Privacy

My name is Pavel Volkov, and this is my blog. This page describes what data about you remains when you read it and when you leave a comment.

If you are just reading

There are no ads here, but reading still leaves something behind:

  • the site itself sets two technical cookies (the cookies of the visit counters are covered in the “Visit statistics” section below): blog_session (the session) and XSRF-TOKEN (protects against request forgery), and only for whoever signs in to moderate comments. For readers and commenters the site sets no cookies and starts no sessions;
  • the web server records every request in a log: the IP address, user agent, page address, and time. The logs are needed to deal with failures and attacks, and they are kept for up to 14 days.

I do not use this site data to track readers, and I do not share it with anyone.

Visit statistics

To understand which posts are read and where readers come to them from, the site has two counters: Yandex Metrica and Google Analytics. They collect visit statistics: which pages were opened and how much time was spent on them, where the visit came from, which links were used to leave the site, as well as the device type, browser, and approximate location based on the IP address. Metrica also builds a click map showing where on the page people clicked. On the search page, the text of the query is not sent to the counters: they receive the page address without the query.

Both counters set their own cookies (for Metrica, for example, _ym_uid; for Google Analytics, _ga) and send data to the servers of Yandex and Google. There the data is processed under the rules of these companies, not mine. I myself only look at the counters' reports and do not share them with anyone.

If you do not want to be included in the statistics:

  • an ad and tracker blocker in your browser will keep the counters from loading;
  • in your browser settings you can block or delete this site's cookies, and then the counters will not recognize you on your next visit;
  • Google has an official Google Analytics blocker, and Yandex has a Yandex Metrica blocker: both are browser extensions.

Embedded content

Some posts have embedded YouTube videos and Google Maps. They load from Google's servers, so Google receives your IP address and may set its own cookies, under its own rules, not mine. The videos are embedded through youtube-nocookie.com: in this mode YouTube does not set cookies until you play the video.

If you leave a comment

When you submit a comment, the following is stored:

  • the name you entered;
  • email;
  • the text of the comment;
  • the IP address and user agent of your browser.

Why

The name and text are needed to display the comment on the site. The IP address and user agent are needed for moderation and spam protection. The email is not published and is not shared with anyone: only I need it, to contact you if necessary.

How long it is kept

  • the IP address and user agent of a comment are kept for 30 days and then erased automatically;
  • the name, email, and text are kept for as long as the comment is published on the site.

Notifications

When a new comment arrives, I get a notification in Telegram: it contains the author's name and the beginning of the text, without the email or IP address.

Avatars

Commenters' avatars are initials drawn by the site itself. Gravatar and other third-party services are not used.

Backups

The blog's database is copied to backups every day, and they include everything it contains: comments with names and emails, and IP addresses and user agents for the last 30 days. Backups made up to and including October 2026 also contain readers' sessions: back then the site created them. The backups are kept on the server itself for 14 days, and off it on a Hetzner Storage Box in Europe: weekly ones for 8 weeks, monthly ones for 12 months. This means data can remain in backups for up to 12 months. Before every site update, a separate database dump is also made, and it is kept for up to 14 days.

Deletion at your request and the erasure of the IP address and user agent after 30 days take effect on the site immediately, while data leaves the backups when the backup itself expires. The backups are needed only to restore the site after a failure, and I do not use them for anything else.

How to delete your data

Write to me at p@volkv.com and tell me under which post and under what name you commented, and I will delete your name, email, and the text of the comment.