We keep as little about you as we need to run the paper. Here's what we keep, in plain words.

If you sign up for the Daily

We keep your email address and the date you signed up. If you set a city for the weather in the Daily, we keep that city's name and map position too. That's it.

To stop the Daily, use the Unsubscribe link at the bottom of any Daily email, or switch it off on your account page.

If you make an account

We keep:

  • your email address
  • your password, but only as a scrambled one-way hash, so nobody here can read it
  • when you joined, and whether you've confirmed your email
  • your plan, if you pay, and the customer number Stripe gives us
  • if you came in on a friend's referral link, which account referred you
  • anything you choose to add to a public profile, like a display name, bio or links
  • your listening settings, if you use the Listen button

If you have an Agent pass, your Agent key is stored as a hash, not the key itself.

If you comment or sign the guest book

We keep what you wrote and the name you posted under. Comments are checked by the desk before they appear. Guest book entries go up straight away.

If you play games or take lessons

Game high scores keep the name you type in. The lessons leaderboard keeps the nickname you pick and your results. Most lesson progress and quiz results stay in your own browser.

Payments

Stripe handles every payment. Your card number goes to Stripe and never passes through our pages. We only keep the customer number Stripe gives us, so your plan stays linked to your account. You can change your card or cancel from your account page, through Stripe.

Where it's kept

Account and Daily records are kept in private storage with our web host, Vercel. Desk email is on Proton Mail.

Cookies

We use a few small cookies to make the site work. None of them are for advertising.

  • ts_session: keeps you signed in. Lasts 30 days. Page scripts can't read it.
  • ts_open: times your free preview of the paper. Lasts 30 days.
  • ts_free: remembers the free story you opened today. Lasts 30 days.
  • gs_lessons: unlocks more lessons after you sign up for the Daily. Lasts a year.
  • gs_ref: only set if you arrive from a referral link, so the friend who sent you gets credit. Lasts 30 days.
  • ts_visit: makes sure the reader counter counts you once. Lasts 12 hours and holds no ID.
  • gs_press_guest: a random guest ID, not linked to your name or email. Lasts about 13 months.
  • gs_xmas80_dismissed: remembers you closed the Christmas offer box. Lasts about four months.

Some settings, like text size, your weather city and game names, are saved in your own browser, not on our servers.

Analytics

We use Vercel Web Analytics to count page views. Vercel says it doesn't use cookies for this, and we don't see who you are. We don't run Google Analytics, ad networks or tracking pixels. The only ads on the site are our own.

Your IP address

Like any website, our host sees your IP address when you visit. We use it for a moment to stop people spamming forms, like signups, and we don't keep it in your account.

What we never do

We don't sell your email. We don't rent our list. We don't share your details with advertisers.

Seeing or deleting your data

Email the desk at thestandard.desk@proton.me and we'll delete your account data within 30 days.