I'm going to write this in plain English because I am neither a lawyer nor an engineer. Probably, neither are you.
I try to be careful about using ethical software and protecting your privacy. Everything is GDPR-compliant, uses only strictly necessary cookies and is hosted in the EU, whenever that's a choice I can make. I'm beholden to the policies of the services I use, since I don't code any of this myself, so I've included links to their privacy policies. I never sell or rent data; I wouldn't know how.
Reading preferences and on-device storage
This website is built with Ghost, an open-source, non-profit publishing tool, and is hosted by Magic Pages. They use only the strictly necessary cookies to log you into broadhistory.com and keep you logged in. That's why you don't get an annoying cookie opt-in pop up when you arrive.
To personalise your experience on this site, it stores a small amount of information directly in your browser — specifically, which articles you've read and when, and whether you've interacted with the newsletter signup. This data never leaves your device and is never sent to me or any third party. You can clear it at any time by clearing your browser's local storage or site data.
Newsletter subscription
If you sign up for the Broad History newsletter, your email address is stored and processed by Ghost. Ghost sends you a confirmation link before adding you to the list. You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in any newsletter email. I will never share your email address with anyone.
Analytics
This site collects traffic and newsletter analytics to help me know my audience and build a sustainable business. You can learn more about what I see via Ghost here. This is cookie-free and does not follow you once you leave Broad History. I also get data via Plausible, a privacy-by-design analytics service, and I use Outpost to help me grow my audience and revenue. I do not use Google Analytics, which I find far too invasive.
Email analytics have always been a bit creepy; they give the sender way more individual-level information than they need, like which email each of you has opened and which links you've clicked. (That level of detail isn't even useful, I don't look at it.) That's just how it was built... UNTIL most inbox providers decided to start opening every email and clicking every link behind the scenes unbeknownst to you, in order to cache them and load them faster when you want them. That makes my analytics useless and your privacy protected. You can also opt for a more privacy-focused email provider like Proton, that's up to you.
No advertising trackers
Broad History carries no advertising and uses no third-party tracking or analytics cookies. I don't use adtech or track your behaviour across the web when you leave Broad History.
Financial data
Paying members' and donors' payment data is held by Stripe and not by me directly. It's tedious, but here's their privacy information. Stripe is the absolute global standard for safe online payments at the moment.
Podcast
Your privacy while you listen will depend on the podcasting app you choose to use; Broad History is catalogued on all of them and lets you make your own choice. Here are the privacy policies for the big guys – Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Youtube – but if you're using Big Tech like this, you know what you're in for.
Affiliates
My bookshop is hosted on Bookshop.org. Every link to purchase a book on this site is affiliated and will take you to them. This is their privacy terms for shopping in the UK and in the US. You'll also find on this website a handful of affiliated links to software I use every day and whole-heartedly recommend – Ghost and Magic Pages, with which I build and host the website; Descript and Riverside, with which I edit the podcast and videos; and Transistor, my trusty podcast host of many years. These services track you just enough when you sign up for them to attribute the referral to me. All of this (very modestly) funds my independent publishing.
Deleting your data
If you unsubscribe from the newsletter, you technically still have an account in the BroadHistory.com backend, just one that no longer gets emails. If you'd like your information deleted, just drop me a line. I'm not putting my email address here because last time I did, the bots were relentless. Just hit reply to any newsletter. I'm easy to find.
If you have any more questions I did not address, do get in touch.
