Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy explains how the personal website operated by Desmond Zhu (“I”, “me”, “my”) at https://dz.shps.co.za (the “Site”) collects, uses, shares, and protects information about visitors (“you”). The Site is a personal CV, portfolio, and collection of free informational tools operated from Houston, Texas, United States.
By using the Site, contacting me through it, or interacting with the AI chatbot, you agree to the practices described in this Policy. If you do not agree, please do not use these features.
Who is responsible for your data
The operator responsible for the Site is:
Desmond Zhu
Houston, Texas, United States
Although the Site uses a .co.za domain name, it is operated from the United
States and is not established in, or operated from, South Africa.
Information I collect
I collect only the information needed to run the Site, respond to enquiries, and protect the Site from abuse. I do not sell personal information, and I do not use it for advertising or behavioral tracking.
2.1 Information you provide directly
When you send me an enquiry through the AI chatbot or a contact form, I may collect:
- Your email address
- Your phone number (optional)
- The job, role, or project type you describe
- A description of your enquiry or project
- Your budget range (optional)
- The contents of your chatbot conversation, if you submit an enquiry through the chatbot
2.2 Information collected automatically
To operate the Site securely, detect abuse, and rate-limit requests, I automatically collect limited technical information when you submit a form, use the chatbot, or use other interactive features of the Site:
- A truncated IP address (only the network portion — the first three
octets, i.e. a
/24prefix). Your full IP address is not stored. - Approximate country derived from your network
- Your network's ASN (autonomous system number — your internet provider's network identifier)
- Your browser/user-agent information
- Timestamps of the interaction
- Signals used to detect automated or abusive traffic (for example, whether the request appears to come from a data center or an automated bot)
Some non-essential assets — such as brand icons, logos, and script libraries — may be loaded by your browser from third-party content delivery or asset providers. When your browser requests those assets, those providers may receive technical request data such as IP address, user-agent, referrer, request URL, and request time. These assets are used to display content and provide page functionality, not for targeted advertising or behavioral tracking.
2.3 Cookies and similar technologies
The Site is designed to minimize cookies:
- Security challenge: When you submit a form, a privacy-focused challenge from my anti-abuse provider may set a cookie strictly to verify that you are human and to prevent spam and abuse. This is a necessary/functional use and is not used to track you across other websites.
- I do not use third-party advertising or behavioral-tracking cookies.
The Site does not permit third parties to collect personally identifiable information about your online activities across different websites, and it does not respond to “Do Not Track” browser signals.
If analytics or other non-essential cookies are added in the future, a consent banner will be shown where required, and this Policy will be updated.
The AI chatbot
The Site offers an AI-powered chatbot that answers questions about my background, experience, and projects, and that can help you send me an enquiry.
Do not enter sensitive personal information into the chatbot (for example, government ID numbers, financial account details, or health information). Only share what is necessary to make your enquiry.
Please also be aware:
- Responses are generated by an automated AI system and may be inaccurate, incomplete, or out of date. They are provided for general information only and are not professional, legal, financial, or other advice.
- If you choose to submit an enquiry through the chatbot, the conversation log associated with that enquiry is stored together with your enquiry so that I can understand and respond to your request.
- Chatbot messages are processed by a third-party AI service to generate replies (see Section 5).
How I use your information
I use the information described above to:
- Respond to your enquiries and communicate with you about potential work or collaboration
- Operate, maintain, and secure the Site
- Prevent, detect, and investigate spam, scraping, fraud, and other abuse
- Apply rate limits and verify that requests are from real humans
- Comply with legal obligations
Service providers I share data with
I do not sell your personal information and I share it only with the limited service providers that make the Site function. These providers act as my processors/operators under contract:
- A cloud infrastructure provider — provides hosting, serverless functions, database and key-value storage, the AI chatbot service, and the anti-abuse challenge. This provider processes data on globally distributed infrastructure.
- A transactional email provider — used to deliver notification emails to me when you submit an enquiry.
These providers process data on my behalf and are not permitted to use it for their own purposes. I may also disclose information if required by law, to enforce the Site's terms, or to protect the rights, safety, and security of myself or others.
How I protect your information
I take reasonable technical measures to protect your information, including storing only a truncated IP prefix rather than your full IP address, masking secrets, restricting administrative access behind authentication, validating and rate-limiting form input, and using a security challenge to block automated abuse. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, so I cannot guarantee absolute security.
Selling, advertising, and profiling
I do not sell personal data, and I do not use it for targeted advertising or profiling.
Children's privacy
The Site is not directed to children, and I do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18 (or the age of majority in your jurisdiction).
Changes to this Policy
I may update this Policy from time to time. When I do, I will revise the “Last updated” date above. Material changes will be reflected on this page. Your continued use of the Site after an update means you accept the revised Policy.