Privacy Policy
This site (The Way, One Thread) is a personal blog. This privacy policy describes how this site handles visitors’ personal information — what we collect, why we collect it, whether it is shared with third parties, how long it is retained, and the rights you have over the information we hold.
No tracking, no profiling, no ads, no selling data. Information is only left behind when you choose to post a comment; the page watermark reads your IP and device time zone to deter content theft, but it is never stored or shared.
Last updated: 2026-10-23
1. What I collect
Provided by you
| Data | When | Required |
|---|---|---|
| Display name | When posting a comment | Required |
| Email address | When posting a comment | Required, but never shown publicly |
| Comment text | When posting a comment | Required, max 1,000 characters |
Read automatically when you visit
| Data | Purpose | Stored? |
|---|---|---|
| IP address | Generates the page watermark for provenance | No |
| Device time zone | Makes the watermark show your local date | No |
These two are read at render time only to assemble the watermark text. They are never written to the database, never written to access logs, and never sent to any third party.
Involving only the site owner
The admin panel uses Supabase accounts, held only by the site owner. Passwords are stored as one-way hashes. Visitors need no account and no login to read or comment.
2. How each item is used
| Data | Purpose | Used for anything else? |
|---|---|---|
| Display name | Shown next to your comment | No |
| Email address | Identifies the commenter; used to contact you if a dispute arises | Never published, never used for marketing, never shared or sold |
| Comment text | Displayed publicly under the relevant post | No |
| IP address | Only to build the watermark label; analytics services handle it separately, see §6 | No profiling, no history retained by this site |
| Time zone | Only to compute the local date on the watermark | Same as above |
This site does not do: user profiling, behavioural analytics, interest tagging, personalised recommendations, ad targeting, or data trading.
3. About the page watermark
You may notice faint diagonal text overlaid on the page. This is a provenance watermark.
- Content:
IP label · your local date · site name - Purpose: if content is copied wholesale or screenshots circulate, it helps identify the source. It is a minimal safeguard for original writing.
- What it does not do: it does not record your browsing path, build a profile, link your visits to data generated on this page, or share anything with third parties (the analytics services are covered separately in §6).
- Visibility: low opacity — essentially invisible while reading, and it never blocks clicks or text selection.
If you would rather not see it, a browser extension can hide the element, or you can browse in private mode. Nothing on the site depends on the watermark, so hiding it does not affect your reading.
4. Cookies and local storage
This site uses no advertising cookies and does no cross-site tracking. Cookies fall into two groups: essential (no consent needed) and only present after you consent (Google Analytics).
| Name | Type | Purpose | Duration | Consent required |
|---|---|---|---|---|
unlocked | Cookie | Remembers that a protected post has been unlocked. Contains a page identifier and a signature — no personal information | 30 days | No (functional) |
theme | Browser local storage | Remembers your dark / light preference | Until you clear browser data | No (local only) |
styleblog-my-comments | Browser local storage | Stores your comment deletion token so you can manage your own comments | Same as above | No (local only) |
analytics-consent | Browser local storage | Remembers your analytics choice (granted / denied) so you are not asked on every visit | Until you clear browser data | No (local only) |
_ga | Cookie | Random identifier Google Analytics uses to distinguish visitors | Up to 2 years | Yes — never written before you accept |
_ga_<container-id> | Cookie | Google Analytics 4 session state | Up to 2 years | Yes — never written before you accept |
- Apart from
unlockedand_ga*, which are sent with requests, everything above lives only in your browser. - Clearing browser data removes them all, with no effect on reading.
unlockedisHttpOnlyandSameSite=Lax: scripts cannot read it, and it is used only to check unlock status.
5. Third-party services involved
There is no self-hosted server; the data path involves:
| Service | Role | Data involved |
|---|---|---|
| Cloudflare | Hosting, global content delivery, Web Analytics | Request routing; analytics uses no cookies and no fingerprinting (the platform handles network-level logs under its own policies) |
| Supabase | Database and authentication | Posts, comments, site owner account |
| GitHub | Code hosting | No visitor data |
| Google Analytics (optional) | Visit analytics | Loaded only after you click "Accept"; data is transferred to Google (United States) |
Not used: Baidu Analytics, Umeng, 51LA or other Chinese analytics platforms; no ad networks, affiliate marketing, or behavioural tracking scripts of any kind.
6. Analytics and your choice
The purpose of the analytics on this site is to understand traffic, as well as engagement and retention — specifically, to learn which posts are actually being read, where readers come from, whether they go on to read more after finishing one piece, and whether they come back after a while. That information is used only to decide what to write and how to improve the site, and for nothing else.
This site uses two analytics services with very different properties — please read them separately.
1. Cloudflare Web Analytics (always on, no consent needed)
- No cookies, no local storage, no device fingerprinting.
- Records aggregated page-level metrics: page views, referrers, country/region, and page performance.
- Because no personal identifier is involved, consent is not required under common practice, and there is no separate switch.
2. Google Analytics (not loaded by default, requires your consent)
- On your first visit, a banner appears at the bottom of the page asking whether Google Analytics may be loaded.
- The "Accept" and "Decline" buttons are visually identical. Nothing is pre-selected, and there is no "close button hidden in a corner" pattern.
- Before you click "Accept", the Google Analytics script is not downloaded at all — it is not a matter of loading then blocking; the request is never made.
- If you decline, Google Analytics is never loaded, and no site feature is affected.
- Either way, your choice is stored locally in your browser, so you will not be asked again. Clearing browser data resets the question.
- Once accepted, the metrics it helps measure include page views, sessions, average engagement time, bounce behaviour, and the ratio of new versus returning visitors. IP anonymisation is enabled, and the data is not used for advertising or cross-site retargeting.
3. The practical experience for visitors in mainland China
The Google Analytics script lives on googletagmanager.com, which may fail to load or be very slow on some networks in mainland China. Even if you accept, no data may be reported — that is a network limitation, not something this site does. It is also why Cloudflare Web Analytics remains necessary: it is the only channel through which visitors in mainland China can be reliably counted.
4. You can change your mind
Clearing local storage (or using a private window) brings the question back. To reverse an earlier "Accept", remove the analytics-consent entry and reload the page, then choose "Decline".
7. How long data is kept
| Data | Retention |
|---|---|
| Comments (name, email, text) | Kept long-term until you request deletion or the site closes |
| IP address | Not retained by this site (analytics platforms handle it under their own policies) |
| Time zone | Not retained |
Analytics cookies (_ga*) | Up to 2 years; removed with browser data |
| Browser local storage | Under your control — clearing removes it |
8. What you can do
- Ask: email me to ask whether any comment data of yours is stored.
- Delete: after posting, your browser holds a deletion token that lets you remove your own comment on the page. You can also simply email me.
- Withdraw: clearing browser data removes your theme preference and deletion token. To remove comments and email from the database, email me.
- Object: if you would rather your IP were not read for the watermark, use a proxy or hide the watermark element. The site will not restrict your access as a result.
- Change your analytics choice: clear the
analytics-consententry in your browser and reload the page to choose again.
Contact: intl1024@outlook.com
Tip: clicking the address opens your system's default mail app. If nothing happens, no default mail client is configured — copy the address and send from a web mail service instead.
9. Cross-border transfers and minors
- Data is stored on cloud services outside mainland China (Supabase and Cloudflare global nodes). If you consent to Google Analytics, related analytics data is also transferred to Google (United States).
- By visiting this site, you understand that relevant data may be processed outside your country or region.
- This is a personal content site. It does not knowingly collect information from minors, and it does not collect sensitive personal information (such as ID numbers, biometrics, or precise location).
10. Changes to this notice
If this notice changes, the "Last updated" date at the top of this page will change. If the scope of collection changes materially, I will note it on the homepage or in a post.