Privacy
Last updated: 24th September 2026.
This is a personal blog, and I'd like it to know as little about you as it can. This page says what it does collect, why, where it's kept and for how long.
Who I am
The blog is run by me, Matt McQueen, in the UK. I'm the "controller" of anything it collects. To ask about your data, or to have it deleted, email hello@matt-rarely-writes.co.uk.
No cookies, no tracking
The blog sets no cookies for readers and doesn't follow you around the web. There's no advertising tracker, no analytics company and no social media widget watching what you read. If you choose light or dark with the button at the top, that choice is remembered in your browser (in "local storage") and never leaves it.
Counting visits
To see which posts are read, the blog counts page views itself. For each view it records:
the page's address, and when;
the name of the website you came from, if any (just the name, e.g. bsky.app, not the page);
whether you're on a phone, a tablet or a computer;
your browser's time zone, e.g. Europe/London, as a rough idea of where readers are;
a "visitor code", so that one person reading five pages counts as one visitor, not five.
The visitor code is made by scrambling your IP address and browser name together with a secret key and the date. It changes every day, and it can't be turned back into your IP address, which is never stored. So the blog can tell that the same browser read two pages on one day, but not who you are, and not that you came back the next day.
Each view is kept for two years. After that only the number of views per page per month is kept.
When someone asks for a page that doesn't exist, the blog notes the address, how often it's asked for and the last website that linked to it, so broken links can be fixed. These notes are deleted after 90 days, or 14 days for addresses asked for only once.
The lawful basis for this is my legitimate interest in knowing which posts are read and keeping the site working, which I've kept as light-touch as I can.
Emails about new posts
If you sign up, the blog keeps:
your email address;
whether you chose light or dark emails;
when you signed up and when you confirmed, and which version of the sign-up wording you agreed to, as a record of your consent.
It's used only to email you when I publish a new post. Nothing else, and I'll never sell it or give it to anyone to market to you.
You'll get an email with a link to confirm first. If you don't confirm within a week, your address is deleted. Every email has a link to unsubscribe, and unsubscribing deletes your address straight away. You can also ask me to remove it.
The emails don't track you: there are no tracking pixels, and the email service's open and click tracking is switched off. Links to the blog in the emails are tagged "utm_source=email", so I can see how many visits come from emails in total, not who clicked.
The lawful basis is your consent, which you can withdraw at any time by unsubscribing.
Comments from Bluesky
New posts are shared on Bluesky, and public replies to them there are shown under the post as comments. They're public posts by people who chose to reply on Bluesky; the blog doesn't store them beyond a short cache. Commenters' pictures are fetched by the blog's server, so your browser never contacts Bluesky when you read the comments. Replies are left out when their authors have asked not to be shown to people who aren't logged in to Bluesky. To remove a comment, delete your reply on Bluesky, or ask me to hide it.
Errors
When something goes wrong on the blog's server, the error is reported to Sentry, a service for tracking faults, whose data is stored in the EU. Reports are set up to leave out anything about readers: no IP addresses, cookies, browser details or form contents.
Advertising
There are currently no adverts on this site: if I ever add the, I will say here which ad service I use, what it collects and sets (it will use cookies), the consent banner, and how to change your choice.
Where it's kept
The blog runs on Microsoft Azure in the UK (UK South), and the emails are sent by Azure Communication Services, also with its data kept in the UK. Microsoft processes this data on my behalf and can't use it for anything else. Error reports go to Sentry in the EU.
Your rights
You can ask to see the data the blog holds about you, to have it corrected or deleted, or to object to how it's used. Email me at the address above. Because visitor codes change daily and can't be linked to you, I can't find or delete page views for one person; the subscriber list, though, I can.
If you're unhappy with how I've handled your data, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.