The Illus Caden is a Libra Engine publication, and I, Chad Lewine, run it. This page explains what the site collects about you, what I do with it, and how to get it corrected or removed. Cookies have their own page: Cookie Policy.
1. What This Site Collects
Most of the time, nothing. You can read every piece on this site without giving it anything.
There are four exceptions, each covered below. If you subscribe to the newsletter, the site keeps your email address. If you send a message through the contact page, it passes along what you typed. If you allow analytics, Google Analytics 4 records how the site is used. And the server keeps the same access log every web server keeps.
2. The Newsletter
When you enter an email address in a subscribe box, the site stores it along with the page you were on, the time, and a status of pending. It then emails you a confirmation link. Nothing is sent to that address again unless you click the link. If you never click it, the address sits as pending and is never used.
Once confirmed, the address is used for the newsletter and for nothing else. It is not shared, and it is not added to any other list.
To leave the list, reply to any newsletter or use the contact page, and the address is removed.
3. The Contact Page
A message from the contact page is emailed to me. The site does not keep a copy in its own database. What arrives is what you entered: your name and email address, and the message, plus whatever else you chose to fill in on the pitch form. I use it to reply to you and for no other purpose.
The form has two spam checks. One is a hidden field that people never see and bots fill in. The other is a timestamp that rejects a submission made faster than a person could type. Neither one stores anything about you.
4. Analytics, Only With Your Consent
Google Analytics 4 loads only after you accept it in the cookie bar. Until then it is not on the page and nothing is sent to Google. You can withdraw that consent at any time with the Cookie preferences link in the footer.
When it runs, it shows me which pieces are read, how long people stay, the general region a visit came from, and the kind of device used. It does not tell me who you are. Google Analytics 4 does not store full IP addresses, and this site does not use any of its advertising features, so nothing here follows you to other sites.
If your browser sends a Global Privacy Control or Do Not Track signal, I treat it as a decline and analytics stay off.
5. Server Logs
Like every website, this one runs on a server that keeps a standard access log: the IP address that made a request, the page requested, the time, and the browser’s name. The log exists to keep the site running and to catch abuse. It is not combined with anything else, it is not used to identify readers, and it rotates out on its own.
6. Where It Lives
The site runs on a Libra Engine server hosted with DigitalOcean in the United States. Its database, including the newsletter list, is backed up daily and the backups stay on that same server. If you are outside the United States, the information above is processed here.
7. Who Else Touches It
A short list, and each one does a single job. Google provides analytics when you allow it and serves the typefaces on every page. Resend delivers the site’s email, which means the newsletter (including its confirmation link) and messages from the contact page pass through it. DigitalOcean hosts the server. None of them are given your information for their own use, and I do not share it with anyone else unless the law requires it.
8. I Do Not Sell It
The Illus Caden does not sell or rent your personal information, and it does not share it for advertising. There is nothing to opt out of on that front, because it does not happen.
If you are a California resident, the CCPA and CPRA give you the right to know what is held about you and to have it corrected or deleted. If you are in the EU, the EEA, the UK, or Switzerland, the GDPR and its UK equivalent give you the same rights and the right to object. Everyone has those rights here, wherever they live. Use the contact page to exercise them.
9. Retention
A newsletter address stays until you unsubscribe. A pending address that is never confirmed is never used, and it is deleted on request. Contact messages stay in my inbox for as long as the conversation is live and ordinary record-keeping needs them, then they go. Google keeps analytics data for no more than 14 months and then deletes it. I do not export it.
10. Children
This site is not written for children, and it does not knowingly collect anything from anyone under 16. If you believe a child has subscribed, tell me through the contact page and the address will be removed.
11. Changes
If what the site collects changes, this page changes with it, and the date below moves. I do not send notices about it.
Last updated: September 18, 2026.
12. Contact
Questions about this policy, or a request about your data, go through the contact page.