Book privacy policy
Effective date: October 24, 2026
This policy explains how Elmer Thomas, the operator of ElmerThomas.com, handles personal information for the book pages at ElmerThomas.com/book, the birthday giveaway, gift invitations, and book-update preferences. “I” and “my” refer to that operator.
Privacy contact: privacy@elmerthomas.com
Information collected
When you register for the book or claim a gift, the form collects your email address. You may also provide a first name and a birthday note or dedication. If you choose to allow a public note, it collects your chosen display name and that permission. Please do not include sensitive information or someone else’s private information in a note.
The service records your signup type, book entitlement, gift invitation and claim status, update preferences, disclosure acceptance, and relevant dates. It also creates identifiers to prevent duplicate submissions and let you retrieve your receipt or manage preferences. Gift claims are linked to the invitation that was used.
The website processes technical information to serve pages and protect the service. This includes an IP address used temporarily by the signup application to limit repeated requests. Vercel, the hosting provider, also processes website traffic and technical information, such as IP addresses and system information, as described in its privacy notice (https://vercel.com/legal/privacy-notice).
How information is used
I use this information to record requests for the book, allocate giveaway copies, manage invitations, arrange fulfillment, maintain update preferences, review notes submitted for public display, and prevent duplicate or abusive submissions.
Original birthday-giveaway recipients sign up for weekly book-update emails as disclosed on the form. Gift recipients choose separately whether to receive weekly updates. Either group can unsubscribe without losing its book entitlement. These forms do not subscribe you to unrelated promotions.
Registration currently displays an on-page confirmation and private receipt. It does not send an automatic confirmation email. Book delivery and updates come later.
Notes and invitations
Notes are private unless you separately permit publication of your note and chosen display name on ElmerThomas.com. Permission does not guarantee publication; notes require review. Your email address is not included in a public note.
You can withdraw public-display permission through your private preference link. This removes permission for public display but does not delete the original private note. Contact me if you also want to request deletion. Copies previously saved by other people may remain outside my control.
You choose whom to send a gift invitation to using your own email or messaging app. The website does not collect your friends’ contact details from that sharing action. A recipient supplies their own information if they claim the invitation. Keep receipt and preference links private; someone with a complete link may be able to retrieve invitations or change the associated preferences.
Service providers and other disclosures
Vercel hosts the website and handles website requests. Neon provides the database that stores signup, note, preference, and invitation records. These providers process information to operate their services. See Vercel’s privacy notice (https://vercel.com/legal/privacy-notice) and Neon’s privacy information (https://neon.com/privacy-policy). Their services can involve processing in countries other than where you live.
The current book signup does not send signup records to Stripe, SendGrid, Segment, or Twilio. Paid checkout and automated email delivery are not currently part of this signup flow.
I do not sell your personal information or share it for targeted advertising. I share information with service providers as needed to host the website, fulfill the book, and, when paid checkout is available, process payments. The providers currently used by this signup are described above.
Cookies and browser privacy signals
The book signup application does not set its own cookies or save form information in browser local storage or session storage. Form state is held while the page is open. Private links use the part of the URL after the # symbol; when you use one, the page submits the link token to the book service. Browser history or a link you save may retain that URL.
The book application does not currently change its behavior in response to a browser’s Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control signal. Hosting-provider processing is separate from this application behavior and is described above.
I do not embed third-party advertising or cross-site analytics services in these book pages. Vercel Web Analytics is not enabled for this project, and the book pages do not include the Speed Insights tracking component. Vercel still processes infrastructure traffic and logs for hosting, performance, and security; the absence of an analytics integration does not mean no technical information is collected.
Retention
Receipt-link expiration is not a deletion deadline for signup records. Unsubscribing stops weekly updates but does not itself erase information still needed for your book entitlement. Withdrawing note-publication permission does not erase the private note.
I retain email and book-entitlement records while needed to deliver your book and the updates you receive. Optional notes are removed 12 months after submission unless you have allowed public display and I have approved the note for ongoing publication.
After you unsubscribe, I retain only a minimal suppression record for the update subscription so that you are not emailed unwanted updates. Any separate information still needed to fulfill your existing book entitlement is retained for that purpose, not to continue weekly emails. Once that fulfillment need ends, the email address is kept only in the minimal suppression record.
Vercel manages infrastructure logs under its service policies. Its current documented runtime-log retention for this hosting plan is one day; this is not a deletion deadline for every security record or backup held by a service provider.
Your choices and requests
You can use your private preference link to unsubscribe from weekly updates or withdraw permission to display a note. You can also contact privacy@elmerthomas.com to ask to review, correct, or delete your information, or ask a privacy question. Please use the email address associated with your signup so I can help verify the request. Do not send passwords or payment-card details.
Additional rights and exceptions may apply depending on where you live and the laws that apply to the service. A deletion request may affect my ability to fulfill or verify your book entitlement; unsubscribing alone does not.
The book offering is intended for developers and adult readers. It is not directed to children under 13. If you believe a child has submitted personal information that should not have been collected, please contact me at the address above.
Security
The service uses encrypted connections and restricted database access. Private-link tokens are stored in the database as hashes rather than as the complete usable links. No internet service can guarantee absolute security.
Changes and contact
I will post the revised policy here with a new effective date. Before a significant change to how your information is used, I will email affected readers.
For privacy questions or requests, contact privacy@elmerthomas.com. For help with the book or a purchase, contact support@elmerthomas.com.