Privacy

This notebook is a small website about walks, history, gardens and wildlife in King's Walden, Offley and Lilley. We collect as little about readers as we can. This page explains what we do hold, why, and what you can ask us to do with it. It is written with the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018 in mind.

What we collect

Notes you send. If you use the form on the contact page or email us, we keep your name (if you give it), your email address, the topic you chose, your message and the page you wrote from. We use it only to read and answer your note, and to correct the site where you have pointed out a mistake. Our legal basis is our legitimate interest in replying to people who write to us.

Server logs. Like nearly every website, our server records technical details of each request (the address the request came from, the page asked for, the browser's description of itself and the time). These logs help us keep the site working and secure. They are kept for a short period and then deleted.

No analytics or advertising profiles. We do not run outside analytics scripts, advertising networks or social media trackers on the site. We count clicks on shop links in aggregate (which link, on which day, from which country) without storing who clicked.

Walk notes. So we can tell which pages people actually read, each page sends us a short note of its own as you leave it or put it in the background: which page it was, how many seconds it was in front of you, how far down you got, whether you found it through a search engine, an AI assistant, another website or by typing the address, and the country Cloudflare gives for your connection. The note is tied only to a random number made up afresh for that page and forgotten when it closes. It sets no cookie, and we keep no IP address or browser details with it. A browser that sends Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control sends no note.

Spam protection

The contact form and the editors' sign-in can use Cloudflare Turnstile, a check that tells people from automated scripts. When it is active, Cloudflare processes information about your browser and connection to make that decision. Cloudflare's own privacy policy explains what it does with that information.

Affiliate links and their cookies

A few pages carry sponsored Booking.com, TrainPal and Books-A-Million links through CJ Affiliate. If you follow one, CJ and the shop may set cookies in your browser so that a booking or purchase can be credited to this site; we may then earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Those cookies are set on their own websites, under their own privacy notices, not by us. You can always reach a shop directly instead of through our link.

How long we keep things

We keep notes from readers for as long as they are useful for a reply or a correction, and delete them after two years at the latest. Server logs are kept for a few weeks.

Your rights

You can ask to see what we hold about you, to have it corrected or deleted, or to object to how we use it. Write to us through the contact page and we will answer within a month. If you are unhappy with our answer you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk).

Changes

If the way we handle information changes, we will update this page.