PRIVACY POLICY

Last updated: 16 October 2026

This is the privacy policy of skryf.co.za. Skryf is run by Sorted Design Studio CC (registration number 2007/244764/23), Cape Town, which is the responsible party for the personal information described here under the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA).

It says what Skryf collects when you read, write to or subscribe to Skryf, why, who else sees it, how long it is kept and what you can ask us to do about it.

1. What Skryf collects

1.1 When you read

Skryf records how its pieces are read, so we know what people read and how far they get. For every page you open, our own server stores:

• the page you opened, its title and, for a piece, its writer;
• the date and time;
• how far down the piece you scrolled and how long it was on your screen;
• the words on any link or button you clicked, and where it led;
• anything you searched for on the site and how many results it found;
• the address of the site that sent you to Skryf, if your browser passes it on;
• whether you are on a phone or a computer;
• your country, region and city, worked out from your internet address.

This recording sets no cookie and stores nothing in your browser. Your internet address is not stored. To count each reader once a day, the server mixes your internet address and browser type with a random value that changes every day and keeps only the scrambled result, which cannot be turned back into your address and does not match from one day to the next. To find your country and city, your internet address is sent to ipwho.is, a location service, and the result is kept for up to a month against a scrambled form of the address so the same address is not looked up again.

Visits by Skryf’s own editors while they are signed in are not recorded.

1.2 Google Analytics

Skryf also uses Google Analytics, through Google’s Site Kit plugin for WordPress. When a page opens, a Google script loads and Google collects information about your visit, such as the pages you view, how you arrived, your device and browser and your approximate location. Google sets its own cookies in your browser to recognise a returning visitor. Google processes this information under its own privacy policy at policies.google.com/privacy, and explains how it uses information from sites that use its services at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.

1.3 When you write to us or send your work

If you email Skryf, for example to send a piece to neer@skryf.co.za, we receive your name, your email address, what you wrote and anything you attached. If your piece is published, it appears on Skryf under the name you choose, and a writer’s page may show a short biography and a photograph that you give us.

1.4 When you subscribe to Leespos

If you ask to receive Leespos by writing to leespos@skryf.co.za, we keep your email address to send it to you, and nothing more.

1.5 Writers and editors who sign in

Writers and editors with an account on the site have a username, an email address and a password, which WordPress stores in scrambled form.

1.6 Our hosting company

The site is hosted by xneelo in South Africa. Like any web host, its servers may keep standard records of requests, which include internet addresses, for security and to keep the site running.

Skryf does not collect special personal information such as health, religious or sexual information about its readers. Skryf has no shop, takes no payments and shows no advertising.

2. Why we use it, and on what basis

• Reading statistics from our own recording and from Google Analytics help us see which pieces are read, how people find Skryf and what they search for and do not find, so we can decide what to publish and how to improve the site. We do this on the basis of our legitimate interest in running and improving a publication (section 11(1)(f) of POPIA). You can object to it at any time; see section 6.
• Emails and submitted work are used to reply to you and to consider your work for publication, at your request.
• A Leespos subscription is used only to send you Leespos, with your consent, which you can withdraw at any time.
• Account details are used to let writers and editors sign in.

We do not sell personal information, and we do not use it to send marketing on anyone else’s behalf.

3. Cookies

A cookie is a small file a website stores in your browser. Skryf uses these:

• Google Analytics cookies (names starting with _ga), set by Google to recognise a returning visitor. Google keeps them for up to two years.
• skryf_cookie_notice, which remembers for a year that you have seen the cookie notice, so it does not show on every page.
• WordPress sign-in cookies, only for writers and editors who sign in.

Skryf’s own reading statistics use no cookie. You can delete cookies or block them in your browser’s settings, and the site will still work for reading. Google offers a browser add-on that stops Google Analytics on every site at tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

4. Who else sees it

• Google, for Google Analytics, as described in section 1.2.
• ipwho.is, which receives your internet address to work out your country and city.
• xneelo, our hosting company.
• Our email provider, which handles mail sent to skryf.co.za addresses.
• Anyone the law requires us to share information with.

5. Information sent outside South Africa

Google processes Google Analytics information on servers outside South Africa, including in the United States. The ipwho.is location service may also process your internet address outside South Africa. We rely on these companies’ own data protection terms for that information. The site itself and Skryf’s own reading statistics are kept on our host’s servers in South Africa.

6. Your rights

Under POPIA you may ask us:

• whether we hold personal information about you, and for a copy of it;
• to correct it or to delete it;
• to stop using it for reading statistics (you can object under section 11(3) of POPIA);
• to stop sending you Leespos.

Because Skryf’s own statistics do not store your internet address or anything that links one day to the next, we usually cannot find a particular reader’s visits in them. We will tell you if that is the case.

Send your request to the address in section 9. We will answer within a reasonable time and may ask you to confirm who you are first.

7. How long we keep it

• Skryf’s own reading statistics: 180 days, after which they are deleted automatically every night.
• Location look-ups: up to a month.
• Google Analytics: for the period set in our Google Analytics account and under Google’s terms.
• Emails and submitted work: for as long as we need them to deal with your message or piece, and for published pieces, for as long as the piece is on Skryf.
• Leespos addresses: until you unsubscribe.
• Writer and editor accounts: until the account is closed.

8. Security

The whole site is served over an encrypted connection (HTTPS). Skryf’s reading statistics can only be opened by signed-in administrators, and they hold no internet addresses. No method of storing or sending information is completely secure, but we take reasonable steps to protect what we hold.

9. Questions, requests and complaints

Send any question, request or complaint about your personal information to our information officer at privacy@sortedadvertising.co.za.

If you are not satisfied with our answer, you may complain to the Information Regulator (South Africa) at inforegulator.org.za.

10. Children

Skryf publishes writing for adults and is not aimed at children under 18. We do not knowingly collect information about children beyond the reading statistics described above, which do not identify anyone.

11. Changes to this policy

When what Skryf collects changes, we update this page and the date at the top.