Privacy policy

This privacy policy covers BotForge, a static content site. The honest summary: we collect almost nothing, because there's almost nothing to collect. There are no user accounts, no logins, no comment system, and no forms other than a single email-capture field for our newsletter. Effective date: August 2026.

What we collect

If you subscribe to our newsletter (the 'lab notes'), we store the email address you give us. That's the only personal data this site asks for. It's used for exactly one purpose: sending you the newsletter. We don't enrich it, profile it, append data to it, or cross-reference it with anything.

Every newsletter email includes an unsubscribe link. Unsubscribing removes you from the list; if you want your address deleted from the underlying system entirely, email us and we'll do that too.

Analytics

We may use privacy-friendly, aggregate analytics to understand which pages get read — the kind that counts visits without building profiles of visitors. We do not use analytics that track you across other websites, fingerprint your device, or tie browsing behavior to your identity. If our analytics setup changes in a way that affects this policy, this page changes with it.

Affiliate links and outbound clicks

Some outbound links on this site are affiliate links, routed through /go/ addresses. Clicking one takes you to the vendor's website, where the vendor (or its affiliate network) may set cookies on their own domain to attribute a purchase. What happens on a vendor's site is governed by that vendor's privacy policy, not this one — we receive commission reports in aggregate, not your browsing data. Details on how these links work are in our affiliate disclosure.

What we never do

We do not sell, rent, trade, or share your personal data with anyone for their marketing purposes. Not the newsletter list, not analytics data, not anything. There is no version of this site's business model that involves your data being the product — the business model is affiliate commissions, and it works fine without knowing who you are.

Your choices

You can read everything on this site without giving us any information. If you've subscribed and want out, use the unsubscribe link. For deletion requests, questions about this policy, or anything else privacy-related, reach us via the contact page.

Changes to this policy

If our practices change — a new analytics tool, a new form, anything that touches data — we'll update this page and its effective date. We won't quietly expand what we collect and hope nobody rereads the policy.