Author Backstories is a reading site. You don't need an account, we don't run display ads, and we don't sell or share information about our visitors. This page explains the little information we do handle and why.
Visit statistics. We use Cloudflare Web Analytics to count page views, see which pages are read and learn which sites send us visitors. It does not use cookies, does not track you across other websites, and does not build a profile of you. We see only totals, never individual visitors.
Server logs. The site is hosted by Cloudflare. Like any web host, Cloudflare processes technical information such as your IP address and browser type to deliver pages and protect the site from attacks. We don't use this information to identify visitors.
Email you send us. If you write to corrections@authorbackstories.com, we receive your email address and message. We use them only to review and respond to your report, and we keep them as long as needed to handle it and keep a record of corrections.
We don't use advertising or tracking cookies, we don't have user accounts, and we don't sell, rent or trade information about visitors. Our pages contain no social media trackers.
Pages load their typefaces from Google Fonts, so your browser connects to Google's servers to fetch them, and Google receives your IP address as part of that request. Links to sources and news reports take you to other websites, which have their own privacy policies. Book links go to Bookshop.org and Amazon, which may set their own cookies to credit us with a small commission if you buy a book there; neither tells us who bought a book. Library links go to WorldCat, run by the library cooperative OCLC, which earns us nothing. Reading-list PDFs are generated when the site is built and contain no tracking. Book cover images come from Open Library and are copied to our own server when the site is built, so your browser does not contact Open Library to show them.
Our pages describe authors using their own published statements, public records and published reporting. We refer to living relatives by relationship instead of by name and never publish anyone's current address. If you are named on this site, or are related to someone who is, see ourcorrections policy for how to contact us.
We make our published pages available to search engines and AI tools, including a plain-text guide at /llms.txt, so that summaries of these pages are accurate and properly sourced. These tools receive our published articles, not information about our visitors.
We don't knowingly collect information from children.
Because we collect so little, there is usually nothing about you for us to look up. If you have a question about your information, or want us to delete an email you sent us, write to corrections@authorbackstories.com.
If we change how we handle information, we will update this page and its effective date.