Privacy

The Audio Cynic is published by Bill Leebens in Colorado, USA. Write to the desk at talk@tomasetti.shop (or to the publisher, Bill Leebens, at bill@leebens.com) with any privacy question. We answer within a few days.

What we collect

The whole list:

• An Insider account, if you make one: your email and a password (stored hashed, never in plain text), plus a sign-in session that keeps you logged in for up to 30 days. You can sign out any time, which ends the session.
• Sign-in links, if you use them: a single-use link, valid 24 hours, that we email you.
• Insider subscriptions: billing runs through Stripe. We receive your email and your subscription status. Your card number never touches our servers.
• The newsletter, if you opt in: your email, confirmed by a double opt-in, with an unsubscribe link in every issue.
• Ask the Bench, if you write: the name and email or phone you give us, and your question. Personal details are never published.
• Readership counts: cookie-free analytics (Plausible) and our own page counts. Our counter stores a one-way salted hash, never a raw IP address.
• Security limits: temporary in-memory request counters that stop abuse. These are not written to disk.

What we never collect

No ad trackers. No advertising cookies. No profiles sold or shared with anyone. We do not store raw IP addresses.

Cookies

Public pages set no cookies. If you sign in, one cookie keeps your session open. That is the whole list. There is no consent banner because there is nothing to consent to.

Payments

Payments are processed by Stripe (stripe.com/privacy has their terms). We see your email and whether a subscription is active. We never see full card numbers.

How long we keep things

• Account: until you ask us to delete it.
• Sign-in sessions: 30 days, or until you sign out.
• Sign-in links: 24 hours.
• Newsletter: until you unsubscribe (we keep the opt-in record).
• Ask the Bench: until it is answered, then purged after 90 days.
• Subscription and order records: as long as tax law requires (we plan on 7 years).
• Readership counts: aggregates only, no personal data in them.

Your rights

Ask us for a copy of what we hold, a correction, or deletion, at the desk (talk@tomasetti.shop). We answer within 30 days.

If you are in the EEA or UK: we process account and subscription data to provide what you bought (contract), security and readership counts on legitimate interests, and the newsletter on consent you can withdraw any time. You can complain to your local supervisory authority.

If you are in California: we do not sell or share personal information, as those words are defined there.

Where your data lives

On servers in Colorado, United States.

Children

This site is not directed at children. If you are 16 or under, ask a parent before writing to us.

Changes

If this page changes in a way that matters, we say so here with a new date, and members get an email.

Last updated: September 20, 2026.