Out Of What Box?

I’m not sure if I really need to write this, but having a privacy policy is de rigeur these days. I seriously doubt that anyone will read it, except maybe for kicks. Nonetheless, herein I spell out the site’s privacy policy in terms that have not been approved by my (or anyone else’s) lawyer.

Privacy Policy for outofwhatbox.com

(Version 0.02, published April 11, 2009)

1. I hope you find the content on this site to be useful and/or interesting. I hope that you’ll feel free to leave comments if you have something relevant to say.
2. Other than the foregoing, I don’t care who you are, what you’re doing here, where else you’ve been, or where you’re going from here. (This is true even if—heck, especially if—you’re weird enough to read through privacy policies just for kicks.)
3. Other than the usual web server access logs (which track IP addresses, but do not leave personally identifiable information), I have no infrastructure in place for tracking who you are, what you’re doing here, where else you’ve been, or where you’re going from here.  That may change in the future, though I think it’s unlikely, and it would be for reasons unknown to me right now. If it does change, I’ll do my best to let you know, and I promise that I’ll keep such information to myself.
4. Even if I did have it available to me, I shall never, ever sell, lend, transfer, or otherwise allow any glimpse of your personal information to spammers, telemarketers, politicians, or any other person or entity, whether corporate, corporeal, or corpse.
5. However, if you leave an email address, phone number, web site URL, or other personally identifiable information here, whether in comments or in other parts of this site, you do so at your own risk. I make no promise that I’ll be willing or able to help you cover your tracks later. That said, I reserve the right to remove blatant spam or unpaid advertising from this site. If and when I do so, that doesn’t change the meaning, intent, or applicability of this paragraph.
6. This site is managed using WordPress software, which may use cookies to help you navigate through the site. I make no other use of cookies, nor have I modified the WordPress software in use here in any way that would alter its usage of cookies.
7. I sell advertising on this site. Or, at least, I hope to sell advertising on this site. The revenues might be good for a Coke someday. (Hmm. I wonder if I can charge them for that plug?) Advertisement publishers may use their own cookies. I have no control over this, other than to drop advertising, which I’d rather not do; it’s harder for me to write when I’m thirsty and undercaffeinated.
8. Currently I use Google to publish ads. They suggested that I include something like the following in my privacy policy. So, this policy includes the following points:
   • Google, as a third party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads on your site.
   • Google’s use of the DART cookie enables it to serve ads to your users based on their visit to your sites and other sites on the Internet.
   • Users may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy.
9. I also use Google Analytics (GA) to track the hordes rare occurance of visitors to this site. GA may also place cookies on your computer, subject to its own privacy policy.  GA’s policy is not to collect or reveal personally identifiable information, and the reports that I get from GA do not show me such information.
10. This policy is subject to change without notice. However, it is and shall remain my intent to be even less evil than Google.

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