Last updated: 31 October 2026
This website, sfrussell.co.uk, is run by SF Russell, an author based in the United Kingdom. I take your privacy seriously and collect as little personal information as I can. This page explains what is collected, why, and what your rights are.
If you have any questions, email me at contact@sfrussell.co.uk.
What I collect and why
When you contact me
If you use the contact form, I receive your name, email address, subject and message by email so that I can reply. The form does not store your message on this website. I keep emails only as long as needed to deal with your message, and never share them or add you to a mailing list without asking.
When you comment on the blog
If you leave a comment, your name, email address, website (if given), comment and IP address are stored so the comment can be shown and moderated. Your email address is never published. Comments are checked for spam by Akismet, a service run by Automattic, which may process this information in the United States. See Akismet’s privacy policy.
Comment avatars may be loaded from Gravatar (also run by Automattic), which receives a scrambled version of your email address to check whether you have a profile.
Visitor statistics
With your permission, I use Google Analytics and Jetpack Stats (run by Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com) to understand how many people visit the site and which pages they read. It collects information such as the pages you view, roughly where you are (to city level), and the type of device and browser you use. I can’t see who you are from this. Neither runs unless you accept statistics cookies in the cookie banner, and you can change your choice at any time. See Google’s privacy policy and Automattic’s privacy policy.
Hosting and security
The site is hosted by IONOS. Like all web servers, it keeps short-term technical logs (such as IP addresses and the pages requested) to keep the site running securely. To protect the site’s login page from attacks, Jetpack (Automattic) checks the IP addresses of login attempts against known sources of abuse.
Substack posts
The homepage shows my latest posts from my Substack newsletter, Magic in the Margins. The post list is fetched by this website, but the post images are loaded from Substack’s servers, so your browser connects to Substack to display them (which shares your IP address with Substack, as with any image hosted elsewhere). No Substack cookies or tracking scripts are used on this site. If you subscribe on Substack itself, Substack’s privacy policy applies.
Cookies
Cookies are small files stored in your browser. This site uses:
- Essential cookies, needed for the site to work: for example, to remember your cookie choice, or to remember your details if you choose to when leaving a comment.
- Statistics cookies from Google Analytics (named
_gaand_ga_…) and Jetpack Stats, only if you accept them.
There are no advertising cookies on this site. You can change your cookie choice at any time using the cookie settings link at the bottom of the page.
Links to other websites
This site links to other websites, such as Amazon to buy my book. Those sites have their own privacy policies, and I’m not responsible for how they use your information.
Your rights
Under UK data protection law, you have the right to ask for a copy of the personal information I hold about you, and to ask me to correct or delete it. To do any of this, email contact@sfrussell.co.uk.
If you are unhappy with how I have handled your information, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk.
Changes to this policy
If I change how I use personal information, I’ll update this page and the date at the top.