We don't want your data.

Unlike many of the agencies discussed on this site, we want to be honest and transparent about the infrastructure we don't own: this site currently runs on Hetzner—though Flock is trying to change that. A quick overview of the information currently retained:

To deliver its service, Hetzner can see your IP address as well as encrypted traffic between you and the service. Traffic is decrypted inside a virtual machine owned and run by Hetzner; although Hetzner could theoretically intercept data at that level, doing so would violate applicable law.

On the virtual machine itself, this website retains the following information:

• 24 hours of application logs, including irreversibly hashed or partial IP addresses.
• Slow query logs (sanitized to remove search terms).
• An irreversible hash of your user agent (browser) + IP address (for unique visitor analytics).

Some settings, like the columns you have selected for audit reports or whether you have dismissed warning notices, are stored locally in your browser.

While we don't log your searches, we do track security incidents. In cases where security incident detection is triggered, your IP address may be retained beyond the stated period (for example, by placing it in a "fail2ban jail").

Government and Flock-affiliated visitors should note that we apply the same data retention philosophy to them that they apply to the public: information observed in the course of normal operations may be retained indefinitely and used for investigative purposes.

In production, this site collects anonymous Core Web Vitals (CLS, LCP, INP, FCP, TTFB) to help us debug layout shifts and performance regressions.

What is collected:

• Metric name and numeric score.
• Performance rating (good, needs improvement, or poor).
• Page path — the URL without any query string or fragment.
• Route name (e.g. home, agency).
• Navigation type (e.g. navigate, reload).
• A session-scoped metric ID generated by the web-vitals library. It is not linked to a user account, cookie, or fingerprint.

What is not collected:

• IP address or user agent.
• Cookies or any stored identifier.
• Query strings (which may contain search terms).
• Anything linkable to an individual person.

Data is written to a local log file on the server. It is not stored in the database, not shared with third parties, and not used for advertising.

You never need an account or an email address to use this site. We do offer an optional newsletter — the one case where you can choose to give us your email.

If you subscribe, your email address is handled by Buttondown, our email service provider. Buttondown stores your address and sends the newsletter on our behalf. We don't sell or share it with anyone else, and Buttondown doesn't either.

• We use double opt-in: after signing up you'll get a confirmation email, and you're only subscribed once you click the link.
• Your IP address may be sent to Buttondown at sign-up for spam prevention.
• Every newsletter has a one-click unsubscribe link — you can leave anytime.
• We only use your address to send the newsletter you asked for.

For details, see Buttondown's Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.

Donating is optional and never required to use this site. Our donate buttons are plain links to payment pages hosted by Stripe — we deliberately don't embed Stripe on our own pages, so no Stripe script or cookie ever loads here.

When you donate you're on Stripe's own checkout. Stripe and our 501(c)(3) fiscal sponsor, the Alt News Foundation, process the payment and receive the information you enter there (such as your name, email, and card details). We never see or store your card details.

• We may attach a referrer tag to the link (which of our sites sent you) so the donation is credited correctly. It contains no personal information.
• Receipts, tax acknowledgements, and refunds are handled by Stripe and the Alt News Foundation.

For details, see Stripe's Privacy Policy.