Privacy statement

1. Who publishes this site

ComboSlate is published by an individual, Thomas Donovan. No organisation stands behind it and nobody else reads the correspondence.

2. What this statement covers

It covers personal information connected with comboslate.com, including the Slate Weekly email letter. It does not cover the games written about here, which are run by other companies under their own privacy documents.

3. The Privacy Act 1988 and the Australian Privacy Principles

The Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) set the standard for handling personal information in Australia. With a turnover well under the section 6D threshold the publisher is a small business operator, not automatically bound by the APPs, but applies them voluntarily and accepts being held to them, including by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.

4. What personal information is handled, and where it comes from

4.1 Messages you send by email

The site carries no form; the only way to reach the publisher is email. The information is whatever you type: your address, the name you sign with and the message. Source: you.

4.2 Slate Weekly subscription details

If you subscribe, the publisher holds your email address, the date you confirmed and the months paid for. Card numbers are never held here; the charge goes through the payment provider named in the confirmation email. Source: you and that receipt.

4.3 Technical information handled by the delivery network

comboslate.com is served through Cloudflare, Inc. as a content delivery network, which necessarily handles the address requested, the referring address, the browser and device type and an approximate country from your IP address.

Cloudflare also inserts a script of its own, Cloudflare Web Analytics, into every page as it leaves the network. It is not in the files the publisher uploads, cannot be taken out of them, and loading it is the only request this site makes outside comboslate.com. It reports the page address, the referring address, loading measurements (Core Web Vitals such as LCP, CLS and INP), the browser and device type and a country from the IP address.

It sets no cookie, stores nothing in your browser and gives no reader an identifier, so nobody is recognised on a later visit or followed between sites. The publisher sees aggregate counts only and can connect none of them with a person. Source: your connection to Cloudflare.

4.4 What is not handled at all

• No forms, accounts, logins, comment fields or uploads exist here.
• No cookie is set by anyone: not the publisher, not Cloudflare, not the script above.
• The publisher installs no counter, tag manager or pixel; no advertising or profiling script runs here.
• No push notifications are offered or requested.
• No sensitive information within the meaning of the Privacy Act is sought.
• No personal information is sold, rented or exchanged.

5. Why each category is held

• Email correspondence — to answer you, correct an error you have pointed out and record what was agreed (APP 3).
• Subscription details — to send the letter you paid for, charge the right months and honour a cancellation.
• Technical delivery information — to keep the site available, defend it against automated abuse and check that pages load quickly; Cloudflare handles it as a service provider, never for marketing.

6. How long each category is kept

• General correspondence: up to 24 months from the last message, then deleted from mailbox and archive.
• Correspondence about a published correction: up to 5 years, so an editorial change can be justified.
• Subscriber address and consent record: while the subscription runs and 12 months after, proving a cancellation under the Spam Act 2003.
• Receipts for paid months: 5 years, as Australian record-keeping practice expects.
• Cloudflare records: kept on Cloudflare's own schedule, days rather than months; the publisher keeps no copy.

7. Who else handles the information

The publisher has no staff or contractors. Three service providers touch information connected with this site:

• Cloudflare, Inc. (United States) — delivers pages, terminates the TLS connection, filters automated abuse and runs the script in section 4.3; the only recipient of anything leaving your browser.
• Friendhosting LLC (Bulgaria) — rents the virtual server the files sit on; no correspondence, no subscriber list.
• The provider carrying the publisher's mailbox — named on request; it holds what you send and what goes out.

Information may also be given to an Australian court or regulator where a law requires it.

8. Overseas disclosure and APP 8

Cloudflare, Inc. is in the United States and the hosting provider is in the European Union, so both the delivery of a page and the measurement script involve a cross-border disclosure under APP 8. Each provider is engaged under published data-processing terms broadly comparable to the APPs and used only for delivery, storage and measurement. Those steps cannot guarantee that an overseas recipient will observe the APPs in full. The script cannot be switched off from within the pages, though a browser extension that blocks outside scripts stops it.

9. Email, consent and the Spam Act 2003

Slate Weekly is a commercial electronic message under the Spam Act 2003 (Cth), sent only after you confirm in a reply that you want it. Every letter names the publisher and his postal address and carries the instruction for stopping it: reply with the word stop, acted on within five working days.

10. Your rights and how to use them

You may ask the publisher to:

• tell you what personal information is held about you and where it came from (APP 12);
• send you a copy in readable form;
• correct anything inaccurate, out of date or incomplete (APP 13);
• delete correspondence or a subscriber address, unless section 6 requires it kept;
• revoke a consent at any time, without giving a reason.

Write to notes@comboslate.com and say which you want. Answers come within 30 days, usually two business days, and nothing is charged; a refusal is explained in writing.

11. Complaints, and how to reach the OAIC

If you think your information has been mishandled, write to the publisher first with the subject line Privacy complaint. An acknowledgement follows within five business days and an answer within 30 days; if that does not settle it, the complaint can go to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner:

12. Children and young people

This site is written for adults and is not directed at anyone under 15; Slate Weekly is not sold to anyone under that age. If you believe a person under 15 has written in, say so and the message will be deleted.

13. Keeping information safe

The site is served only over HTTPS. The mailbox and server are protected by long unique passphrases and two-factor authentication, held only by the publisher. The files are static, with no database, so nothing about readers is stored on the server. These measures lower, but cannot remove, the chance of unauthorised access to anything sent over the internet.

14. Changes to this statement

If the way information is handled changes, including what Cloudflare inserts, this page is rewritten and the effective date updated. Earlier versions are sent on request.

15. How to reach the publisher

All privacy questions, requests and complaints go to notes@comboslate.com, or by post to the address in section 1. This statement takes effect on 2 September 2026.