Who we are
Humanopia is an independent publication. Humanopia is also the data controller for the personal information described on this page. That means we decide how and why it is used and are responsible for protecting it.
In this policy, “we” and “us” mean Humanopia. “You” means anyone who reads the site, comments on it or signs up for the newsletter. You can read more about us on our About page.
If you have a question about your data, or want us to do something with it, email contact@humanopia.com. You can also reach us through our contact page.
The short version
- You can read Humanopia without giving us any personal details. We do not use advertising or tracking cookies.
- If you sign up for the newsletter, we keep your email address and the date you signed up.
- If you comment, we keep your name, your email address and your comment. Every comment is held for moderation, and we never publish your email address.
- Every visit goes through Cloudflare, which delivers the site, helps keep it secure and counts visits for us without cookies.
- We do not sell your personal information.
- To see, correct or delete what we hold about you, email contact@humanopia.com.
What we collect and why
Newsletter signups
When you sign up for the newsletter, we save your email address and the date you signed up as a private record in WordPress, the software that runs this site. We do not ask for your name. We use your email address only to send you the newsletter.
To stop spam signups, the form may also keep a hashed version of your IP address for a short time. A hash is a scrambled code made from the address, not the address itself. It lets us limit how many signups come from the same connection.
No email service is connected yet, and we have not sent a newsletter. That means you will not get a confirmation email, and there is no unsubscribe link yet. To be removed from the list, or if someone signed you up without asking you, email contact@humanopia.com and we will remove your address.
Comments
Comments are open on our articles. The comment form asks for your name, your email address and your comment. WordPress also records the IP address the comment was sent from and your browser’s user agent, which is a short line of text naming your browser and device. These details help us spot spam and abuse.
Every comment is held for moderation and appears only after we approve it. Once it is approved, your name, your comment and its date appear under the article. We never publish your email address.
Next to each comment we show a simple monogram made from the commenter’s initials. It is created on our own site, so no outside avatar service receives anything about you.
Emails you send us
If you write to contact@humanopia.com, we receive your email address, any name your email shows and whatever you write. We use these to reply to you and to act on your message.
Visits, security and statistics
Every visit passes through Cloudflare before it reaches our server. Cloudflare delivers our pages, helps protect the site from attacks and counts visits for us without using cookies. To do this, it handles technical details of each request, such as your IP address, the page you asked for and the type of browser you use. Our visitor statistics show totals, such as how many times a page was viewed, not individual readers.
Like most websites, our server also keeps standard logs of these technical details. We use them to keep the site running, fix errors and block attacks. We do not use them to build profiles of readers.
Our fonts are served from our own site, so reading Humanopia does not send requests to Google Fonts.
Cookies
Cookies are small files that a website saves in your browser. Humanopia does not use advertising or tracking cookies, and our visitor statistics use no cookies. Most readers get no cookies from us at all.
Cookies can appear in a few specific cases:
- Comment cookies. If you check the box to save your details when you comment, WordPress saves your name and email address in cookies so you don’t have to type them again. These cookies last one year. If you leave the box unchecked, they are not set.
- Login cookies. People who sign in to manage the site get WordPress login cookies. Readers never need to sign in.
- Security cookies. If Cloudflare’s security checks are triggered, for example when it asks a browser to show that it is not a bot, Cloudflare may set a cookie that the check needs.
You can delete or block cookies in your browser settings at any time. The site still works without them. You just have to type your details again when you comment.
Who else handles your data
We use a small number of outside services to run the site. Each one handles data under its own privacy policy.
- Cloudflare delivers every page, helps protect the site and provides our visitor statistics. It handles the request details described above for every visit. Read the Cloudflare privacy policy.
- Our hosting provider runs the server that holds the site and its database, including newsletter signups and comments.
- Our email provider handles the messages sent to contact@humanopia.com.
- Affiliate partners. Some links to tools are affiliate links. Affiliate commissions are how Humanopia earns money from some links, and they never change a verdict or score. When you follow one of these links, you leave Humanopia, and the partner’s own site, cookies and privacy policy apply from then on. The partner may record that you came from Humanopia so it can pay the commission. How we review explains how we test and score tools.
We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for targeted advertising.
Cloudflare runs a worldwide network, and the services we use may be based in other countries, so your information may be handled outside the country where you live.
How long we keep it
- Newsletter signups: until you ask us to remove your address.
- The hashed IP record from a signup: a short time, after which it expires.
- Comments: an approved comment, and the details stored with it, stays with the article unless you ask us to remove it.
- Comment cookies: one year in your browser, or less if you delete them.
- Emails to us: as long as we need them to reply and follow up.
- Our server logs: a limited time, after which they are deleted automatically.
- Cloudflare’s data: Cloudflare keeps it under its own rules.
We also keep backups of the site’s database so we can recover from problems. Something deleted from the site can stay in an older backup until that backup is deleted.
Keeping your data safe
Newsletter signups and the private details stored with comments, such as email addresses and IP addresses, are not public. They can be seen only through the site’s password-protected dashboard. No system is perfectly secure, so we keep the personal information we hold to a minimum.
Your rights
You can ask us to:
- tell you what personal information we hold about you and send you a copy
- correct anything that is wrong
- delete your information, such as your newsletter signup or a comment
- stop using your information for a particular purpose
To ask, email contact@humanopia.com, from the address you used with us if you can, and tell us what you would like us to do. We may ask a question to make sure the request really comes from you.
Depending on where you live, privacy law may give you further rights, such as the right to complain to a data protection authority. Those rights apply whether or not we list them here.
Children
If you think a child has given us personal information, for example by signing up for the newsletter or leaving a comment, email contact@humanopia.com and we will delete it.
Changes to this policy
We will update this page when the way we handle personal information changes, for example when we connect an email service to send the newsletter or start using a new outside service.
Questions about this policy are always welcome at contact@humanopia.com. To see how we write and label our stories, read our editorial standards.