Privacy

What I measure, and why

I use Google Analytics 4 (measurement ID G-4H86T3MD8N), which loads on every page of this site. It records two things:

• Page views — each time a page here loads.
• Outbound clicks — when you click a link that leaves this site, such as my LinkedIn profile or one of my GitHub repositories.

I built this site to find work. Measuring it tells me whether anyone is reaching it, which projects hold attention, and whether people follow through to my code or my résumé. That is the whole purpose. I am not building a profile of you, and there is nothing here to sell.

What is actually collected

For each page view or click, Google Analytics records:

• the address and title of the page you are on, and the site or search engine you arrived from
• for an outbound click, the full web address you clicked, its domain (for example linkedin.com), and the visible text of the link
• your device type, browser, operating system, screen size, and language
• a general location — country, region, and usually city — that Google estimates from your IP address. Google states that it does not store the IP address itself in Analytics.
• the date and time
• a random number kept in cookies on your device (named _ga and _ga_…) so that a second visit counts as the same visitor rather than a new one. It holds no name, email, or account, just that number. By default it lasts up to two years, or until you delete it.

None of this is tied to you by name. What I see in Google’s reports are counts and patterns — “fourteen people opened this page, three clicked through to GitHub” — not a list of who visited.

What I do not collect

• No forms, newsletter, comments, or login. Nothing here takes anything you type.
• The Copy email button works entirely inside your browser. It writes my address to your clipboard and sends nothing anywhere.
• This site’s database holds only my own content — my jobs, projects, and skills. It has no table for visitors, and nothing about your visit is written to it.
• The fonts are served from this site rather than from Google Fonts, so opening a page here does not report your visit to Google through the fonts.
• No advertising, ad personalization, remarketing, or Google signals.
• No payment details and no sensitive information. Nothing collected here is sold, rented, or handed to a data broker.

Who receives it

Besides me, two companies are involved in your visit:

Google LLC runs Google Analytics. The measurements above go to Google’s servers, which are in the United States and other countries where Google operates, and Google processes them under its own terms. See Google’s privacy policy and how Google uses data from sites that use its tools.

Railway hosts this site. Your browser’s request goes to Railway’s servers to be served a page, and ordinary hosting logs there can include your IP address and which page you asked for. I look at those only when something is broken.

Your choices

There is no cookie banner on this site. Analytics starts as soon as a page loads. I would rather say that outright than imply you were asked first.

You can stop it at any time:

• Block or clear cookies for this site in your browser settings. Deleting the _ga cookies erases the random identifier.
• Use a browser or extension that blocks trackers. Safari, Firefox, Brave, and most content blockers already block Google Analytics by default, so plenty of visits here are never measured at all. That is fine by me.
• Install Google’s own opt-out add-on: tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout. It turns Google Analytics off on every site, not only mine.
• Browse in a private window, which discards the cookies when you close it.

This site works completely when analytics is blocked. No content is withheld, nothing breaks, and nothing nags you about it.

Two limits I should be straight about:

• This site does not currently detect “Do Not Track” or Global Privacy Control signals from your browser. If you send one, I am not acting on it, so use one of the options above instead.
• Because nothing here identifies you, I generally cannot locate “your” data to show or delete on request. Deleting the cookies yourself is the practical remedy. Beyond that, this property is set to delete event records after two months and visitor identifiers after fourteen months.

If you are in the EU, EEA, or UK

Rules there generally require that analytics cookies be set only after you agree, and that declining be as easy as accepting. This site has no consent banner yet, so it does not meet that standard. I intend to add one. Until then, if you would rather not be measured here, block cookies or install the opt-out add-on above before browsing.

Questions

Ask me anything about this page at mjohn184@lion.lmu.edu. If I change what the site collects, I will change this page and the date at the top of it.