Words/images COPYRIGHT © 2008 by Chris Kridler. All rights reserved. Do not use Sky Diary photos on other Web sites. Personal use as computer wallpaper is permitted, but do not distribute photos. Write for information about purchasing video, photographs or articles. | Frequently asked questions

Sky Diary has no interest in collecting personal information about you. This site does not use cookies in any form, and neither does it use Web bugs. If you visit the shop, read the CafePress policy. (CafePress.com runs the shop.)

Advertising is limited on the site, and no cookies are collected through such ads. There also may be ads on pages that appear as a result of a Web-site search. These are ads from WebSideStory (formerly Atomz), which provides my search engine for free.

The details available to your wily Webmaster consist of:

• Search phrases that were used in the search engine and NOT who did the searching.
• Links that brought users to Sky Diary, such as a search string on Yahoo! or, say, a link on my pal Dave's Web site and, again, NOT who clicked on the link.
• The counter that you see on the home page and generic page-hit frequencies provided by my Web host. Other stats include number of hosts served, number of successful requests, bytes transferred, peak traffic hours and stuff like that. My stats identify some visiting hosts by number (IP address, or Internet Protocol address), but I make no effort to track these numbers or try to look them up. Most people's hosts are assigned a different number every time they dial into the Net, anyway. See what your IP address is right now by clicking on Lawrence Goetz's site. Learn more about IP addresses by looking up the definition at Whatis.com.

Concerned about Net privacy? You should be. Check out Junkbusters for the scary truth about cookies and Web bugs. It includes great links to other sources.

Sky Diary cannot be responsible for Orwellian data-gathering methods found on other sites that may be linked from this one. If you're concerned, turn off cookies in your browser and be wary. Read other sites' privacy policies.

If you send me information for any reason, I won't sell it or distribute it in any form. If you simply want an answer to a question and I happen to know an atmospheric scientist who can answer it for you, then I might forward an e-mail to such a person in order to help you out. I have no plans to share, sell or otherwise abuse personal information.

A final note: This site does not solicit any information from children and therefore does not have to go through any wild mechanisms to comply with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. However, if a kid under 13 writes to me, I will probably reply unless completely overwhelmed by work or tornadoes; if any personally identifying information is included, and I know the child is under 13, I will delete the e-mail after responding. Learn more about kids' privacy from the FTC Kidz Privacy site.

If you have questions, e-mail me.