Privacy
& Cookies

Who runs this site

This site is operated by Mac Worden, an independent mystery and thriller author, with help from a small team. Questions can be sent to the contact address below.

Reader list

The reader-list form collects the email address you choose to submit. It is used to deliver the offered ebook and send Mac Worden book news. The form is handled through the site’s service providers, and every mailing includes an unsubscribe option. The address is not sent to Google Analytics.

When our mailing-list provider accepts a signup, we also record a separate measurement event: this site, the date, the page where you signed up, and either a recognized Google Ads campaign or otherwise unattributed website traffic. The event does not include your email address or any other information that identifies you.

Optional analytics

Google Analytics 4 loads only after you select Allow analytics. It can receive the page path and title, a referring page, the date and time, approximate location, browser and device information, and selected interactions with series, books, reader-list links, and outbound retailer links.

Interaction details are limited to non-personal context such as an item ID and name, list name, placement, destination domain, link text, and content format. We do not send names, email addresses, form contents, URL query strings, or purchase claims to Analytics. A retailer-link event means only that the link was selected.

Google receives an IP address during transmission to derive approximate location, then discards it before the address is logged. Google’s handling of Analytics data is described in its Analytics privacy documentation.

Cookies

• macworden_newsletter_source_v1is tab-scoped session storage, not a cookie. When you arrive from a Mac Worden ad link, it holds only that link’s campaign key so a signup later in the same tab can be attributed to it. The browser removes it when the tab session ends.
• macworden_analytics_consent stores only whether you allowed or declined analytics. It is a first-party preference cookie kept for six months with a site-wide path, SameSite=Lax, and Secure protection on HTTPS.
• _ga and _ga_* are first-party Google Analytics cookies that hold pseudonymous visitor and session identifiers. They are created only after consent and are configured to expire within six months of the first analytics-enabled visit.

Withdrawing consent disables Analytics and removes accessible first-party _ga cookies from this site.

Advertising and retailer measurement

Analytics advertising storage, advertising user data, and ad personalization remain denied even when analytics is allowed. Google Signals and advertising-personalization signals are also disabled.

Some paid links to this site include a limited first-party source_keycampaign marker. The site can carry a valid marker between relevant Mac Worden pages and, only when you choose a retailer purchase or preorder button, select the matching book-specific Amazon Attribution link. Merely landing on or browsing the site does not contact an Amazon Attribution link.

The campaign marker is not a Google click identifier and does not contain an email address. Google click identifiers, UTM values, and unrelated page parameters are not appended to Amazon links. Amazon receives the normal request information only after you choose the outbound link and reports aggregated retailer activity through Amazon Attribution. This routing works independently of the optional Google Analytics choice.

Your choice

Analytics is optional. Declining it does not affect site functionality. Use the persistent Cookie settings control in the footer to allow, decline, or withdraw consent later. You can also clear cookies in your browser.

Changes

If this policy or the site’s data practices change materially, this page and its last-updated date will be revised.