I use what you send me to reply to you, not to add you to a list.
The short version
Your information isn’t sold or used for a mailing list. It passes through a few services that work for me: hosting in Canada, and email outside Quebec, including in the United States. I keep it until you ask me to delete it. How to ask
What do I collect?
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Your name
So I know who I’m replying to.
Required
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Your email address
So I can reply to you.
Required
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Your business
Only in the “Let’s talk” form, if you choose to add it.
Optional
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Your message
What you want to talk about or ask.
Required
With your message, the site also notes which form you used, the language of the page and the date.
To limit spam, the form counts how many messages come from one connection and one address. For that, it keeps a scrambled version (a hash) of your IP address and email address, and stops using it after ten minutes.
When you visit, the site also handles some technical information: the cookies it needs to work, and the session they open (see Does the site use cookies?). Like most websites, the server may also keep technical logs, such as your IP address, the page requested, the date and your type of browser. I use them only to keep the site secure and fix errors.
A private client area is planned for the projects I work on. When it opens, the site will also keep the sign-in session of the clients who use it.
Why do I use it?
To read your message and reply to you personally.
To keep the site and its forms secure: blocking forged submissions and spam, and fixing errors.
Only if you agree, to measure visits and campaigns with analytics and marketing cookies (see Does the site use cookies?).
I don’t sell your information, I don’t add you to a mailing list or newsletter, and I don’t use what you write for advertising.
Who handles it, and where?
Your message is saved in this website’s database. A copy reaches my inbox by email, and you receive a short acknowledgment at the address you gave. Along the way, these services handle it for me:
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DigitalOcean
Hosts the website and its database.
Canada
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Mandrill (Mailchimp Transactional)
Sends the site’s emails: the copy of your message to me, and the acknowledgment to you.
United States
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Google Workspace (Google)
Holds my email inbox, where your message and our exchanges arrive.
Outside Quebec
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Google Tag Manager (Google)
Loads analytics and marketing tools, only if you accept those cookies.
Outside Quebec
So your information is communicated outside Quebec, including to the United States, where the laws that protect it are different from ours. I use these services to host, send and receive it for me. Apart from these services, and the analytics and marketing tools you choose to allow, I don’t pass your information to anyone, unless the law requires it.
How long do I keep it?
Your messages and our exchanges: until you ask me to delete them. I then delete them from the site’s database and from my inbox. My email services and my host may keep their own delivery and backup copies for a limited time, under their own terms.
Technical data is kept for much less time: the spam counter stops after ten minutes, and the session expires after 2 hours without activity. Technical logs are kept only as long as it takes to keep the site secure and fix errors.
What are your rights, and how do you use them?
Under Quebec law, you can ask me:
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To see it
What I have about you, and a copy of it.
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To correct it
If it’s wrong, incomplete or out of date.
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To delete it
From the site’s database and from my inbox.
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To receive it in a usable format
In a structured, commonly used format, for you or for someone you name.
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To stop a publication or de-index a link
If information about you is ever published and the law allows it.
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To withdraw your consent
At any time, including for cookies.
Write to me.
Reply to the acknowledgment email you received, or send a message with the form on this page. It comes straight to me.
Say what you’d like.
Say which right you want to use. I may ask a question to make sure the request comes from you.
I answer within 30 days.
That’s the limit set by Quebec’s private-sector privacy law.
If you’re not satisfied with my answer, you can contact the Commission d’accès à l’information du Québec.
Who is responsible?
Me, Marty Gauthier. I’m the person in charge of protecting the personal information collected on this site, and I read and answer every request myself.
To reach me about your information, reply to the acknowledgment email or use the form on this page.
Does the site use cookies?
Strictly necessary, always on
just-asking-session Keeps your session while you browse, so the forms work.
XSRF-TOKEN A security token that blocks forged form submissions.
ja_cookie_consent Remembers your cookie choice for 1 year, then asks again.
Analytics and marketing, only with your consent
Off until you turn them on.
Loaded through Google Tag Manager.
Change your choice any time from “Cookie preferences”.
The session is kept in the site’s database with your IP address and the type of browser you use. It expires after 2 hours without activity.
When the client area opens, clients who sign in will also get a sign-in cookie that keeps their session open. It is needed for the client area to work.
The site can use Google Tag Manager to load analytics tools, to count visits and see which pages are useful, and marketing tools, to measure whether ads and campaigns bring people here. Because these tools can recognize your browser from one visit to the next, they are off by default. Until you turn them on, Google Tag Manager isn’t loaded at all. Even with marketing cookies on, ad personalization stays off: nothing here is used to show you ads elsewhere.
Right now, no analytics or marketing tool is turned on. Before I add one, I’ll list it here with the cookies it sets and how long they last.
You can change your choice at any time with “Cookie preferences” at the bottom of every page. If you withdraw your consent, the site stops using these tools and deletes their cookies from your browser where it can.
What if this policy changes?
I’ll update this page and the date at the top. If a change affects how I use what you already sent me, I’ll ask you first.
A question about this page? Ask it