Updated Monday October 27 2025
What personal data we collect and why we collect it
Comments
When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.
An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.
Our site uses Akismet and Jetpack to process comments. For more information, please refer to the Jetpack section below.
Media
If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.
Contact forms
When you submit a message through our contact form, we collect your name, email address, and the contents of your message. This information is sent directly to us via email and is used solely for responding to your inquiry.
We do not use the information you provide through the contact form for marketing purposes.
Our site uses Akismet and Jetpack to process contact form submissions. For more information, please refer to the Jetpack section below.
Embedded content from other websites
Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.
These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.
Hosting
Our site is hosted by wpengine.com. As is true with virtually all web hosts, wpengine collects information including but not limited to Internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, Internet service provider (ISP), referring or exit pages, the files viewed on the Site (e.g., HTML pages, graphics, etc.), operating system, date/time stamp, and clickstream data. For more information please refer to wpengine’s privacy policy.
How long we retain your data
If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.
For users that register on our website (if any), we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.
What rights you have over your data
If you have an account on this site, or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes. To request your data, please contact us here.
Who we share your data with – Jetpack
Our site uses Jetpack. For more detailed information on Jetpack privacy, please visit https://jetpack.com/support/privacy/
Activity
Data used: To deliver this functionality and record activities around site management, the following information is captured: user email address, user role, user login, user display name, WordPress.com and local user IDs, the activity to be recorded, the WordPress.com-connected site ID of the site on which the activity takes place, the site’s Jetpack version, and the timestamp of the activity. Some activities may include the actor’s IP address (login attempts, for example) and user agent.
Activity tracked: Login attempts/actions, post and page update and publish actions, comment/pingback submission and management actions, plugin and theme management actions, widget updates, user management actions, and modifying other various site settings and options. The retention duration of activity data depends on the site’s plan and activity type. See the complete list of currently recorded activities (along with retention information).
Data synced: Successful and failed login attempts, which will include the actor’s IP address and user agent. See more about what data Jetpack syncs.
Brute Force attack protection
Data used: To check login activity and potentially block fraudulent attempts, the following information is used: the attempting user’s IP address, the attempting user’s email address/username (i.e., according to the value they were attempting to use during the login process), and all IP-related HTTP headers attached to the attempting user.
Activity tracked: Failed login attempts (these include IP address and user agent). We also set a cookie (jpp_math_pass) for 1 day to remember if/when a user has successfully completed a math captcha to prove that they’re a real human. Learn more about this cookie.
Data synced: Failed login attempts contain the user’s IP address, attempted username or email address, and user agent information. See more about what data Jetpack syncs.
Comment Likes
This feature is only accessible to users logged in to WordPress.com.
Data used: To process a comment like, the following information is used: WordPress.com user ID/username (you must be logged in to use this feature), the local site-specific user ID (if the user is signed in to the site on which the like occurred), and a true/false data point that tells us if the user liked a specific comment. If you perform a like action from one of our mobile apps, additional information is used to track the activity: IP address, user agent, timestamp of event, blog ID, browser language, country code, and device info.
Activity tracked: Comment likes.
Contact Forms
Data used: Akismet is enabled on our site, the contact form submission data — IP address, user agent, name, email address, website, and message — is submitted to the Akismet service (also owned by Automattic) for spam checking. The actual submission data is stored in the site’s database on which it was submitted and is emailed directly to the owner of the form (i.e. the site author who published the page on which the contact form resides). This email will include the submitter’s IP address, timestamp, name, email address, website, and message.
Data synced: Post and post metadata associated with a user’s contact form submission. If Akismet is enabled on the site, the IP address and user agent originally submitted with the comment are also synced, as they are stored in the post meta. See more about what data Jetpack syncs.
Gravatar Hovercards
The Gravatar Hovercards feature makes your Gravatar information visible to others.
Data used: This feature will send a hash of the user’s email address (if they are logged in to the site or WordPress.com—or if they submitted a comment on the site using their email address that is attached to an active Gravatar profile) to the Gravatar service (also owned by Automattic) to retrieve their profile image.
Jetpack Comments
Data used: Commenter’s name, email address, site URL (if provided via the comment form), timestamp, and IP address. Additionally, a jetpack.wordpress.com IFrame receives the following data: WordPress.com blog ID attached to the site, ID of the post on which the comment is being submitted, commenter’s local user ID (if available), commenter’s local username (if available), commenter’s site URL (if available), MD5 hash of the commenter’s email address (if available), and the comment content. As Akismet (also owned by Automattic) is enabled on this site, the following information is sent to the service for the sole purpose of spam checking: commenter’s name, email address, site URL, IP address, and user agent.
Activity tracked: The comment author’s name, email address, and site URL (if provided during the comment submission) are stored in cookies. Learn more about these cookies.
Data synced: All data and metadata (see above) associated with comments. This includes the comment’s status and, as Akismet is enabled on the site, whether or not it was classified as spam by Akismet. See more about what data Jetpack syncs.
Jetpack Stats
Data used: IP address, WordPress.com user ID (if logged in), WordPress.com username (if logged in), user agent, visiting URL, referring URL, timestamp of event, browser language, and country code. Important: the site owner does not have access to any of this information via this feature. For example, a site owner can see that a specific post has 285 views, but he/she cannot see which specific users/accounts viewed that post. Stats logs — containing visitor IP addresses and WordPress.com usernames (if available) — are retained by Automattic for 28 days and are used for the sole purpose of powering this feature.
Activity tracked: Post and page views, video plays (if videos are hosted by WordPress.com), outbound link clicks, referring URLs and search engine terms, and country. Jetpack also tracks performance on each page load when this feature is enabled, including the JavaScript file used for tracking stats. This is exclusively for aggregate performance tracking across Jetpack sites to make sure that our plugin and code are not causing performance issues. This includes tracking page load times and resource loading duration (image files, JavaScript files, CSS files, etc.).
Likes
This feature is only accessible to users logged in to WordPress.com.
Data used: To process a post-like action, the following information is used: IP address, WordPress.com user ID, WordPress.com username, WordPress.com-connected site ID (on which the post was liked), post ID (of the post that was liked), user agent, timestamp of event, browser language, country code.
Activity tracked: Post likes.
Sharing
The Sharing feature helps your readers spread your message across the web.
Data used: When official sharing buttons are active on the site, each button loads content directly from its service to display the button, information, and tools for the sharing party. As a result, each service can, in turn, collect information about the sharing party.
When a non-official Facebook or Pinterest sharing button is active on the site, information such as the sharing party’s IP address and the page URL will be available for each service, so sharing counts can be displayed next to the button.
When sharing content via email (this option is only available if Akismet is active on the site), the following information is used: sharing party’s name and email address (if the user is logged in, this information will be pulled directly from their account), IP address (for spam checking), user agent (for spam checking), and email body/content. This content will be sent to Akismet (also owned by Automattic) so that a spam check can be performed.
Subscriptions (Newsletter)
To unsubscribe from this site, please visit https://subscribe.wordpress.com/
Data used: To initiate and process subscriptions, the following information is used: the subscriber’s email address and the ID of the post or comment (depending on the specific subscription being processed). In the event of a new subscription being initiated, we also collect some basic server data, including all of the subscribing user’s HTTP request headers, the IP address from which the subscribing user is viewing the page, and the URI which was given to access the page (REQUEST_URI and DOCUMENT_URI). This server data is used to monitor and prevent abuse and spam.
Activity tracked: Functionality cookies are set for 347 days to remember a visitor’s blog and post subscription choices if, in fact, they have an active subscription.
WordPress.com Secure Sign On
The WordPress.com Secure Sign On feature makes you register for and sign in to self-hosted WordPress.org sites quickly and securely.
This feature is only accessible to registered users of the site with WordPress.com accounts.
Data used: User ID (local site and WordPress.com), role (e.g., administrator), email address, username, and display name. Additionally, for activity tracking (see below): IP address, WordPress.com user ID, WordPress.com username, WordPress.com-connected site ID and URL, Jetpack version, user agent, visiting URL, referring URL, timestamp of event, browser language, and country code.
Activity tracked: The following usage events are recorded: starting the login process, completing the login process, failing the login process, successfully being redirected after login, and failing to be redirected after login. Several functionality cookies are also set, which are detailed explicitly in our cookie documentation.
Data synced: The user ID and role of any user who successfully signed in via this feature. See more about what data Jetpack syncs.
Cookies
Required
These cookies are essential for the proper functioning of the website.
| Cookies | Duration | Description |
|---|---|---|
| lprivacy_accept | 1 Year | Tracks if the user has accepted the bar or not. |
| lprivacy | 1 Year | Tracks which cookies the user has agreed to and which cookie sections the user has agreed to enable. |
Wp Engine
| Cookies | Duration | Description |
|---|---|---|
| wpe_country | Session | To store location data. |
| wpe_test_group | 1 Week | |
| wpe-auth | Session | To Store logged in users. |
Cloudflare
For more information please visit https://developers.cloudflare.com/fundamentals/reference/policies-compliances/cloudflare-cookies/
| Cookies | Description |
|---|---|
| __cf_bm | Cloudflare places the __cf_bm cookie on end-user devices that access customer sites protected by Bot Management or Bot Fight Mode. The __cf_bm cookie is necessary for these bot solutions to function properly. |
| cf_clearance | Clearance Cookie stores the proof of challenge passed. It is used to no longer issue a challenge if present. It is required to reach an origin server. |
| cf_chl_rc_i; cf_chl_rc_ni; cf_chl_rc_m | These cookies are for internal use which allows Cloudflare to identify production issues on clients. |
Jetpack
| Cookies | Description |
|---|---|
| __ssid | For processing payment and to aid in fraud detection. |
| __stripe_sid / __stripe_mid | For processing payment and to aid in fraud detection. |
| _longreads_prod_new | Authentication for Longreads.com Member accounts. Only active when logged in, on *.longreads.com domains. |
| akm_mobile | Stores whether a user has chosen to view the mobile version of a website. |
| botdlang | Used to track the language a user has selected to view popular blogs in. |
| country_code | Used in order to determine whether or not the cookie banner should be shown. Set immediately on page load and retained for 6 hours to remember the visitor’s country. |
| csrftoken | Python/Ajax security cookie used on accounts.longreads.com. |
| forterToken | For processing payment and to aid in fraud detection. |
| landingpage_currency | Defines the currency displayed in WordPress.com landing pages. |
| pd_dashboard | Records last used folder in Crowdsignal dashboard so it can be reopened upon user’s next visit. |
| PD_USER_AUTH | Login cookie used to identify Crowdsignal user. |
| sensitive_pixel_option | Remembers the state of visitor acceptance to the cookie banner. Only set when the visitor clicks Accept. |
| twostep_auth | Set when the user is logged in using two factor authentication. |
| wordpress_logged_in* | Checks whether or not the current visitor is a logged in WordPress.com user. |
| wordpress_test_cookie | Checks if cookies are enabled to provide appropriate user experience. |
| wp-settings-{user_id} | Persists a user’s wp-admin configuration. |
| wp_sharing_{id} | Tracks whether or not a user has already performed an action. |
Analytics and Performance
| Cookies | Description |
|---|---|
| __pdvt | Used in log of Crowdsignal survey data to aid in debugging customer problems. |
| _hjIncludedInSample mp_6d7c50ad560e01715a871a117a2fbd90_mixpanel optimizelyBuckets optimizelyEndUserId __hstc hubspotutk optimizelySegments | Gathers information that helps us understand how visitors interact with our websites, which allows us to create a better visitor experience. |
| ab | Used for “AB testing” of new features. |
| nux_flow_name | Identifies which user signup flow was shown to the user. |
| tk_ni / tk_ai / tk_qs | Gathers information for our own, first party analytics tool about how our services are used. A collection of internal metrics for user activity, used to improve user experience. |
| tk_*r | Referral cookies used to analyse referrer behavior for Jetpack connected sites using WooCommerce. |
| wp-affiliate-tracker | Remembers the ID of the affiliate that referred the current user to WordPress.com |
| utma / utmb / utmc / utmt / utmz / ga / gat / gid | Google Analytics. Gathers information that helps us understand how visitors interact with our websites, which allow us to create a better experience for our visitors. Our users may also implement Google Analytics on their own websites. |
Jetpack Comments And Subscriptions
For more information please visit https://automattic.com/cookies/
| Cookies | Description |
|---|---|
| comment_author_{HASH} | Remembers the value entered into the comment form‘s name field. Specific to the site from which it is set. This cookie mirrors one set by the core WordPress software for commenting purposes. |
| comment_author_email_{HASH} | Remembers the value entered into the comment form‘s email field. Specific to the site from which it is set. This cookie mirrors one set by the core WordPress software for commenting purposes. |
| comment_author_url_{HASH} | Remembers the value entered into the comment form‘s URL field. Specific to the site from which it is set. This cookie mirrors one set by the core WordPress software for commenting purposes |
| jetpack_comments_subscribe_{HASH} | Remembers the state of the post and comment subscription checkboxes. |
| jetpack_blog_subscribe_{HASH} | Remembers the state of the post and comment subscription checkboxes. |
Contact information
If you have any questions, concerns, or just need support, please send us a message here.