Privacy Policy

Controller

Jozef Môstka, Tvrdošín, Slovakia
Email: jozef@mostka.sk

Analytics (Cookieless Matomo)

This website uses the open-source tool Matomo to analyse visitor traffic. Matomo is configured in cookieless mode — no tracking cookies are stored on your device. Therefore, no cookie consent banner is required.

Matomo collects the following anonymised data:

  • Anonymised IP address (last octet replaced with zero)
  • Browser type and version, operating system
  • Device type (desktop, mobile, tablet)
  • Pages visited and time of visit
  • Referring URL (where you came from)
  • Browser language

This data is stored on a server within the EU and is not shared with third parties.

Functional Cookies (language preference)

The site stores a cookie with your language preference so it remembers your chosen language on your next visit. This is a strictly necessary functional cookie — no consent is required.

The check on the sign-up form (captcha)

The newsletter sign-up form is protected by a picture puzzle (IconCaptcha) — you pick the icon that appears the fewest times. All of it runs on this server: the images are drawn by this site, nothing is sent to Google, Cloudflare or anyone else, and no profile of you comes out of it.

While you are solving it, the server keeps its own note of which icons you were given and which one is correct, together with your IP address — that is there only so the puzzle cannot be tried indefinitely. Once solved, or after a few minutes of inactivity, it is deleted from the server.

So the server can tie that to your browser, it stores a session cookie (PHPSESSID). It is a random number, it holds nothing about you, and it disappears when you close the browser. This is a strictly necessary cookie for the security of the form — no consent is required. The form is in the footer of every page, so this cookie is stored on every visit, not only when you sign up.

Newsletter

If you leave your email address on this site, the following data is processed:

  • Email address — so I can send you what you asked for
  • Site language — so the mail arrives in the language you subscribed in
  • What you ticked — the exact wording of the consent you gave
  • IP address and the time of sign-up and confirmation — as evidence that consent was given (Art. 7(1) GDPR)

Legal basis: your consent, Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR. Without it nothing is sent to you.

Double opt-in. After you submit the form you get a single email with a link. Until you click it, the address sits in the database as unconfirmed and nothing else is sent to it. Unconfirmed sign-ups are deleted after 30 days.

What it is used for: only what you ticked — news about the book 7 Years to Life and notifications about new journal entries. Nothing else. No advertising, no third-party offers.

Who it is shared with: nobody. The address is not sold, not rented, and not put into any external newsletter service. The database sits on the same server in Slovakia/the EU as this site, and the mails leave from my own mail server. There are no tracking pixels in the mails — I do not know whether or when you opened one.

How long: until you withdraw your consent. After that I keep only the record that you unsubscribed and when, so that nothing accidentally starts arriving again.

How to unsubscribe: every mail I send has an unsubscribe link in its footer. It works immediately and without logging in. Or write to jozef@mostka.sk.

The newsletter popup

When you close the newsletter popup, or click "don't show this again" in it, a single entry is stored in your browser (in localStorage, not in a cookie) recording that you have seen it and when. It contains no identifier, is never sent to the server, and cannot be used to work out who you are. It is there only so the site does not ask you twice. You can remove it by clearing the site data in your browser.

Data Retention

Analytics data is retained for 12 months, after which it is automatically deleted. Newsletter data follows the periods described above.

Your Rights

You have the right of access, rectification, erasure, restriction of processing, data portability, and to object to processing. You can withdraw your consent to the newsletter at any time; withdrawal does not affect the lawfulness of processing before it. Write to jozef@mostka.sk.

If you believe your data is being handled improperly, you can lodge a complaint with the Slovak Data Protection Authority (dataprotection.gov.sk).

There is no automated decision-making and no profiling.

If your browser sends a Do Not Track (DNT) header, Matomo honours this setting and will not track you.

No Ads, No Profiling

We do not use any advertising networks. Your data is not shared with Facebook, Google Analytics, Hotjar, or any other third party.