As of 30 DEC 22, Avoid The Hack (avoidthehack) no longer hosts public instances of various open-source and self-hostable privacy tools (with the exception of the Browser Comparison Tool.) An official TOS is no longer "needed" - the former TOS page is redirecting here, to the site's privacy policy.
As of 15 DEC 2021 this privacy policy is combined with the previously separate cookies policy.
This privacy policy was last updated: 24 JAN 2023 View previous
As a website that promotes end-user cybersecurity and privacy, avoidthehack! respects the privacy of all visitors.
As a testament to this, this privacy policy will be short and easy to understand.
avoidthehack uses Matomo for analytics, which is an open-source and privacy-friendly analytics software. It is configured to be GDPR and CCPA compliant.
Matomo is self-hosted using the same hosting service as the main avoidthehack webiste, so what limited information it collects remains available for website admin use only. The Matomo configuration collects:
- The first two bytes of your IP address (192.168.xxx.xxx). The rest is anonymized.
- The pages of this website (and only this website) that you visit
- Your browser's referrer header, if one is sent. This is automatically anonymized so only the domain of the URL is collected, even if your browser offers the full string.
If your browser happens to send a DO NOT TRACK (DNT) request to the avoidthehack website on your behalf, these requests are honored by default.
avoidthehack doesn't collect personally identifiable information without consent.
avoidthehack uses Commento's open-source and privacy-focused commenting system for the comment sections of most posts on the website.
This commenting system does allow you to comment anonymously. Please note that if you choose to "login" to post a comment, then a persistent cookie will be stored on your device.
The information avoidthehack collects via Matomo is used to further improve avoidthehack for all visitors. Information collected is used to:
- Optimize this website for speed and ease-of-use
- Ensure site security from potential attackers
- Understand traffic volume (hits per page)
If you reach out to the general inbox on the contact page, then your email address will be used to respond to your message.
Users wanting to remain anonymous when contacting avoidthehack are encouraged to use an alias or a temporary email address to do so. Also, you can reach out to us via social media.
avoidthehack! DOES NOT sell any personal information... because there's nothing to sell.
[size=24]KEY TAKEAWAYS:[/size]
- avoidthehack DOES NOT use third-party cookies.
- All cookies from avoidthehack! are first-party only
- avoidthehack uses "essential" cookies, which are essential for proper website functions and nothing else
- avoidthehack uses a session cookie that expires automatically after 30 mins
avoidthehack! uses both session cookies and persistent cookies.
A session cookie is used to identify a particular visit to avoidthehack!. The session cookie is set to expire after 30 minutes, or after you close your web browser after visiting avoidthehack.
These cookies are used to identify you during a single browsing session and do not store personally identifiable information.
A persistent cookie will remain on your device(s) for a set period of time. Persistent cookies are used to identify you if chose to authenticate with Commento in order to place a comment on a post.
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