Privacy and data
This page is deliberately short, because the point is that you actually read it. The one-line version: we handle what it takes to answer your email, and nothing else.
What we receive
Three things, no more:
- Email you send us — your address, your message, and anything you attach or link to.
- Server logs — IP address, browser identifier, time of visit. This is our host's standard record-keeping, used for security and troubleshooting. It is not us tracking you.
- An enquiry log — the date, which address you wrote to, the language you wrote in, what you asked, and what we sent back.
What is absent matters too. There are no analytics or tracking scripts here, no cookies, no advertising or social plugins, and no visitor profiles. We do not know how many pages you read or how long you stayed. We also do not touch payment information at all — if we take payment through a third-party platform later, that platform handles your payment details, not us.
What we use it for
Three purposes. There is no fourth:
- To reply to you. That is why you wrote.
- To keep the enquiry log. It tells us which questions keep recurring, which beats guessing at keywords because nothing is guessed.
- To correct and extend our pages. If you point out a wrong number or document reference, we check it and fix it.
No marketing, no bulk mail, no lists. Writing to us once does not subscribe you to anything. If we later offer a download that asks for your address, that address is used only to send you the file itself — you go on no list unless you separately tick a subscription box. We keep a download record (the address, the file, the time) to see which material is actually wanted — not for marketing, and never shown to anyone else.
What we will not do
This section matters more than the two above it.
- We will not publish your message. Not quoted, not reproduced, and not even unattributed, without your consent. Your question will not be rewritten as "a reader asked" and posted.
- We will not tell a vendor that you asked about them. If your email concerns a particular company's product, that company is not informed. Supplier enquiries and buyer enquiries are handled separately, and neither side learns what the other asked.
- We will not pass your address to anyone. Not sold, not swapped, not added to any list of any kind.
- We will not email you because you visited. We email you only when you ask us to — by writing in, or by requesting a download. A download request gets you the file and nothing else with it.
How long we keep it
- The correspondence itself: for as long as the matter is live — until your question is answered and the business is done.
- The log: de-identified records only. What survives is "this type of question came up N times", not your name or your address.
- Deletion: ask at any time and we delete within 30 days, then reply to confirm.
On AI crawling
Our published pages are public and we explicitly allow AI crawlers. That is our distribution model — seeing our material quoted elsewhere, or inside an AI answer, is how this is meant to work, not a leak.
That applies only to pages we have published. Your email is not content: it is never published and never placed anywhere crawlable. In the AI era this clause matters more than it used to, which is why we call it out on its own.
Your rights
If you are in the EU, the UK, or another jurisdiction with personal-data legislation, you have the right to access, correct, delete or object to our processing of data we hold about you.
To exercise any of these, email [email protected] and say what you want. No form, no justification required. We reply to confirm.
Who processes this data
| Role | Who | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Data controller | Robot Sourcebook (sole proprietor, mainland China) | We decide why the data is collected and what it is used for |
| Email hosting | Alibaba Cloud Mail | Message bodies and contacts are stored on servers in mainland China |
| Website hosting | Cloudflare | Handles access logs only; no access to email content |
On international transfers, stated plainly: email you send from the EU or the US is stored on mail servers in mainland China. This is not a technical footnote but a fact you should know, because transfer requirements differ by jurisdiction. If your organisation has hard rules about this, check them before writing — or send only what is not sensitive.
We use no analytics provider, no advertising network and no social plugins. Beyond the three parties above, no fourth party touches your information.
What this page is
It is written in plain language so that it is understood. It is not legal advice, and it is not a standard contractual document. If your organisation needs a formal confidentiality or data-processing arrangement, write to us and we can discuss one.
Our published content is likewise not legal, tax or investment advice. For compliance decisions, check the official source and consult a professional.
Related
Last updated 2026-09-23. If anything material changes, we will say which clause changed on this page rather than change it quietly.