Almost none of this site watches you.

There is no account to create, nothing to log into and nothing to pay for. Reading these pages leaves nothing behind on our side: the server that hosts the site keeps no record of who asked for what. It has no access log — not a short one, none — so there is no list of visits, addresses or pages anywhere for us to hold, hand over or lose.

The exception is the one thing on this page you are asked about: analytics, which is off until you say otherwise.

It looks like a form and behaves like one, but pressing send opens your own email app with the message written out, addressed to us. Nothing is posted to this website, and nothing is stored here on the way past. What reaches us is an ordinary email, sent by you, from your mail provider to ours — exactly as if you had written it yourself.

We keep that email while we are dealing with what it is about, and afterwards for as long as our business records require. The lawful basis is Article 6(1)(b) of the UK GDPR: taking steps at your request before entering into a contract. There is no mailing list here and there never has been; replying is the only thing your details are used for.

With your permission the site loads Google Analytics, which counts visits and shows which pages get read and how people arrived. It records the pages you look at, roughly where in the world you are, and what kind of device and browser you used.

Your IP address is used to work out that rough location and is then discarded: Google states that it drops IP addresses collected from UK and EU visitors before the data is logged, and that the location step happens on servers inside the EU. Nothing on this site asks for your name, and the analytics never learns it.

Every advertising signal is switched off and stays off. This site runs no advertising and builds no audiences, so the data is not used to target you anywhere else, and Google's cross-device advertising features are inactive on the property. If that ever changes it would be a new question to put to you, not a setting to alter quietly.

Google Ireland Limited processes this on our behalf under Google's data processing terms, which incorporate the standard contractual clauses and the UK addendum for any processing outside the UK. We ask Google to keep it for 14 months, after which it is deleted.

Nothing is stored until you answer the question at the bottom of the screen. Answering either way stores one small cookie recording what you chose, so you are not asked again on every page — that one is necessary to honour your choice, and it is set whichever way you answer.

Saying yes additionally lets Google set two cookies of its own: one that distinguishes your browser from another, and one that keeps track of a single visit. Saying no means neither is ever set, and the analytics runs without storing anything on your device at all.

Withdrawing permission has to be as easy as giving it, so the switch is below. Turning it off stops the collection immediately and prevents any further cookies; the cookies already set are Google's to expire, and your browser can clear them sooner if you want them gone today.

You can ask what we hold about you, ask for it corrected or deleted, ask us to restrict or stop using it, and ask for a copy in a portable form. Where we rely on your permission, you can withdraw it at any time without giving a reason. Write to the address below and you will get an answer within a month.

No decision here is automated and nobody is profiled. Nothing is sold, and nothing is shared with anyone beyond what is described on this page.

If you think we have got this wrong you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk, or by calling 0303 123 1113. We would rather you told us first, but you are not obliged to.