Paperwork · PIPEDA in harbour English

What I collect, why, and how you can tell me to stop

This policy is for Clear Across the Lake, operated by Claire Vaillancourt at 207 Queens Quay West, Suite 214, Toronto, Ontario. I follow Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) because this is a Canadian site writing about a Canadian street, not a mystery company in a tax basement. I will not hide the ball in “we may share with affiliates worldwide.” I do not have affiliates worldwide. I have a desk and a window.

I collect as little as I can. If you only read pages, I may see the usual server log: IP address, browser type, pages requested, time. That is how I know a page broke, not how I build a dossier. Logs are kept for a short operational period and then rotated. I do not sell lists. I do not rent lists. There is no list worth renting.

If you email me or send a letter, I have whatever you put in it: your name, return address, the fact that you care about a cloud deck. I use that only to answer you. I do not put correspondents on a newsletter unless you ask, and I do not have a newsletter worth the name. Paper mail is shredded when the thread is done. Email sits in an ordinary inbox. If you want it deleted, write and say so; I will delete the thread unless I must keep it for a legal demand, which has not happened.

Search advertising cookies

I run a modest search campaign so people looking up harbour weather and queue times can find these notes. That campaign uses advertising cookies and similar tags from the search network. They help the network know whether an ad was shown, whether someone reached this site, and whether to show the ad again. They are not required to read the logbook. If you arrive without those cookies, the pages still work. The ads are how a small notebook stays findable; they are not a condition of using the notes.

Those cookies are set by the advertising companies, not by my kettle. I do not see your search history. I may see aggregate numbers: this many clicks, this many visits, this query family. That is a weather map of attention, not a file with your name on it. You can refuse non-essential cookies in your browser, use a tracker blocker, or adjust ad settings with the search network. I will not pretend I can switch their systems off from Suite 214. I can promise I will not bolt extra marketing pixels onto these pages for someone else’s product.

I do not use the advertising cookies to decide your ticket price, because I do not sell tickets. I do not combine them with your letters. I do not build “lookalike” audiences from people who wrote me about a wind hold. That would be grotesque and also a lot of work.

Your PIPEDA rights, without the pamphlet voice

You can ask what personal information I have about you, ask for a correction, and withdraw consent for anything that was optional (the ads, a reply you no longer want). Write to [email protected] or to the Queens Quay address. I will answer in a reasonable time. If you are not satisfied, you can complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada. I would rather fix it first. I am easier to reach than a Crown corporation and much cheaper to stamp.

I do not process payments. I do not take identification at a door. I do not run accounts. The heaviest “profile” I might have is an email that says the strobe was out. Guard that as you see fit.