Privacy Policy

Last updated October 3rd, 2022

Welcome to The Backlog!

I strongly believe that service providers have a responsibility to collect, manage, and use data in a responsible way. Read on to learn about my data policies on starkephillip.com and for the newsletter, The Backlog.

For Blog Readers

If you read The Backlog on the web, know that I use Google Analytics to track usage data. However, I do not collect any personally identifying information. All of my Google Analytics data is anonymized.

If you aren’t familiar with Google Analytics, all this means is that I know how many people visited each page, I get some navigational cues (e.g. a visitor visited this page and then this page), and I can see what terms people searched for. I don’t know who you are, what you individually read, or what you searched for. I only get anonymized numbers (e.g. 50 people visited this article, a person visited this page and then this page).

I use this data as feedback on how well my writing resonates with you. If an article gets a ton of pageviews, then I consider it helpful. That’s it.

For The Backlog Subscribers

If you choose to subscribe to The Backlog via email, then I store your name (if you provide it) and your email address in MailChimp. MailChimp also keeps an activity record for you. This means that MailChimp logs every time an email is sent to you, whether or not you opened it, and whether or not you clicked on it. I use this activity data to understand how well an email performed. I occasionally use this information to troubleshoot email deliverability problems. For example, if you email me and tell me you didn’t receive my last newsletter, the first thing I’m going to do is look up your MailChimp profile and see if the email was sent to you.

In the future, I might also use groups in MailChimp to segment my readers. For example, I might end up having a group of subscribers who are also coaching clients and a group that only subscribes to the newsletter. I use these segments to try to minimize the number of emails that I send to everyone. I have a full inbox and I suspect you do, too. So, this is an easy way for me to get the most relevant content to the right people.

In the future, I might also use MailChimp groups to track experiments that I run. For example, I might create an offering for a template or some posts in ebook format in exchange for subscribing to The Backlog. If you subscribe from that offering, I will track that on your MailChimp profile. I use this data to track how effective that offer was at growing my mailing list.

If you subscribe to my list, you will receive a weekly email with a full copy of that week´s blog post. In the future, I might also end up sending occasional (once per month or so) emails that promote a new course or workshop that I am teaching.

You can subscribe or unsubscribe from any of these categories at any time by updating your email preferences. There is a link to do so in every email that I send. There is also a link that allows you to unsubscribe from all emails included in every email that I send.

For Everyone:

I will never sell your data to a third party. I believe you own your data and thus are the only person who should be able to decide who gets access to it.

I believe strongly in the “right to be forgotten” as outlined in the European Union’s GDPR. At any time, you may email me at hillip@starkephillip.com and ask that all information about you be deleted. I will delete everything that I can barring any limitations of the tools that I use.

That’s it. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to email me at phillip@starkephillip.com.

Best regards,
Phillip Starke