Privacy Policy
HowDoDesign.com Privacy Policy
Last updated: October 17, 2026
HowDoDesign.com is a private blog run by a private individual, not by a company. This page explains what personal data the site handles when you read it, why it does so, how long the data is kept and what you can ask us to do with it. It is short because the site collects very little.
Who is responsible for your data
The person who runs HowDoDesign.com is the controller of the personal data described on this page. For anything related to privacy, including the requests listed further down, write to helen-earley(at)howdodesign.com, replacing (at) with @.
What we collect and what we do not
You do not need an account to read the site, and you cannot create one. Public registration is closed, and accounts exist only for the people who write and manage the blog. Comments are closed on every article and there is no contact form, so the only way to send us information is by email.
We do not show advertising, we do not use Google Analytics or any other external analytics service, and we do not sell or rent personal data to anyone.
Server logs
Like any website, the server that hosts HowDoDesign.com records basic technical details about each request: your IP address, the date and time, the page requested, the browser and device type your browser reports, and the page you came from, if your browser sends it. These records are needed to deliver the pages, to keep the site secure and to count traffic in aggregate, for example how many visits come from search engines or from AI assistants. They are kept only as long as these purposes require and are then deleted.
The legal basis is our legitimate interest in running a website that works and is secure (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR).
Security
The site is protected by a firewall that looks for abuse, such as repeated wrong passwords on the login page, scans for vulnerable files or floods of requests. When it detects something of this kind, it records the IP address involved, together with the time and the reason, and it can block that address temporarily or permanently. These records are used only for security. The legal basis is our legitimate interest in protecting the site and its readers (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR).
Audience measurement
To see how many people read each article and how readers find the site, we use our own statistics software, which runs on our server. Its data is not shared with third parties or used to build profiles, and the figures we look at are totals that do not tell us who you are. Any cookie or similar browser storage it relies on is set only if you allow “Audience measurement” in the cookie banner, so the legal basis is your consent (Article 6(1)(a) GDPR). How to change your choice is explained in the Cookie Policy.
Author photos
The author photos next to articles are loaded from Gravatar, a service run by Automattic Inc. When a page with an author photo opens, your browser requests the image from Gravatar, which receives your IP address and the details your browser sends with any request. How Automattic handles this is described in its privacy policy.
Links to other websites and affiliate links
Articles link to other websites, and some of these links are affiliate links. If you follow one and then buy something, the other website may pay us a commission, at no extra cost to you. Affiliate partners usually set their own cookies once you arrive on their site, to record that you came from HowDoDesign.com. We do not send them any personal data ourselves, and what they collect is governed by their own privacy policies.
Emails you send us
When you write to us, we receive your email address, your name if you include it, and whatever you choose to tell us. We use this only to reply and to deal with your request, and we delete it once it is no longer needed, unless we have to keep a record showing that a privacy request was handled. The legal basis is our legitimate interest in answering you or, for privacy requests, our legal obligation to handle them (Article 6(1)(f) and (c) GDPR).
Your rights
Under the GDPR you can ask for a copy of the personal data we hold about you, ask us to correct or delete it, ask us to restrict how we use it, or ask to receive it in a portable format. You can also object to processing based on our legitimate interests, and you can withdraw your consent at any time, which does not affect what happened before you withdrew it.
To use any of these rights, write to the address given at the top of this page. We answer within one month. Because we keep almost no data that identifies readers, we may ask for details that help us find yours, such as the approximate date and time of your visit and your IP address.
If you believe your data has been handled unlawfully, you can complain to a data protection supervisory authority, in particular the one in the EU country where you live or work.
Children
The site is written for adults and is not aimed at children under 16.
Changes to this policy
If the way the site handles personal data changes, we will update this page and the date at the top.