Think Defence (“we”, “our”, or “the site”) is committed to protecting your privacy and complying with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018, and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR).
This Privacy Policy explains what data we collect, how it is used, and your legal rights.
1. Information We Collect and Why
A. Reader Discussion and Comments
When you leave a comment or technical contribution to our articles or Knowledge Base articles or blog posts:
- We collect the details submitted in the comment form: your display name, email address, and comment text.
- The website/URL field has been disabled; we do not collect or store website URLs from commenters.
- An anonymised hash created from your email address may be provided to the Gravatar service to verify whether your profile has an associated avatar. The Gravatar privacy policy is available at automattic.com/privacy/.
- Comments are screened for automated spam using Antispam Bee, which evaluates comment parameters locally without transmitting personal reader records to external commercial profiling networks.
B. Direct Inquiries and Contact Form
When you submit a query via our contact form:
- We collect your name, email address, and message solely to respond to your inquiry, archival correction, or rights notice.
- We do not use contact form submissions for marketing lists or share them with third parties.
C. Analytics and Traffic Measurement
We use Google Analytics (integrated via Site Kit by Google) to monitor general traffic trends and popular content:
- In accordance with our consent management platform (Complianz), IP addresses are anonymised before processing.
- Analytics tracking is only activated if you grant consent via our on-site cookie banner.
D. Advertising and Display Cookies
We display non-intrusive advertisements served by Google AdSense:
- Depending on your cookie banner preferences, Google and its advertising partners may use cookies to serve non-personalised or personalised advertisements based on visits to this and other websites.
- You can modify or withdraw your advertising consent at any time via the “Manage Consent” tab available in the corner of every page.
E. Affiliate Links and Amazon Associates Disclosure
Think Defence participates in affiliate advertising programmes:
- Amazon Associates: Think Defence is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program and the Amazon EU Associates Programme, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com.
- Qualifying Statement: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
- Affiliate Networks: When you click an affiliate link to an external bookshop or merchant, a temporary referral cookie is placed by the merchant platform to attribute sales commissions. We never receive or store your payment details, billing address, or card information.
F. Supporter Contributions and External Storefronts
- Ko-fi: Contributions made to support site operating costs are processed directly by Ko-fi via PayPal or Stripe. Think Defence never accesses or stores your financial payment details.
- Merchandise & Digital Downloads: Orders for merchandise (Redbubble) or digital PDF guides (Payhip) are completed entirely on those third-party platforms under their respective privacy policies.
2. Legal Basis for Processing (UK GDPR)
We process your data under the following legal bases:
- Consent: For the operation of non-essential cookies (statistics and marketing) selected via our cookie banner.
- Legitimate Interests: To maintain website security, prevent automated spam, host constructive public discussion on defence capability, and respond to direct inquiries.
3. International data transfers
Some of the services used on this site process data outside the United Kingdom. Google (Analytics and AdSense), Amazon, and the payment processors used by Ko-fi (PayPal and Stripe) may transfer or store information in countries that do not have an adequacy decision from the UK government. Where this happens, the transfers rely on standard contractual clauses or equivalent safeguards required under UK GDPR. The site itself does not transfer personal data to other organisations beyond what is necessary for these services to operate.
4. Data Retention
- Comments: Reader comments and their associated metadata are retained indefinitely to preserve the archival record of equipment discussions and enable automatic approval of follow-up contributions. Comments are kept as part of the public record of the site. If you want a comment removed or your personal details deleted, use the contact form on the About page. Requests are handled under UK GDPR rights of erasure and rectification.
- Server Logs: Web server logs (capturing IP addresses and access timestamps) are maintained temporarily by our hosting provider (WP Engine) for security, DDoS prevention, and performance diagnostics, after which they are routinely cleared.
5. Your Rights
Under UK data protection law, you have rights including:
- Right of Access: The right to request copies of your personal data held by us.
- Right to Rectification: The right to ask us to correct inaccurate information.
- Right to Erasure: The right to request that your personal data or comments be deleted.
To exercise any of these rights, please get in touch via our Contact Form.
If you have concerns about our data handling, you have the right to contact the UK data protection supervisory authority:
Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO): ico.org.uk
6. Other
Data Controller: Source 360 (Trading as Think Defence), Unit 14189, PO Box 15113, Birmingham, B2 2NJ, United Kingdom.
Contact: Please use our Contact Form
Effective Date: 12 October 2026