The Architecture of Trust

We don't just write about privacy; we practice it.

A website about data sovereignty should not be collecting your data. That's why our policy is simple, transparent, and strict. We collect only what is absolutely necessary to run the site and send our newsletter. Nothing more.

What We Collect

Email Address — To send you our newsletter and updates. We send you our latest articles and resources. We never sell or share your email.

Name (Optional) — To personalize your newsletter greeting. Only used for display in emails. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Analytics Data — To understand which articles and resources resonate with our audience. We collect the pages you view, your referring source, and anonymized technical details like browser and device type. Collection is cookie-free, first-party, and uses rotating daily salts so you cannot be tracked across days. For logged-in members, we also record your member ID. We never sell or share this data with third parties.

What We Track

Newsletter Opens — To gauge how interested our subscribers are after the sign up. We cannot see who opened.

Link Clicks within the Newsletter — To help understand what content members are interested in.

That's it.

What We DO NOT Collect

If it doesn't align with our mission, we don't do what the industry considers "standard":

❌ No Tracking Pixels — We don't use Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, or any third-party tracking scripts.

❌ No Cookies for Tracking — We don't use cookies to follow your browsing habits across the web.

❌ IP addresses — We don't collect your IP address for tracking purposes.

❌ No Data Selling — We will never sell, rent, or share your data with advertisers, data brokers, or anyone else.

❌ No Affiliate Kickbacks — We don't participate in affiliate programs, and we never accept payment for positive coverage. When we recommend a product (like Proton), we do it because we believe in it, not because we get paid.

The "Third-Party" Reality Check

Honesty is key: We use Ghost for hosting, analytics (Ghost uses TinyBird) and emailing our newsletter (Ghost uses Mailgun as the relay service). While we don't control the data collected by these providers, we choose vendors who do not sell data and who adhere to strict privacy standards (GDPR/Swiss Privacy).

We can't run internet infrastructure alone, but we can choose partners who share our values. This is the exact same scrutiny we recommend you apply when choosing your own tools.

Your Rights

You're in control of your data.

Access — You can request a copy of the data we hold about you.
Delete — You can request that we delete your data immediately.
Unsubscribe — You can unsubscribe from our newsletter with one click.

Why This Matters

Most websites treat your data as a commodity. They sell it to the highest bidder. They track you across the web to build a profile they can monetize. We refuse to do that. We're building a community based on trust. If we break that trust, we break our mission.

On Our Imagery and AI Use

We write critically about AI and surveillance technology. Practicing transparency about our own tools is part of practicing what we preach.

Our Images

You've probably noticed our illustrations. They're warm, a little playful, and hopefully memorable. They're also AI-generated—created with Midjourney.

I'm not a cartoonist. I'm a writer and a researcher. I could spend hours searching stock photo sites for generic, soulless imagery that every other blog uses, or I could hire an illustrator—which, at the volume we publish, just isn't sustainable right now. Midjourney lets me produce consistent, family-friendly visuals that match the tone of the writing without pulling focus from what actually matters: the content.

This is a trade-off I've made consciously. The images are tools, not content. They don't replace research, analysis, or writing. They accompany it. If that calculation changes and we grow to a point where commissioning original illustration is viable that's the direction I'd prefer to go.

Our Editing Process

I write every article myself—the research, the analysis, the opinions, the voice. That's non-negotiable. But I do use an AI assistant (Lumo, by Proton) for proofreading and editing support. It helps me catch typos, tighten sentences, and flag inconsistencies I might miss after staring at a draft for too long.

Think of it as a spellchecker with better grammar. It doesn't think for me, write for me, or shape the arguments. It polishes the delivery.