The short version: I run a technical blog, not a data operation. I collect almost nothing, I sell nothing, and most of this page exists because ads and comments involve third parties whose behaviour I am obliged to tell you about. Here is all of it, in plain language.

Who I Am

I am Peter Whyte, a production SQL Server DBA, and sqldba.blog is my site. Everything on it is written and maintained by me. The site address is https://sqldba.blog.

Ads (the main thing worth reading)

Ads keep the lights on here. They are served by Google AdSense, which means Google and its partners may use cookies to show you ads based on your visits to this and other sites. That part is Google’s machinery, not mine, and I never see who you are. You can turn off personalised ads in Google Ads Settings, and Google explains what it does with data from partner sites at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites. Where consent rules apply (the EEA and UK, for example), ad personalisation follows whatever you choose in the consent prompt.

Analytics

I look at aggregate traffic numbers (Google Analytics and search-engine webmaster tools) to see which pages get read and which searches bring people in. Page views, referrers, country, device type. I use it to decide what to write or fix next, and that is the whole story.

Comments

If you leave a comment, the site stores what you typed plus the name and email you entered, and WordPress records your IP address and browser string to help catch spam. An anonymised hash of your email may be checked against Gravatar for a profile picture. Approved comments stay up indefinitely so returning commenters do not land back in moderation.

Cookies

Commenting offers an optional cookie that remembers your name and email for next time; it lasts under a year and holds nothing else. Ad cookies are covered above. The site sets no other tracking cookies of its own, and there is nothing here to log into.

Server Logs

Like every website since roughly 1995, the hosting platform keeps standard access logs: IP, URL requested, timestamp, user agent. They exist for security and troubleshooting, rotate out on their own, and nobody profiles you with them.

Embedded Content

Some articles embed content from elsewhere, a YouTube video or a GitHub gist for example. An embed behaves as if you visited that site directly, so its cookies and its data collection apply while you interact with it.

What This Site Does Not Do

No selling or sharing of your data beyond the services named above. No accounts, no sign-ups, no newsletters you did not ask for, no payment details, no dark patterns. You read about SQL Server, maybe copy a script, and leave. That is the intended experience.

Your Rights and How to Reach Me

If you have commented here, you can ask me for an export of the personal data held about you, or ask me to erase it (excluding anything I must keep for administrative, legal or security reasons). For that, or any privacy question, email peterwhyte.mail@gmail.com and I will sort it out.