Privacy

The short version

• No cookies. Nothing is stored on your device: no cookies, no local storage, no fingerprinting.
• No tracking. No analytics services, adverts, social media buttons or other companies' code.
• No accounts, forms or newsletter. We never ask for your name or email.
• The letter tool stays on your device. What you type is never sent to us.
• We count anonymous totals, such as how many letters were downloaded as a PDF this month. We never record who did it.

The letter tool

The template runs entirely in your browser. What you type, including your name, your employer and the letter itself, is not sent to us or anyone else, and nothing is saved: close the page and it's gone.

Word, PDF and calendar files are created on your device. When you copy, print or download the letter, that happens on your device too, and you send it yourself.

What we count, and what we don't

To know whether the site is helping, we keep two kinds of anonymous totals.

• Button totals. When you use a button in the letter tool (email, Gmail, Outlook.com, copy, Word, PDF, print or calendar), your browser sends us the button's name and which version of the site you're on: United Kingdom, Ireland or California. We save an empty record holding only the month, the site version and the button, and add these up into monthly totals. We don't store your IP address, browser details or anything you typed, so a total can't be traced to anyone.
• Page totals. Our hosting provider tells us how many times each page and file was requested. We use those totals only as numbers.

We also use Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools. They report how often the site appears in their search results and is clicked, using data those search engines already hold. They don't run any code on this site.

Hosting and server logs

Like every website, this one has to receive basic technical information to send a page to you, such as your IP address, the page you asked for and your browser type. Our hosting provider, Vercel, processes that information to deliver and secure the site, and keeps short-lived logs for a period it sets. We don't use those logs to identify anyone.

Vercel is based in the United States. For visitors in the UK and the EU, it provides the safeguards that data protection law requires for international transfers, such as the standard contractual clauses in its data processing agreement.

Those anonymous records are stored with Vercel too, in a private storage area. They hold no information about visitors.

Emailing your letter

Email it from my email app opens your own email program with the letter filled in. Nothing passes through us.

Open in Gmail and Outlook.com open those services in a new tab, with the letter included in the web address so it appears in a new message. That means the letter's text goes to Google or Microsoft under your own account and their privacy policies, not ours. If you'd rather it didn't, use Copy and paste the letter into a new message yourself.

Our lawful basis (UK and EU)

The only personal data involved is the technical information our hosting provider has to process to deliver the site. We rely on our legitimate interests in running a secure, working website, which you'd expect and which doesn't affect you in any meaningful way. The anonymous totals aren't personal data.

Cookies and similar technology

We don't place or read anything on your device, so there's no cookie banner. If that ever changes, we'll ask first.

Your rights in the UK and EU

Under the UK GDPR and the EU GDPR you can ask us for access to, correction of or deletion of personal data about you, or object to how we use it. Because we don't keep personal data, there will normally be nothing to give you, but you're still welcome to ask, and we'll answer within one month.

You can also complain to a data protection regulator: in the UK, the Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk); in Ireland, the Data Protection Commission (dataprotection.ie); elsewhere in the EU, the authority where you live or work.

Your rights in California

We don't sell or share personal information, as those terms are defined in the California Consumer Privacy Act, and we don't use sensitive personal information. We don't keep personal information about visitors, so a request to know, correct or delete will normally find nothing, but you can still make one, and we won't treat you differently for doing so.

Global Privacy Control and Do Not Track signals: we don't track visitors across sites or over time, so the site works the same whether or not your browser sends one, and every visitor is treated as having opted out.

Children

The site is written for employees and job applicants. It isn't directed at children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect personal information from anyone.

Links to other sites

We link to regulators and advice services, such as the ICO, the Data Protection Commission, the California Privacy Protection Agency, Acas and Citizens Information. They have their own privacy policies. Our pages tell your browser not to pass on which page you came from.

Who runs this site

Ask my employer is run by Akston Industries, LLC, which is responsible for this site under data protection law. For any privacy question or request, email info@akstonindustries.com. If you email us, we use your message only to reply, and delete it once the matter is closed.

Changes

If we change how the site works in a way that affects your privacy, we'll update this page and the date below before the change goes live.