Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

MakerViking.com publishes 3D printing guides, printer builds and functional print designs. For the purposes of the GDPR, MakerViking is the data controller for the personal data described here. You can reach us at [email protected].

2. What this policy covers

It covers makerviking.com and its subdomains. It does not cover sites we link to — including retailers, model repositories and our own tools hosted elsewhere — each of which has its own policy.

3. What we collect

• Usage data: which pages you visit, how long you stay, and how you arrived.
• Device and browser data: browser type and version, operating system, screen size, and approximate location derived from your IP address.
• Your IP address, which is processed to deliver the site and to detect abuse.
• Anything you send us voluntarily, such as the contents of an email.

We do not ask for, and do not want, sensitive personal data. The site has no public account system — an account exists only for site administrators.

4. Cookies and local storage we set ourselves

The site stores a small number of identifiers in your browser. They are first-party, they are not sold, and they are not shared with advertisers.

• visitor_id and mv_visitor_id — random identifiers that let us count returning visitors without knowing who you are.
• session_id, session_start and mv_session_id — group your pageviews into one visit. Cleared when you close the tab.
• mv_impression_history, mv_click_history, mv_click_attribution, mv_last_click_id and mv_last_click_ad — record which ads or promotions you have already been shown, so the same one is not repeated.
• makerviking-theme — remembers whether you chose light or dark.

You can delete all of these at any time by clearing site data in your browser. The site continues to work without them.

5. Advertising

This site carries advertising, including Google AdSense. Google is a third-party vendor that serves ads on this site.

• Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this website or to other websites.
• Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visit to this site and/or other sites on the internet.
• We also serve our own ads and sponsor placements directly. Those use the first-party identifiers listed above and nothing more.

You can opt out of personalised advertising by Google at google.com/settings/ads. You can opt out of a third-party vendor's use of cookies for personalised advertising at aboutads.info/choices or, in Europe, at youronlinechoices.eu.

6. Consent, if you are in the EEA, the UK or Switzerland

Before any advertising or analytics cookie is used to personalise what you see, you are shown a consent message and asked to choose. That message is served by Google's Consent Management Platform, which is certified under the IAB Transparency & Consent Framework.

Your choice is recorded and honoured on later visits. You can change or withdraw it at any time using the privacy or consent link Google places on the page, or by clearing this site's cookies. Withdrawing consent does not make the ads disappear — it makes them non-personalised.

7. Analytics

We use Google Analytics 4 to understand which articles are useful and which are not. It sets its own cookies and processes your IP address. Google's own privacy policy applies to that processing: policies.google.com/privacy. We also keep a small first-party log of pageviews, using the identifiers in §4.

8. Affiliate links

Some links to products are affiliate links, including Amazon Associates links. If you buy through one, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. The retailer, not this site, sees what you bought. Affiliate links never change which products we recommend or what we say about them.

9. Who your data is shared with

We do not sell personal data. We share it only with:

• Google, for advertising and analytics, as described above.
• Our hosting and infrastructure providers, which process data on our behalf in order to serve the site.
• Legal authorities, where we are required by law to do so.

10. How long we keep it

First-party analytics records are retained for up to 26 months and then deleted. Google Analytics and AdSense retain data according to their own schedules, which you can review in Google's policy.

11. Your rights

Under the GDPR and similar laws you have the right to access your personal data, to have it corrected or deleted, to restrict or object to how it is processed, to receive it in a portable form, and to withdraw consent at any time. You also have the right to complain to your national data protection authority.

To exercise any of these, email [email protected]. Because the site has no public accounts, we may need you to help us identify which records are yours.

12. Children

This site is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect their personal data. If you believe we have, tell us and we will delete it.

13. Changes to this policy

We will update this page when our practices change, and revise the date at the top. Material changes will be flagged on the site.

14. Contact

Questions about this policy, or about anything above: [email protected]. See also our Terms of Service.