Who I am
My website address is https://thewordwolf.com. I am an individual writing blog posts reflecting on literature.
Comments
When visitors leave comments on the site, I collect the data shown in the comments form, as well as the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help with spam detection.
An anonymized string created from your email address (a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to check whether you use it. The Gravatar privacy policy is available at https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.
This site uses Akismet for automated spam detection. Akismet collects information about visitors who comment, including IP address, user agent, referrer, site URL, and any information you provide in the comment form (such as name, username, email address, and the comment itself).
Cookies
If you leave a comment, you may opt in to saving your name, email address, and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so you do not have to re‑enter your details when leaving another comment. These cookies last for one year unless you clear them yourself.
Affiliate links may place tracking cookies on your device to record that you visited a retailer’s site from this one. These cookies are used only to track sales and commissions and do not identify you personally.
Links and embedded content
Articles on this site may link to other websites. I am not responsible for the content or practices of external sites. Linked pages may change, become unavailable, or contain malware; users visit external links at their own discretion.
Articles may also include embedded content (e.g., videos, images, articles). Embedded content behaves exactly as if you visited the external site directly. These sites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed third‑party tracking, and monitor your interaction with the embedded content.
I do not currently plan to use embedded content, but I cannot rule it out in future.
Affiliate links and tracking
This website participates in the Waterstones Affiliate Programme. Some links to Waterstones are affiliate links, meaning I may earn a small commission if you click through and make a purchase. This does not affect the price you pay.
Affiliate links use tracking cookies so that sales can be attributed to this site. These cookies are set by the affiliate network (Awin) and typically last up to 14 days.
Who I share your data with
I do not sell or share your personal data with third parties for marketing purposes.
However, some data is processed by service providers that help operate the site, such as:
- Akismet (spam detection)
- Google Analytics (website usage statistics)
How long your data is retained
If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely so that follow‑up comments can be recognised and approved automatically.
Legal basis for processing
Under UK GDPR, I process personal data on the following bases:
- Legitimate interests: running the site, preventing spam, maintaining security, and responding to emails.
- Consent: cookies that are not strictly necessary, including affiliate tracking and analytics cookies.
Your rights
You may request:
- access to the personal data I hold about you
- correction of inaccurate data
- deletion of your data
- restriction of processing
- a portable copy of your data
- objection to certain types of processing
If you have left comments, you may request an exported file of the personal data associated with them. This does not include data I am required to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.
To exercise your rights, contact me at annabel@thewordwolf.com.
You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) if you believe your data has been handled improperly.
Where your data is sent
Visitor comments may be checked through the Akismet automated spam detection service.
Where your data is stored
This website is hosted by d9Hosting Ltd, which may store data (such as server logs or backups) on servers located outside the UK. Where this occurs, appropriate safeguards are in place to protect your data.
How your data is protected
This site uses HTTPS encryption and other reasonable technical measures to keep your data secure. No method of transmission is perfectly secure, but I take steps to protect your information.
Data controller
The data controller for this website is:
Annabel Dunstan, owner of The Word Wolf
Contact: annabel@thewordwolf.com
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is used on this site to understand how visitors use the website and to help improve content. It collects information such as which pages are visited, how long visitors stay, and what type of device is used. This data is aggregated and does not identify you personally.
Google Analytics uses cookies to remember that you have visited the site before. These cookies may be stored on servers outside the UK. Google may also process this information to provide its analytics services.
You can opt out of Google Analytics cookies at any time by adjusting your browser settings to block or delete cookies, or by using Google’s opt‑out browser add‑on.
