[Last updated on 28 September, 2024]
The Truth—before the policy
Before going into the actual “policy” that we literally never read, let me give you some “Bluntly Honest Warnings about Anonymity or the So-called Anonymous Statistics”—applicable for not just my website, but consider this for any website on the Internet:
Although all statistics I save is technically “anonymous,” or so it is said by every other website. However, it is possible to connect multiple meta-data from internal or external sources, matching those time-stamps and other information it is possible to identify someone often quite easily. Example:
If you are just visiting this website, without logging in or without giving me any information, I still already know your public IP address, name of your Internet Service Provider, your neighbourhood or city level location, the time-stamp of your visit, the amount of time you spent on which page, details of the device you used, i.e: weather it is a phone or a computer, the model of the device, name and version of the browser/app, name and version of the operating system, your screen resolution or size (unless you are actively hiding your track by using some tool). And it has nothing to do with the cookies, it does not matter whether you allow them or block. This much information you are giving up literally the moment you click a link or visit “any website” you browse on the Internet, period.
In most cases these information are constantly collected and archived indefinitely. Now if I have any additional meta information about you, like the time you exactly browse my website, I would be able to match that time-stamp with my statistical record, and find out who you are and what you did here. One trick phone call to your ISP might also reveal your exact address. It is that easy.
However, on this website, I try my best to protect your privacy through these initiatives:
1. There is no third party analytics here. Specially no Google or Facebook owned analytics tool is used, ever.
2. No other Google owned tools is used to protect you from being automatically tracked through Google Analytics ecosystem.
3. All forms and comments are natively hosted, nothing goes out of this server.
4. I manage the whole thing from DevOps to front end myself, 100% of it. There is no IT guy, and no third party is involved.
(The actual) Privacy Policy
General
This website is single handedly created and managed by myself (Mohammad Tauheed), i.e: There is no team/party involved who may have access to the server and its content. I respect your privacy, and I handle your data with utmost security and confidentiality. I use standard cookies and/or sessions and certain third-party services to improve your experience of using the website (https://tauheed.online).
Understanding ‘Cookies’
A cookie is a piece of text which asks permission to be placed on your computer’s internal storage. Once you agree (or your browser agrees automatically if you have set it up in that way), your browser adds that text in a small file.
Consent to use of cookies
Cookies collect information about how visitors use the site, for instance which pages visitors go to most often, and if they get error messages from web pages. These cookies do not collect information which identifies a visitor, and I will not use cookies to collect personally identifiable information about you. All information is aggregated and therefore anonymous. By using the website you agree that I can place these types of cookies on your device.
How to control and delete cookies
I treat all the data held with the utmost care and security. However, if you wish to restrict or block the cookies which are set by tauheed.online, or indeed any other website, or if you wish to receive notification of cookie placement requests or decline cookies completely, you can do this through your browser settings. The Help function within your browser should tell you how. Please be aware that declining or denying cookies may prevent you from being able to use the website to its highest capability. Alternatively, you may wish to visit www.aboutcookies.org which contains comprehensive information on how to do this on a wide variety of browsers as well as more general information about cookies.
1. All data collected, archived and recorded at and through the Website is anonymous or anonymised. (Unless you are providing additional information voluntarily. Example, if you are using a sign-up form to register for the DSP—101 course, or any other subscription form, it may record and transmit your name, email address and messages as you provide. Also, all third-party plugins may have different policies for anonymity. Example: Google and Facebook may be tracking your browsing anonymously or not, depending on ‘your’ privacy settings with those services. Further details are in the following paragraphs.)
2. Your public IP address with time-stamp is logged and kept on record. This also allows the system to obtain and record certain publicly available meta-information aggregated from your IP address, which may include your ‘city, neighbourhood or country-level’ location and basic information about your internet connection. This is a standard practice invariably applied at any website on the internet.
3. Your ‘user agent’ information is logged and kept on record. ‘User agent’ information may include some details of the device you browse the Website with, its basic model, operating system etc. This is a standard practice invariably applied at any website on the internet.
4. Your browsing history inside tauheed.online may be recorded and stored indefinitely for statistics anonymously.
5. Your interactions with any third-party run embedded media (Example: embedded YouTube video, issue book, SoundCloud audio, Facebook post and video, Instagram post, Tweets, Flickr photos etc.) within tauheed.online website may have different terms and privacy policy set by the respective owners/operators of the embedded media or contents. Those policies may greatly vary from tauheed.online’s privacy policy. If you have an active “third-party cookie” blocking on your browser, you should be safe from these external cookies.
6. Your connection from your browser to tauheed.online server may be routed through a CDN (Content Distribution Network), i.e: CloudFlare. (Details in the following paragraphs).
7. Physical location and local laws: I am based in Bangladesh and Thailand. The Website is distributed through a Content Distribution Network (CDN) from various ‘cloud stations’ in multiple locations all over the world. Generally you are being served from the nearest CDN server. No matter where the contents are physically served from, I adhere to the local (Bangladeshi) laws of Information and Communication Technology for data protection, privacy, abuse and other statutory issues.
Other key information you should know:
Active Third-party Services at tauheed.online website that might affect your privacy
The Website uses certain third-party services to improve the experience of its users, to collect traffic information, various optimisations, and to serve rich embedded media. These services, embedded contents use their own sets of cookies, often unrelated to tauheed.online. The most important ones are:
1. Analytics
The services contained in this section enable the Owner to monitor and analyse web traffic, and can be used to keep track of User behaviour. The Website uses:
Native Analytics only, no third-party involved
This website uses a privacy-friendly, native, self-hosted, fully anonymised analytics tool for monitoring and user behaviour. It does not send any data outside to any third party.
2. Traffic optimisation and distribution (Use of CDN)
This type of service allows this Website to distribute their content using servers located across different countries and to optimise their performance.
Which Personal Data are processed depends on the characteristics and the way these services are implemented. Their function is to filter communications between this Application and the User’s browser.
Considering the widespread distribution of this system, it is difficult to determine the locations to which the contents that may contain Personal Information User are transferred. The Website uses:
CloudFlare (Cloudflare)
CloudFlare is a traffic optimisations and distribution service provided by CloudFlare Inc.
The way CloudFlare is integrated means that it filters all the traffic through this Website, i.e., communication between this Website and the User’s browser, while also allowing analytical data from this Website to be collected.
Personal Data collected: Cookies and various types of Data as specified in the privacy policy of the service.
Place of processing: United States – Privacy Policy.
3. Managing contacts and sending messages
This type of service makes it possible to manage a database of email contacts, phone contacts or any other contact information to communicate with the User.
This website does not use any such tool. No data is collected.
4. Commenting
This website uses a native, privacy-friendly, self-hosted commenting solution, no social media or third parties are involved. Data collected through commenting section is never shared outside, and used only for identification of the commenter and ease of notifications.
5. Other Embedded Contents and Associated Cookies
Throughout the Website, there may be embedded contents from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, issuu.com, Esri/ArcGIS and Flickr. These third-party services set their own cookies, obtain and track various information, which may be linked to your personal profiles with these services logged-in from the same browser or device,
Example
: If you are viewing a Facebook video embedded inside our website, if you are logged in to Facebook from the same browser, Facebook may know and track that you have watched that video on our site.
All third-party service cookies may have separate privacy policies, find those in the respective services. I am not liable for misuse of information transmitted through third-party services and cookies. You can tweak your browser for turning off/managing “third-party cookies.”