Privacy
Current at 19 October 2026.
This notice covers astrana.org and the other websites the Astrana project runs. It does not cover the Astrana application. An instance of Astrana runs on hardware its owner controls, and it sends us nothing.
Who is responsible
Darin Morris runs Astrana, from Australia. He is responsible for the personal data described here, and he is the person to write to about it, at privacy@astrana.org.
What we store on your device
Nothing, unless you ask us to.
We do not use cookies, or anything else on your device, to track you. Our analytics are set up to run without them.
There is one exception, and it only happens if you choose it. If you opt out of
analytics below, we store a single cookie named mtm_consent_removed.
It holds the date you opted out and nothing more. Its only job is to remember that
choice so we keep honouring it.
When you visit a page
Our own copy of Matomo records the visit. It runs on our server. No analytics company is involved, and nothing about you is sent to one.
It records the page you looked at, the page you came from, your browser and device type, and roughly where you are. We shorten your IP address before storing it, so "roughly where you are" means a region rather than an address. Because Matomo runs without cookies, it cannot tell that a later visit is you again.
If your browser sends Do Not Track, Matomo ignores the visit completely.
We work out the approximate location on our own server, using a database from DB-IP. Your browser never contacts DB-IP.
Turning analytics off
The opt-out control did not load. That is usually a content blocker stopping our analytics script, in which case your visits are not being counted and there is nothing else for you to do.
If you would rather be certain, turn on Do Not Track in your browser. We honour it, and we record nothing at all when it is set.
Opting out does not last forever, because browsers limit how long a cookie set this way survives. Safari clears it after about seven days. Other browsers apply their own limits. If you want to stay opted out, look at this page again now and then, or use Do Not Track instead, which does not rely on a cookie.
When you join the mailing list
The subscribe box on our site passes your email address to our signup page. That page runs on our own server in London. We ask for your email address there. A first name is optional and you can leave it blank.
We then email you to check it was really you. You go on the list only after you click the link in that email. If you never click it, we delete what you entered when the link expires, sixty days later.
Friendly Captcha protects that signup page against bots. It sets no cookies and stores nothing in your browser. Your browser loads its script from unpkg.com, and sends Friendly Captcha details about your connection, your browser, and how you filled the form in. Friendly Captcha hashes anything identifying, so it cannot be read back. Friendly Captcha is a German company, and the check runs against its worldwide service rather than a European-only one.
Mailgun delivers our emails. Mailgun is a United States company, so your address passes through the United States every time we send. We keep a copy of each message we send you for ninety days, then delete it.
When we send you an email
We record whether you opened it and which links you clicked.
Opens are counted with a small invisible image. When your mail app loads that image, we learn the email was opened, and we see your IP address at that moment. Many mail apps block images by default. If yours does, we never see the open.
We keep these against your subscription, so over time they build into a record of which of our emails you opened and which links you followed. We use it to judge whether the newsletter is worth sending and what to write more of. We never sell it and never share it.
Blocking images stops the open being counted. Not clicking a link stops the click being recorded. Unsubscribing stops both.
Leaving the mailing list
Every email carries an unsubscribe link, and most mail apps show an unsubscribe button of their own.
When you unsubscribe we keep your address, marked as unsubscribed. We do that so we cannot email you again by accident. If you would rather we erased it completely, write to us and we will.
Server logs
Our server logs each request and deletes the log after thirty days. Each line holds an IP address, the date and time, what was asked for, the page you came from, and the name your browser gives for itself. The logs exist to keep the site working and to show us what is attacking it. Records of failed logins and blocked traffic are kept about as long, for the same reason.
Backups
We back the server up every night. The backups are encrypted and stored in the European Union, and they include the mailing list and the analytics. We keep older snapshots for up to about six months. So if you ask us to delete something, it goes from the live system straight away, but a copy can sit in a backup until those snapshots age out.
Who else is involved
Running our own software is not the same as nobody else being involved, so here is everyone who is.
| Who | Where | What they receive |
|---|---|---|
| Cloudflare | United States | Serves this site. Every request passes through it, including your IP address. |
| Friendly Captcha | Germany, worldwide service | Checks the signup page. Receives details about your connection, browser and interaction. Hashes anything identifying. Sets no cookies. |
| unpkg.com | Not stated by its operator | Serves the spam-protection script the signup page uses, so it receives your IP address when that page loads. |
| Mailgun | United States | Delivers mailing list emails, so it handles your address and the message. |
| Proton Mail | Switzerland | Carries email sent to us, including anything you write to privacy@astrana.org. |
Following a link away from here
Our site links to our profiles on other services. If you follow one, that company can see you arrived from here. We have no control over what they then record.
What we do not do
We do not advertise. We do not track you across other websites. We do not sell your data, and we do not share it with anyone beyond the companies listed above.
Keeping it safe
The site is served over HTTPS. The mailing list and the analytics run on a server we operate, and one person can log in to it. The backups are encrypted. Repeated failed logins get the source blocked automatically.
Your choices
- You can read the site without subscribing.
- You can turn analytics off with the control above.
- You can unsubscribe from any email we send.
- You can ask what we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it. Write to privacy@astrana.org.
If we get it wrong
Tell us first, at privacy@astrana.org, and we will try to put it right.
If that does not settle it, you can complain to the regulator where you live. In Australia that is the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. In the United Kingdom it is the Information Commissioner's Office. In South Africa it is the Information Regulator. In the European Union it is your national data protection authority.
Changes
If we change this notice in a way that matters, we will say so rather than change it quietly. The date at the top tells you which version you are reading.