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Privacy Policy

roelwillems.com

Last updated: November 2025

roelwillems.com (“the website”) is operated by Roel Willems. This Privacy Policy explains how your personal data is collected, used, and protected in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Summary

My intent with my personal website is to share my ideas and writing with everyone who finds it relevant. I offer a newsletter membership for the sole purpose of making it easy to follow along. I collect and retain as little data as necessary for this purpose. In addition some additional anonymous statistics are used to gauge content popularity via Ghost blogging platforms native privacy-friendly cookie-less analytics. This website runs and stores all data on EU servers.

1. What data is collected

The Website collects only the minimum data required for basic functionality:

  • Technical data: IP address (anonymized), browser type, device information, pages visited — via the (cookie-free) Ghost native analytics built into the site.
  • Newsletter member data (if you sign-up for the newsletter): Email address when you subscribe, member-ID (generated by Ghost blogging software), membership status, when you register or subscribe.
  • Contact data (only if you voluntarily provide it): Name, email address, message content when contacting via forms or email.

2. How your data is used

Your data is used solely to:

  • Respond to messages you submit.
  • Send newsletters (only when you opt-in).
  • Improve the performance and content of the website using aggregated, anonymized analytics.
  • If you are a member, track membership metrics (such as subscription status) and how content is consumed (members vs non-members) in order to improve content and membership offerings.

The website processes personal data based on:

  • Consent: For newsletter membership sign-ups and contact-form submissions.
  • Legitimate interest: For essential, privacy-friendly analytics (built-in analytics from Ghost) and website security, understanding how content is consumed to improve the service.

4. Analytics and cookies

  • The website uses the Ghost native analytics solution, which is first-party, cookie-free, and does not use persistent browser storage to identify visitors across sessions, browsers or devices. Learn more via ghost.org
  • Unique visitors are counted per 24-hour window; repeat visits after the window count as new unique visitors.
  • The website does not use third-party advertising, affiliate or tracking cookies.
  • If you are logged in as a member, the website records your member ID and membership type to enable segmentation of analytics (members vs public) and content performance.

5. Location and data sharing

The Ghost CMS is maintained by Magicpages and hosted on Hetzner servers in EU (Germany to be specific) with all data stored on EU servers.

Your data is not sold or shared with third-parties.

6. Data retention

  • Contact and newsletter data is kept only as long as needed to provide the service or until you request deletion.
  • Membership data (free/paid status) is retained for as long as your membership is active, and then as needed for billing/support or until you request deletion.
  • Technical logs and analytics data are kept for a period to allow trend analysis, but only in aggregated/anonymous form beyond immediate operational needs.

7. Your rights

Under GDPR, you have the right to:

  • Access your personal data
  • Correct or delete your data
  • Withdraw consent at any time
  • Restrict or object to processing
  • Request data portability

To exercise any of these rights, contact: privacy@roelwillems.com