Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Some Reassurance RE Privacy

The thought occurred to me that I have never written here to reassure you, our guests, on how we treat your privacy. I wanted to let you know that your identity is completely safe here. You are free to read and comment and send us email in confidence.

We collect only the normal amount of information about your visit that every website collects - where you are from, what kind of browser you are using, what post you read, etc. In other words, we do not know who you are unless you tell us who you are in a comment or email. You may notice that Feedjit bar on the page. It operates on cookies. But the only thing it can do is say where you are from. It cannot tell us anything else. It does not collect any data for us. It's a novelty, really, but it encourages us and others that they are not alone in this search.

We insist that you remain safely anonymous every bit as much as we insist we remain safely anonymous.
If we remain anonymous then it's easier for us to do what we do. We want no payment of any kind, nor do we want accolades. If you choose to remain anonymous then it is easier for you to do what you do. Read, study, ponder, pray with no pressure from anyone and no fear that you'll be discovered.

We only collect what we do so we can know if there's any point to us continuing; we are auditing ourselves, not you. We're here for you, but in order for that to happen we need to know if you're there. If you're not there, then what's the point? We need to know something about visitors.
We do not harvest that information for any other reason. In other words, we do not sell, trade, publish, or leak any of this information beyond a few harmless bits such as for example every once in a great while we may post "we have had x number of hits this month" or something like that. 
We don't even sell advertising space on the site. We find it unspeakably annoying that a person can't seem to use a website or download an app on your phone that doesn't track you for advertising purposes or require you to create an account and log in for whatever reason. We aren't about that. As a visitor here, you are both truly welcome and truly free.

But most of all, I thought it would be important for you to know that we do not and will not ever leak that you've been here reading our material to your church or minister or the dreaded deacon's wife. We couldn't even if we wanted to, because we don't collect that kind of information about you. They cannot and will not know you were ever here. 
More than anything, we want you to step into the New Covenant in the finished work of Jesus Christ. But how can we get to that point if you aren't safe here to read our posts? We cannot! Therefore, we will never endanger that goal through the foolishness of data-mining. As far as we are able, we will do whatever we can to ensure that you are safe and anonymous here, so long as you choose to be. Read 5 words, or read every word we've ever written -- no one can ever know! Send us an email -- it will be between us.  :)

One disclaimer: we reserve the right to pass information on to the authorities if a guest is being out of line, for example threatening us or someone else.

God bless you, dear reader. I pray His light shine on you always. I hope knowing you're safe here has brought you some comfort even if it is just a little.

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