Privacy Policy
Last updated: 1 October 2026
This page explains what yoyoKnows.com collects, who else gets to see it, and how to opt out. It is written to be read, not to be skimmed past — if something here is unclear, contact us and we will fix the wording.
yoyoKnows.com is published by Bill Whyte. The site is funded by advertising, which is the main reason this page exists: showing ads means third parties place cookies on your device, and you are entitled to know that before it happens.
The short version
- We do not ask you for personal information to read the site.
- Google Analytics counts visits. Google AdSense serves the ads and uses cookies to pick them.
- If you leave a comment, we keep what you typed, plus your IP address.
- We do not sell your data, and we do not run an email list.
- You can turn off personalised advertising at Google Ads Settings and block or clear cookies in your browser at any time.
What we collect
Information you give us
Comments. If you comment on a post, we store the name, email address and website you enter, the comment text, your IP address, and your browser’s user-agent string. The name, website and comment become publicly visible. Your email address does not — it is used to identify you as a returning commenter and, where relevant, to reply to you. Comments may be checked against an automated spam filter before they appear.
Email. If you email us, we keep the message and your address for as long as it takes to deal with whatever you wrote about, and usually for a while afterwards as an ordinary part of a mail archive.
We do not run a newsletter, we do not have user accounts, and we never ask for payment details.
Information collected automatically
Server logs. Our web host records standard request data: IP address, the page requested, timestamp, referring page, and browser and device type. This is how any web server works. We use it for security and troubleshooting.
Google Analytics. We use Google Analytics 4 to understand which articles people actually read and which are a waste of everyone’s time. It sets cookies and reports aggregate data — pages viewed, approximate location at city level, device type, how visitors arrived. We do not use it to identify individual people, and we have no way to do so. Google’s own account of what it collects is at How Google uses information from sites that use our services.
If you would rather not be counted, Google publishes a browser opt-out add-on that blocks Analytics on every site, not just this one.
Advertising, cookies, and how to switch it off
This site displays ads through Google AdSense. That has three consequences worth stating plainly:
- Google, as a third-party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads on this site. This includes the DoubleClick DART cookie, which Google uses to serve ads based on your visit to yoyoKnows and to other sites on the internet.
- Third-party vendors and ad networks may also place cookies through Google’s ad exchange. We do not control those vendors, we do not receive their data, and we cannot list every one of them — Google maintains the current list of advertising partners.
- We never see who you are. Ad targeting happens between your browser and Google. We receive a monthly earnings figure, nothing else.
How to opt out
- Turn off personalised ads across the web: Google Ads Settings. You will still see ads; they just stop being tailored to you.
- Opt out of many networks at once: the Network Advertising Initiative opt-out page or YourAdChoices (US/Canada), or Your Online Choices (Europe).
- Block cookies outright: every major browser lets you block or delete third-party cookies in its settings. Doing so will not break this site.
If you are in the EEA, the UK or Switzerland, Google’s EU User Consent Policy requires your consent before cookies are used for personalised advertising. Until a consent banner is in place on this site, you can use the browser and network opt-outs listed above, and the Google Ads Settings link in particular, to control this yourself.
Affiliate and referral links
We do not currently use affiliate or referral links. External links in our articles — to Home Assistant documentation, GitHub projects, vendor pages and the like — are plain links. We earn nothing if you click them.
If that changes, we will say so in this policy and label the affected links in the articles themselves. We are not going to start quietly monetising outbound links and leave you to guess.
Who we share data with
Nobody, beyond the service providers that make the site work:
| Who | What they get | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Our web host | Server log data | Serving the site |
| Google Analytics | Usage data via cookies | Traffic measurement |
| Google AdSense and its ad partners | Ad-serving cookie data | Advertising |
| Spam filtering on comments | Comment content, IP, email | Blocking spam |
We do not sell personal information, we do not trade mailing lists, and we have nothing to trade. We would disclose data if we were legally compelled to, and we would not be happy about it.
How long we keep things
- Comments stay published indefinitely, along with their metadata, unless you ask us to remove them.
- Server logs are kept for a short period by our host as part of normal operations.
- Analytics data is retained according to Google’s retention settings for the property.
- Emails are kept as part of an ordinary mail archive.
Your rights
Depending on where you live, you may have the right to ask what personal data we hold about you, to get a copy of it, to have it corrected, or to have it deleted. Laws including the GDPR, UK GDPR, Canada’s PIPEDA and the CCPA grant versions of these rights.
In practice, for most visitors the answer is short: unless you have commented or emailed us, we hold nothing that identifies you.
To make a request, email privacy@yoyoknows.com or use the contact page. Tell us what you want and we will do it. We do not charge for this and we will not make you jump through hoops. If you have commented, the fastest route is to tell us which comment and confirm the email address you used.
Children
This site is aimed at adults setting up equipment in their own homes. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has given us information through a comment, email us and we will delete it.
Security
The site is served over HTTPS. We keep the platform and its components patched. That said, no website can promise perfect security, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. The best protection available to you here is that we hold very little worth stealing.
Changes to this policy
If we change how the site collects or uses data — a new analytics tool, an affiliate programme, a newsletter — we will update this page and change the date at the top. Material changes will be noted on the page itself rather than slipped in quietly.
Contact
Questions about this policy, or a request about your data:
See the contact page for more.