Librarian Community Connection is an independent publication. This policy explains what we collect when you read the site, who else receives it, how long we keep it, and what you can ask us to do with it.
We do not sell personal information, and we do not build profiles of readers.
What we collect
When you read a page. We count page views ourselves so we know which articles are read. This uses no cookies. We do not store your IP address or your browser user-agent: a visit is counted using a one-way code derived from them that changes every day, so it cannot identify you, and it cannot be linked across days or across our other sites. We also record the page you arrived from, at the level of the site name only, and whether you are on a phone, tablet or desktop.
When you use the contact form. We store the name, email address and message you submit, so we can read and reply to it. Contact messages are read in our admin panel and are not forwarded to any third party.
When you sign up for email. We store your email address and the date you asked. Signup is double opt-in: nothing is sent to you until you click a confirmation link, and an address that is never confirmed is deleted rather than kept.
At present Librarian Community Connection sends no email newsletter at all. Addresses collected by the signup form are stored and nothing is sent to them.
Who else receives data
Cloudflare. Our sites are served through Cloudflare, which handles the connection between your browser and our server. Cloudflare therefore processes your IP address and the address of each page you request, in order to deliver the page and to filter automated abuse. For that last purpose it adds a small script to our pages that checks whether the visitor is a real browser, and it may set a __cf_bm cookie. Your browser is also asked to report failed network requests to Cloudflare (a standard feature called Network Error Logging). See the Cloudflare Privacy Policy.
Microsoft Clarity. Librarian Community Connection uses Microsoft Clarity to understand how pages are used — how far readers scroll, where they click, and which parts of a page cause difficulty. Clarity may record your interactions with this site and sets cookies to recognise a session. See the Microsoft Privacy Statement.
Cookies
Our own page-view counting sets no cookies. The cookies that do reach you are:
- a short-lived session cookie, set only when you open the contact page, which holds the answer to the anti-spam question so we can check yours against it
- a
__cf_bmcookie set by Cloudflare to distinguish people from bots - session cookies set by Microsoft Clarity
Blocking or deleting cookies will not stop you reading anything on this site.
How long we keep it
- Page-view records: the individual records are deleted after 45 days. What survives is a daily count per page, which contains nothing about any individual reader.
- Contact messages: deleted automatically after 2 years, or sooner if you ask.
- Unconfirmed email signups: deleted after 30 days if the confirmation link is never clicked.
- Confirmed subscribers: kept until you unsubscribe, which you can do from the link in any email we send, or by asking us.
These windows are enforced by a scheduled job, not by hand.
Your rights
If you are in the UK, the European Economic Area, or a US state with comparable law (including California), you have the right to ask us for a copy of the personal information we hold about you, to have it corrected, to have it deleted, and to object to our processing it. Exercising any of these rights is free and will never cost you access to the site.
Ask through the contact form. Tell us the email address you used, since that is the only identifier we can search on — our page-view records are deliberately built so that they cannot be traced back to a person, which also means we cannot find yours in them to show you or to delete.
We answer within 30 days. If you are not satisfied, you may complain to your national data protection authority; in the UK that is the Information Commissioner's Office.
Our lawful basis. We rely on legitimate interests to count page views and to keep the site available and free of abuse, and on your consent for email — which is why Librarian Community Connection will not send you anything until you confirm it. Advertising and usage-analytics cookies, where this site carries them, are set by the third parties named above under their own terms, and you can control them through your browser and through the opt-out links given.
Children
This site is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect information from them. If you believe a child has sent us information, tell us through the contact form and we will delete it.
Changes to this policy
This page is generated from how the site is actually configured, so it changes when the site does rather than on a review cycle. What you are reading describes what the site does right now.
Contact us
Use the contact form for any question about this policy or about information we hold. It is the fastest route to a person, and it is the only one we monitor.