Last updated: 25 September 2026
This is a personal website for the writer Jesse Sherwood. It has no shop, no accounts, no newsletter and no comment section. The only thing it can learn about you is whether you choose to let it count your visit.
Who is responsible
Jesse Sherwood is the data controller for this site. For anything in this notice, including requests about your data, write to contact@jessesherwood.com.
What is collected
Analytics — only if you accept
If you choose Accept in the cookie banner, this site loads Google Analytics 4, which records things like the pages you view, roughly where in the world you are, your device and browser type, and how you arrived here. Google Analytics 4 discards full IP addresses rather than storing them, and this site does not use Google Ads, remarketing or advertising features of any kind.
If you decline, or simply ignore the banner, no analytics request is made — the analytics script is never loaded and no analytics cookies are set. Note that the web font below is a separate matter: it reaches Google whatever you choose here.
Legal basis: your consent (GDPR Art. 6(1)(a)). You can withdraw it at any time, and withdrawing is as easy as giving it:
Web fonts — no choice offered
One display typeface, Bungee Shade, is loaded from Google Fonts
(fonts.googleapis.com and fonts.gstatic.com).
Fetching it discloses your IP address, and general information about your
browser and device, to Google. This happens on every page load, before
and regardless of any choice you make in the cookie banner. No cookie is
set by it. Every other typeface on this site is served from this domain
and involves nobody else.
Legal basis: legitimate interests in presenting the site as designed (GDPR Art. 6(1)(f)).
Hosting
The site is hosted on GitHub Pages (GitHub, Inc.). Like any web host, GitHub processes the technical data needed to deliver a page to you — including your IP address — and may retain short-lived server logs for security and abuse prevention. This happens for every visitor and cannot be switched off, as it is inherent to serving the site.
Legal basis: legitimate interests in operating and securing the site (GDPR Art. 6(1)(f)).
If you email
The contact page reveals email addresses; it does not submit anything to this site. If you write to one of them, your message and address are processed by the recipient's own email provider, and kept as long as needed to deal with your enquiry.
Legal basis: legitimate interests in responding to correspondence (GDPR Art. 6(1)(f)).
Cookies and local storage
| Name | Type | Purpose | Expires |
|---|---|---|---|
consent.v1 |
Local storage | Remembers whether you accepted or declined analytics, so you are not asked again. Strictly necessary; set regardless of your choice. | Until you clear site data |
menuShownThisSession |
Session storage | Remembers that the navigation menu has already opened once, so it does not reopen on every page. Strictly necessary. | When you close the tab |
_ga, _ga_* |
Cookie (Google Analytics) | Distinguishes one visitor from another for visit counts. Only set if you accept. | 2 years |
Declining removes any analytics cookies already present. Strictly necessary storage is exempt from the consent requirement under the ePrivacy Directive Art. 5(3), because it exists only to deliver what you asked for — including your own privacy choice.
Who your data reaches
Three third parties are involved, and none receives anything beyond what is described above:
- GitHub, Inc. — hosting. Privacy statement
- Google Ireland Limited — analytics, only with your consent. Privacy & terms
- Google Ireland Limited — web fonts, on every page load regardless of consent. Google Fonts & privacy
Nothing is sold, and nothing is shared for advertising.
Transfers outside the EEA
Both providers are US-based and may process data in the United States. Each is certified under the EU–US Data Privacy Framework and additionally relies on the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses, which are the safeguards required by GDPR Chapter V.
How long it is kept
Analytics data is retained by Google for 14 months and then deleted automatically. Hosting logs are kept by GitHub under its own policy. Emails are kept for as long as the correspondence is live.
Your rights
If the GDPR applies to you, you have the right to request access to your personal data, to have it corrected or erased, to restrict or object to its processing, and to receive it in a portable form. Where processing rests on consent, you may withdraw that consent at any time without affecting what was lawful beforehand.
To exercise any of these, email contact@jessesherwood.com. In practice, the fastest remedy for analytics is the button above: declining stops the collection and clears the cookies immediately.
You also have the right to complain to a supervisory authority. If you are in the EEA, that is the data protection authority of the country where you live or work; in the UK it is the Information Commissioner's Office.
Children
This site is not directed at children and does not knowingly collect data from them.
Changes
If this notice changes in a way that affects what is collected, the date at the top will change and the cookie banner will ask again.