Hi there! My name is Alex Bruton and I take your privacy very seriously.

To ensure the proper operation of this website, the team that manages it has to collect some information that may be considered personally identifiable information. Below is the base privacy policy containing terms that apply to many of the websites it operates. Following that are the specific terms for this website.

Acceptance of this policy

By using, visiting, or browsing this website, you accept to be bound by this Privacy Policy and to the Terms of Use. If you do not agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use, you not permitted to use this website.

Sharing

Your personal information will not be shared with others except as described below, and in our Terms of Use.

Cookies

We generally don’t use cookies but might do so to improve your browsing experience. For example, in order to make your site load more quickly, the script that loads the fonts on the page might place a cookie in your browser that tells it whether the font is already cached in the browser.

If you leave a comment on our site you may opt in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. This is for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. When visitors leave comments on this website we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help with spam detection.

You may restrict the use of cookies by changing the settings in your web browser.

Signing in

In order to gain access to some of the content on this website, you are required to sign in. Our goals in this respect are: a) To minimize what personal information you need to provide in order to ensure secure access; and b) To provide you with industry-standard options and sign in experiences.

As such, you may sign in to this website one of two ways: Option 1: By creating a new account using an email address; or Option 2): By using one of your pre-existing social accounts to sign in (a.k.a. social login). The following paragraphs speak to the privacy implications in each of these cases.

Option 1: If you use an email address to sign in to this website then we have made it so that providing your first and last name is completely optional. As such, the only personal information you will need to share is the email address you choose to provide. This is the minimum amount of information required to allow any website to securely confirm who a user is when they come back each time. Our automated systems can be used to change the password you specify along with that email address (e.g. if you forget it), but we can’t ever see or otherwise access that password.

Option 2: If you prefer to use one of your social accounts to sign into this website, then their social networking service will authenticate you at arm’s length. This means that you will be shown their sign in screen and our site will provide you with access if they tell us they have successfully authenticated you. Social login is completely optional and we provide the option for the convenience of our users so that they don’t need to create yet another new account in order to access our website. When you first sign in, you will be asked by the social networking service you choose to grant it permission, and we will only see the information you share with us through that process. Further, this means that there need be no password associated with your account on our site.

Logging

The web server logs visits to the website. Information saved may include your IP address, browser, operating system, and the pages viewed. We use these logs to diagnose problems and mitigate attacks. These logs may be retained indefinitely for analysis of historical traffic.

We may use Google Analytics to see how many visitors come to the website, the approximate location of visitors, how much time they spend on the website, and other aggregate data. To limit the exposure of your information, data sharing is disabled in Google Analytics.

Changes

We reserve the right to make changes to this privacy policy and any other privacy policy that extends this one. Should we make changes to this policy, the date at the bottom of this page will be updated. You are bound by such changes and should therefore periodically visit this page to determine the then-current Privacy Policy to which you are bound. You can review the most current version at any time by clicking on the “Privacy Policy” hyperlink located on the sign in areas of the website.

By using the website, you signify your acceptance of this. Your use of the website after changes are made signifies your agreement to be bound by the Privacy Policy as it exists at that time.

Additional privacy terms for spatial.engineer

This website (spatial.engineer) has the following additional terms that extend the base privacy policy.

Third parties

We might use third-party services and APIs to help with the proper functioning of this website. Email, anti-spam, advertising, and firewalls may be provided by third-parties.

The following third-parties may process your information:

We also may link to or embed content from third-party websites. We have no control over the privacy practices of other sites.

Privacy for my university students

If you are one of my college or university students then you will be given specific directions about how to access the materials on this site. I work hard to get the institution you are attending to collaborate with me on these directions which are meant to protect your privacy. Generally, this results in you being asked to sign in only using your institutional email address (not a personal one) and to use a different password than you do at your institution.

My personal practice has always been to provide free and perpetual access to my teaching and learning materials to all of my students. This means that you do not need to pay for anything at all or to provide any personal payment-related information.

If you like, e.g. after the semester is over, I am pleased to have your account removed from this website (and all of your personal information along with it). Just email me a request to make this happen.

Last updated: 2020-09-07