BitrateCraft · Legal · bitratecraft.org
Privacy Policy
This policy explains what this website collects, why it collects it, how long it is kept, who may see it, and what a visitor can ask us to change. It applies to the BitrateCraft editorial site and to the contact form that sits on it.
1. Who is responsible for your information
BitrateCraft is an independent editorial desk that publishes technical writing about open-source video encoding and related media tools, including commentary that refers to the HandBrake project. The desk decides why and how the small amount of personal information described below is handled. The desk can be reached by post at BitrateCraft Editorial Desk, 2610 Webberville Road, Suite 214, Austin, TX 78702, United States, or by telephone at +1 (512) 555-0142. Privacy questions go to legal@bitratecraft.org; ordinary editorial questions go to desk@bitratecraft.org.
2. What the contact form collects
The only interactive element on this site is a contact form. It records four fields exactly as typed: a name, an email address, an optional subject line, and the text of the message. Nothing else is requested. The form does not ask for a password, a payment card number, a government identifier, or any health information, and the desk does not want any of those.
| Field | Purpose | Kept for |
|---|---|---|
| Name | To address a reply correctly and to sort correspondence | Up to 24 months |
| Email address | To answer the message and to send a correction notice | Up to 24 months |
| Subject | To route the message to the right editor | Up to 24 months |
| Message body | To understand and answer the request | Up to 24 months |
Separately, the web server keeps ordinary technical logs: the page requested, the date and time, a shortened network address, and the browser user-agent string. These logs exist to keep the service available and to notice automated abuse, and they are discarded on a short rotating schedule.
3. How your information is used
- To read and answer the message you send.
- To correct or clarify an article when a reader reports an error.
- To keep a plain record of editorial correspondence.
- To defend the site against spam and automated attacks.
We do not use your information to build profiles, to make automated decisions that affect you, or to serve advertising. We do not merge it with data obtained from anyone else.
4. Legal basis and consent
Where the law requires a legal basis, the desk relies on your consent, which you give by choosing to send a message, and on the legitimate interest of answering readers and keeping the site working. You may withdraw consent at any time by writing to the address in section 1; withdrawing it does not affect anything already done with your information before that point.
5. Retention
Messages are kept for no more than twenty-four months from the last exchange, after which they are deleted. Server logs expire far sooner, on the order of days to weeks. When a retention period ends, the material is removed rather than archived indefinitely. If you ask us to delete your message sooner, we will do so unless a legal reason requires us to keep it, and if that is the case we will tell you.
6. Who may see your information
Access is limited to the editors who answer correspondence and to the host that runs this website. The hosting provider processes the material only as needed to keep the site online. We do not sell, rent, or trade personal information, and we do not share it for advertising. We may disclose it if the law requires it or if it is necessary to protect the site from a specific attack, and we would disclose no more than the situation demands.
7. Your rights
Depending on where you live, you may have the right to see the information we hold about you, to correct it, to delete it, to receive a copy in a portable format, to object to certain uses, and to withdraw consent. To exercise any of these, write to legal@bitratecraft.org. We will confirm within a reasonable time, normally within thirty days, and we may need to verify that the request comes from you. You also have the right to complain to your local regulator.
8. Children
This site is written for a general adult audience and is not directed to children. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under thirteen, and where local law sets a higher age for consent to online services, we observe that higher age. If you believe a child has sent us a message, write to legal@bitratecraft.org and we will delete it.
9. Security
Correspondence is stored on a limited-access system, protected by passwords and by transport encryption between your browser and the server. No system is perfectly secure, so we keep the amount of information we hold as small as possible, which is the most reliable protection of all.
10. Transfers
The desk is based in the United States and the site is hosted in the United States. If you write to us from another country, your message is handled in the United States, where privacy rules may differ from those at home.
11. Changes to this policy
If the way we handle information changes, this page changes with it, and the revision date shown at the foot of the page is updated. Material changes are noted on the home page for a reasonable period.
12. Contact
Questions about this policy are welcome at legal@bitratecraft.org or by post to the address in section 1. This document is a plain-English description of our practice, not a substitute for legal advice to you.