Legal
Privacy policy
Last updated:
NoteNew collects as little as it can. This page lists everything we keep, why, and for how long, in plain words.
In short
- Readers get no cookies. There are no analytics, ads or tracking pixels.
- Comments need only a name and the comment itself.
- Contact messages are used to reply, then deleted after 90 days.
- Server access logs are deleted after about two weeks.
- We do not sell personal data or share it with advertisers.
When you read
You can read every page without an account. We do not set cookies for readers and we run no analytics or third-party scripts.
Like almost every website, our web server keeps standard access logs: your IP address, the page you requested, your browser’s user agent and the time. We use them only for security and to keep the site running, and they are rotated and deleted after about two weeks.
To slow down spam, the site also looks at your IP address briefly while it handles a comment or a contact message. This happens in memory only. The address is not written to the site’s database.
When you comment
A comment form asks for two things: a name and the comment. We do not ask for an email address. You can use any name you like.
Comments are held for review. Approved comments are public on the note they belong to, with the name you gave and the date. Comments that are never approved are deleted automatically after 30 days.
When you contact us
The contact form collects your name, email address, the topic you choose and your message. We use them only to read your request, reply, and deal with what you asked. Contact messages are deleted automatically after 90 days.
Writers
Writers join by invitation. A notebook’s profile (name, handle, portrait, short bio and optional website link) and its published notes are public by design. Writers can ask us to remove notes or their whole notebook at any time.
What we do not do
- We do not build profiles of readers or follow them across pages or sites.
- We do not show advertising, so there is nobody to sell attention to.
- We do not ask commenters for an email address, so we cannot add anyone to a mailing list.
Cookies
There is one cookie on this site: a session cookie for the site’s administrators, set when they sign in so that the site remembers them. Readers and commenters receive no cookies at all.
Other services
A few files come from other providers. When your browser fetches them, that provider receives your IP address and browser information, as with any web request:
- Google Fonts (fonts.googleapis.com and fonts.gstatic.com) serves the typefaces used on every page.
- Unsplash (images.unsplash.com) serves the photos on the home page.
Their own privacy policies apply to those requests. No other outside service receives information from your visit. The site is served over HTTPS, with certificates from Let’s Encrypt, so what you send us is encrypted in transit.
How long we keep things
| What | Kept for |
|---|---|
| Server access logs | About two weeks |
| IP addresses for anti-spam | In memory only, never stored |
| Comments waiting for review | 30 days, unless approved |
| Contact messages | 90 days |
| Approved comments and published notes | Until they are removed |
Your requests
You can ask us what we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it, for example a comment you posted or a message you sent. Use the contact page and choose Privacy request. Tell us enough to find the item, such as the note and the name you used. We may need to ask a question to make sure the request comes from you.
Changes to this policy
If the way we handle data changes, we will update this page and the “last updated” date at the top. We will not start collecting more without saying so here first.