Privacy policy
This policy explains what the Geek With Laptop Forum at forum.geekwithlaptop.com stores about you, why it stores it, and what you can do about it. It is short, and it is meant to be complete.
If you only read
If you only read threads, the forum asks you for nothing. We do not run advertising trackers, we do not use third party analytics, and we do not build a profile of you or follow you to other sites. Our hosting keeps short technical logs, such as the page requested and the time, so the forum stays running and abuse can be stopped. We do not use these logs to identify readers.
What the forum stores
If you post, the forum stores the following.
- Your posts. The questions, answers and replies you write, with the time you wrote them. Posts are public. Search engines may index them, and other websites may quote them.
- Your display name. The name you choose to appear beside your posts. It is public, so please do not use your real name unless you want it shown.
- A hashed email address. We store a one-way hash of your email so we can recognise your account without keeping the address in readable form. The address itself is used only to send the sign-in message and any notification you ask for. We do not sell it, rent it or share it with other members.
- Rate limit counters. To stop floods of spam, the forum counts how often an address tries to post or sign in. These counters use a hash of the IP address, not the address itself, and they are used for nothing else.
The cookie we set
When you sign in to post, the forum sets one session cookie. It keeps you signed in so you can post, it contains a signed value and nothing about your browsing, and it is needed for the service to work. Readers who never sign in do not get it. We do not set advertising or tracking cookies, and there is no cookie banner because there is nothing optional to consent to.
What we do not do
- We do not sell personal information.
- We do not load ad networks or tracking pixels.
- We do not use third party analytics services.
- We do not read private messages for advertising, because there is no advertising.
How long we keep things
- Posts stay until you or a moderator delete them.
- Rate limit counters are short lived and are removed automatically after a few days.
- Your account record, including the hashed email, stays while the account is open and is removed when the account is deleted.
- Backups may hold older copies for a limited time after a deletion, and these expire on a fixed schedule and are not used for anything else.
The forum sends email only for signing in and for notifications you ask for. If a notification is not wanted, the message explains how to turn it off.
Your choices and deletion requests
You can ask to see, correct or delete the information we hold about you at any time. Write to hello@geekwithlaptop.com from the email address you use on the forum, with the subject line "Data request", and say what you want done. We will match the request to your account, tell you what we did, and delete what you ask us to delete. Because posts are public and may have been quoted elsewhere, deleting a post here cannot remove copies held by other sites.
If a post by someone else identifies you, tell us the address of the post and we will review it. See the contact page for details.
Children
The forum is not meant for children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect their information. If you believe a child has posted, tell us and we will remove the account.
Changes to this policy
If we change what the forum stores, we will update this page and change the date at the top. A change that affects what we do with your data will be shown clearly and not left for you to find.