Privacy Policy

Last Updated: February 19, 2026

This Privacy Policy describes how Stuff By Tom (“we”, “us”, or “our”) collects, uses, and protects your information when you use our website located at https://www.tomstuff.uk. By using this website, you agree to the collection and use of information in accordance with this policy.

1. Information We Collect

a. Personal Information

We collect personal information when you voluntarily provide it or when it is required to provide services. This includes:

Contact Details: Name, email address, and postal/billing address.
Comments: When visitors leave comments, we collect the data shown in the comments form, the visitor’s IP address, and browser user agent string to assist in spam detection.
Gravatar: An anonymized string (hash) created from your email address may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. Their privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/.
Media: If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS). Visitors can download and extract any location data from images on the website.

b. Automatically Collected Information

When you visit our website, certain technical information is collected automatically:

Technical Data: IP address (anonymized where possible), browser type/version, device type, and operating system.
Usage Data: Pages visited, time spent, referring URLs, and search terms used to find the site.
Login Data: If you request a password reset, your IP address will be included in the reset email.

2. Cookies and Tracking Technologies

a. Operational Cookies

Comments: If you leave a comment, you may opt-in to saving your name, email, and website in cookies for convenience. These last for one year.
Login: If you visit our login page, we set a temporary cookie to check if your browser accepts cookies (contains no personal data; discarded when browser closes). When you log in, we set cookies to save login info (2 days) and screen choices (1 year). If you select “Remember Me,” login persists for two weeks.
Editing: If you edit or publish an article, a cookie is saved indicating the post ID of the article (contains no personal data; expires after 1 day).

b. Advertising (Google AdSense & Adsterra)

We use Google AdSense and Adsterra to display ads. They use cookies to:

Display relevant advertisements.
Measure performance and prevent fraud.
You can manage Google ad settings at https://adssettings.google.com.

3. Third-Party Services & Plugins

a. Jetpack (by Automattic)

We use the Jetpack plugin for website security, performance, and analytics.

Stats & Analytics: Jetpack collects data such as IP address, WordPress.com user ID (if logged in), browser type, and referring URL. This is used to track page views and outbound link clicks. These logs are retained by Automattic for 28 days.
Security: Jetpack monitors login attempts (recording IP address and user agent) to prevent brute-force attacks.
Functionality: Jetpack may sync site data with Automattic’s servers to provide features like image CDN, site backups, and social sharing.

b. Other Services

Vercel: Website hosting and anonymized analytics.
Embedded Content: Articles may include embedded content (videos, images, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves as if the visitor has visited those sites directly and may collect data or use additional third-party tracking.

4. How We Use Your Information

To operate the website and manage client services (invoicing, billing).
To communicate with you and respond to inquiries.
To detect and prevent abuse, spam (via Jetpack/Akismet), and security issues.
To comply with legal, tax, or accounting obligations.

5. Data Retention

Comments: If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely so we can recognize and approve follow-up comments automatically.
User Profiles: For registered users, we store the personal information provided in their user profile. Users can see, edit, or delete their information at any time (except their username).
General Data: We retain personal data only as long as necessary for service delivery or legal compliance.

6. Your Rights (UK / EU – GDPR)

If you have an account or have left comments, you have the right to:

Request Access: Receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you.
Request Erasure: Request that we erase any personal data we hold. This excludes data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.
Exercise Rights: Contact contact@tomstuff.uk to make a request.

7. Contact Information

Thomas Underwood Email: contact@tomstuff.uk

Website: https://www.tomstuff.uk