are from, and the general demographics information that those services provide. I want to do that so I can write blogs and provide other content that you will enjoy.

Before I turn anything like that on, I’ll do my research and let you know in this Privacy Policy.

Who we share your data with

I don’t share your data with anyone. Once I figure out how to track analytics, I’ll update the section above called, you guessed it, “Analytics.”

How long we retain your data

If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely (like, as long as I keep this site going). This is so my site can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.

If you decide to register on my website, it also stores the personal information you provide in your user profile. As a registered user, you can see, edit, or delete your personal information at any time (except you cannot change your username). My website provider service says I can also see and edit that information.

If you are not spamming, cursing, being mean to minorities, or harassing me or my guests, I’ll leave the user profile alone. If you do one of those mean things, I may have to show you the door. But even then I’ll never do anything mean or bad with your profile or that data. I’ll either protect it like everyone else’s or just delete it. I’m nice like that.

What rights you have over your data

If you have an account on this site, or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data my site holds about you, including any data you have provided. You can also request that I erase any personal data my site holds about you. This does not include any data I need to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.

Where we send your data

Your comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.

Whew! That’s it! You made it to the end. Now why not go read my blog? It’s a lot more fun.

Be stellar!

Matthew Cross

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