Last updated: August 5, 2026

1. Introduction

The Petrine Vector (“we,” “our,” or “us”) is a long-read magazine of historical essays on the connections between Russia and Europe. This Privacy Policy describes how we collect, use, and disclose information through this website (the “Site”), published by The Petrine Vector. The Petrine Vector is a publication, not a service: there are no accounts, no comments, no forms and no newsletter. Please read this Privacy Policy before using the Site. By using the Site, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy and consent to the practices described below. You can reach us at any time using the details in the Contact Us section below.

2. Information We Do Not Collect

We do not:

  • ask you to register, log in, or give us your name, email address or any other personal detail;
  • use advertising networks, retargeting, or “people also read” recommendation services;
  • build profiles of individual readers, or try to identify you personally;
  • sell, rent or share data about you with anyone.

3. Cookies And Other Tracking Technologies

A cookie is a small file a website asks your browser to store on your device so the site can recognise that browser on a later visit. Other tracking technologies — such as pixels or embedded scripts — work on the same principle: something small is left with or requested from your browser so a later visit, or a later request, can be linked back to it.

We use Google Analytics, a service provided by Google, to understand which articles are read and to compile aggregate visit statistics. It sets cookies (_ga and similar) to recognise a returning browser, and may record the pages you view, an approximate location derived from your IP address, and general details of your device and browser. It is used for aggregate statistics only: we do not use it to identify you individually, we have not enabled advertising features or cross-device tracking, and we do not merge its data with anything else.

This is not anonymous data: the identifiers involved can single out a browser. For that reason, measurement runs only once you agree to it — that agreement is our legal basis for it (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR and UK GDPR). Until you agree, this Site sets no cookies and no data reaches Google. You can decline, or withdraw your agreement later, without losing access to anything on this Site, and you can also block it in your browser or with Google’s opt-out add-on.

Google processes this data on our instructions and also uses it for its own purposes as described in its own policies, and may transfer it to servers outside the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom under the safeguards Google applies. Google’s own description of the service is published at https://policies.google.com/privacy.

Measurement data is kept for at most 14 months and then deleted automatically. No other cookie, pixel or advertising tracker is used on this Site.

4. Server Logs

The site is served by our hosting provider, which keeps standard web server logs — IP address, approximate time, requested page, browser type — for security, abuse prevention and operation of the network. This is ordinary technical processing carried out on the basis of our legitimate interest in keeping the site available and secure (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR and UK GDPR). We do not use these logs for marketing, and we do not combine them with anything else.

Because our hosting provider operates a global network, this technical data may be processed on servers outside the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, under the safeguards that provider applies. Logs are kept for a short period — long enough to investigate an incident — and are then discarded by the provider on its own schedule.

5. Correspondence

Writing to us using the details in the Contact Us section below is one way personal data reaches us directly. If you do, we hold your message and your email address for as long as it takes to deal with what you wrote about, and for a reasonable period afterwards in case the matter comes back. We use it to answer you and for nothing else — no mailing list, no marketing, no passing it on. The legal basis is our legitimate interest in responding to correspondence, or the steps leading to an agreement where you are asking about permission to reuse material (Art. 6(1)(f) or 6(1)(b) GDPR and UK GDPR).

Articles link to other websites and may include images or embedded material published elsewhere. Once you follow such a link or load such material, the other site’s rules apply, not ours.

7. Your Rights

This site is read mainly in the European Union and the United Kingdom, and we apply the same standard to everyone. Under the GDPR — and, for readers in the United Kingdom, the UK GDPR — you have the right to ask what personal data is held about you, to have it corrected or erased, to object to or restrict its processing, and to receive a copy of it.

You also have the right to complain to a data protection authority: in the EU, the authority of the country where you live, where you work, or where you think the problem arose; in the United Kingdom, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), https://ico.org.uk.

Where we rely on your agreement — audience measurement — you can withdraw it at any time, and doing so does not affect anything we did while it was given.

This site has no accounts and no forms, so apart from the measurement data described above, and any correspondence you have sent us, there is normally nothing held about you at all. Contact us using the details in the Contact Us section below and we will tell you exactly what there is, or act on your request if there is anything to act on.

8. Children

This site is a general-interest publication and is not directed at children.

9. Changes To This Policy

We reserve the right to revise and/or reissue this Privacy Policy at any time. If we change this Privacy Policy in the future, we will post the revised Privacy Policy. Any changes will be effective immediately upon posting of the revised Privacy Policy.

10. Contact Us

If you have any questions or comments about this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us:

By email: [email protected]