Who We Are
This website is The Retired Menace, operated by Tom – Spike’s Best Friend
The website address is:
This is a personal website containing stories, photographs, travel memories, galleries, commentary, opinions, and the occasional observation about the state of the world.
Your Privacy
I do not run this website for the purpose of collecting personal information.
I do not sell visitor information.
I do not build advertising profiles.
I do not intentionally track visitors around the internet.
I am much more interested in telling stories and posting photographs than figuring out what you had for breakfast.
That said, WordPress and some third-party services may handle limited technical information as part of operating the website.
Comments
If comments are enabled and you leave a comment, WordPress may collect the information entered into the comment form along with technical information such as your IP address and browser information.
This information may be used for comment moderation and spam detection.
If a Gravatar account is associated with the email address you provide, a profile image may appear beside your approved comment. Gravatar is operated by Automattic and has its own privacy policy.
If comments are disabled on a particular page or throughout the site, none of this applies because there is no comment form to submit.
Cookies
The site itself does not intentionally use cookies to build visitor profiles or track people for advertising.
WordPress may use basic cookies for normal website functions.
For example, if comments are enabled, WordPress may offer to remember your name, email address, or website so you do not have to enter them again next time.
Administrative and login cookies may also be used for people authorized to manage the website.
These are functional WordPress cookies rather than an attempt by The Retired Menace to follow you around the internet.
Embedded Content
Some pages may include material from other websites, including videos, maps, music players, photographs, or other embedded content.
Examples could include services such as YouTube, Spotify, OpenStreetMap, or similar websites.
When you interact with embedded content, the third-party provider may receive technical information, use cookies, or record your interaction according to its own privacy policy.
Those services operate independently from The Retired Menace.
External Links
This website contains links to other websites.
Once you leave The Retired Menace, I have no control over what another website collects, stores, tracks, sells, loses, misplaces, or otherwise does with its visitors.
Their privacy policies apply while you are on their sites.
Accounts and Registration
This is primarily a personal publishing website.
Visitors are not normally required to create an account.
If account registration is ever enabled, WordPress may store information necessary to maintain that account.
Analytics
I do not intentionally collect visitor information for marketing purposes.
If basic traffic statistics or server logs are provided automatically by the web host, WordPress, security software, or another technical service, that information may be processed as part of operating and protecting the website.
It is not used by me to build personal advertising profiles.
Spam and Security
Comments, forms, and other submissions may be checked by automated spam or security services.
Web hosting systems may also retain technical server logs for security, troubleshooting, or normal system operation.
Your Information
If you have submitted personal information through a feature on this website and want to know what information may be associated with you, you may contact the site and request that it be reviewed or removed where reasonably possible and where there is no legal or administrative reason it must be retained.
Photographs, Writing and Copyright
Unless otherwise stated, the photographs, writing, stories, commentary, graphics, and other original material published on The Retired Menace belong to me.
In plain English:
If it is mine, it is mine.
Material belonging to someone else will be identified or credited where appropriate.
You are welcome to link to pages on this website.
Please do not copy, republish, sell, reproduce, or present my photographs or writing as your own without permission.
Quotations, embedded media, trademarks, album artwork, historical material, and other third-party content remain the property of their respective owners.
Opinions
The opinions expressed on this website are my own unless clearly stated otherwise.
Some of them may be serious.
Some may be sarcastic.
Some may have improved with age.
Others may not have.
Changes to This Policy
This page may be updated from time to time as the website changes.
If I suddenly develop an overwhelming desire to collect everybody’s personal information, this policy will need a considerably longer rewrite.
Until then, the basic rule is simple:
I am here to publish stories and photographs, not collect data about you.