Privacy Policy

What we collect

If you submit a story via /submit: your name and email address, plus whatever you write in the submission itself. Your name is used as the byline if the piece is published — that part is intentionally public. Your email is used only to reach you about that submission (questions, status, requested changes) and isn't published or shared.

If you subscribe to the newsletter: your email address, which page you subscribed from, and how you first found the site (see the itech_attribution cookie below). We send one confirmation email to that address before adding it to the list — nothing else goes out until you click that link. Used only to send you new-post notifications and to see which channels bring readers in — nothing else. Every notification email has an unsubscribe link that removes you immediately, no account or contact request needed.

If you create an account to comment: your email address, a display name, and a password, which is handled by our authentication provider (Supabase) and isn't visible to us in readable form. Your comments are stored with your account and, once they pass moderation, shown publicly next to your display name. Comments held for review or hidden are still stored. Your email isn't shown publicly. If someone replies to your comment, we store a notification so you can see it on your account page. If you use the Save button on a post, we store which posts you've saved so you can find them again from that same page. If you use the Like button, we store which posts you've liked. Only you can see your own notifications, saved posts and likes — the like count shown on a post is a total and never shows who liked it. You can view, export or delete everything tied to your account from that page at any time.

If you sign in (as a commenter or an admin): a session cookie that keeps you signed in. Visitors who never sign in don't receive it.

Everyone browsing the site: we use Vercel Analytics to see page views and a small number of named actions (newsletter signups, story submissions, AEO checker runs) — counts and trends only, no individual profiles, no cross-site tracking, no ad networks. This runs automatically and is cookieless.

Two small first-party cookies are also set by this site itself, before you make any choice in the banner, and are never shared with anyone. itech_visitor (one year, set on the homepage) only remembers whether you've visited before, so it can decide which button to lead with. itech_attribution (90 days, set on the first page you land on) records that page, any campaign tags in the link (utm_ or ref parameters) or the site you came from, and the time. It is only read back if you later subscribe to the newsletter, submit a story or create an account, so we can see which channels bring readers in. Neither cookie contains your name or email.

Google Analytics (only if you say yes): the banner on first visit asks whether we can also run Google Analytics (GA4), which does use a cookie and gives us more detail than Vercel Analytics alone — things like which pages people arrive from and how they move between posts. It stays off entirely until you click Accept, and clicking Decline (or just closing the banner) keeps it off. This is the same page view and interaction data described above, sent to Google rather than Vercel — still no ad network, still nothing sold. You can change your mind at any time by clearing your browser's site data for insighttech.blog, which brings the banner back.

Where it's stored

All of the above is stored with Supabase, our database and authentication provider, except analytics data, which Vercel processes directly. We don't operate our own servers for this data — both providers host it on our behalf, under their own security and privacy practices.

What we don't do

We don't sell your data. We don't share it with advertisers or data brokers. We don't run ad trackers, and we don't use anything above for anything beyond what's described here.

Your options

Want to see what we have on file, correct it, or have it deleted — including unsubscribing from the newsletter or withdrawing a submission? Contact us and we'll handle it directly.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes in a way that matters, we'll update the date above rather than editing it silently — see our corrections policy for how we handle updates generally.