Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy for Random Ramblings: Aerial Wildland Firefighting Blog

Blog URL: https://randomramblingsfromnj.blogspot.com/

January 3, 2022

ABOUT THIS BLOG

This blog is on Blogger, a Google platform. I started this blog in June 2006. I am the only person who writes posts on and administers this blog.  I began by sharing personal reflections including a trip to Africa I took in 2007. In the late summer of 2008 I began blogging about wildland firefighting. By early 2009 I devoted this blog to aerial wildland firefighting and later related aviation and meteorology issues. I am not a pilot nor am I any kind of firefighter and I am not a meteorologist. I am an interested bystander who wants to learn more and share what I learn here.

ABOUT PERSONAL DATA WE COLLECT

Cookies and other information collected by Blogger and Google

This blog is hosted by Blogger, a Google platform. This site uses cookies to deliver its services and to analyze traffic. Your IP address and user-agent are shared with Google along with performance and security metrics to ensure quality of service, generate usage statistics, and to detect and address abuse. Users from the European Union should see a notice like this when they first log onto this blog with an option to learn more about how Google uses cookies.

Google has information on how they use cookies that may be found here.

You can go to your individual browser settings and choose the cookies you want to accept or reject, and use no tracking options. You may also use browser plug ins to prevent tracking. You may also use your browser’s incognito mode or private window setting where the cookies will be deleted from your browser at the end of your browsing session. You also have the option of ending your session, deleting your session cookies and not returning to this site.

Some blog posts contain embedded content from other websites

Some posts and this blog include content embedded from other websites including videos, pictures and other images, social media posts and other articles, etc. When content that is embedded on this blog from other websites is viewed, that website will collect data about you in the same way they would if you visit their website site: cookies, third-party tracking, analytics, and advertising, etc. If you have an account on that website and are logged in to your account at the same time you are on this blog accessing the embedded content from that website, they may track your interactions with the embedded content. I am not responsible for these other sites and these sites may have their own privacy statements.

As previously stated you may change your browser’s cookies settings and set your browser to prevent tracking. Alternatively you may access this blog in a private or incognito window and your cookies will be deleted from your browser at the end of your browsing session.

Some blog posts contain links to third party sites

Many posts on this blog contain links to third party sites. These third party sites may collect data about you such as cookies, third-party tracking, analytics, and advertising, etc. I am not responsible for these other sites and these sites may have their own privacy statements.

As previously stated you may change your browser’s cookies settings and set your browser to prevent tracking. Alternatively you may access this blog in a private or incognito window and your cookies will be deleted from your browser at the end of your browsing session.

Analytics

The only analytics used on this blog are provided by Blogger/Google analytics and are explained in Google's Privacy Policy, see for example the Google page on information Google collects. Blogger/Google provides me with only limited access to a few analytics in summary form only (totals): page views, posts viewed, referring URLs and referring sites. Page views are further broken by country, browser and operating systems. This summary analytic data is only available to me, it is not available to the public. I do not share this information with third parties, and I can not delete this analytic information. I do not know any personally identifiable analytic information about you.

No third party widgets, plug-ins, ads, etc. 

I do not use any third party widgets, plug-ins or software, etc. to manage this blog. I do not have any paid third-party ads on this blog. I have no third party partners or affiliates.

Contact Form

The Contact Form used on this blog, located under pages uses a Google Form. The sole purpose of this form is so that readers of this blog may contact me privately with any questions or concerns. You contact me by filling out the form, an e-mail and a message is required. If you do not want me to have your e-mail then do not submit the contact form. There is no name field, if you wish you may add your name to your message. After you submit the form, you will get a "message received" response, and the form will reset to blank values. I  will get an e-mail notifying me that I have a response, your e-mail and message are not provided in this e-mail. The information in your completed form is stored on a file in a secure location. I am the only one who has access to the completed form.  Any e-mail responses from me and any response from you will be kept in a secure location. The longest I will keep the contact form and any related e-mail response(s) is 30 days after any correspondence is completed when I will delete the information in your contact form and my response(s). I will not disclose the information submitted by the Contact Form to third-parties and your information is not disclosed anywhere in this blog.

Comments

There are not a lot of comments on this blog, comments with any links (urls) are not allowed. You may read this blog without commenting, and if you are not comfortable commenting, even anonymously then do not comment. I moderate and approve all comments are moderated before I allow comments to be posted. I do not approve the following types of comments: (1) that do not use family friendly language (2) that appear to be spam, (3) that are pitches for products or services or any other kind of advertising (4) comments with any links (urls) and (5) that do not directly relate to this blog. 

You may leave a comment on this blog by clicking the comments link supplied by Blogger at the bottom of each post. Third party software is not used to manage or track comments. A Blogger page set up by Blogger for this blog is used for comments. When you go to Blogger's comments page for this blog you will do two things: (1) fill in the "leave your comment box", and (2) select one of three identities for your comment {your google account if you have one, your name and optional url (e.g. your website), or anonymous}. Your comment and your identity will be visible to users of this blog. If you are using your google account as your identity, users will be able to see any public information in your profile including your e-mail if you include your e-mail in your public profile. If you provide a name and optional url, it will be visible to the public. You may want to use the anonymous identity feature. The only comment information that I have access to is your comment and identity, the same as what the public sees.

Once your comment is submitted, I will be notified by that there is a comment waiting for moderation. Spam is detected through Blogger’s Google’s spam detection service, no third party spam detection software is used. 

What comments I have are maintained indefinitely in the spirit of making this blog more interesting to users, to provide some history, and because I think that readers might learn something from those who have commented.

Data Retention on this blog

After the comment passes moderation and is approved for posting, the comments are retained indefinitely. Comments (your message and identity) that are not approved, including spam, are not posted to the blog and are deleted immediately. Comments are optional, you may read this blog without commenting. And you may comment anonymously where the only thing I and the public will see is that anonymous made a comment. If you are not comfortable commenting, please do not comment.

After a Contact Form is submitted, the fields in the Contact Form reset to blank values. Information submitted via the Contact Form (to my e-mail) is retained long enough to complete any related correspondence. After thirty days has passed, if not sooner, I will delete the e-mail sent by the Contact Form and any subsequent response(s) from my secure e-mail webmail. If you do not want me to have your e-mail then do not use the Contact Form.

PRIVACY POLICY REVISIONS

This Privacy Policy may be revised at any time and the current date will be at the top of this Privacy Policy Page.