Last updated December 18, 2024.

I’m a big believer in the quaint notion that what we do online and offline is no one’s business but our own. The pervasive tracking, surveilling and data mining of our every move by shadowy companies, without our consent or knowledge, should not just be regulated, but banned entirely.

With that in mind, I don’t collect or store any data about my site visitors or print customers except the bare minimum that you voluntarily provide when you sign up for my mailing list, purchase a photo or send me an email, text or other communication. Even then, I don’t need to know who you are. Use an email obscuring service or a fake name if you want. I don’t care! 

I periodically delete communications data (email, texts, etc.) and will only keep customer sales records long enough for basic administrative purposes such as: bookkeeping and tax accounting (probably about a year); verification of the sale in the unlikely case there is a problem with the order; or waiting for checks to clear.

You can ask me to remove you from my mailing list any time or use the “unsubscribe” button in any email. I never share any of this information with anyone. If I don’t keep it or collect it in the first place, I don’t have to worry about protecting it, right? What I don’t have can’t be leaked. 

This might all seem silly and excessive, but it’s my little part in normalizing data privacy that we should never have given up in the first place. And, well, as of late 2024, even the FBI is suggesting all Americans use encrypted communications apps because of persistent state actors hacking U.S. telecom companies. I’m not sure what is creepier, Iranian and Chinese spies scooping up data on all our personal communications or our domestic telecom companies doing the same thing. Either way Signal app is the best end-to-end encrypted messaging app. With the likely curtailment of civil liberties by the incoming administration in 2025, everyone should be using encryption.

As of the date of this policy, I’m still setting up online ordering. It is likely that once that is complete, there will be a cookie or two set by the payment gateway. That’s unavoidable in order for you to be able to order online. 

If you visit my site here or buy a print (thanks!) or sign up for my newsletter, I don’t snitch you out to creepy, intrusive surveillance companies like Google or Facebook, nor do I use tracker-filled email management services. Unlike just about every other website, I don’t use the free Google Analytics plugin. Instead I pay for the privacy-protecting analytics service Plausible.io. I get basic site analytics, but no personally identifying information about site visitors, nor do they collect any of that data on you.

This costs extra money each month, but it is none of Google’s or Facebook’s business what pages you look at or what you buy, right? For my newsletter I use the privacy-forward service Buttondown.email 

Lastly, to state the obvious, I have no control over the data and privacy policies of 3rd party websites I link to from here, such as links I include when writing blog posts and photojournal stories.

I hope you like my work! Maybe even buy a picture! Meanwhile, I’ll do what I can to make sure it’s no one else’s business.

Mikal