Privacy Policy

1. Who this is

HomeLabPulse is my site! I'm Carl McGregor, and I run this on my own, not as part of some bigger company or agency. There's no team behind this, no investors, just me writing guides about home lab / self-hosting / IT topics in my spare time and putting them online for free.

It's a static, read-only site. That matters for this policy because it shapes almost everything below. There's no user database, no login system, no shopping cart. You show up, you read a guide, you leave. That's basically the whole interaction. Legally speaking, that makes me the data controller for whatever's described in this document.

2. Why I even wrote this policy

Honestly, a site this simple probably doesn't need a document this long. But I'd rather over-explain than leave you guessing about what happens when you visit especially since "trust us, we don't track you" is something every site claims and almost nobody actually explains. So here's the actual breakdown, section by section, of what happens, what doesn't, and why.

3. What I actually collect

I've broken this into categories because "we collect data" without specifics is exactly the kind of vague language I'm trying to avoid here.

Server logs. Any site you visit does this mine's no exception. When a page loads, my hosting provider automatically logs things like your IP address, browser type and version, operating system, the page you requested, the page that referred you here (if any), and a timestamp. This happens at the infrastructure level, not something I built myself it's just how web servers work.

I use these logs for two things: spotting abuse (bots hammering the server, scraping attempts, that kind of thing) and figuring out why something broke if a page throws an error. I don't sit down and read through logs trying to figure out who's visiting. It's not used to build a profile of you, and it's not cross-referenced against anything else I hold.

Analytics. I run Google Analytics, picked specifically because it's built to avoid the invasive stuff. What I actually see is aggregate numbers how many people read a given guide this week, whether a page is getting traffic or just sitting there unread, roughly where visitors are coming from geographically at a country level. I don't see individual visitor histories, I don't get a list of "here's what user X read," and there's no device fingerprinting happening.

If you email me or use the contact form. This is the one place where you're actively handing me something. Whatever you type in typically your email address and your message I receive and use only to write back to you. I don't add you to a mailing list, I don't forward it anywhere, and I don't use it for anything beyond answering whatever you asked.

What I deliberately don't do: no account creation, no passwords to manage (and therefore nothing of yours that could leak in a breach), no payment info since nothing's for sale, and no cross-site tracking pixels or ad networks building a profile of you as you move around the internet.

4. Why I collect it

Every category above exists for a specific, narrow reason:

• Security. Logs help me notice when something's wrong a flood of requests from one IP, obvious scraping behavior, that sort of thing.
• Keeping the lights on. If a page starts throwing errors, logs are often the only way I'd know.
• Actually improving the content. Analytics tell me which guides are worth expanding and which ones nobody's reading useful info for someone writing this stuff solo.
• Answering you. If you write in, I need your email to reply. That's it.

Nothing here is used for advertising, resale, or automated decision-making about you as a person.

5. Legal basis for processing (EU/UK visitors)

If data protection law like the GDPR applies to you, here's what I'm relying on for each category:

• Server logs and aggregate analytics: legitimate interest, specifically, keeping the site secure and operational, which I'd argue is a pretty low-impact reason that doesn't override your own privacy interests.
• Contact form / email: your consent, you're choosing to write in, and you can choose not to.

If you disagree with how I've classified any of this, you're welcome to raise it with me directly see the contact section below.

6. Cookies and similar tech

I've deliberately kept this site cookie-light. There's no tracking cookie following you from page to page, no third-party ad cookie, none of that. If that ever changes like I add a feature that genuinely needs a cookie for something like remembering a display preference, I'll update this section to reflect it.

7. How information gets shared

Short version: it mostly doesn't. Longer version:

• Hosting provider (Hostinger) — they run the servers, so by necessity they handle the technical logs described above.
• Analytics provider (Google Analytics) — processes the aggregate usage data.
• Legal obligations — if a court order or lawful request required it, I'd have to comply, same as anyone.

That's genuinely the whole list. No data brokers, no ad networks, no "trusted partners" clause hiding a dozen third parties — a lot of privacy policies bury that kind of thing, and I don't have it to bury.

8. How long things stick around

• Server logs: retained for 1 month, then deleted or anonymized automatically.
• Analytics: kept in aggregate form indefinitely, but since it was never tied to an individual in the first place, there's nothing "about you" to delete later.
• Contact form messages: kept only as long as it takes to deal with your question, then cleared out periodically.

9. Security — what I do and what I can't promise

I take reasonable, common-sense precautions: HTTPS across the site. But I'll be straightforward here rather than give you corporate reassurance language: no website, mine included, can guarantee perfect security. If something ever did go wrong, I'd take it seriously and let affected visitors know as required by law.

10. Your rights

Depending on where you're located, you may have the right to:

• Know what information I hold about you
• Access a copy of it
• Correct it if something's wrong
• Delete it
• Object to how it's processed
• Receive it in a portable format, if applicable

Given how little I actually hold, most of these requests would take me minutes to resolve, not weeks. Email me and I'll handle it directly no need to fill out some formal request portal.

If you're a California resident: the CCPA gives you the right to know what's collected, request deletion, and opt out of any sale of personal data. That last one's moot here since I've never sold anyone's data and don't intend to start.

If you're elsewhere Canada, Australia, wherever and your local law gives you similar rights, I'll honor the spirit of the request even if the specific law doesn't technically apply to a site like mine.

11. If you're visiting from outside USA

Since the site's hosted in USA, anything logged may be processed there, which could have different privacy laws than wherever you're reading this from. For a site this simple, this is more of a technical formality than anything that meaningfully affects you but it's worth disclosing properly.

12. Third-party links

A lot of the guides here link out to software projects, official documentation, GitHub repos, hardware retailers, forums. Once you click through, you're off HomeLabPulse and onto their site, playing by their privacy rules, not mine. I don't control what they collect, and I'd genuinely encourage you to check their policy before handing over any info there.

13. Children's privacy

This site isn't aimed at kids, and I don't knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 13 (or the relevant age where you live, if it's higher). If you're a parent and think your child sent something through the contact form, email me and I'll delete it no questions asked.

14. Do Not Track signals

Some browsers let you send a "Do Not Track" signal. There's no real industry consensus on what sites are supposed to do with that signal, so right now I don't treat it any differently, mainly because the site barely tracks anyone to begin with, DNT or not.

15. Changes to this policy

I'll update this page as the site grows, the law shifts, or I add something new that requires disclosure. The date at the top always reflects the latest version. If I make a change significant enough to matter, I'll try to flag it clearly rather than quietly editing the fine print. Continuing to use the site after an update means you're okay with the current version.

16. Questions, concerns, anything at all

I mean this genuinely if any part of this is unclear or you just want to ask something directly rather than parse a legal document, email me:

homelabpulse@gmail.com

I read these myself. No support team, no auto-responder script pretending to be a person.