This policy explains how UnblockedTech ("we", "us", "the site") handles personal data when you visit this website. It is written to be readable rather than defensive, and it covers everything we actually do.
If anything here is unclear, or you want to exercise one of the rights listed below, email us and a person will answer.
Who is responsible for your data
UnblockedTech operates this website and is the data controller for the personal data described here.
The site is an independent publication. We are not owned by, and do not act on behalf of, any of the companies or products we write about.
For all data protection matters, including access requests and complaints, contact us using the address at the top of this page. Please put "Data request" in the subject line so it reaches the right place quickly.
What we collect
We collect very little directly, and we have deliberately kept it that way.
Information you give us. If you email us or use the contact form, we receive your name, your email address and whatever you write. If you subscribe to the newsletter, we store your email address.
Information collected automatically. When you load a page, our hosting provider records standard server log information: your IP address, the page requested, the time, your browser and operating system version, and the page that referred you. This is ordinary web server behaviour and is necessary to serve the site and to detect abuse.
Analytics data. We use a privacy-focused analytics service to count visits and see which articles are read. This tells us page views, approximate country, referring site, device type and screen size. It does not build a profile of you across sites and does not attempt to identify you personally.
Advertising data. Advertising on this site is served by third parties, principally Google AdSense. Those services may set cookies and collect data about your browsing in order to select and measure adverts. This is described in its own section below, because it is the part of this policy that involves the most third-party processing.
We do not collect payment information, we do not ask you to create an account, and we do not knowingly collect data from children under 13.
Why we use it, and our legal basis
| What | Why | Legal basis |
|---|---|---|
| Server logs | Serving pages, security, fault diagnosis | Legitimate interests |
| Analytics | Understanding which articles are useful | Consent, or legitimate interests where the analytics is cookie-free and aggregated |
| Contact messages | Replying to you | Legitimate interests, or performance of a request you made |
| Newsletter address | Sending the newsletter you asked for | Consent |
| Personalised advertising | Funding the site | Consent |
| Non-personalised advertising | Funding the site | Legitimate interests |
Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time and we will stop. Withdrawing consent for advertising cookies does not remove advertising; it makes it non-personalised.
Cookies and similar technologies
We use a small number of cookies and local storage entries. The full breakdown, including names and durations, is in our Cookie Policy.
In summary:
- Strictly necessary. A record of your cookie choice, and your light or dark theme preference. Stored in your browser only.
- Analytics. Used to count visits. Aggregated, and not used to identify you.
- Advertising. Set by Google and its advertising partners to select, cap and measure adverts.
You can refuse the non-essential categories using the notice shown on your first visit, and change your mind later by clearing your site data. The site works fully with only the necessary cookies enabled.
Advertising, in detail
This site is free to read because it carries advertising. That involves third parties, and you should know what they do.
Google AdSense. Google is an independent controller for the data it collects through advertising on this site. Google and its partners may use cookies and device identifiers to serve adverts based on your prior visits to this and other websites, to limit how often you see a particular advert, and to measure whether adverts worked.
You have direct control over this, independently of us:
- Google's own advert settings let you turn off personalised advertising across all sites that use Google's advertising products. This is the most effective single control available to you.
- Google's advertising privacy notice explains what Google collects and why.
- Industry opt-out pages operated by the Network Advertising Initiative and the Digital Advertising Alliance let you opt out of personalisation from many advertising companies at once.
- In the UK and EU, our consent notice asks before personalised advertising cookies are set. If you decline, you will still see adverts, but they will be selected using context rather than your browsing history.
What we can and cannot see. We see aggregate reports: how many adverts were shown, how many were clicked, and what we earned. We do not receive information about individual visitors from advertising partners, and we cannot identify you from advertising data.
Affiliate links. Some articles contain links to products where we would receive a commission on a purchase. These are labelled. Following such a link may result in the destination site setting a cookie that records that the visit came from us. It does not tell us who you are.
Who else processes your data
We keep third parties to a minimum. The current list:
- Our hosting provider, which serves the site and keeps server logs.
- Our analytics provider, which counts visits.
- Google AdSense and its advertising partners, which serve adverts.
- Google Fonts, which serves the typefaces used on this site. This means Google's font servers receive a request including your IP address when a page loads.
- Our email provider, which handles messages you send us and the newsletter.
We do not sell personal data. We do not share your email address with anyone for their own marketing.
International transfers
Some of the services above are operated by companies based outside the UK and the European Economic Area, principally in the United States. Where data is transferred internationally, it is done under the safeguards permitted by data protection law, such as the UK International Data Transfer Agreement, standard contractual clauses, or an applicable adequacy decision.
How long we keep things
- Server logs: typically 30 to 90 days, then deleted or anonymised by our host.
- Analytics: aggregated indefinitely; no individual-level records are retained.
- Contact messages: up to 24 months, so we can refer back to a conversation, then deleted.
- Newsletter address: until you unsubscribe, plus a short suppression record so we do not re-add you by accident.
Your rights
If you are in the UK or the European Economic Area, you have the right to:
- Be told what we hold about you and why — which is the purpose of this document.
- Access a copy of your personal data.
- Correct anything inaccurate.
- Have it deleted, where we have no overriding reason to keep it.
- Restrict how we use it while a dispute is resolved.
- Object to processing based on legitimate interests, including profiling for advertising.
- Port your data to another service in a machine-readable format.
- Withdraw consent at any time, where consent was the basis.
- Not be subject to solely automated decisions with legal or similarly significant effects. We do not make any such decisions.
To use any of these, email us. We will respond within one month, and we will not charge you. We may ask you to confirm your identity, but only to the extent needed to be sure we are not disclosing your data to someone else.
If you are unhappy with our response, you can complain to your national data protection authority. In the UK that is the Information Commissioner's Office. We would rather you told us first, so we have a chance to put it right.
Residents of some other jurisdictions, including several US states, have comparable rights over access, deletion and opting out of the sale or sharing of personal information. We honour those requests through the same contact route.
Security
We use HTTPS on every page, keep our software updated, restrict administrative access to the people who need it, and hold as little personal data as we can. Holding less is the most effective protection available, and it is the one we rely on most.
No website can promise perfect security. If a breach occurs that is likely to result in a risk to your rights, we will notify the relevant authority within 72 hours and tell affected people directly where required.
Children
This site is written for a general adult audience. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 13, and we do not direct advertising at children. If you believe a child has provided us with personal data, contact us and we will delete it.
Changes
If we change how we handle data, we will update this page and change the date at the top. For significant changes affecting your rights, we will also show a notice on the site. Previous versions are available on request.