Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy explains how MacFastSearch ("we", "us", "our") collects, uses, shares and protects information when you visit macfastsearch.com (the "Site"). It also sets out the rights you have over your information and how to exercise them. For the purposes of the European and United Kingdom data protection laws described below, MacFastSearch is the controller of the personal data processed through the Site. You can reach us at any time at hello@macfastsearch.com.
Information we collect
We collect two kinds of information. The first is information you give us directly — for example, an email address if you subscribe to updates, or the contents of a message you send us through a contact form. We only ask for what is needed for the purpose at hand, and we do not require you to create an account to read the Site.
The second is information collected automatically as you use the Site. This includes your IP address, approximate location derived from that address (usually at country or city level), browser type and version, operating system and device type, screen and viewport size, referring URL, the pages you view, the links you click, and the date, time and duration of your visit. Some of this is recorded in our own analytics so that we can understand which articles are read and whether the Site is working correctly, and some is collected by the third-party advertising and measurement providers described below.
We do not knowingly collect government identifiers, financial account numbers, precise geolocation, biometric data, or information about health, race, religion, sexual orientation or political opinions. We do not ask for them and the Site has no feature that would require them.
How we use information
- To operate, secure and improve the Site, including diagnosing errors and preventing abuse and fraudulent traffic.
- To understand in aggregate how visitors find and use our content, so we can decide what to publish.
- To display advertising, which is how the Site is funded, and to measure whether that advertising performed.
- To respond to messages you send us, and to send updates if you have specifically asked for them.
- To comply with legal obligations and to enforce our terms.
Cookies and similar technologies
Cookies are small text files stored by your browser. We and our partners also use related technologies such as local storage, pixels and software development kits, and this policy treats all of them together as "cookies".
We use strictly necessary cookies to make the Site function — for example, to remember that you have already responded to a consent prompt. These cannot be switched off through our consent tool because the Site would not work correctly without them. We use analytics cookies to measure traffic in aggregate. And our advertising partners use advertising cookies to select, deliver, cap the frequency of and measure ads, and in some configurations to build a profile of interests used to personalise them.
You can delete existing cookies and block future ones through your browser settings. Doing so is entirely your choice, but note that blocking all cookies will stop some parts of the Site working as intended.
Advertising and our advertising partners
The Site carries advertising delivered through Google, using Google AdSense and Google Ad Manager. Google and its ad technology providers, acting as third parties, use cookies and device identifiers to serve and measure ads on this Site.
Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visit to this Site and/or other sites on the Internet. You can review and change the settings Google applies to your account, including turning off ad personalisation entirely, at Google My Ad Center or Google Ads Settings. You can read how Google uses information from sites that use its services at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites, and see the list of ad technology providers Google may work with at Google's ad technology providers list.
Where personalised advertising is not permitted — because you have declined it, or because applicable law requires consent that has not been given — ads may still be shown, but they will be selected on a non-personalised basis using only coarse signals such as the content of the page and general location. Advertising is how the Site is funded, so declining personalisation reduces our revenue but does not restrict your access to any content.
You can also opt out of interest-based advertising from many participating companies at aboutads.info, the Network Advertising Initiative, or Your Online Choices in Europe.
If you are in the EEA, the United Kingdom or Switzerland
We process personal data under the EU General Data Protection Regulation, the UK GDPR and the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection as applicable. Before any non-essential cookie is set, we present a consent message through a Google-certified consent management platform that participates in the IAB Europe Transparency and Consent Framework. That message identifies the purposes for which data would be processed and the vendors who would receive it, and lets you accept, reject, or configure each purpose individually.
Our legal bases are as follows. Consent is the basis for advertising cookies, personalised advertising, non-essential analytics and any marketing email. Legitimate interests is the basis for keeping the Site secure, preventing fraudulent and invalid traffic, and understanding aggregate usage where that is done without non-essential cookies. Legal obligation applies where we must retain or disclose information to comply with the law. Where we rely on consent, you may withdraw it at any time without affecting the lawfulness of processing already carried out.
You have the right to request access to the personal data we hold about you, to have inaccurate data corrected, to have data erased, to restrict or object to processing, to receive your data in a portable format, and to withdraw consent. You also have the right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing that has legal or similarly significant effects — we do not carry out such decision-making. To exercise any of these rights, email us and we will respond within one month, extendable by two further months for complex requests, as the regulations allow.
Some of our service providers, including Google, are located outside the EEA, the UK and Switzerland, so your data may be transferred to countries whose laws differ from your own. Where that happens we rely on an adequacy decision covering the destination country, or on Standard Contractual Clauses or the UK International Data Transfer Addendum together with an assessment of the safeguards in place.
If you believe we have handled your data improperly, you may complain to your national supervisory authority — in the UK, the Information Commissioner's Office; in Switzerland, the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner; and in the EEA, the authority in your country of residence or workplace.
If you are in the United States
Several US states, including California, Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, Texas and Oregon, give residents specific rights over their personal information. Where those laws apply to us, we honour the rights they grant regardless of which state you live in.
We want to be straightforward about one point that is often obscured. When personalised advertising is enabled, the personal information described above — identifiers, device and browsing information — is disclosed to advertising partners in a way that several of these laws define as a "sale" or "sharing" of personal information for cross-context behavioural advertising or targeted advertising. We do not exchange your information for money, and we do not disclose it for any purpose unrelated to advertising and measurement, but we do not claim an exemption we are not entitled to.
You have the right to know what categories of personal information we collect and to whom we disclose it, to request a copy, to request correction, to request deletion, to opt out of that sale or sharing and of targeted advertising, to limit the use of sensitive personal information (we do not collect any), and to be free from discrimination for exercising any of these rights. Several states also give you the right to appeal a refused request, and you may do so by replying to our decision.
To opt out, use the privacy choices message shown on the Site, which is available at any time, or email us. We also honour the Global Privacy Control browser signal where your browser or extension transmits it, and treat it as a valid opt-out request. You may make a request through an authorised agent, in which case we will ask for proof of their authority.
Under California's "Shine the Light" law you may request information about disclosures of personal information to third parties for direct marketing purposes. We do not disclose personal information for third-party direct marketing.
Analytics
We operate our own first-party analytics to record page views, referrers, approximate country, device type and interactions with our content. This data is stored in aggregate form for reporting and is not used to identify individual people or combined with information from other sources to build personal profiles.
How long we keep information
Analytics and log records are retained in aggregate for up to twenty-six months, after which they are deleted or irreversibly aggregated further. Email addresses supplied for updates are kept until you unsubscribe. Messages you send us are kept for as long as needed to deal with the matter and then for a reasonable period afterwards as a record. Cookies expire according to their own lifetimes, which the consent tool discloses. Where a specific legal obligation requires longer retention, we keep only what that obligation requires.
Security
The Site is served over HTTPS, and access to our analytics and administrative systems is restricted to authorised personnel using strong authentication. We keep the amount of personal information we hold deliberately small, which is the most effective protection available. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, however, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.
Children's privacy
The Site is intended for a general adult audience and is not directed to children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13, or under 16 where local law sets that higher threshold, and we do not knowingly permit advertising to be personalised for them. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, contact us and we will delete it.
Third-party links
Our articles link to other websites, including to products and services we discuss. Some of those links may be commercial. We have no control over the privacy practices of any site we link to, and this policy does not apply once you leave the Site. Read the privacy policy of any site before providing information to it.
Changes to this policy
We may update this policy to reflect changes in our practices, in the services we use, or in the law. When we do, we will revise the "last updated" date at the top of this page, and if the change materially affects how your information is used we will present a fresh consent or notice on the Site rather than relying on you to check back.
Contact us
For any privacy question, or to exercise any right described above, email hello@macfastsearch.com with enough detail for us to identify the request. We may ask for information to verify your identity before acting, which we use only for that verification and then delete.