This site is run by me, Bret Patton. I collect as little as I can get away with, and this page says exactly what that is in plain words. If anything here is unclear, write to [email protected].
The short version
- Reading this site needs no account and sets no tracking cookies. There are no ads and no ad networks.
- The only thing you can send me is a message through the feedback form. I keep it so I can read it and reply, and nothing else.
- Nothing is sold or shared with anyone for marketing. Ever.
- You can ask me to show or delete anything you sent. One email does it.
What this page covers
This policy covers www.bretpatton.com and the pages under it: the articles, the work and project pages, What's Next, the feedback form, and the small apps that live here such as Money Steps and Runner Runner. Phone apps I publish have their own one-page policies, linked from each app and listed at the bottom of this page. Sites on their own subdomains (for example the Christmas calendars, Agile Tools, Collective Sports and the Poker Hub) have their own policies on those sites, because some of them have accounts and do more than this one.
Just visiting
When you read a page, your browser asks Cloudflare, which hosts this site, for the page. Like every web host, Cloudflare sees the usual technical details of that request: your IP address, the page you asked for, your browser type, and the time. Cloudflare keeps these in its own logs for a short while for security and to keep the site running, under Cloudflare's privacy policy. I do not have a list of who visited.
I may look at anonymous traffic counts from Cloudflare (how many people read a page, which countries, which browsers). Those counts use no cookies and cannot be traced back to you. There is no Google Analytics, no Facebook pixel, and no other script here that follows you around the web.
The site sets no cookies for reading. The only cookie that can ever appear belongs to Cloudflare's bot check on the feedback form, described below.
The feedback form
The form on the feedback page (and the "send an idea or bug" buttons inside my games, which post to the same place) is the one way this site collects anything from you. Here is what happens when you press Send:
- What is saved: the kind of message (feedback, request, question, bug), the project you picked, your message, and your name and email only if you typed them. Both are optional. The email is used for one thing: replying to you.
- A scrambled copy of your IP address. The site keeps a one-way hash of your IP (it cannot be turned back into the address) so that one person cannot send more than five messages an hour. That is all it is used for.
- Where it lives: in a small database on Cloudflare (their D1 service) that only I can open.
- A copy comes to my inbox. The message is emailed to me through Resend, an email-sending service, and lands in my Gmail. Resend and Google handle that email under their own policies. If you left an email address, replying to that email goes straight to you.
- Bot check: the form may run Cloudflare Turnstile, which looks at your browser to tell people from bots. It does not ask you to click pictures and it does not identify you. Cloudflare's policy, linked above, covers it.
- What happens to a good idea: it may become a card on What's Next, written in my own words. Your name and email never appear on the site.
- How long I keep it: until I have dealt with it and a while after so I can look back at what people asked for, or until you ask me to delete it.
Rather not use a form? Email [email protected] instead. That goes to the same inbox.
Things saved in your own browser
A few pages remember things for you, on your device only: Money Steps saves your lesson progress and game saves, and Runner Runner saves your best scores. None of that is sent to me. Clearing this site's data in your browser settings erases it.
Links to other places
The site links out to my profiles (X, Instagram, YouTube, GitHub and others) and to a few books on Amazon. Some Amazon links are affiliate links: if you buy something after clicking one, Amazon may pay me a small commission, and it costs you nothing extra. Those links are marked as sponsored in the page code. Once you are on another site, that site's privacy policy applies, not this one.
The editing pages
The pages I use to write articles and update What's Next are for me alone. They sit behind Cloudflare Access with my own sign-in. No visitor is ever asked to sign in to anything here.
Children
This site collects no personal information from anyone, so it collects none from children. The feedback form asks for no personal details, and if you are under 13, please do not put any in your message.
Your choices
You can ask me at any time to tell you what I have that came from you, to correct it, or to delete it. Email [email protected] from the address you used (or tell me enough to find the message) and I will take care of it within 30 days, usually much sooner. There is no account to close because there are no accounts.
Changes
If the site ever starts doing more, such as adding accounts, a newsletter or a shop, this page will change first and the date at the top will move. I will not quietly add tracking.
Policies for my apps
- Holy Sheet! (Android game)
- Money Steps
Contact
Bret Patton, [email protected].