Privacy policy
What this site records when you visit, what happens to a message you send me, and which outside services your browser contacts along the way.
The short version
I’m Liam Blank, and I run liamblank.com myself. The site counts visits with two analytics tools and delivers contact-form messages to my email. Its pages load maps, images, and code from outside services, which are listed below. The site shows no advertising. I will never sell, rent, or trade your personal information.
This page replaced the site’s Data Protection Policy and Cookie Policy on October 1, 2026.
Visit statistics
Google Analytics
Every page loads Google’s measurement tag from googletagmanager.com. Google receives the address of the page you opened, the page that sent you here, your browser and device type, and an approximate location that it derives from your IP address. The tag sets two cookies, listed in the next section, so that Google can tell a returning browser from a new one.
For visitors in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland, the site sets Google’s consent mode to “denied” before the tag loads. In that mode the tag sets no analytics cookies.
Google describes what it collects in How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services. Its opt-out browser add-on turns Analytics off on every site you visit.
Independent Analytics
A second tool runs on this site’s own server and keeps its counts in the site’s database. It sets no cookies. For each visit it records the pages viewed, the referring site, the device and browser type, and a location to city level. It recognizes a returning browser by a one-way hash made from the IP address and browser type. The IP address itself isn’t stored.
Cookies and browser storage
| Cookie | Set by | Purpose | Lasts |
|---|---|---|---|
_ga | Google Analytics | Tells one browser from another | Two years |
_ga_TQHVCHNE71 | Google Analytics | Keeps the pages of one visit together | Two years |
Those two were the only cookies set when I loaded the homepage, the contact page, and a map page in a clean browser on October 1, 2026. WordPress sets more cookies when I sign in to edit the site. Visitors don’t receive them.
Some tools remember a display setting, such as light or dark mode, in your browser’s local storage. Local storage stays on your device.
You can block or delete cookies in your browser’s settings, and the site works without them.
When you write to me
The contact form asks for your name, your email address, and the decision you’re working on. Organization, deadline, budget range, and further notes are optional. The form sends your answers to my email inbox, which Google hosts. The website keeps no copy. I use what you send to reply to you.
Before the form sends, Cloudflare Turnstile checks that a person is filling it in. Turnstile runs in your browser from challenges.cloudflare.com and sends Cloudflare information about your browser, which its privacy addendum describes. When a message goes through, Google Analytics records that a form was sent. It doesn’t record what the message said.
Outside services your browser contacts
Each service below sees your IP address and browser details when a page asks it for a file, as any web server does. These are the ones I found when I scanned every page on October 1, 2026.
| Service | Used for | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Google Analytics | Visit statistics | Every page |
| Jetpack image delivery (Automattic) | Serving images | Most pages |
| Cloudflare Turnstile | Spam check on the form | Contact page |
| OpenFreeMap, OpenStreetMap | Map tiles | Pages with maps |
| jsDelivr, unpkg, cdnjs | Open-source code libraries for maps and charts | Pages with interactive tools |
| Google Fonts | Typefaces | A few older pages |
| Descript | Embedded video | One page |
Links to other websites take you to pages I don’t control, and their own policies apply there.
Hosting and security
HostGator hosts the site. Its servers log each request with the IP address, the time, and the page requested. A security plugin from CleanTalk checks incoming requests against a list of addresses known for attacks and logs the requests it blocks. Jetpack, from Automattic, guards the sign-in page against password guessing. Sign-in attempts on the admin page are logged with their IP addresses.
How long information is kept
Messages you send stay in my email until I delete them. Independent Analytics has kept its visit records since August 9, 2025, and keeps them until I clear them. Google keeps Analytics data for the retention period set on my Analytics account.
Your choices
You can ask what information I hold about you, ask me to correct it, or ask me to delete it. Email liam@liamblank.com with the subject line “Data Protection Request.” I will acknowledge your request within 72 hours and, in most cases, complete it within 30 days.
Data-protection laws such as the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation may give you further rights. They include restricting or objecting to how your information is used, receiving it in a portable form, and filing a complaint with your local data-protection authority. I handle a request made under those laws the same way.
Changes to this page
When what the site collects changes, I’ll update this page and the date at the top.