Privacy Policy

TL;DR – Privacy is a big deal. Your trust is important. I’m not a horrible person (as far as I know).

benfield.org is a personal project. It is owned and operated by me, Jay Benfield, a human with a soul. My reputation and my integrity matter to me. I will not do anything sketchy or slimy in connection with your use of the website, your mailing list subscription, or anything else, for any reason. Ever.

User Accounts & Mailing List Subscriptions

When you subscribe to benfield.org, the personal information you provide, including your name and email address, will be stored in the website's database. This information will be used in connection with your use of the site, mostly in terms of email list content and comment activity.

You will also be automagically subscribed to all benfield.org mailing lists, which are organized by topic (e.g., faith, family, tech, etc.). You can unsubscribe from any or all mailing lists at any time by logging in and updating your preferences via the "Account" link in the site navigation.

Mailing Lists

When you submit your email address on any of the subscription forms on benfield.org it is processed and stored by our Content Management System (CMS). The email address you provide will receive email list content only. Your email address will not be shared, sold, or otherwise provided to any third party for any reason. That would be wrong and dickish.

When new posts are published, Mailgun is used to send out emails to benfield.org subscribers. For the gory details about Mailgun's handling of your data, please see the Mailgun Privacy Policy.

Comments

Posting a comment on benfield.org can be a nice way to interact but I do not see it as license to send you email - unless you've explicitly asked that I do so. Thus comment discussion generally stays in the comments, unless it's voluntarily and consensually continued on another platform or medium (e.g., Twitter, email, etc.).

The Danger/Harm Exception

Should anyone threaten self-harm or harm against another commenter/user on this site, or in connection with the use of this site, I will notify the appropriate authorities and voluntarily provide all available data to avoid bad things. I've been blogging for 20 years and this has never happened, but I think it's important to include.

Cookies

benfield.org is integrated with Google Analytics so that I can obsess over all manner of statistics and eye candy. It helps me understand how people are using the site. All collected data is subject to the terms of the Google Privacy Policy.

Content Management System

benfield.org runs Ghost. It's the cat's meow, really. Or is it the bee's knees? Either way, you should totes try it. Ghost is very lightweight and doesn't collect any information from or about you, beyond what you volunteer for your newsletter subscription (see Mailing List above).  

Web Server

The web server and associated software responsible for making benfield.org work captures details about your access to the site and any errors that you might encounter along the way. This includes a timestamp, your IP address, web browser and version, operating system, URL accessed, and other technical gobbledygook that is used to identify any technical issues or misconfigurations.

Monetization Disclosure

I do not consider your readership as something to leverage for dollars. I do not monetize benfield.org in any way. I do not sell ads, post affiliate links, or have business relationships with any of the products/services/thingies I write about. Should that change, I will update this document and also share the details in the context of the affected post(s).

That said, I will shamelessly self-promote my other projects, including the release(s) of my books, any side-hustles, websites, etc.  

Questions?

Please email privacy@benfield.org if you have any questions/concerns. If you would like to kick it old school, my snail mail address is:

Jay Benfield
P.O. Box 580
Hartwood, VA 22471

Updated: 3/20/23