Who runs this site
Secret Thirteen is an independent, non-commercial journal operated by Justinas Mikulskis in Lithuania. Questions about personal data can be sent through the contact form.
Contact messages
When you write to us, we receive the name, reply email, message, optional related URL and inquiry type you provide. We use this information only to read, assess and answer the inquiry, including attribution, correction and removal requests. Our basis is a legitimate interest in running the journal and answering correspondence, or a legal obligation when handling a data-rights request.
Technical records
The hosting environment may temporarily process standard security logs such as IP address, time, requested URL, browser and error information. These records protect the service under our legitimate interest in security. The contact form converts the connecting IP into a one-way rate-limit key for 15 minutes; the raw address is not stored by the theme.
Retention and sharing
Correspondence is kept only while it is useful for the conversation, normally no longer than 12 months after the last exchange, unless a rights dispute or legal obligation requires longer retention. We do not sell personal data or build advertising profiles. Data is shared only with infrastructure providers needed to run email and hosting, or where legally required.
Your choices
You may ask for access to your personal data, correction, deletion, restriction, or portability where applicable, and object to processing based on legitimate interests. Use the contact form and choose “Rights / removal” or “Correction / attribution”. You may also contact the Lithuanian State Data Protection Inspectorate if you believe a request was not handled properly. We do not make automated decisions or profile you for advertising.
The occasional email letter
Subscribing is optional. With your consent, we keep your email address, subscription status, the consent statement and its version, where you signed up, and the dates of your request and email confirmation in our own WordPress database, hosted by Interneto vizija. You join the mailing list only after confirming your address. We aim to send no more than one or two editorial letters per month. Our hosting provider and your email provider process the address and message for delivery. We do not share the list with an advertising platform or use tracking pixels.
Every letter includes an unsubscribe link. Opening that link shows a confirmation page; choosing “Unsubscribe” stops future letters and cancels waiting deliveries. You can withdraw consent at any time or ask for access, correction or erasure through the contact form.
Consent history is retained while a subscription is active. Unconfirmed requests are removed 30 days after their three-day confirmation link expires. Readable records and consent history for unsubscribed, undeliverable or complaint-blocked addresses are removed after 365 days of inactivity. Finished delivery records have recipient details, message identifiers and encrypted message content cleared after 90 days; delivery totals remain.
On erasure, readable subscription records, consent history and associated delivery content are removed immediately. A keyed one-way email hash, reason and date remain in a do-not-mail record to prevent an old import from restoring unwanted mail. An ordinary unsubscribe or erasure can be reversed only by a fresh signup and email confirmation; delivery-failure and complaint blocks require review. Hosting backups may retain earlier copies until their own expiry. They are not used to send letters.
Saved and reading tools
Your Saved list is kept in your browser without an account, as a reading service you request. Clearing website data or using another device can leave it unavailable. Downloading a list file keeps a copy on your device. If you choose “Keep a server copy”, we receive the public article IDs in your list and keep a private snapshot on our own hosting for one year after its last update. A private recovery link lets you retrieve it; anyone with that link can retrieve or change that copy, so keep it private. Server copies change only when you choose to update them. Expired copies are removed by scheduled cleanup.
We do not associate Saved lists with newsletter addresses. Recovery links are sent only in a request body; the server stores a keyed lookup hash rather than the recovery code itself. Preserve your link or downloaded file: without either, a cleared browser list cannot be recovered for you.
Your privacy choices
Statistics and external media are optional and use your consent. Both stay off until you accept them. Choosing “Necessary only” keeps the journal, Saved and requested reading tools available. You can change or withdraw either choice through the gear beside Privacy in the footer, or the Privacy settings button on this page. Withdrawal stops future optional collection; it does not undo processing already carried out with your consent.
A necessary first-party cookie, s13_consent_v1, remembers your choices for 180 days, with a matching local browser copy. To document a choice, we retain a keyed hash of its random receipt code, its policy version, the two optional choices and dates for 365 days. This record contains no IP address, email, user agent or reading history. It supports our consent-accountability obligations and is removed by scheduled cleanup.
Reading statistics
Only after Statistics consent, the journal counts saves, removals, Saved-panel openings, links opened from Saved and Copy link button clicks as daily publication totals. These totals have no persistent visitor identifier and do not upload your list. In Saved → Keep a copy / Settings, you can separately choose to include this browser in browser counts. If you choose both options, a random browser code is sent only with saves; the server keeps a keyed hash in daily save records for up to 365 days. It does not receive your name, email or a full list through statistics. Anonymous publication totals may remain as an archive of activity.
Switching browser counting off removes the local code and stops future browser save records; previously recorded counts remain until their retention period ends. Withdrawing Statistics consent stops all new journal action counts. Another browser or cleared website data can be counted again. These figures describe participating browsers, not distinct people. Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control stop statistics collection; saving and recovery still work. Ordinary hosting security records remain separate.
On the live site, when enabled, Google Analytics 4 measures page views and general use only after Statistics consent. Its browser cookies are limited by our integration to 180 days. We do not enable advertising storage, Google signals or advertising personalisation, and we do not send newsletter addresses or Saved lists to Google. Google receives ordinary technical request data and may process it outside the European Economic Area under its published transfer arrangements. Event-data retention is controlled in the Analytics property. See Google’s privacy policy and Analytics retention information. Analytics is disabled on our demo site.
External media
Mixcloud, SoundCloud, Bandcamp, YouTube and Vimeo players stay blocked until you allow External media or deliberately allow a player through its control. Once loaded, the provider receives ordinary technical request data and may use cookies or similar storage under its own policy. A player may continue processing while it is loaded; withdrawing media permission unloads players and stops further loads through this site. Their independent records and cookies are managed by the provider and your browser.
These providers may process data outside the European Economic Area under their published transfer arrangements. Their policies: Mixcloud, SoundCloud, Bandcamp, YouTube / Google and Vimeo.
The editorial archive
Articles preserve artists’ work, biographies, interviews and credited photography as part of the journal’s editorial archive. This material may remain available for its historical and journalistic value. For a correction, attribution concern, privacy issue or removal request, contact us with the relevant page and explain your connection to the material. We assess requests in the context of privacy rights, authorship and freedom of expression.