Privacy Statement

Last updat­ed: April 30, 2026

Who We Are

This blog is oper­at­ed by Clin­ton Austin (“we,” “us,” “our”) at https://clintonaustin.com. The site pub­lish­es com­men­tary on defense tech­nol­o­gy, the space indus­try, and relat­ed pol­i­cy top­ics. For pri­va­cy ques­tions, email austin@austinitconsulting.com.

What Information We Collect

We col­lect only the infor­ma­tion nec­es­sary to oper­ate the blog and respond to readers:

  • Ana­lyt­ics data — aggre­gat­ed, pri­va­cy-friend­ly vis­i­tor sta­tis­tics (page views, coun­try, device type, refer­rer) col­lect­ed via Burst Sta­tis­tics. Burst does not use cook­ies and does not trans­mit per­son­al­ly iden­ti­fi­able data to third parties.
  • Email sub­scrip­tions — if you sub­scribe to receive new posts by email, your email address is col­lect­ed and processed by Jetpack/WordPress.com for delivery.
  • Com­ments — if you leave a com­ment, your name, email, web­site (option­al), and IP address are stored in our data­base. Com­ments are screened for spam by Akismet.
  • Con­tact form sub­mis­sions — if you mes­sage us through the con­tact form, the infor­ma­tion you pro­vide (name, email, mes­sage) is stored on the serv­er and for­ward­ed to austin@austinitconsulting.com.
  • Serv­er access logs — our host­ing provider (Host­Ga­tor) main­tains stan­dard serv­er logs (IP, time­stamp, request­ed URL) for secu­ri­ty and oper­a­tional purposes.

Why We Collect It

  • Ana­lyt­ics: to under­stand which posts are read and improve the content
  • Email sub­scrip­tions: to deliv­er new posts you opt­ed in to receive
  • Com­ments: to host a mean­ing­ful dis­cus­sion and pre­vent spam
  • Con­tact form: to respond to your messages
  • Serv­er logs: site secu­ri­ty, debug­ging, and abuse prevention

Cookies

Cook­ies used on this site are cat­e­go­rized in the Cook­ie Pol­i­cy. Func­tion­al cook­ies (required for site oper­a­tion, login ses­sions, cook­ie con­sent) are always active. Ana­lyt­ics and mar­ket­ing cook­ies require your explic­it con­sent via the cook­ie banner.

Who We Share Information With

We do not sell your data. We share infor­ma­tion only with the fol­low­ing ser­vice providers, and only as need­ed for them to operate:

  • Host­Ga­tor — host­ing infrastructure
  • Automat­tic / WordPress.com / Jet­pack — sub­scrip­tion deliv­ery, relat­ed-post rec­om­men­da­tions, anti-spam (Akismet), and CDN image serv­ing (Pho­ton)
  • Google Search Con­sole and Bing Web­mas­ter Tools — aggre­gat­ed index­ing data; we do not trans­mit per­son­al data to either
  • Burst Sta­tis­tics — on-serv­er, pri­va­cy-first ana­lyt­ics; data does not leave your host­ing environment
  • Imag­i­fy — image opti­miza­tion (images only, no per­son­al data)

We may also dis­close infor­ma­tion when required by law (sub­poe­na, court order) or to pro­tect our legal rights.

How Long Do We Keep It

  • Com­ments: indef­i­nite­ly, unless you request removal
  • Con­tact form sub­mis­sions: up to 90 days, then deleted
  • Email sub­scribers: until you unsub­scribe (one-click link in every email)
  • Ana­lyt­ics data: up to 36 months in aggre­gate form, then deleted
  • Serv­er access logs: typ­i­cal­ly 30 days, per HostGator’s default retention

Your Rights

Depend­ing on where you live (EU, UK, Cal­i­for­nia, etc.), you have the right to:

  • Access the per­son­al data we hold about you
  • Request cor­rec­tion of inac­cu­rate data
  • Request the dele­tion of your data
  • Object to spe­cif­ic uses of your data
  • With­draw con­sent (man­age­able via the Cook­ie Pol­i­cy page or by email­ing us)

To exer­cise any of these rights, email austin@austinitconsulting.com. We’ll respond with­in 30 days.

Children

This site is not direct­ed at chil­dren under 13 (or 16 in the EU). We do not know­ing­ly col­lect per­son­al infor­ma­tion from chil­dren. If you believe a child has sub­mit­ted infor­ma­tion, con­tact us, and we will delete it.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this Pri­va­cy State­ment from time to time. Mate­r­i­al changes will be flagged on the home­page. The “Last updat­ed” date at the top reflects the most recent revision.

Contact

For pri­va­cy-relat­ed ques­tions or to exer­cise your rights, email austin@austinitconsulting.com.

Privacy Statement · Disclaimer · Cookie Policy