Privacy Policy
Last updated September 16, 2026
This policy describes what information lawsofexistence.com handles when you visit, and what happens to it. The site is published by Joseph Kirchner as an individual. It has no user accounts, sells nothing, runs no advertising, and does not sell, rent, or trade personal information.
Information the site handles
Reading the site. You can read everything without giving any information. The site's host, Netlify, keeps ordinary server logs of requests, which include the requesting IP address, browser type, and the pages requested, under Netlify's own privacy policy and retention practice. The author does not build profiles from them.
Visit counts, first-party, no cookies. The site counts page views itself, on its own address: the page you opened, the site you came from (its address only), your country, your screen size class and the hour. To tell visitors apart within one day it keeps a hash made from a random daily value, your address and your browser; the daily value is destroyed when the day closes, so the hash cannot be traced back to anyone afterwards. No address is stored, nothing is sent to any other party, no cookie is set, and browsers that send the Global Privacy Control signal are not counted at all. No third-party analytics script is loaded. Checking this browser’s setting…
Your browser's storage. The site keeps a few display preferences in your own browser, such as your theme choice and the layout of the archive reading view. They stay on your device and are not sent to the author.
Writing to the author. If you use the contact form, the name, email address, and message you enter are relayed by FormSubmit to the author's mailbox at contact@lawsofexistence.com. Email you send directly arrives the same way. Correspondence is kept as ordinary email for as long as it is needed to reply and to keep a record of the exchange.
Answering an open reading. The research pages invite qualified readers to answer disputed manuscript readings. The answer form collects your answer, an optional note, your name and credentials, and an email address unless you tick that you would rather not be contacted. Submissions are stored by Netlify, the site's host, in its form service in the United States, and a copy is emailed to the author. Your email address is never published. If you chose to have your answer published, the author reviews it first and then publishes the answer with the name and credentials summary you consented to, or as "anonymous reader" if you asked. Answers sent to the author only stay in the moderation record. Write to contact@lawsofexistence.com to withdraw a published answer or to have your submission deleted.
Contributions. Contributions on the Support page are processed by PayPal. PayPal handles your payment details under its own policy; the author receives what PayPal reports about a completed contribution, typically a name, an email address, and the amount, and keeps that record as required for accounting.
Embedded video. Some pages embed YouTube video. The player first shows a preview image fetched from YouTube's image server; the video itself, served through YouTube's privacy-enhanced embed, loads when you press play. When you play a video, YouTube may set its own cookies and collect information under Google's privacy policy.
How the information is used
- To serve the pages you request and keep the site working.
- To understand, in aggregate, which material is read and how the site is found.
- To reply to messages and keep a record of correspondence.
- To record contributions for accounting.
- To comply with the law, or to respond to a court order or lawful request.
Sharing
Information is shared only with the service providers named above, each for its own function, and with authorities when the law requires it. There is no sale of personal information, no advertising network, and no sharing with data brokers.
Retention
Hosting logs are kept by Netlify under its own schedule. The page counter keeps daily aggregates only; the daily value that tells visitors apart is destroyed when the day closes. Correspondence is kept as long as needed for the purposes above, and is deleted on request unless the law requires otherwise. Contribution records are kept as long as accounting rules require.
Your rights
You may ask what correspondence or contribution records the author holds about you, ask for corrections, or ask for deletion, by writing to contact@lawsofexistence.com. Identity may need to be confirmed before a request is acted on. If you are in the European Union or the United Kingdom, the legal basis for handling your correspondence is the author's legitimate interest in replying to you and keeping a record, and you have the rights those laws provide. California residents: the site does not sell or share personal information for cross-context advertising.
Security
The site is served over HTTPS. Correspondence travels and is stored as ordinary email, with the protections email provides and no more. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and the author cannot guarantee absolute security.
Where the information is processed
The site is hosted in the United States, and its page counts are kept there by the same host. FormSubmit and PayPal process their parts under their own policies. If you visit from outside the United States, your requests are handled where these services operate.
Children
The site is not directed at children under 13, and the author does not knowingly collect information from them. A parent or guardian who believes a child has written in may ask for the message to be deleted.
Changes
This policy is revised when the site's services change. The date at the top is the date of the current version.
Contact
Joseph Kirchner · contact@lawsofexistence.com · contact page