SXM Wire (sxmwire.com) is a publishing site. This page describes what is collected when you read it, who collects it, and what you can do about it. It is written to be read rather than to be defensible, and it is not legal advice.
Reading this site does not require an account
You can read every article here without signing in, without giving an email address, and without identifying yourself. Nothing on the public site is gated.
What we collect ourselves
Almost nothing, and nothing that identifies you. Public pages are served from cache and do not read cookies, which is why they load without a consent interstitial for first-party storage.
Reader accounts. If you choose to create one, we store the email address you provide so you can sign in and manage newsletter preferences. That is the whole record. We do not sell reader lists, rent them, or hand them to advertisers.
Correspondence. If you write to us, we keep the message so the thread makes sense. Corrections and their evidence are kept as a record of what changed and why.
What third parties collect
Most data collected while you read this site is collected by companies that are not us, through tags embedded in the page. Being straightforward about that is more useful than a long list of things we do not do.
Analytics. Where Google Analytics or Google Tag Manager is active, it records page views, approximate location derived from IP address, referrer, and device and browser characteristics. We use it in aggregate — which articles get read, which are ignored. We do not send email addresses or account identifiers into analytics events.
Advertising. Where Google AdSense and its partners are active, they may set cookies and read device identifiers to select ads, cap how often you see the same one, and measure whether an ad worked. That processing is theirs, governed by their policies, and it can follow you across other sites carrying the same networks. Cookie policy describes the specific categories and how to switch them off.
Embedded media. Where a page embeds third-party media, that provider sees the request and may set its own storage.
Your choices
- Browser controls. Blocking or clearing third-party cookies in your browser stops most advertising and analytics storage. Every current browser supports this.
- Google's own opt-outs. Google publishes ad personalization settings and an analytics opt-out add-on that apply across every site using those products, not just this one.
- Tracker blocking. Content blockers and privacy-focused browsers prevent the tags loading at all. The site is built to work when they do.
- Account deletion. If you created an account, ask and we will delete it and the email address with it. Use the contact form on this site when it is available, or reach the publisher through the domain WHOIS for sxmwire.com.
Data rights
Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, delete, or restrict processing of personal data held about you, and to object to it. Write to us and we will act on it. Where the data in question is held by an advertising or analytics provider rather than by us, we will say so and point you at the party that actually holds it, rather than pretending to a control we do not have.
Because the data we hold ourselves is limited to account emails and correspondence, most requests resolve quickly.
Children
This site is written for adults and is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect information from them. If you believe a child has provided us an email address, tell us and it will be removed.
Security and retention
Account records are held in a managed database with access limited to the people who operate the site. Account emails are kept while the account exists and deleted when it is closed. Correspondence is kept as long as it stays useful for corrections and record-keeping.
Changes
When this page changes materially, the visible updated date at the top changes with it. Cosmetic edits do not move it.
The short version
This site collects very little, and most of what does get collected is collected by third parties whose controls you already have.
Reading a public page here requires no account and sets no first-party cookies. Pages are served pre-rendered from cache, so there is no session to establish and nothing to remember about you between visits.
What does happen while you read: the hosting platform records ordinary server request data, and — unless you have blocked them — an analytics tag and an advertising tag load. Those are described below, and Cookie policy explains how to switch the last two off.
What we hold directly is limited to an email address if you create an account or subscribe to a newsletter, and whatever you send us if you write to us. There is no data broker relationship here, no sale of personal information, and no profile built on this site about you as an individual.
What is collected, in detail
Server request data. The hosting platform logs the request: page requested, timestamp, response, approximate location derived from network address, referring page, and browser user-agent. This is how any web server works, and it is what makes it possible to serve pages, spot errors, and identify abuse. It is not used to build a reader profile.
Analytics. Where analytics is active it records page views and coarse referral and device information, in aggregate. Its purpose is to tell us which articles help people, so that research time goes to subjects that are actually useful.
Advertising. Where advertising is active, the network may set identifiers to select ads, limit how often you see the same one, and measure results. This is the collection most readers care about and it is the one you have the most direct control over.
Account details. If you create an account, we hold the email address you gave and your newsletter preferences. Nothing else. We do not ask for a name, a phone number, an address, or a date of birth, because none of them are needed to send you an article.
What you send us. Messages, corrections, and the sources attached to them are kept while they remain useful as a record of why a page changed.
Rights you have
Depending on where you live, you may have the right to ask what personal data is held about you, to have it corrected, to have it deleted, to receive a copy, or to object to particular processing. Requests are honored regardless of jurisdiction, because the volume is small and drawing lines by geography would be more work than simply doing it.
The practical limit is worth stating: for the categories handled by the advertising and analytics providers, we hold no per-reader record and cannot look you up. Those requests have to go to the provider, whose controls are linked from Cookie policy, or be handled by blocking the tags — which achieves the outcome immediately and without asking anyone's permission.
Where processing happens
The site runs on managed infrastructure operated by third parties: a hosting and content-delivery platform that serves pages, and a managed database that stores account records. Those providers process data on our instructions in order to run the service, and they operate globally, which means requests are served — and data may be processed — outside the country you are reading from.
Advertising and analytics providers are different in kind. They are not processing on our instructions; they collect through their own tags for their own purposes as well as ours. That distinction matters when you are deciding who to ask about what, and it is why the sections below separate the two.
Why each thing is collected
- Account email: to let you sign in and to manage newsletter preferences. Held on the basis of your request to have an account, and deleted when you close it.
- Correspondence: to answer you and to keep a record of corrections and why they were made.
- Analytics: to understand in aggregate which articles are read, so that time is spent on subjects that help people. Never used to build a profile of an individual reader here.
- Advertising: to fund the site. This is the category most likely to involve processing you would want to control, and the controls are listed above and in Cookie policy.
How long things are kept
- Account email: for as long as the account exists. Deleted on request or on closure.
- Newsletter preferences: with the account, and dropped on unsubscribe.
- Correspondence: while it remains useful as a record of a correction, then deleted.
- Analytics and advertising data: retained by those providers under their own retention schedules, which they publish and which we do not control.
Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control
Browsers can send a Do Not Track header or a Global Privacy Control signal. Support for them varies between the third-party providers whose tags appear on this site, and none of it is under our control.
That is the honest position, and it is worth stating rather than claiming compliance that depends on someone else's implementation. If you want a guarantee rather than a request, blocking third-party cookies or running a content blocker gives you one, and the site is built to work fully when you do.
Security
Account records sit in a managed database with access limited to the people who operate the site. The site is served over HTTPS throughout, so what you read is not visible to anyone sitting between you and it.
No system is perfectly secure, and a privacy page claiming otherwise is telling you something false. What we can say is that the amount of personal data held here is deliberately small, which is the most effective security measure available: data that was never collected cannot leak.
If you believe you have found a vulnerability in this site, please report it before disclosing it publicly, and expect it to be treated as urgent.
Complaints
If you are unhappy with how a request was handled, say so directly first — most problems are a misunderstanding about which party holds the data. Depending on where you live, you may also have the right to complain to your national data protection authority, and nothing here is intended to discourage that or to substitute for it.
Contact
Use the contact form on this site when it is available, or reach the publisher through the domain WHOIS for sxmwire.com. See also: Cookie policy, Terms of use, Advertising & affiliate disclosure, Contact.