What we collect, and what we do with it

This policy covers loadstar.energy, which is published by LOADSTAR. Privacy questions go to the LOADSTAR data desk at contact@loadstar.energy, in writing. We aim to answer the same business day, and within two business days at most.

If you use the contact form, we receive what you type into it: your name, your company or organization, your email address, the role you select, the region you ask about and your message. We also record the page the form was sent from and the time it arrived. To limit spam, we store a shortened one-way hash of the IP address the form came from, not the address itself.

If you email us, we receive your email address and whatever you write.

The form goes to our own server at index.loadstar.energy. Like any website, the companies that host this site and that server process technical data such as IP addresses to deliver pages and keep the service running.

We count visits in two ways. The first is Cloudflare Web Analytics, a script from Cloudflare that reports page views to us in aggregate. Cloudflare says it does not use cookies.

The second is our own counter. When a page loads, and when you take one of a few actions, such as copying a citation or opening the contact page, your browser sends our server the path of the page and the name of the action. We keep these as running totals. The counter sets no cookie and stores no name, email address or IP address.

The site saves one setting in your browser: whether you chose the light or the dark theme. It stays on your device.

We do not use advertising trackers or ad networks.

We use what you send to answer you and to keep a record of the exchange. We use the visit counts to see which pages are read.

Writing to us does not put you on a mailing list. The email notes are sent through Substack, a separate service that you sign up for on its site and that has its own terms.

We do not sell or rent personal information. The companies that host this site, our server and our email handle it for us; Cloudflare is one of them. We would also disclose information if the law required it.

The LOADSTAR Number is read from the queue files that grid operators publish. Those files describe projects: a queue ID, a capacity, a location, a status. They remain the operators’ records. We do not publish personal information about private individuals.

We keep form messages and email as business records. We have not set a fixed period after which they are deleted.

To ask what we hold about you, to correct it or to ask us to delete it, write to contact@loadstar.energy from the address in question. We answer in writing: we aim to reply the same business day, and within two business days at most. Deletion is done by hand. We will tell you when it is done, or tell you what we have to keep and why. Copies may remain in backups.

If this policy changes, the new version is posted here with a new date.