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Ayn.com

Privacy policy

Last updated 4 October 2026.

Ayn.com is a reading reference with no accounts. You can use all of it without telling us who you are. This policy explains the small amount of personal data we do handle, and it describes what the site’s code actually does.

1. Who is responsible

Ayn.com is published by Silicon Valley Ventures, which is the controller of the personal data described here. You can reach us through the contact page or at hello@ayn.com.

2. What we collect

What you give us

  • Newsletter: your email address, and which signup form you used (for example the footer). Nothing else is asked for.
  • Contact form: your name, email address, the topic you choose and your message.

What is collected automatically

  • Server logs: our host records standard request data such as IP address, browser user agent, the page requested, referrer and time, for security and operations.
  • Form security: when you submit a form, your IP address is used briefly to limit repeated submissions and is passed to Cloudflare Turnstile with the security check token. We also look up whether your email’s domain accepts mail. We do not store your IP address with your message or signup.
  • Analytics: Google Analytics 4 records pages viewed, approximate location (country or city level), device and browser type, referrer and similar usage data, using cookies (see section 5).

Data from the retired app

Before October 2026 the site ran an AI coaching feature with sign-in. That feature has been switched off. Records from it (account details and coaching sessions) were kept as a closed archive when the site moved; nothing on the site reads or uses them. If you had an account and want those records deleted, ask us and we will delete them.

We do not ask for, and ask you not to send, sensitive information such as health, financial or government identity data.

3. How we use it, and our legal bases

  • To send the newsletter you asked for, after you confirm by email. Legal basis (GDPR): your consent, which you can withdraw at any time by unsubscribing.
  • To read and answer your message, and to fix corrections you send. Legal basis: our legitimate interest in responding to you and keeping the reference accurate, or steps you asked us to take.
  • To keep the site and forms secure and stop spam and abuse of our email accounts. Legal basis: legitimate interests.
  • To understand which pages are useful (analytics). Legal basis: legitimate interests, or consent where the law requires it.
  • To meet legal obligations and establish or defend legal claims.

We do not use your data for automated decisions that have legal or similarly significant effects on you, and we do not build advertising profiles.

4. Who processes it for us

We share personal data only with service providers that process it on our behalf, under their own terms and data protection commitments:

  • Hosting: Vercel, which serves the site and keeps standard server logs.
  • Database: a managed Postgres database (Neon), where contact messages and a log of newsletter signup requests are stored.
  • Email delivery: Brevo, which sends the newsletter and its confirmation email and holds the subscriber list; SendGrid, which delivers contact form messages to our inbox.
  • Form security: Cloudflare Turnstile, which checks that a form is being filled in by a person. It loads only once you start filling in a form.
  • Analytics: Google Analytics 4 (Google).

We may also disclose data where the law requires it, to protect our rights or the safety of others, or to a buyer or successor if the site changes hands, under this policy.

5. Cookies and similar technologies

Ayn.com itself sets no cookies of its own and has no login. Google Analytics sets first-party cookies (such as _ga) to tell visits apart. We have switched off Google Signals and advertising personalisation for this property, so this data is not used for Google advertising profiles. Cloudflare Turnstile may use technical signals or a short-lived cookie when a form is in use.

Global Privacy Control: if your browser sends a GPC signal, Google Analytics does not load at all. You can also block cookies in your browser settings, or use Google’s analytics opt-out add-on.

When you follow a link to Amazon, Audible, Bookshop.org or another site, that site sets its own cookies under its own policy; for affiliate links this is how the seller attributes a purchase. See the disclosure.

6. No sale or sharing of personal information

We do not sell personal information and we do not “share” it for cross-context behavioural advertising, as those terms are defined in the California Consumer Privacy Act as amended by the CPRA. We do not run advertising trackers. The only third-party analytics on the site is Google Analytics as described above, configured without advertising features and switched off for browsers that send Global Privacy Control.

7. How long we keep it

  • Newsletter: until you unsubscribe, after which Brevo keeps your address on a suppression list so you are not emailed again. Our own log of signup requests is kept as a record of consent.
  • Contact messages: as long as needed to deal with your message and keep a record of corrections, then deleted on request.
  • Server logs: for the host’s standard log retention period.
  • Analytics: Google Analytics event data is kept for the property’s retention setting, then deleted automatically.
  • The retired app archive: until we delete it or you ask us to.

8. Security

Data travels over HTTPS, the database requires authenticated, encrypted connections, and access is limited to the people who run the site. No system is perfectly secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

9. International transfers

Ayn.com is run from the United States, and our providers may process data in the United States and other countries. Where data from the UK, EEA or Switzerland is transferred, we rely on the safeguards our providers offer, such as the EU Standard Contractual Clauses or the EU-US Data Privacy Framework.

10. Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access the personal data we hold about you, correct it, delete it, receive a copy, object to or restrict our use of it, and withdraw consent. California residents have the rights to know, delete, correct and opt out of sale or sharing (which we do not do), and we will not discriminate against you for using them. UK and EEA residents may also complain to their data protection authority.

To exercise any of these rights, use the contact page or email hello@ayn.com. We may need to confirm that the request comes from you, and we will respond within the time the law requires. Unsubscribing from the newsletter takes effect at once from the link in any issue.

11. Children

Ayn.com is written for adults and is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 16. If you believe a child has sent us personal data, contact us and we will delete it.

12. Do Not Track

There is no agreed standard for browser Do Not Track signals, so we do not respond to them. We do honour Global Privacy Control as described in section 5.

13. Changes

We will update this policy when what the site does changes. The date at the top shows the latest version; material changes will be described on this page.

14. Contact

Use the contact page or email hello@ayn.com.