Who I am
My name is Anh Tran. I am a software engineer, educator, and AI/NLP researcher. This is my personal website where I share my projects, research, and simple lectures about Computer Science, AI, and tools I build (such as U.S. Citizenship practice apps).
What data I collect and why
Comments
When visitors leave comments on the site, I collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user-agent string to help spam detection.
An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available at: https://automattic.com/privacy/
After approval of your comment, your profile picture (if you use Gravatar) is visible to the public in the context of your comment.
Contact forms and email
If you contact me through a contact form or by email, I receive the information you provide (such as your name, email address, and message). I use this information only to reply to you and keep a record of our communication.
Tools and AI-powered applications
Some parts of this site provide interactive tools and AI-powered applications (for example, U.S. Citizenship Mock Interview or practice tools).
- When you use these tools, the text you enter (and sometimes other options you select) is processed by my server so that the tool can work.
- For AI-powered features, your input may be sent to a third-party AI service (such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT API) to generate a response. These providers may temporarily store and process your data according to their own privacy policies.
- I do not use this data to personally identify you. I may review anonymized logs to debug issues, improve the tools, or understand how they are used.
If you are uncomfortable with this, please do not enter sensitive personal information into the tools.
Media
If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS). Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.
Cookies
If you leave a comment on this site, you may opt-in to saving your name, email address, and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies last for one year.
If you visit the login page, a temporary cookie will be set to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.
When you log in, I also set several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.
If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.
Third-party cookies
I may also use third-party services that rely on cookies, such as analytics tools and advertising networks. These services can set their own cookies in your browser to measure traffic, prevent abuse, or show ads that are more relevant. How they use your data is governed by their own privacy policies, and you can usually control or block these cookies through your browser settings or the provider’s opt-out options.
Embedded content from other websites
Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. YouTube videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website directly.
These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction if you have an account and are logged in to that website.
Who I share your data with
- If you request a password reset, your IP address will be included in the reset email.
- Comments and form submissions may be checked through an automated spam detection service.
- Inputs to AI tools may be sent to third-party AI providers to generate responses (for example, OpenAI), as described above.
I do not sell your personal data.
How long I retain your data
If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This helps recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.
For users that register on this website (if any), I also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.
Log data for tools and applications may be kept for a limited time to monitor performance and debug problems.
What rights you have over your data
If you create an account on this site, you can log in at any time to view and edit the personal information saved in your profile. You can also delete your own comments where the system allows it.
If you contact me about your data, I will review reasonable requests where possible, but I cannot guarantee that I will be able to provide copies of all data or delete everything on demand, especially when I need to keep certain information for security, technical, or legal reasons (for example, spam logs or server backups).
Where your data is sent and stored
Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.
Data may be processed and stored on servers hosted by third-party providers (for example, web hosting on AWS and AI services such as OpenAI).
These services may be located in other countries, so your data may be transferred internationally.