This is a personal blog. I am not selling anything, and I have no interest in building a profile of you. What follows is the whole picture.
Your current choice#
What I use#
Microsoft Clarity and Google Analytics, and nothing else. No advertising networks, no tracking pixels, no email list, no comments system.
Between them they tell me which posts people actually read and where they give up. Some of what is here was written in 2007, and knowing what still gets used helps me decide what is worth updating.
Both are governed by the single choice above. There is no separate setting for one and not the other.
Cookies, and what changes if you allow them#
Both run in one of two modes, and both start in the private one.
Without your consent — the default. Each is told, on every page load, that storage is denied. Neither sets a cookie at all. Clarity counts each page view under a one-off identifier that is discarded immediately. Google Analytics records the visit without any identifier, as a measurement without a visitor attached. Either way nothing links your visit to one page with your visit to the next, or to any earlier visit.
With your consent. Clarity sets its _clck and _clsk cookies, and Google
Analytics sets its _ga and _ga_* cookies. That lets both follow a single
visit across several pages and recognise a returning reader, which is the part
that tells me whether people read a long post to the end or leave halfway.
I never permit ad-related storage in either mode, in either tool. There is no advertising on this site, so there is nothing to store. Google Analytics is also told never to use anything it collects here for advertising or personalisation.
What they collect#
In both modes:
- Pages you visit on this site, and how long you spend on them
- Scrolling and clicks
- Your approximate location, derived from your IP address at country or city level
- Your browser, operating system, device type and screen size
- The site that referred you here, if any
Clarity additionally records scrolling, clicks and mouse movement to build aggregate heatmaps, and masks text content by default, so form fields and page text are not captured as readable content. Google Analytics does not record mouse movement.
Neither collects your name, email address or anything else that identifies you personally, and I never attempt to work out who an individual visitor is.
Clarity data is processed by Microsoft — their privacy statement covers what they do with it, and Clarity’s own terms describe the service. Google Analytics data is processed by Google, under their privacy policy and how Google uses data from sites that use its services.
What this site does not do#
- No advertising, and no data sold or shared with advertisers
- No cross-site tracking, and no tracking across devices
- No account, login or newsletter
The site remembers your light or dark theme preference, and your choice above, in your browser’s local storage. Neither ever leaves your device, and neither is tracking.
Changing your mind#
Use the control at the top of this page, at any time.
If you withdraw consent after having given it, both are switched back to the cookie-free mode and the cookies they set are deleted — Clarity deletes its own and ends the current session, and this site deletes the Google Analytics ones. That takes effect immediately — you do not need to reload the page or clear anything yourself.
Hosting and other services#
Pages you request are served as static files, and the host will keep standard web server logs including IP addresses. Embedded content from other services — the speaking schedule comes from Sessionize — is loaded directly by your browser from those services, which will see your IP address as a result.
Getting in touch#
If you have a question about any of this, or want something looked into, reach me on any of the links in the footer.
Last updated 26 August 2026.