What this site keeps, and what it sends

Private reader notes

Some pages let you send us a private note: a comment on a passage, a suggested edit, or a note about a page as a whole.

Who sees your note. Only Nell Watson and the editorial team. Notes are never published as comments and are not visible to other readers.

What we collect. The text of your note, the passage you selected and the address of the page, and the time you sent it. Your name and email address only if you choose to give them, and whether you would like to be thanked by name.

What we do not collect. We do not store your IP address. To prevent spam we keep a one-way, salted hash of it that changes every day and is deleted within two days. Cloudflare Turnstile checks that a person is sending the note. It loads only when you open the note panel, and Cloudflare's privacy policy applies to it.

Where it is stored. In a database run for us by Cloudflare (Cloudflare Workers and D1). Cloudflare may process it outside the UK and EU, under its data processing terms, which provide the safeguards UK and EU law require for such transfers.

How we use it. To correct and improve the work. If you asked to be thanked, we keep your name on a list of contributors so that we can thank you in the work if we use your note.

Your rights in what you send. When you send a note you agree that we may use, edit, adapt and publish it in any edition or format without payment, and you waive your rights in it as far as the law allows (the full wording is next to the Send button).

Keeping and deleting. After sending, you get a private link where you can see your notes, read any reply, and delete any note at any time. You can also ask us to delete your notes by contacting Nell Watson through nellwatson.com. Spam is deleted after 30 days. Notes we don't use are deleted two years after you send them. Notes we use are kept for as long as the work is published, with your name if you asked to be thanked; their email address is deleted after two years.

In your browser. The note panel keeps a random key and a short list of your notes in your browser's local storage, so it can show your private link and lightly highlight passages you have commented on. If you leave “Remember my name and email” ticked, it also keeps the name and email you last gave, so you don't have to type them again; untick it to forget them. The key reaches us only when you send a note or open your private notes page, and we store only a scrambled form of it. Clearing this site's data in your browser removes them.

Legal basis. We rely on your consent, which you give when you send a note. You can withdraw it at any time by deleting your notes.

Your rights. You can ask for a copy of your notes, have them corrected or deleted, or object to how we use them, using the contact details on this page. If you are unhappy with how we handle them, you can complain to the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk) or the data protection authority where you live.

Who is responsible. The data controller for reader notes is Eleanor (Nell) Watson, EthicsNet Ltd (company number 11412076), 11 Kingfisher Business Park, Arthur Street, Lakeside, Redditch, B98 8LG, United Kingdom.

Age. Notes are for people aged 13 or over.