The sites covered by this notice do not use advertising networks, behavioural profiling or visitor analytics cookies. Limited first-party statistics are collected directly by the site so that I can understand which pages, projects, music tracks and downloads are being used.
1. Who is responsible for the information?
The data controller is Steve MacDonald-Brown, based in Boscastle, Cornwall, United Kingdom, and operating the MacAlchemist and M C Alchemist websites and projects.
Privacy enquiries may be sent to steve.macdonald-brown [at] macalchemist [dot] net.
2. What this notice covers
This notice covers the public non-consulting websites, pages and services operated by me through:
- macalchemist.net
- 26sq01.uk
- treknowplayers.co.uk
- macdonald-brown.co.uk
- macdonald-brown.info
These domains are hosted through the same MacAlchemist hosting account and may share server infrastructure, technical logs, security arrangements and first-party site statistics.
They include creative, music, amateur-radio, scientific, technical, historical, theatre, family-history and archive material, together with experimental tools, visualisations and downloads.
- M C Alchemist music, album, Cornish-language and Kernow Records pages;
- amateur-radio, propagation, reception, space-weather and technical projects;
- astronomy, software, theatre, geocaching and other historical archives;
- experimental tools, visualisations, downloads and standalone project pages.
MacAlchemist Consulting is a separate site and activity. Its handling of consultancy enquiries and client information is described in its own consulting privacy notice.
3. Information collected automatically
Normal server records
Like most websites, the hosting server receives technical information needed to deliver pages and protect the service. Server records may include an IP address, date and time, requested address, response status, referring page, and browser or device information.
First-party site statistics
Some pages send limited events to analytics software hosted on macalchemist.net itself. Depending on the page, an event may record:
- a page view or click into a project;
- an album or other item selected;
- a music track being played, paused, progressed or completed;
- a PDF or other tracked download;
- the date and time, page, album or track identifier;
- the referring page and browser user-agent string.
The web server necessarily receives the visitor's IP address. For the custom analytics record, the raw address is converted into a one-way hashed value before the event is written to the analytics log. The raw address is not stored in that custom log. The hash helps distinguish repeated activity from the same network address, but it is treated as pseudonymous personal data, not as fully anonymous information.
The tracker does not create a visitor account, ask for a name, use a microphone, inspect files on the visitor's device, or follow activity away from these sites.
4. Cookies and browser storage
Ordinary visitors are not given advertising, marketing or analytics cookies by the first-party tracking described above, and it does not rely on local storage to create a persistent visitor profile.
A private first-party administrative cookie may be set manually on the site owner's own browser solely to stop the owner's visits being counted in the statistics. It is not set for ordinary visitors and is not used to track them.
Some pages link to, or may display material supplied by, external services. Following an external link or interacting with third-party material may allow that provider to collect information or set its own cookies under its own privacy terms.
5. Information supplied voluntarily
If someone contacts me by email or through a project-specific contact method, I may receive their name, email address, callsign, organisation, message and any other information they choose to provide. I use it to answer the message, discuss the relevant project, deal with a request, or maintain a reasonable record of the correspondence.
Please do not send confidential, sensitive or special-category information unless it is genuinely necessary.
6. Amateur-radio and other public technical data
Some radio and propagation projects analyse or display information obtained from public technical services, reception networks, APIs, published station records or my own radio logs. This can include amateur-radio callsigns, locators, timestamps, bands, modes, signal reports and approximate station locations.
Callsigns and related records may be capable of identifying an operator. They are used for technical analysis, research, visualisation, reception reporting and preservation of relevant operating history. They are not used for advertising or unrelated profiling.
7. Archived and historical material
The site contains preserved astronomy, theatre, forum, geocaching and other historical material. Such pages may contain names, photographs, usernames, callsigns or contributions that were originally published in their historical context.
Requests concerning personal information in an archive will be considered carefully, taking account of accuracy, privacy, the public or historical context, and any applicable legal rights.
8. Why the information is used
The information described above is used to:
- deliver, maintain, secure and troubleshoot the websites;
- understand which projects and pages are useful or being visited;
- measure music listening and document downloads in broad terms;
- improve navigation, presentation and technical reliability;
- analyse and publish legitimate amateur-radio or scientific results;
- answer messages and handle requests;
- preserve appropriate historical and creative records.
9. Lawful bases
The principal lawful basis is legitimate interests: operating and securing an independent website, understanding its use without commercial surveillance, carrying out technical and creative work, responding to correspondence, and maintaining suitable archives.
Where information is needed to take steps requested by a person, or to meet a legal obligation, those bases may also apply. Consent is used where the law specifically requires it.
10. Sharing and external services
Personal information is not sold, rented or supplied to advertising networks. It may be processed by organisations needed to operate the sites, such as the website host, email provider, backup provider or technical service provider. Information may also be disclosed where required by law or reasonably necessary to investigate abuse, fraud or a security incident.
External websites and services—including music, social, radio, mapping, video, font or data providers—operate under their own privacy notices. A link from MacAlchemist does not make their processing part of this notice.
11. Retention
- First-party analytics: raw event records are kept while reasonably useful for site administration, audience comparison, security and improvement, and are periodically reviewed, deleted or reduced to aggregate statistics. They are not intended to form a permanent personal profile.
- Hosting and security logs: retained according to operational and hosting requirements, or longer where needed to investigate a fault, misuse or security incident.
- Messages and correspondence: kept for as long as reasonably necessary to answer the matter and retain an appropriate record.
- Technical and historical datasets: may be retained for a longer period where preservation, reproducibility, research or archival value is part of the purpose.
- Backups: deleted information may remain temporarily in secured backups until those backups are overwritten or retired.
12. Security
Reasonable technical and organisational measures are used to protect records, including restricted administrative access, pseudonymisation of IP addresses in custom analytics, server protections and offline backups. No internet service can guarantee absolute security.
13. Your rights
Depending on the circumstances, UK data-protection law may give you rights to ask for access to personal information, correction, erasure, restriction, portability, or an explanation of how it is used.
Your right to object: where processing is based on legitimate interests, you may object to it. The request will be considered against the reasons for continuing the processing, including security, technical, research or archival needs.
A request should include enough information to identify the relevant page, event, callsign, correspondence or record. A hashed network address may not always be capable of being reliably connected back to a particular person, especially where an address is shared or changes over time.
You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office.
14. Changes to this notice
This notice will be reviewed when tracking, hosting, project features or uses of personal information materially change. The date at the top will be updated when revisions are made.
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