We collect one thing, and only if you ask us to.

LAST UPDATED: 5 SEPTEMBER 2026

HackDecoded writes about companies that harvest your data. It would be absurd to do that and then harvest yours. This page explains exactly what we hold, why we hold it, and how to make us delete it.

// What we collect

Your email address, and nothing else. We only get it when you type it into the newsletter form yourself. You can read every article on this site without giving us anything.

We do not ask for your name, your location, your phone number, or your job. We do not run accounts, so there is no password of yours for anyone to steal.

// What we do not collect

There are no analytics on this site. No Google Analytics, no Meta pixel, no Plausible, no PostHog, no heatmaps, no session recording. We do not know which articles you read or how long you stayed.

We set no tracking cookies and no advertising cookies. We do not build a profile of you, and we do not run behavioural advertising.

// Where your email is kept

Your address goes into a database on a server we control, not into a third-party marketing platform. Two other companies touch it, and only to do a specific job:

Resend sends the newsletter. They need your address to deliver the email to you.
Cloudflare serves this website and filters attacks. Like every web host, their systems process the connection your browser makes.

We never sell your email address. We never rent it, trade it, or hand it to a data broker. We do not share it with the companies we write about, or with the companies we link to.

// Affiliate links

Some articles recommend a security tool through a link marked AFFILIATE. If you buy through one of those links, HackDecoded may earn a commission. It costs you nothing extra.

Those links pass through hackdecoded.com/go/before they reach the partner. We do not attach your email address or any personal detail to that redirect. Once you land on the partner's site, their own privacy policy applies, not ours.

// Your rights

You can unsubscribe in one click from the link at the bottom of every email we send, or from the unsubscribe page. Unsubscribing removes you from the list.

You can also ask us what we hold about you, ask for a copy of it, or ask us to delete it outright. Email [email protected] and we will action it. You do not need to give a reason, and we will not try to talk you out of it.

// Changes to this policy

If we start collecting something new, we will say so here and change the date at the top. We will not quietly widen what we collect and hope nobody notices.

// Contact

Questions about this policy go to [email protected].