Privacy Policy
Last updated: July 26, 2026
No Longer Smartest (nolongersmartest.org) is a personal blog operated by Ted LeRoy in Ontario, Canada. This page explains what information the site collects, why it collects it, and what you can do about it.
The short version: if you subscribe, the site stores your email address so it can tell you when there is a new post. Everyone else leaves a trace in ordinary web server logs. There is no advertising, no tracking for advertising purposes, and nothing is sold or shared for marketing.
Who is responsible
Ted LeRoy nolongersmartest.org ted.leroy@nolongersmartest.org
The site is self-hosted rather than run on a hosted blogging platform, which means the database holding subscriber information is under my direct control.
What is collected
If you subscribe to the newsletter:
- Your email address, which is required
- Your name, if you choose to provide one
- The dates you signed up and confirmed
- A record of newsletter emails sent to you and whether they were delivered
The site also records whether you opened a newsletter email and which links you clicked. This is used only to see whether posts are being read. Write to me if you would prefer this switched off for your address.
If you post a comment:
- The name you post under and the content of your comment, both of which are publicly visible
For all visitors:
- Standard web server logs, comprising your IP address, browser user agent, the page requested, the referring page, and a timestamp. These are kept for roughly 90 days and used for troubleshooting and for detecting abuse, including automated signup abuse.
- A session cookie if you sign in as a member. The site sets no advertising or cross-site tracking cookies.
Why it is collected
- Your email address: so that new posts reach you, and so you can sign in to manage your subscription. That is the only purpose.
- Server logs: to keep the site running and to detect and block abuse.
- Comments: to publish them.
Your subscription rests on your consent, given by clicking the confirmation link in the email sent when you sign up. No address is added to the list without that confirmation.
Who else handles your information
- Mailgun, a United States email delivery service, sends mail on behalf of the site. Your email address is processed by Mailgun for that purpose.
- DigitalOcean hosts the server the site runs on.
- Namecheap provides domain registration, DNS, and my own mailbox.
- Dmarcian processes aggregate DMARC reports. These describe mail servers rather than subscribers and contain no subscriber addresses.
There is no advertising network, no analytics broker, and no sale or trade of information of any kind.
Where your information is held
The site's server and its email delivery provider are located in the United States. If you subscribe from elsewhere, your email address is stored and processed there.
How long it is kept
- Subscriber records: until you unsubscribe or ask for deletion
- Server logs: roughly 90 days
- Comments: until you or I remove them
Your choices
- Unsubscribe at any time using the link at the foot of any newsletter email. It takes effect immediately.
- Ask for deletion. Write to [contact email] and I will delete your subscriber record and confirm when it is done.
- Ask what is held about you. Write to the same address and I will tell you.
- Correct your details by replying to any newsletter email.
If you are in Canada, PIPEDA sets out your rights. If you are in the European Union or the United Kingdom, the GDPR gives you rights of access, correction, erasure, restriction, objection, and portability. I will honour requests of this kind wherever you are, because there is no good reason not to.
Children
The site is not aimed at children and I do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 13. If you believe a child has subscribed, write to me and I will remove the record.
Security
The site is served over HTTPS. Subscriber information sits in a database on a server I administer directly. Signup requests are validated and rate limited to reduce automated abuse. No system is perfectly secure and I will not pretend otherwise, but the amount of information held here is deliberately small.
Changes to this policy
If this policy changes in a way that matters, I will update the date above and note what changed. Changes that materially affect subscribers will also be mentioned in a newsletter.
Contact
Questions about this policy: ted.leroy@nolongersmartest.org