The fine print
Privacy notice
What we collect, why we collect it, and when we delete it.
Last updated:
This notice records, for the reader, the commenter and the correspondent alike, what VeriTaus learns about you, for what purpose and for how long. The guiding principle is restraint: we gather little, watch nothing, and let the system erase most of it on a timetable. The site runs no advertising, no analytics, no tracking pixel and no third-party script.
Retention schedule
| Record | Retention |
|---|---|
| Web server access logs | Roughly 14 days |
| IP addresses checked for spam | Never written to storage; held in memory |
| Comments pending review, or declined | Erased automatically at 30 days |
| Comments that have been approved | Until a moderator removes them, or you ask us to |
| Letters sent through the contact form | Erased automatically at 90 days |
Visiting the site
No page on VeriTaus sits behind an account. As with nearly any web server, ours writes a standard access log for each request: the requesting IP address, the page, the browser’s user agent and the time. Those logs serve one purpose, keeping the service secure and running, for instance when tracing an error or an abuse of the site, and they are cycled out after roughly a fortnight.
The comment and contact forms are shielded from spam by counting how frequently an IP address sends requests. That count lives only in memory; the site’s database never records IP addresses.
Commenting on a story
A comment is made of two things: the name you type and the words you write. No email address is requested. Each reader comment waits for a moderator; once approved, it is printed beneath the story with your name and the date, visible to everyone. A comment that is declined, or never reviewed, is never shown and is erased after 30 days. An approved comment stays with its story until a moderator removes it or you ask for its removal.
Writing to the desk
The contact form collects four fields: your name, your email address, a topic and your message. They are used to read your letter, answer it and act on it, and for nothing else. Ninety days after it arrives, the letter is erased.
Columnists’ public details
A columnist writes under their own name. Whatever a columnist adds to the column, a portrait, a biography or a website link, is displayed publicly on the column page along with their stories and images. A columnist may ask for any of it to be taken down.
Cookies
VeriTaus sets one cookie, and only for its administrators: a session cookie that keeps an administrator signed in after signing in. Neither readers nor commenters are given any cookie.
Requests to outside providers
Pages on VeriTaus draw files from two outside providers. In fetching those files, your browser passes its IP address and the customary browser details to the provider, as it would to any server:
- Google Fonts (fonts.googleapis.com and fonts.gstatic.com), for the typefaces on every page;
- Unsplash (images.unsplash.com), for the photographs on the home page.
Each provider handles that information under its own privacy policy. The site itself is served over HTTPS with certificates issued by Let’s Encrypt, so pages and form submissions travel encrypted.
Access and erasure
You are entitled to learn what VeriTaus holds concerning you and to have it erased. Write from the contact page under Personal data request. Comments are not tied to any account, so give us the name you signed with and the story concerned; that is how we locate them.
Revisions to this notice
Should VeriTaus change how it handles information, this notice will be revised to match and the date at its head amended.