Privacy Policy

Summary

HowToType.org is a reference site. It does not require an account, does not collect email addresses, and does not sell personal information. Some limited information is collected automatically by analytics and advertising services to keep the site running and to fund free access to the content.

Reading the site as a visitor involves: Google Analytics for aggregate traffic measurement, Google AdSense for display advertising, Google Fonts for typography, and standard server logs for diagnostics.

Information We Collect

Information you actively provide

The site does not have contact forms, comment threads, or user accounts. The only way you actively send us information is by emailing the editorial address. Those emails are retained for as long as is useful to respond and to keep a record of corrections.

Information collected automatically

When you visit a page, the following information may be collected automatically:

• IP address, approximate location (city or region), and timestamp
• Browser type and version, operating system, and device category
• Referring URL (the page that linked to us) and the pages viewed on the site
• Anonymous identifiers stored in cookies or similar technologies
• Interaction signals used by advertising — for example, whether an ad was viewable and whether it was clicked

Analytics

HowToType.org uses Google Analytics to measure aggregate traffic — which pages are read, which searches are most common, and which platforms readers use. Analytics data is used to prioritise which guides to write next and to spot broken pages. It is not used to build individual profiles, and analytics identifiers are not joined with any personally identifying information.

Google's own privacy terms govern how Analytics data is stored and processed: policies.google.com/privacy.

Advertising (Google AdSense)

HowToType.org is funded through display advertising. Ads are served by Google AdSense and, through AdSense, by third-party advertising vendors. Both Google and these vendors may use cookies, device identifiers, and similar technologies to serve ads, measure performance, and — if you have not opted out — to personalise the ads you see based on your previous visits to this and other websites.

Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on a user's prior visits to this site or other sites. Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to users based on their visit to this site and/or other sites on the Internet.

You can opt out of personalised advertising by visiting Google's Ads Settings. You can also opt out of some third-party vendors' use of cookies for personalised advertising by visiting aboutads.info/choices or youronlinechoices.com.

Google's advertising policies and further detail on how Google uses cookies in advertising are available here: policies.google.com/technologies/ads.

Cookies

Cookies are small text files stored by your browser. HowToType.org uses them for three purposes: making the site usable (for example, remembering a dark-mode preference), measuring traffic (analytics), and serving and measuring advertising. Full detail — including names, purposes, and retention — is on the Cookie Policy page.

Most browsers let you block or delete cookies in the settings. Blocking all cookies will not break the site content but may stop ads from loading.

Third Parties

The third-party services used on the site are:

• Google Analytics — aggregate traffic measurement
• Google AdSense — display advertising and ad measurement
• Google Fonts — typography (fonts are loaded from Google's CDN; requesting a font transmits the reader's IP to Google)
• Hosting provider — stores server-side access logs used for diagnostics and abuse prevention

Each of these services has its own privacy policy, which governs how it handles data it collects from your visit.

Your Rights (GDPR & CCPA)

Depending on where you live, data protection law gives you rights over personal information processed about you. These typically include the right to:

• Access — ask what personal data is held about you
• Rectify — correct inaccurate data
• Erase — ask for your data to be deleted, where there is no lawful reason to keep it
• Object — object to processing based on legitimate interests, including personalised advertising
• Port — ask for your data in a machine-readable format
• Opt out of "sale" or "sharing" (California and similar US laws) — for readers in scope of the CCPA, you may opt out of the sharing of personal information for cross-context behavioural advertising

For rights that concern data collected on the site (emails you sent, corrections you submitted), email [email protected]. For rights that concern data collected by Google (analytics, advertising), you will need to exercise those rights through Google's privacy tools linked above.

Retention

Server access logs are retained for up to 90 days for diagnostic and security purposes. Analytics data is retained according to Google Analytics' default retention window. Advertising data is retained per Google AdSense policy. Emails sent to the editorial address are retained while they remain useful for correspondence and correction history.

Children

HowToType.org is a general-audience reference site and is not directed at children under 13. The site does not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has provided personal information, email the address above and it will be removed.

Changes to This Policy

This policy is reviewed periodically and updated when the site's data practices change or when the law requires. Material changes are reflected by updating the "Last reviewed" date at the top of this page. Continuing to use the site after a change means you accept the revised policy.

Privacy contact

Privacy questions, data requests, and complaints can be sent to:

[email protected]

Please include "Privacy" in the subject line so the message is routed quickly.