Our website does not use cookies or web beacons to track you. We do not serve you ads, which often have their own sneaky ways to track you. Your identity and surfing habits are none of our business. We do not store your personal information, except for name and email address and Internet Protocol IP address, if you leave comments on our site.
If you would like to geek out on technical details, and perhaps learn something new, keep reading, otherwise: Goodbye and have a good day.
We do look at server logs, which record IP requests, and include your IP address, what page was sent to you, User Agent String, and timecode. This is the least intrusive way of inferring how many people visit our site, and which pages are visited. We do not share this information unless required by law, which has never happened yet. Here is an example of what is logged:
tail trail-access.log
51.222.253.2 - - [27/Nov/2024:13:00:50 +0000] "GET /passes-and-not/ HTTP/2.0" 200 15984 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; AhrefsBot/7.0; +http://ahrefs.com/robot/)"
172.84.15.33 - - [27/Nov/2024:13:00:55 +0000] "GET /trails-and-graph-theory-9-gradient-fuzz/ HTTP/2.0" 200 16703 "https://sagebrush-trails.com/trails-and-graph-theory-10-databook/" "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Ubuntu; Linux x86_64; rv:132.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/132.0"
172.84.15.33 - - [27/Nov/2024:13:00:55 +0000] "GET /wp-content/plugins/block-comment-spam-bots/css/settings.css?ver=1732712454 HTTP/2.0" 200 2024 "https://sagebrush-trails.com/trails-and-graph-theory-9-gradient-fuzz/" "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Ubuntu; Linux x86_64; rv:132.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/132.0"
172.84.15.33 - - [27/Nov/2024:13:01:04 +0000] "GET /category/food/ HTTP/2.0" 200 19958 "https://sagebrush-trails.com/trails-and-graph-theory-9-gradient-fuzz/" "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Ubuntu; Linux x86_64; rv:132.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/132.0"
172.84.15.33 - - [27/Nov/2024:13:01:07 +0000] "GET /wp-content/plugins/block-comment-spam-bots/css/settings.css?ver=1732712464 HTTP/2.0" 200 2024 "https://sagebrush-trails.com/category/food/" "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Ubuntu; Linux x86_64; rv:132.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/132.0"
2a03:2880:f806:10:: - - [27/Nov/2024:13:01:09 +0000] "GET /range-to-ridge/ HTTP/2.0" 200 72476 "-" "meta-externalagent/1.1 (+https://developers.facebook.com/docs/sharing/webmasters/crawler)"
172.84.15.33 - - [27/Nov/2024:13:01:13 +0000] "GET / HTTP/2.0" 200 18387 "https://sagebrush-trails.com/category/food/" "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Ubuntu; Linux x86_64; rv:132.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/132.0"
172.84.15.33 - - [27/Nov/2024:13:01:13 +0000] "GET /wp-content/plugins/block-comment-spam-bots/css/settings.css?ver=1732712472 HTTP/2.0" 200 2024 "https://sagebrush-trails.com/" "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Ubuntu; Linux x86_64; rv:132.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/132.0"
172.84.15.33 - - [27/Nov/2024:13:01:17 +0000] "GET /loppoween/ HTTP/2.0" 200 17994 "https://sagebrush-trails.com/" "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Ubuntu; Linux x86_64; rv:132.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/132.0"
172.84.15.33 - - [27/Nov/2024:13:01:17 +0000] "GET /wp-content/plugins/block-comment-spam-bots/css/settings.css?ver=1732712476 HTTP/2.0" 200 2024 "https://sagebrush-trails.com/loppoween/" "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Ubuntu; Linux x86_64; rv:132.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/132.0"
This server log information is somewhat hard for humans to interpret, so we use a software plugin to glean visitor information from it. Here is an example of what we can deduce from the logs, which anonymizes visitors to our site:
Rarely we use embedded YouTube videos, which might track you– that is up to Google. We use WordPress as our open source Content Management Software CMS, and the source code is available for you to inspect to make sure they do not track you. We use WordPress plugins from several developers, that theoretically could include tracking code, but we have not detected any so far.
Your Internet Service Provider ISP might have the ability to track what sites you have visited, and might share that information with others. Any Internet backbone between your ISP and our web host might have the ability to collect information about your site visits, so consider a Virtual Private Network VPN. Our website hosting service might have the ability to collect and share your browsing activity, but they say they do not.
Consider avoiding other websites that serve you cookies. Consider avoiding websites that waste your time and attention with advertising. Even the USA Federal Bureau of Information FBI recommends you install an ad blocker. Consider avoiding websites that store your personal information without a good reason. Consider avoiding websites that repeatedly ask you about your cookie preferences. Consider using an open source browser, such as Firefox, with a commitment to privacy. Consider using an operating system that uses open source software, whose code can be inspected to reveal problems with privacy.
If you happen to use uBlock Origin as an ad blocker, they display an icon that shows how you are being tracked. Here is what it shows for our website.
Here are examples from other sites on how much you are being tracked by them:
