Who I Am and Why I Value Privacy

Hello! My name is Tadeusz Szewczyk. You can call me Tad Chef though for the sake of simplicity. I’m also known as onreact. My main website is called onreact.com because of this.

I write for this website. In other words I blog for this publication. I may sometimes publish content by other people as well. Yet despite this I am the owner here.

I’m an individual blogger and not a company. I value your privacy and do not collect your data for no apparent reason.

Privacy is a human right!

I’ve been a privacy advocate for many years. I even curated a Google+ collection called “privacy publicity” highlighting important privacy and security insights from 2012 to 2015.

My motto is: “when you have nothing to hide why don’t you go outside naked then?” On the Web you also need to cover up yourself instead of showing your private parts.

What Data Do I Collect if Any?

Sadly the blog you read requires some of your information to work properly. For example when you write me or add a comment you will need to share your name and/or mail address with me.

How do you share your data with me? When adding a comment you will be asked for it in the standard WordPress – this is the software this site runs on – comment form.

I don’t send your comment to others! Your mail message won’t be processed by Google (Gmail).

Only me and my hosting provider – the German company that stores my website – can actually access my website. They only rarely do – when something stops working.

By asking for your name and mail address I ensure the quality of comments.

People who comment anonymously rather tend to be aggressive or promotional.

You can still add a made-up name or mail address if you want to stay anonymous but that way I won’t be able to respond to you other than commenting as well.

Sometimes I do not publish comments for various reasons and when you comment anonymously or using a fake name and mail address your comment is less likely to show up.

Do Others Collect Data on my Site?

I don’t use common trackers like Google Analytics or Facebook “like” buttons.

I do however embed YouTube videos sometimes. Sadly YouTube requires some (third party) cookies to show the videos.

YouTube is owned by Google’s mother company Alphabet.

To make sure that nobody tracks you on my site without my knowledge I carefully select the tools I use.

In fact I regularly check my own sites using a tool called Privacy Badger by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) – a non-profit organization that protects your rights online.

I may use a more privacy-oriented Web analytics tool to find out how many people visited my website. I won’t personally identify you though unless you share your name.

What are Web analytics tools? It’s software that records when someone visited a website. What kind of information do analytics tools usually track?

• They know which device and operating system you use – for example a Windows computer or Android phone
• They probably also know your screen size and operating system version
• They know what browser you use – for example Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox.
• They track which pages you visited and how long you viewed them.
• They know how often you visited my site and where you came from by using a link.
• They can record where on the page you clicked or moved your cursor (from your mouse) over.
• Some of them save your IP. This can sometimes be used to personally identify you.

I’m not keen on viewing your IP address or personally identify you unless you want me to. Then we can become friends.

In case you prefer to remain a stranger – no problem!

OK, You Wrote Something but Aren’t Happy About it Anymore

One day you decided to write me or comment here but then later realized that you don’t like me to know who you are or what your mail address is.

You may also have changed your mind and now think that your comment was inappropriate. You don’t want me to display it anymore while displaying your name.

You may also simply wonder what personal information I have stored about you. You have a right to know! I will try to find it all and tell you.

You may even choose to let me remove any evidence of your visit/s to this site! I will do my best to accomplish that! Only no data is truly safe data!

You can always ask me to remove or change your name or mail address. Just approach me by writing a mail to onreact@ onreact.com

In case you are afraid other people might be able to read that message you can also write me to onreact at protonmail.com – a fully encrypted mail service based in Switzerland.

When you don’t want me to know your current mail address at all you can also ask for personal information removal via social media.

Make sure that I know you really are who say you are. I rather advise you to write me from the mail address you used on the blog here for commenting.

Otherwise you can prove your identity by sending me a photo of your ID – be it a passport, driver’s license or similar document.

I may refuse to remove or change your personal information in case I’m not convinced that you really are who you claim to be.