Privacy

This is my personal blog and a collection of the apps I have built. You can read without an account, and optionally subscribe to updates by email.

What this site collects

I use DataFast to count visits, in its cookieless mode. It sets no cookies and does not follow you to other sites. Rather than identifying you, it derives a hashed identifier from signals such as your IP address, your browser user-agent and this site’s domain, mixed with a salt that rotates roughly daily, so the same visitor cannot be recognised from one day to the next. I use it to see which parts of the page people read and where they arrived from. Nothing else. This site sets no advertising or tracking cookies.

Third parties

The page loads its typefaces from Google Fonts, which means your browser makes a request to Google and Google sees your IP address as part of serving them. Some imported images and videos are served by their original social platform. The site is hosted on Vercel, which processes the ordinary request logs needed to deliver and secure it.

The blog archives my public X, Threads, Reddit, Instagram, YouTube and Hacker News posts. X, Threads, Reddit, Instagram and YouTube originals embed automatically on article pages; Hacker News uses a saved excerpt and link. Your browser connects to the embed platforms, which can receive your IP address and browser information and apply its own cookie and privacy policies. Following a social or product link also takes you to that service under its own policy.

Email updates

If you subscribe, your email address is sent to MailCheap to manage the newsletter. I use it for the updates you requested. You can unsubscribe from any email. MailCheap also receives your IP address to limit signup abuse. I do not sell your email address. To request removal, email me at the address below.

Contacting me

If you email me at jake@merlinsbeard.ai I keep that correspondence for as long as it is useful, and I use your address to reply to you and nothing else.

The apps themselves

Each app has its own privacy policy on its own site, and this page does not speak for them. Worth saying plainly, though: How to Convert and PicTiler do their work on your own device, and your files are not uploaded to anyone.

Changes

If this changes, I will change the date at the top. Any questions, email me.