Privacy Policy

PetaFold ("we", "us") operates petafold.com, including the PetaFold Journal and its weekly newsletter. This policy explains what personal data we collect, why, and what your rights are. We have written it in plain language because we would rather you actually read it.

The short version: we collect the minimum we need to run a publication — your email if you subscribe, your message if you write to us, and basic engagement signals on the emails we send. We do not sell data, we do not run advertising, and we do not track you around the web.

1. What we collect and why

Newsletter subscription

When you subscribe to the Journal, we store: your email address, the page you subscribed from, the date and time, and your subscription status (whether you have confirmed, unsubscribed, or whether emails to you have failed). We use a double opt-in: you are not added to the mailing list until you click the confirmation link we email you.

Legal basis: your consent, given at signup and confirmed by the opt-in click. You can withdraw it at any time (see "Unsubscribing").

Submissions and contact messages

When you send us a tip, a story pitch, or a contact message, we store: your name, your email address, your message, and any details you include (such as how you would like to be credited, or the topic of your inquiry). We use this to read, respond to, and — where you have offered a tip or pitch — potentially publish or act on your contribution.

Legal basis: our legitimate interest in operating an editorial publication, and, where you ask to be credited or contacted back, your consent.

Email engagement

Our newsletter emails include standard delivery and engagement measurement provided by our email service: whether an email was delivered, opened (via a tracking pixel), and whether links in it were clicked (links are routed through our tracking subdomain, links.journal.petafold.com). We use this in aggregate to understand whether editions are reaching and interesting readers, and per subscriber to maintain list health (for example, to stop emailing addresses that no longer work). Open data is approximate by nature: some mail clients block or pre-fetch tracking pixels.

If you would rather not be measured, most email clients let you block remote images (which disables open tracking), and you can always read the Journal on the website instead, where no such measurement exists.

Website analytics

We measure website traffic using Umami, a privacy-respecting, self-hosted analytics tool that we run on our own infrastructure. Umami is cookieless: it does not set tracking cookies, does not create persistent profiles of you, and does not follow you across other websites. It collects only aggregate, anonymised information about how the site is used — for example, which editions are read, how many people visit, and which sites refer traffic to us. This data is not tied to your identity and is not combined with your subscriber record or your email engagement.

The only cookie in normal use is a session cookie for the site administrator's login, which is not set for ordinary visitors.

2. Who processes your data

We use a small number of service providers to operate:

• Email delivery: Resend (which delivers mail via Amazon SES). Your email address and the engagement events described above are processed by them on our behalf.
• Correspondence: Zoho Mail hosts our mailboxes. If you email us, or we reply to you, your messages pass through Zoho.
• Hosting and database: our website and database run on cloud infrastructure providers.
• Website analytics: Umami, which we self-host on our own infrastructure. Because it is self-hosted, your website-usage data is not shared with a third-party analytics company — it stays with us, on the infrastructure we control.

These providers process data on our instructions. Depending on the provider, your data may be processed on servers outside your country, including in the European Union and the United States. We choose providers that maintain recognised data-protection safeguards.

We do not sell personal data. We do not share it with advertisers. We disclose it only if required by law.

3. How long we keep data

• Active subscribers: for as long as you remain subscribed.
• Unsubscribed addresses: we keep a minimal record (your address and the date you unsubscribed) so that we can honour your choice and never email you again. If you would like even this record erased, contact us and we will delete it — noting that after full deletion we can no longer guarantee suppression if the address is ever re-submitted.
• Addresses that hard-bounce or report our mail as spam: we keep a record so we stop sending to them.
• Submissions and contact messages: kept for our editorial and business records, or until you ask us to delete them.

4. Your rights

Wherever you are, we extend the same rights to you:

• Access: ask us what data we hold about you.
• Correction: ask us to fix inaccurate data.
• Deletion: ask us to erase your data (see the retention note above).
• Objection / withdrawal of consent: stop the processing that is based on your consent at any time.
• Portability: receive a copy of the data you gave us.

To exercise any of these, email contact@petafold.com. We will respond within a reasonable time, and in any case within the period required by applicable law.

If you are in the European Union or another jurisdiction with a data protection authority, you also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local authority. We would appreciate the chance to resolve your concern directly first.

5. Unsubscribing

Every newsletter we send contains an unsubscribe link, and supports one-click unsubscribe in mail clients that offer it. Unsubscribing is immediate, requires no login and no explanation, and we do not send "are you sure" follow-ups. You can resubscribe at any time.

6. Children

PetaFold is a professional publication and is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 16. If you believe a child has provided us data, contact us and we will delete it.

7. Security

We take reasonable technical measures to protect the data we hold: access to it is restricted, credentials are stored hashed, and unsubscribe and confirmation links use unique unguessable tokens. No system is perfectly secure, but we hold little, and we hold it carefully.

8. Changes to this policy

If our data practices change, we will update this page and change the date at the top before the new practice takes effect. Significant changes affecting subscribers will be mentioned in the newsletter.

9. Contact

PetaFold contact@petafold.com

For anything about your data, your subscription, or this policy, that address reaches a human who can act on it.