Privacy policy

This page says what this website collects, what we do with it, and what we don't do. It is written to be read, not skimmed. If anything here is unclear, ask us.

What this policy covers

This policy covers this website, oogle.net, and the ways you can contact us through it: the forms, the free website checkup, email and phone. Work we do for a client under a written agreement is covered by that agreement. The websites we build or host for clients are covered by those clients' own policies, not this one.

Cookies and tracking

This website sets no cookies for visitors. There is no Google Analytics, no advertising pixel, no social media tag and no third-party script of any kind. Every font and file the pages use comes from our own server. No other company gets a record of your visit because of something we put on the page. The only cookies WordPress sets are for our own staff when they sign in to edit the site.

We do not currently run a visitor analytics service. If we add one, it will be our own or a privacy-respecting one. It will not use cookies or build profiles, and this policy will be updated to say exactly what it records.

Because this site does not track you, there is nothing for a Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control signal to switch off. We honor them by not doing the thing in the first place.

Server logs

The web server keeps standard access logs. They include IP addresses, the pages requested, timestamps and browser identification strings. We use them for security, for diagnosing problems with the website itself, and for stopping abuse. They are kept for a limited period and then rotated out.

What the forms collect

The forms on this site are for asking us for help or for a quote. When you send one, we receive what you typed:

• Your name, email address and, if you give it, your phone number and how you would like to be contacted
• Your website address and, on the project form, your organization
• What you write about the problem or the project, and how urgent it is
• Any screenshot or file you choose to attach
• Technical information recorded with the submission: your IP address, your browser's identification string, and the page you sent it from

The forms run on Gravity Forms, a WordPress plugin. Submissions are stored in this website's database on our own server, and a copy is emailed to us. The technical information in the last point is stored with the entry. We use it to answer you, to tell a real inquiry from an automated one, and to enforce the limits that keep the forms usable. It is not used to build a profile of you.

The forms carry a hidden field that ordinary visitors never see and automated senders fill in. A submission that fills it in is set aside as spam and not read. That is the only spam protection on the forms. There is no third-party verification service and nothing that scores you.

We ask for the minimum needed to reply. Please don't send passwords, payment details or sensitive personal information through a form. If we need access to something, we will set up a secure way to share it.

The website checkup

If you use the free checkup, we fetch the address you enter the same way a visitor's browser would. We read what that page publishes, look up the public DNS records for the domain, and show you the result. We do not log in to the site, submit anything to it, send it any email, or send it anything a browser would not.

The requests come from our server, not from your browser, and they identify themselves as OogleCheckup. They appear in that website's own logs the way any visitor's would. Please only check a site you own or are responsible for.

One optional part of the checkup can use Google's PageSpeed Insights service to add Google's own speed measurements to the report. Where it is switched on, the address you entered is sent to Google so it can run that test. Nothing about you is sent. The rest of the checkup runs entirely on our own server.

We keep a log of how many checkups were run, when, whether they finished, and the address that was checked. That tells us the tool works and stops it being pointed at one site over and over. To enforce those limits the server keeps a short-lived, scrambled version of your IP address in a counter for a few minutes. It is never written into the log and cannot be turned back into the address. We do not store your report, and we do not ask for an email address to show it to you. The report is on your screen and nowhere else. Closing the page is the end of it.

Email

When you send a form, the email that tells us about it is delivered through SMTP2GO, an email delivery service. It handles the message on our instructions and for no other purpose. When you email us directly, your message sits in our mailbox like any other. We do not add anybody to a mailing list, and contacting us does not subscribe you to anything.

What it's used for

To answer you, and to do any work you go on to ask us for. We do not sell, rent or share your information for marketing, and we do not share it for advertising of any kind.

Who else handles it

A small number of providers process information on our behalf so this website and our business can run: the company that hosts this website, the email service that delivers form notifications, our email provider, and, once you become a client, the invoicing and payment services we bill through. Each handles your information on our instructions and for that purpose only. If the law requires us to disclose something, or we need to in order to protect somebody from harm, we will. We will tell you where we are allowed to.

How long it is kept

Inquiries that become work are kept as part of the client record for as long as we work together, and for as long afterward as our tax and legal obligations require.

Inquiries that do not become work, and the files attached to them, are reviewed and deleted periodically. We do not delete them on a fixed schedule, so if you would like yours removed, ask us and we will do it.

The checkup log holds addresses of websites, not of people, and is kept as a running record of how the tool is used.

How we protect it

This website is served over HTTPS only. Form entries live in the site's database, not in a public folder. Attached files are limited to a short list of image and document types and a size limit, and the folder they are stored in refuses direct web requests. Only our own staff can reach the WordPress dashboard. The site, its software and its server are kept updated and monitored, the same care we provide for clients.

No system is perfect and we do not claim otherwise. If you have something genuinely sensitive to send us, ask first and we will arrange a better channel than a web form.

Websites we build and host for clients

When we design, host or maintain a website for a client, we handle whatever that website collects on the client's behalf and under the client's instructions. The client decides what their site collects and what it is for, and their privacy policy governs it. We do not use a client's data for our own purposes, and we do not look at it beyond what the work requires.

Children

This website is for businesses and organizations. It is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 13. If you believe a child has sent us something, tell us and we will delete it.

Your choices

You can ask what we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it. We'll do that unless we're required to keep it, and we will not treat you any differently for asking. If we turn a request down we will tell you why, and you can ask us to look at it again. Contact [email protected]. We may need to ask you something only the sender would know, so we do not hand somebody's inquiry to the wrong person.

We do not sell personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising, as those terms are used in United States state privacy laws. Several states give residents rights of the kind described above. We apply that paragraph to anyone who asks, wherever they live.

Links to other websites

Our work pages link to sites we have built, and some articles link elsewhere. Once you follow a link you are on somebody else's website, under their privacy policy, not this one.

Changes to this policy

If what we do with information changes, we update this policy and its date. We do not apply a change backward to information already sent to us.

Contact

Privacy questions: [email protected]
Oogle, 833-336-6453