This site (chriscottonux.com) is the personal portfolio and consulting site of Chris Cotton, an independent UX designer based in Byron Bay, Australia. It exists so that potential clients, collaborators and recruiters can understand my work and get in touch. This page sets out what data the site collects, why, and what you can do about it. Plain English first; lawyer talk only where it has to be.
The short version
I run a tiny analytics setup so I can see what's working on the site, and a contact form so you can email me. I don't sell your data, run third-party ad networks, or do anything cute with cookies. If you want any of your data removed, email chris@chriscottonux.com and it's gone.
What I collect
Site analytics. When you load a page, the site sends one small request to my own analytics endpoint with: the path you visited, the page that referred you (if any), whether you're on mobile or desktop, and an anonymous random session ID stored in your browser. That's it. No name, no IP address stored, no precise location, no fingerprinting, no tracking across other sites.
Contact form. If you fill in the form on the home page or a project page, I get your name, email and message via Formspree (the form processor). I use that information to reply to you and, if we end up working together, to keep our project communication going.
Currency preference. The pricing slider remembers which currency you picked (AUD, USD, EUR, GBP) in your browser's localStorage so you don't have to set it again next visit. It never leaves your device.
Approximate country. The pricing block makes a single call to a public IP-to-country service (api.country.is) to guess your country and pick a sensible default currency. The country code is stored in your browser only. Your IP is not stored on this site.
Sticky notes & sketches. The post-it and pen tools in the bottom toolbar are local-only — anything you draw or write stays in your browser session and is never sent anywhere.
Ask-AI chat. If you open the "Ask AI" panel and send a message, your prompt is forwarded to my server and on to Anthropic's Claude API so it can generate a reply. Your message and the model's response are stored in temporary server logs for a short window so I can debug issues and improve the answers — they are not tied to your name, email, or analytics session ID, and they are not used to retrain any model. Don't share anything sensitive (passwords, financial details, personal information about other people) in the chat. If you want a previous conversation removed, email me with rough timing and I'll purge it.
What I do not collect
No advertising cookies. No Facebook Pixel, Google Ads, TikTok, LinkedIn Insight, or similar. No cross-site tracking. No mailing lists you didn't sign up for. No location data beyond the country guess described above. No payment data — I don't take payments through this site.
Cookies & local storage
The site uses your browser's localStorage for two practical things: the analytics session ID (so I don't double-count one visitor as two), and your currency preference. Both are anonymous strings on your device. You can clear them any time by clearing site data in your browser settings — nothing on the site will break.
Where the data lives
Analytics events go to my own server hosted with Netlify. Form submissions go to Formspree (their privacy policy). The site itself is served from Netlify's CDN — that means standard server logs (IP, user agent) exist temporarily at the infrastructure level, the same as on any website. I do not access or retain those logs.
Third-party content
The site embeds Google Fonts for typefaces, a couple of CDN scripts (GSAP, split-type) for animation, and an analytics dashboard rendered inside an iframe. These services receive a request from your browser when you load the page, which is the standard way the web works. None of them are passed any personal information.
The Ask-AI panel uses Anthropic's Claude API to generate replies. Your prompt is sent to Anthropic via my server. Anthropic's commercial API terms state that customer prompts are not used to train their models. The country lookup in the pricing block uses api.country.is, a public IP-to-country service.
Your rights
You can ask for a copy of any data I hold about you, ask me to delete it, or tell me to stop using it for anything except the legal minimum. Just email chris@chriscottonux.com. If you're in the EU/UK you have rights under GDPR; if you're in California you have rights under CCPA; in Australia we're covered by the Privacy Act 1988. The practical answer is the same in every case: tell me what you want and I'll do it within a reasonable time.
Children
The site is aimed at adults engaging me for professional work. It is not intended for, marketed to, or designed for children under 16. If you believe a child has submitted information through the contact form, email me and I'll delete it.
Changes to this policy
If I change how the site handles data, I'll update this page and bump the date at the top. Material changes will also be flagged in the next email reply if we're already in conversation.
Contact
Chris Cotton
Byron Bay, Australia
chris@chriscottonux.com
See also: Terms of Use