When visitors leave comments on the site, the site collects the data shown in the comments form (through the WordPress interface), and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.

Additionally, an anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.

If you leave a comment on this site, you may opt-in to saving your name, email 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. These cookies can be readily deleted from your computer at any time by accessing your browser’s privacy/security preferences settings and selecting the “remove cookies” option.

Features on this site may include embedded content (e.g. Vimeo and/or YouTube videos, links to scientific articles hosted on external websites, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website directly. These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracing your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

Although it is not necessary to access embedded content to use most of this site’s features, the inclusion of externally-hosted content here is intended to enhance the visitor experience. Before accessing embedded content, visitors may wish to first familiarize themselves with the data collection and privacy policies of the websites that originate this content. In general, the source URLs of the external sites originating the embedded content can be identified by hovering your cursor over the appropriate items and links on this site.

This site does not track visitors, and for an added degree of privacy, employs the “WP DoNotTrack” plugin to prevent other plugins used on this site from adding their own 3rd-party tracking cookies or code [this somewhat dated plugin has been removed due to potential security vulnerabilities… a suitable replacement plugin has not yet been identified]. Note that this tracking prevention does not apply to embedded content (see above).

This site also does not collect or store any analytics data, except for security-related purposes (e.g. blacklisting IP addresses associated with unauthorized login attempts, posting spam, etc.). However, the web hosting service provider does collect and summarize routine visitor information for statistical purposes. These data include the monthly top IP addresses that visit the site (by hits and KBytes), the monthly top referrers that direct to the site (by hits), and the monthly top user agents utilized by visitors (by hits). The administrator of this website does have access to a summary of these routinely-collected visitor statistics, which is used to assess monthly changes in website traffic.

For general routine website usage (browsing the pages; viewing content; leaving comments; etc.), this site does not share any visitor data. The only exception is for when visitors voluntarily opt to make a donation; see below “Where does the site send your data” for details on how data associated with donations are handled.

If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so the site can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue, and also to provide context and continuity for readers of the comment thread.

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

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

If you opt to donate to the site via the “donate” page, you will be re-directed to an external third-party payment processor (either PayPal or GoFundMe, depending on which donation option you choose), and this payment processor will collect certain information from you that is necessary to facilitate the donation process. The PayPal privacy policy is available at: https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/ua/privacy-full, and the GoFundMe privacy policy is available at: https://www.gofundme.com/privacy. Please review the privacy policies of these third-party providers before you decide to donate to this site.

Be assured that no sensitive financial information such as bank account numbers, credit card numbers, etc. is ever viewed, collected, or stored on this website, regardless of the donation method you choose; all donations are handled entirely remotely, either through PayPal (via PayPal.Me) or through the GoFundMe platform.