At A Life of Service (deaconscott.com), we respect your privacy and want you to understand what information is collected when you visit this site, why it’s collected, and how it’s used.
Who we are
This site is published by Deacon Scott. Our website address is: https://deaconscott.com. If you have any questions about this policy or about your personal data, you can reach us through the contact form on this site or by email.
Comments
When visitors leave comments on the site, we collect the data shown in the comment form, along with the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help detect spam.
An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.
Comments made on this site are checked through an automated spam detection service (Akismet, provided by Automattic). As part of that process, your comment content, IP address, browser user agent, and referring URL may be sent to Akismet for analysis. See the Akismet privacy policy for details: https://automattic.com/privacy/.
Media
If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.
Cookies
If you leave a comment on our site, you may opt-in to saving your name, email address, and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.
If you visit our login page, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.
When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks.
Analytics and site statistics
This site uses Google Analytics to understand how visitors use the site (pages viewed, general location, device type, and similar usage data). Google Analytics uses cookies and similar technologies to collect this information. You can learn more about how Google handles this data at https://policies.google.com/privacy, and you can opt out of Google Analytics tracking using the browser add-on available at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
This site also uses Jetpack (provided by Automattic), which may collect basic visit statistics and enable certain site features. See Automattic’s privacy policy for details: https://automattic.com/privacy/.
Embedded content and third-party services
Pages on this site may include embedded content (for example, PDF documents, photo galleries, or social media feeds such as Mastodon posts). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor had visited that other website directly, and that website may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content.
This site offers an optional website translation tool (Google Website Translator). If you use it, the page content is sent to Google Translate to generate the translated version, subject to Google’s own privacy policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy.
Contact forms and registrations
This site uses contact and registration forms (powered by WPForms) to let you get in touch, sign up, or register for events. Depending on the specific form, we may collect information such as your name, email address, phone number, mailing address, and any other details you choose to provide in the form fields.
Some forms may use approximate geolocation (based on your IP address) as an anti-spam and verification measure.
If a form on this site collects payment (for example, a donation or dues payment), that payment is processed securely by Square. We do not receive or store your full card number on our servers; it is handled directly by Square in accordance with Square’s own privacy policy: https://squareup.com/us/en/legal/general/privacy.
Submitted form entries are stored securely on this site so that we can respond to you, and are not sold or shared with third parties except as needed to operate the site (for example, spam-filtering and payment-processing services described above).
Who we share your data with
We share data with the service providers named above (Automattic/Jetpack/Akismet, Google/Google Analytics/Google Translate, and Square) only as necessary for them to provide the services described in this policy. We do not sell your personal information.
If you request a password reset, your IP address will be included in the reset email.
How long we retain your data
If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely so that we can recognize and approve follow-up comments automatically, rather than holding them in a moderation queue.
For users that register on this site (if applicable), we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except that they cannot change their username). Site administrators can also see and edit that information.
Form submissions are retained for as long as reasonably needed to respond to your inquiry or fulfill the purpose for which they were submitted, unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law.
What rights you have over your data
If you have submitted a comment, registered an account, or filled out a form on this site, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, or request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes. To make such a request, please contact us using the information below.
Where your data is sent
Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service, and other data described in this policy may be sent to the third-party services named above, which may be located outside your country.
Contact information
If you have questions about this privacy policy or your personal data, please reach out through the contact form on this site.
This policy was last updated on July 21, 2026, and may be revised from time to time as the site’s use of plugins and services changes.