Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

SysOpsTechnix (sysopstechnix.com) is an independent technology blog founded in 2020 and operated by Lakindu Jayasena. It publishes tutorials and guides on Linux, cloud, DevOps, Kubernetes, networking and security. For the purposes of data protection laws such as the GDPR, the site owner is the data controller for the personal information described in this policy.

By using this website you acknowledge this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with it, please do not use the site.

2. Information we collect

Information you give us

• Contact form: your name, email address, the subject you choose and your message, so we can reply to you.
• Guest post pitches: if you pitch an article through our Write for Us form, your name, email address, proposed article details, a short bio and any links you share, so we can review your idea and reply. If your article is published, your name, bio and photo appear with it.
• Newsletter sign-up: your email address and, if you choose to provide it, your name.
• Comments: your name, email address, optional website, and your comment. Your name, website and comment are shown publicly; your email address is never published.
• AI Assistant: the questions you type into our AI Assistant (on its page or through the chat button on the site), and whether you mark an answer as helpful or not helpful. Please do not enter personal or confidential information there.

Information collected automatically

• Usage data: pages viewed, time on page, referring website, approximate location (country/city), device type, browser and operating system, collected through Google Analytics.
• Technical data: IP address, browser user-agent and request details, processed by our hosting, security and anti-spam services to deliver the site and protect it from abuse.
• Cookies and similar technologies: see Cookies & your choices.

We do not knowingly collect sensitive information (such as health, financial or government ID data), and we do not ask you to create an account to read the site.

3. How we use your information

4. Advertising (Google AdSense)

SysOpsTechnix is free to read and is supported by advertising served through Google AdSense.

• Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this website or other websites.
• Google’s use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visit to this site and/or other sites on the internet.
• Third-party vendors and ad networks other than Google may also serve ads on this site and use cookies, web beacons or similar technologies to measure and personalise those ads.

Your ad choices:

• Opt out of personalised advertising from Google in My Ad Center (Google Ads Settings).
• Opt out of personalised advertising from many third-party vendors at aboutads.info (US) or youronlinechoices.eu (EU).
• Learn how Google uses information from sites or apps that use its services.

If you opt out you will still see ads, but they will be less relevant to you. Visitors in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland are shown a consent message, provided by Google’s certified consent management platform, before personalised ads or advertising cookies are used. Where you do not consent, Google may show non-personalised or limited ads.

5. Cookies & your choices

Cookies are small text files stored on your device. We use the following types:

Managing cookies: you can change your consent choices below (where available in your region), block or delete cookies in your browser settings, and opt out of Google Analytics with the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on. Blocking some cookies may affect how parts of the site work.

6. Third-party services we use

We rely on trusted providers to run the site. Each processes data under its own privacy policy:

Questions sent to the AI Assistant are forwarded to OpenAI’s API to generate a reply. OpenAI processes them under its API data policy and may keep them for up to 30 days to monitor for abuse; they are not used to train OpenAI models by default. We do not store your conversations on our server: your conversation is kept only in your browser for the current tab and is cleared when you close it. To answer common questions faster, answers may be cached on our server for up to 24 hours, without any details about who asked. If you rate an answer, we only record anonymous daily totals of helpful and not helpful votes. To prevent abuse, a hashed (non-readable) form of your IP address is kept for up to 25 hours to apply hourly and daily question limits; it is not stored together with your questions.

Pages may also include embedded content (for example videos or social posts). Embedded content behaves as if you visited the other website directly, and that website may collect data about you, use cookies, add its own tracking and monitor your interaction with the embedded content, especially if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

7. Sharing & disclosure

We do not sell, rent or trade your personal information, and we do not share it for money. We only share it:

• with the service providers listed above, only as needed to provide their service to us. They may only use it for that purpose and not for their own business purposes;
• when required by law, a court order or a valid government request;
• to protect the rights, safety and security of SysOpsTechnix, its readers or others;
• with your consent, or if the site is ever transferred to a new owner (who must respect this policy).

Because Google AdSense uses cookies to personalise ads, this may count as “sharing” or “targeted advertising” under some US state privacy laws. You can opt out as described in section 4 and section 10.

8. Data retention

In general, we keep personal information only for as long as it is needed for the purpose it was collected for, unless a longer period is required by law or for legitimate purposes such as security.

9. Security

We protect the site with encryption (HTTPS), firewall and DDoS protection, spam filtering, backups and regular software updates. No method of transmission or storage is 100% secure, but we take reasonable steps to protect your information and to limit who can access it. We also expect our service providers to protect your information to similar standards.

10. Your privacy rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to:

• Access the personal information we hold about you and receive a copy;
• Correct inaccurate information;
• Delete your information;
• Object to or restrict certain processing, including processing based on legitimate interests;
• Withdraw consent at any time (for example by unsubscribing or changing your cookie choices), without affecting earlier processing;
• Data portability, to receive your data in a commonly used format;
• Lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority.

EEA, UK and Switzerland (GDPR / UK GDPR)

The rights above apply to you, and we rely on the legal bases listed in section 3.

California and other US states (CCPA/CPRA and similar laws)

You have the right to know what personal information we collect, to request deletion or correction, to opt out of the “sale” or “sharing” of personal information and of targeted advertising, and not to be discriminated against for using these rights. We do not sell personal information for money. To opt out of personalised ads, use the links in section 4 or contact us.

To exercise any right, email admin@sysopstechnix.com or use our contact form. We will respond within 30 days (one month) and may need to verify your identity first. Some information may be kept where we are required to for legal, security or administrative reasons.

11. International data transfers

Our service providers (including Google, Cloudflare, OpenAI, Sender.net and Mailgun) may process data in the United States and other countries outside your own. Where required, these transfers are protected by safeguards such as the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses or the EU–US Data Privacy Framework.

12. Children’s privacy

SysOpsTechnix is intended for IT professionals and is not directed at children under 13 (or under 16 in the EEA and UK). We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has given us personal information, please contact us and we will delete it.

13. External links

Our articles link to other websites, documentation and social networks such as Facebook, X (Twitter), LinkedIn, Reddit and Pinterest, and include share buttons for these platforms. Share buttons are simple links: they only send data to the platform if you click them. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of those sites, so please read their privacy policies before sharing any information with them.

14. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy when our services, the tools we use or the law change. The “Last updated” date at the top shows when it was last revised. For significant changes, we will make a reasonable effort to let you know, for example with a notice on the site or in the newsletter.