Privacy

Privacy policy

Last updated 14 October 2026. Short version: we collect almost nothing, and we never sell it.

What we collect

• Newsletter signup. Signups are not open yet: until they are, the form sends nothing anywhere. Once they open, if you submit the form we receive your email address and the topics you ticked. They are passed to our email provider, Buttondown, which sends the confirmation message and every issue, and handles unsubscribes. We keep them until you unsubscribe.
• Bot check. The signup form uses Cloudflare Turnstile to tell people from bots. Cloudflare processes technical signals from your browser (such as IP address) for this, under its own privacy policy. It only loads once you click into the email field.
• Hosting logs. The site is delivered through Cloudflare, which sees the address of each request and keeps security and performance logs. We do not run analytics, advertising or tracking pixels, and we set no cookies ourselves.

What stays on your device

Your choice in the “What do you want to follow?” window is saved in your browser’s local storage so the page remembers it. A short-lived cache of the Hacker News list is kept in session storage. Neither is sent to us. You can clear them in your browser settings.

Content from other companies

• The Hacker News list is requested from your browser directly from the Algolia Hacker News API, so Algolia receives your IP address.
• The Google Trends charts are frames served by Google. Google may set cookies and receive your IP address when they load.
• Story links open the original publishers’ websites, which have their own policies.

Your rights

You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in every email. You can ask us to see, correct or delete the data we hold about you by writing to hello@software.watch. Depending on where you live (for example the EU, UK or California) you may have further rights, such as complaining to your local data-protection authority.

Children

The site is written for working developers and is not aimed at children. We do not knowingly collect data from them.

Changes

If this policy changes, the date above changes with it.

This page describes how the site works today. It is general information, not legal advice.