Privacy

Meridian is reader-funded, which changes our relationship with your data. We do not sell advertising, so we have no commercial reason to build a profile of you, follow you across the web, or hand your details to anyone who would. We collect the little we need to send you what you asked for and to understand, in aggregate, how our journalism is read. That is the whole of it.

This policy covers apgo.ink and the emails we send. It is written to be read, not to be survived. If anything here is unclear, write to us and we will explain it properly.

What we collect

We keep our collection deliberately narrow. In practice it falls into two categories.

• Information you give us. When you subscribe to The Morning Meridian or another newsletter, we store the email address you provide. If you write to us, support our work, or send a secure tip through a named channel, we hold whatever you choose to send.
• Information collected automatically. When you read a page, our analytics record non-identifying details such as the page viewed, the referring link, your approximate country, and your browser type. These are measured in aggregate and are not used to identify you personally.

We do not ask for your name, your date of birth, or any data we have no use for. We do not buy data about you from third parties to fill in the gaps.

How we use it

Every use below maps to something you would reasonably expect from a newsroom you read.

• To send the newsletters and updates you have asked to receive.
• To understand, in aggregate, which stories are read and how people find them — so we can commission better journalism.
• To keep the site secure, diagnose faults, and prevent abuse.
• To respond when you contact us or submit a tip.

We do not use your data to target advertising, because we carry none. We do not make automated decisions about you, and we do not profile your reading to change what you are shown.

We never sell your data

This is a firm commitment, not a marketing line. We do not, and will not, sell, rent, or trade your personal information to anyone. We do not share it with advertisers, data brokers, or political organisations. Reader funding exists precisely so that we are never tempted to.

Our incentives are aligned with our readers because our readers pay for the work. That is the simplest privacy guarantee we can offer, and the most durable. Meridian editorial board

Third parties

A handful of trusted suppliers help us run the site. They process data only on our instructions, only for the purposes above, and under contracts that forbid using it for anything else. In broad terms they are:

We choose suppliers that take privacy seriously and we review them periodically. We may also disclose information where the law genuinely requires it — but we will resist over-broad demands, and where we are permitted to tell you, we will.

Cookies

We use as few cookies as we can. Some are strictly necessary — for example, to remember your light or dark theme preference, or to keep you signed in if you are a member. We do not use advertising cookies, and we do not allow third parties to track you across other sites from our pages.

Our analytics are configured to measure readership without storing identifiers that follow you around the web. You can block or delete cookies in your browser at any time; the site will still work, though your theme preference may not be remembered.

How long we keep it

We hold data only for as long as it serves the purpose we collected it for.

• Newsletter address: kept until you unsubscribe, after which it is removed from active lists promptly.
• Analytics: retained in aggregate; we do not keep raw, identifiable visit-level data beyond what is needed to produce the statistics.
• Correspondence: kept while a matter is open and for a reasonable period afterwards, then deleted.
• Server logs: retained briefly for security and then discarded.

Your rights

Wherever you live, we aim to honour the rights that strong privacy laws grant. You can:

• Ask what personal data we hold about you and request a copy.
• Ask us to correct anything inaccurate.
• Ask us to delete your data, or unsubscribe at any time using the link in every newsletter.
• Object to a particular use, or ask us to restrict it.

To exercise any of these, contact us. We will respond within a reasonable time and will not charge you for a routine request. If you are unhappy with how we have handled your data, you may also complain to your local data-protection authority.

For how we handle confidential sources and submissions, see our secure tips guidance. For who we are and how we are funded, see About Meridian and our editorial standards.