Privacy

The short version

This is a personal portfolio site. It collects only what you choose to send through the contact form or newsletter signup, plus standard anonymous visit statistics. Nothing is sold, rented or shared for marketing.

Who's responsible

I am: Ben Lydiat, based in Coimbra, Portugal. I'm the data controller for everything this page describes, and you can reach me at benlydiat@gmail.com.

Contact form

When you use the contact form (on the contact page, or the letter at the end of the portfolio), the name, email address, subject and message you enter are delivered straight to my inbox via Resend (resend.com), the email provider this site uses, and a confirmation copy of your message is sent to the address you gave. They are used solely to read and reply to your message and are not added to any mailing list.

The legal basis is my legitimate interest in answering the message you chose to send. Messages are kept for 24 months from your last contact, then deleted.

Newsletter

If you subscribe to the newsletter, your email address is stored in a Resend audience and used only to send the writing you signed up for. The legal basis is your consent. Every email includes an unsubscribe link, and unsubscribing removes you from the list.

Analytics

The site uses Vercel Web Analytics to understand which pages get read - aggregate statistics like page views, referral sources, countries and device types. It sets no cookies and stores nothing on your device; visits are counted with a hash that is discarded daily, so you are never identified or followed across sites.

Some portfolio links are personalised for the person they were sent to. The link itself carries your name, your company and any note I added, so the portfolio can greet you; none of it is stored on the server. When one of those links is opened, Vercel Web Analytics records the company the link was made for (or an anonymous link id) and which case studies were viewed. No cookies are set and no individual is identified.

Your browser

The site keeps a few small notes in your browser's session storage: where you were on the page, and in the portfolio, which cards you've turned and which case studies you've read, so going back returns you to where you left off. They never leave your device and are cleared when you close the tab.

Booking a call

Booking links (benlydiat.com/book30) take you to my Google Calendar booking page. Whatever you enter there is handled by Google under Google's privacy policy.

What this site doesn't do

No advertising, no tracking pixels beyond the analytics above, no selling or sharing of personal data, no profiling. Server logs and rate-limiting use your IP address transiently to keep the forms abuse-free; they are not used to identify you.

Your data, your call

You can ask to see what I hold about you, have it corrected or deleted, or object to how it's used. Write to benlydiat@gmail.com and it's done.

If you think I've handled your data wrongly, you can also complain to the Portuguese data protection authority, the CNPD (cnpd.pt).