Relatively boring reader mailbag today, but I get lots of questions regarding privacy, so I thought it’d be easier to write one big blog post about it.  I get questions like these:

Could you tell me about your privacy policies?  Why do I have to enter an email address when I write a comment?  Do you sell my email address to companies you work with?  Can you tell who visits your site? 

I can break it down like this:

comments/emails
Leaving your email address along with a comment is standard practice around the internet now.  This extra step does two things: 1) It cuts down drastically on spam, and 2) Any replies to your comment will be emailed back to you.  So, if you ask me a question in a comment, the response shows up on the site and is also emailed back to you.  Of course, this isn’t foolproof, as I’ve received comments of the not-so-kind nature, and those people tend to do it under a fake email address.

Your email address is not published.  In fact, I’m the only one that can see it, and I can only see it if I log in to a particular part of the admin portion of my site.  Generally, I don’t look unless someone won a giveaway and I can contact that person directly.

I never, ever, ever share or sell your email address.  Occasionally, a PR company will request that if they do a giveaway, that I’ll compile the email addresses of the people who entered and give it to them so they can get you on that brand’s mailing list.  I will always push back on this, and will only do it if it’s a stellar giveaway.  And if I do, I will disclose it in big bold letters so you’ll know that entering a contest for a high-end pair of shoes will put you on that shoe brand’s mailing list.

tracking who visits
If you have a website, you can check trends to see how people visit your website.  For example, if you go onto google.com and type in “roo ciambriello,” most likely roociambriello.com and nicegirlnotes.com will come up.  And then my website will tell me that is one of the search terms to get to my blog.  See below:

I won’t even comment about the loofah search.  <—Aside from that comment.

I can see what states and countries visit my blog.  I can see if large companies name their networks.  For example, if you work for a huge insurance company like Aetna and you read at work, then it’ll come up as “Aetna” on my blog.  But it doesn’t say “Jane Narwhal’s desk at Aetna.”  Same with colleges.  It’ll say “University of Florida” but nothing beyond that.

Likewise, if you’re logging in at home, that comes up as whatever internet service you use.  “SBC Internet Services” or “Comcast.”  And if you’re checking NGN on your phone, it will pop up as “Verizon Wireless.”  IP addresses show up, too, but they’re not logged.  In fact, the stats I use only show the last 500 visits.  On a crazy day right after I publish a new post, those 500 visits will burn up in 2 hours.  Unless I’m checking my stats every hour (and I don’t), I really have no idea who’s visiting my blog.

So, rest assured, your identity is safe.  I don’t know what you’re doing or when you’re doing it.  Sometimes I see a pretty sweet company in my stats.  I saw the FBI roll through once.  Turns out I have a reader who works there.  Heyyyy!!  :)  I’ve seen Facebook in my stats, too.  After some research, I’m ignoring the fact that they have bots who “crawl” websites, and I’ll just stick with my theory that Mark Zuckerberg looooooooves NGN.

And that concludes the end of this ZZZzzz presentation.  Any questions?  :)

I had fun answering your questions laaast time, so I thought I’d do it again.  If anyone wants to show up at my door with caramels, I’ll take them.  Okay.  Questions.  Answers.  Leggo.

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How much does being pregnant suck?  - Amy, via Facebook

*dry-heaves in response*  I could never, ever be a surrogate mother.  I am not the woman that loves being pregnant and looks amazing and glowy and all of her tops still fit.  Most smells bother me, I have pregnancy-induced insomnia and I go to the chiropractor weekly because I feel like a human pretzel.  THIS BABY BETTER BE SUPER CUTE OH MY DANG.

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Your hair is so long.  How do you manage it?  Have you ever had short hair?  – Allison, via email

My hair is long, dry, thick, and a bit obnoxious.  When I get my hair cut, she thins it out to remove some of the weight/bulk.  Because my hair is so dry, I use a method called CO-washing (also called conditioner only washing).  I don’t use any products with silicons or sulfates.  I air dry my hair, simply because I *do* heat style it about once or twice a week, and I want to minimize the damage as much as possible.  When I heat style it, I use a heat protectant.  I also get it trimmed up every 8 weeks or so.  I HAVE had short hair in the past, and it was actually harder to manage.  (And, it looked stupid.)  :)

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If you didn’t have kids, what would you be doing?  Other than trying to win me back?  – some guy that was sweating me hard in college, via email

I really like what I’m doing now, so I hope I’d be doing that… and going out to eat tapas more frequently and probably taking spin classes and buying clothes that are dry clean only.  It’s kind of sad to think about, because my kids are soooooooo awesome.  (But I would like to eat tapas more.)

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Are you getting paid to write on NGN?  How much income is it bringing you?  – Anonymous, via formspring

NiceGirlNotes is my website.  I own it, so no one pays me to write on it.  :)

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What song can make you get up immediately & shake yo ass? In other words, WHAT IS YO JAM?  - Robin, via Facebook

I’m in love with terrible music from the late 90s and early 00s.  If I was at a wedding and Bootylicious by Destiny’s Child started playing, I’d absolutely get down to it and maybe feel some regret and shame when the night was over.
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When someone asks what you do for a living, what do you tell them?  – Anonymous, via formspring

I don’t have a great answer for this yet.  If you come up with something, tell me.  I write.. things?  Like my blog and articles for other sites and goofy stories on the back of food packaging and maybe greeting cards suitable only for grandmothers who wear sassy underpants.

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WTF was up with the way you looked when you were younger?   – Amy, via Facebook

I’m assuming you’re referring to my awkward teen years, where I looked like this:

I started out life looking fairly normal.

As normal as a four year old who looks like she’s hiding WMDs under her coat could possibly look…

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Got some questions?  roo@nicegirlnotes.com  Holla!