Who I am

I am Matt Morelli. I’m based in the United Kingdom. My website address is: https://mattmorel.li. My website is hosted in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

What personal data is collected and why

Comments

When visitors leave comments on the site, I collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.

An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.

Contact forms

I use contact forms to enable visitors to get in touch with me. I collect the data that is shown in the contact form for the purpose of replying to visitors and for dealing with their enquiries in the best possible way.

Cookies

I only employ the use of first-party functional cookies on our website. These cookies help to remember your preferences. Under current GDPR regulations, I do not need to ask for your permission to use these types of cookies.

I’m proud to say that this website does not use any cross-site tracking or third-party display ad networks.

If you leave a comment on this site, you may opt in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.

I use Matomo Analytics to monitor how visitors use this website. For accurate reporting of new and returning visitors, Matomo uses first-party cookies to store anonymised data about visitors between visits. I also use cookies to remember if someone gave consent to tracking, or opted out of tracking. Matomo does not collect or store any personal data.

Embedded content from other websites

Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.

These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

Analytics

I use Matomo Analytics to monitor how visitors use this website so that I can see what types of content is doing well and so that I can better establish where I can make future improvements. Matomo is hosted on the same Amsterdam-based server as the website and uses first-party cookies to store anonymised data about your tracking preferences.

I do not collect personal data about visitors.

Affiliate links

I use affiliate networks on this website to create affiliate links (normally marked with an *). Affiliate networks enable me to link to commercial websites who may pay me a commission if visitors buy something or complete an action on the respective website.

The affiliate network will use cookie and tracking technology to monitor how you use the affiliate websites that are linked to in order to determine whether payment is due to me (as well as for other purposes). Since affiliate networks are solely set up to monitor traffic in this way, affiliate networks claim that the use of tracking and cookies comes under ‘legitimate interest’.

I mark our affiliate links with an * so that you can make an informed decision about whether to click on them.

I encourage visitors to view the privacy policies of external websites when they click through to them from this website and to review cookie consent boxes.

Mailing lists

I collect names and email addresses of visitors who wish to subscribe to my email mailing lists. Explicit consent for the collection of this personal data is acquired by the use of a check box which accompanies every mailing list subscription form. I collect this data so that I can email my subscribers with relevant promotional information about the website. The frequency of the emails is always clearly stated alongside the consent checkbox and subscribers may instantly unsubscribe at any time. I use EmailOctopus to help manage my mailing lists, whose servers are located in the United Kingdom.

Who we share your data with

I may choose to share completely anonymous pooled data from the analytics platform (see above) about visitors when approaching potential commercial partners. They want to know how the website is doing so that they can make an informed decision about whether to partner with me.

The analytics platform does not collect any personal information.

If you contact me using the contact form, I may share your personal information between family members/trusted associates to better assist you with your query. I never share personal data with anyone outside of my family or trusted associates.

When users subscribe to email mailing lists, the data they provide is securely stored on servers belonging to EmailOctopus which are based in the United Kingdom. This data is not shared with any third parties, neither by ourselves nor by EmailOctopus. Users may request to have their data deleted or altered at any time.

How long is your data retained

If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so I can recognise and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.

If you contact me via the contact form, I will store any information you provide in the contact form indefinitely. This is so that I have a record of previous correspondence that I can refer back to if required.

Mailing list data (names and email addresses provided by those who have requested to subscribe to our mailing lists) are stored indefinitely.

What rights you have over your data

If you have an account on this site, or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that I erase any personal data I am holding about you. This does not include any data I am obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.

If you want to erase any correspondence you have sent me, please let me know. As above, this does not include any data I am obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.

If you are subscribed to one of my mailing lists, you may request to alter or delete your data at any time. This can be done by contacting me directly or by clicking the relevant link in an email I send you.

Where we send your data

The website, analytics platform and email servers are all hosted in the European Union.

Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service that is hosted on our server in Amsterdam.

Personal data that is provided by mailing list subscribers is sent to be securely stored by EmailOctopus, the company I have chosen to help me manage mailing lists. EmailOctopus have servers based in the United Kingdom. Neither I, nor EmailOctopus share personal data with third parties.

Your contact information

If you have any concerns about your privacy, please contact me.

Last updated: 12 November 2020