We collect very little. Here's all of it.

Your email address

Sign up for the alpha by email and we get your email address, plus where on the site you signed up, whether you used Google or X, and which site or link brought you here. We use your address to send you the newsletter. We count the rest, as Counting visits explains, and keep the site or link that brought you with your address, to see which places bring readers.

If you type your address, Kit first emails you a link to confirm it's yours, and you're on the list once you click it. We don't take addresses at throwaway email services.

Kit, the service that sends our emails, keeps your address, and Kit's privacy policy covers what happens to it there. The first time you sign up, Kit also keeps where your visit came from, as ra-arrival below describes it. Like most newsletter tools, Kit can tell us whether an email was opened and which links got clicked, so we can see which picks people liked.

Our own server passes your address to Kit, and also keeps our own list of subscribers, on Cloudflare, so the list doesn't live only at Kit. For each subscriber it keeps the address; the first name and profile photo address Google or X gave us, if you used them; whether you're subscribed, waiting to confirm or unsubscribed; and, for each time you sign up or sign in, which form you used, whether you used Google, X or a typed address, where the visit came from (what ra-arrival holds), the country Cloudflare saw it come from, and whether it came from a phone, tablet or computer. It also keeps what you follow, if you tell us (see What you follow), what you watch (see What you watch), and the videos you ask us to cut (see Asking for a cut). Each hour it checks with Kit who has confirmed, unsubscribed or stopped receiving our emails. We use the list to run and improve the newsletter and the site, and don't sell or share it.

What you follow

Right after you sign up, we ask which parts of AI you care about, and which shows and people you follow, so we can lead with them. Answering is up to you: close it, and we won't ask again on that browser. You can change your answer any time with "What you follow", under your name at the top of the page, or in Settings.

What you pick stays in your browser as ra-picks, and with your entry on our list of subscribers. If you signed up with Google or X, or confirmed a typed address in that browser, the list keeps your answer even when you pick nothing, so signing in on another device brings it back instead of asking again.

What you watch

Apart from what you tell us you follow, we note what you actually watch: each segment that plays for 30 seconds or more, on any page, with its show, the parts of AI it's about and who's in it, how long it played and when. Your browser keeps this as ra-watched, the latest 500 segments, whether or not you've signed up. Once it has three, the homepage puts the episodes about the parts of AI, shows and people you watch most right after anything you follow. Your browser works that out by itself, and it never changes what you follow.

Once you've signed up with Google or X, or confirmed a typed address in that browser, it also goes to your entry on our list of subscribers, along with what played in that browser before you signed up. That's how Settings shows what you watch across your devices, and how we learn what to put first for you. "Clear" under What you watch in Settings removes it from your browser and from our list, and signing out removes it from that browser.

Asking for a cut

Once you've signed up, you can ask us to cut a video, from its page here or with its YouTube link in Settings. We keep which video, when and from which page you asked, and how its cut went, with your entry on our list of subscribers, and Settings lists them for you. Each request also goes to our team's Slack channel with your name and address, so we can see what readers want cut and follow up on the ones we can't cut by ourselves.

If alerts are on in the browser you ask from (see The daily alert), we keep that browser's push address with the request, to send it one alert when the cut is on the site, and delete it once that alert has gone, or as soon as the video turns out not to be one we can cut.

Sign in with Google

You can sign up with the "Continue with Google" button in the signup forms, or with Google's One Tap prompt, which pops up for visitors who aren't subscribed. Either way, picking your Google account subscribes you.

Google tells us your name, verified email address and profile photo. It doesn't give us your password or anything else in your account. Our server checks that the sign-in really came from Google, then sends Kit your email address and nothing else from Google, and keeps your address, first name and photo address on our own list. Your first name and photo come back to your browser so the nav can show it's you, and the photo loads straight from Google.

The button and One Tap come from Google's sign-in script, and Google's privacy policy covers them. The script loads on the subscribe page, when you open the signup panel, and on other pages to offer One Tap to visitors who aren't subscribed, so Google sees those visits. It can also set a cookie on this site, g_state, to remember things like whether you signed out or closed its prompt.

To stop Google sharing, remove Real Alpha from your Google Account's connections. That doesn't delete what we already have: unsubscribe, or write to us.

Sign in with X

You can also sign up with the "Continue with X" button in the signup forms. It takes you to X to sign in, then brings you back here, subscribed.

On X's screen, you let Real Alpha see your profile, your email address, and the posts and accounts you can see, which X requires before it shares who you are. We use that access once, to read your name, profile photo and confirmed email address, and don't keep it. Our server sends Kit your email address and nothing else from X, and keeps your address, first name and photo address on our own list. Your first name and photo come back to your browser so the nav can show it's you, and the photo loads straight from X.

While you sign in, two cookies of ours carry it. ra-x-state lets our server check that X's reply belongs to the sign-in you started, and expires after ten minutes. ra-x brings the result back to the page you were on, which deletes it on arrival; it expires after five minutes regardless. X itself is covered by X's privacy policy.

To stop X sharing, remove Real Alpha from your X account's connected apps. That doesn't delete what we already have: unsubscribe, or write to us.

The daily alert

Turn on the daily alert and your browser gives us an address at its push service, which your browser's maker runs (Google for Chrome, Apple for Safari, Mozilla for Firefox, Microsoft for Edge), and two keys that lock each alert so only your browser can open it. We keep those and the time you turned alerts on. So the alert comes when you want it, we also keep your browser's time zone (like America/New_York) and what you pick in Settings: the morning, midday or evening, and the day's best or only what you follow. If you pick what you follow, we keep the topics, shows and people you follow there too, and drop them if you switch back. To send one alert a day and no segment twice, we note the day your last alert came and the segments your alerts announced in the past week. That's all: no name, email address or IP address. It's deleted when you turn alerts off in Settings or on the alerts page, or when the push service tells us your browser has dropped them, as it does after you block our notifications or remove the app.

Once a day we send one alert to that address, and the push service delivers it. It can't read the alert, but it knows your browser got a message from Real Alpha, and your browser maker's privacy policy covers that. We also note which segments the alerts announced each day and how many browsers took each, which says nothing about you.

The alert's link ends in ?from=alert. When you tap it, the page it opens tells us an alert was tapped and which segment it announced, then takes that ending out of the address. When the card or the alerts page offers you alerts, the page tells us that too, why the card offered them, and what came of it. We count these as "Counting visits" below describes, with nothing that ties them to you.

In your browser

After you sign up, your browser keeps ra-subscriber: your email address, plus your first name and photo if you used Google or X, so the nav can show you're subscribed, and a key that lets that browser change what you follow, and see whether the newsletter still goes to you and stop or restart it in Settings. It also keeps ra-picks, what you follow, and ra-watched, what you've watched (see What you watch). "Sign out on this device", in the nav and in Settings, clears all three. If you sign out, ra-nudge-snooze keeps One Tap away for a week. They stay in your browser, and clearing this site's data removes them.

On the homepage, a phone's browser also keeps ra-feed: the Monday of the week you first used the feed, how many days you've used it this week, the last one, and whether the feed put what you follow first that week. That's how we count comebacks without knowing who you are. While the tab is open, ra-feed-visitremembers which segments you've seen, so a reload doesn't count them twice, and whether the feed put what you follow first. The first time a segment plays there for 30 seconds, ra-activated keeps that day, so the feed tells us about it only once (see "Counting visits").

A phone's browser also keeps ra-swipe: whether the feed has shown you how to swipe to the next segment, and whether you've swiped, so it shows you once at most. It never leaves your browser.

It keeps ra-seen too: the segments the feed has shown you and when you last saw each, so the next time it opens it starts with ones you haven't seen. It never leaves your browser.

While the tab is open, ra-arrival remembers how your visit started: the site or app that sent you, by its name alone (like news.ycombinator.com, never the page you were on), any utm_ tags on the link you followed or whether it was the daily alert's, and the page you landed on. If you sign up during the visit, it goes along with the signup. Closing the tab clears it.

In Watch mode, and on the homepage on a laptop or other wide screen, your browser keeps ra-wall: today's date and the segments you've played today, so the sixth one asks you to sign up. It never leaves your browser.

When you save a segment, your browser keeps ra-saved: each saved segment's title, show, video and times, and when you saved it, so the Saved page can list them. It never leaves your browser. Tapping the bookmark again removes a segment, and clearing this site's data removes them all.

Your browser keeps ra-home for the card that offers to add Real Alpha to your home screen or to turn on the daily alert: how many visits you've made, when you were last here, whether you've played a video, the last visit in which you saved a segment, signed up or watched one for a while and which of those it was, when the card last showed, and how long you asked it, or the alerts offer, to stay away. The note itself never leaves your browser, though the alerts offer reports which of those brought it (see "Counting visits").

Once you turn the daily alert on, your browser keeps ra-alerts: the address your browser gave us for alerts, and the day it last checked that we still have it. If your browser drops that address, as Chrome on Android does when the installed app first opens, that's how the site knows to set alerts up again, or to offer them back. Turning alerts off clears it.

Counting visits

We count visits with Cloudflare Web Analytics, which uses no cookies and doesn't fingerprint you. It records the page you viewed, the site that sent you, your country, your browser, operating system and device type, and how fast the page loaded. We only see totals, and we may share totals, like page views per month, with sponsors.

On the homepage, phones also tell us how the feed gets used: that a visit started and whether it came from the home-screen icon, which segments stayed on screen for a second, taps on Watch and Share, whether a video then played, whether the feed put what you follow first, and whether it put what you watch most next (only yes or no for each, never what you follow or watch). Once a day, a phone adds on how many days that week it has opened the feed, and how many weeks since it first did. We store these without your IP address, browser details, a cookie or any ID, so they can't be tied to you, and keep them for three months.

The first time a segment plays for 30 seconds on a phone's feed, the phone tells us so, once: which segment it was, with the same two counts, stored the same way.

On a segment's page, a tap on Keep watching, Next, Up next or the back arrow tells us which one it was, on which segment, and whether your visit started on that page, stored the same way.

When the homepage or Watch mode asks you to sign up to keep watching, the page tells us it did, over which segment, and whether on a phone or a wider screen. So does a segment's page when it asks you at the end of the segment, which it does only on visits that came from one of our ads. When anyone signs up, our server notes which form it was (one of those two, the nav's, Google's One Tap or the signup page), whether they used Google, X or a typed address, where the visit came from (what ra-arrival holds), and whether the address was already on the list, but never the address. All of it is stored the same way, with nothing that ties it to you, and kept for three months.

On any page, the card that offers to add Real Alpha to your home screen or to turn on the daily alert tells us what came of its offer. On Android, that's a tap on its button, your answer in Chrome's install dialog, and Chrome saying the app is installed. For alerts, it's that the offer came up and why (you had just saved a segment, signed up or watched one for a while, or you're in the installed app or in Chrome on Android), and whether you turned alerts on, blocked them, closed your browser's prompt or closed the card. The alerts page tells us the same about its own button, and when you turn alerts off there. A tap on an alert tells us which segment it announced. These are stored the same way, with nothing that ties them to you, and kept for three months.

Sponsors

When a sponsor presents Real Alpha, their name, logo and link are served from our own site, so showing them tells the sponsor nothing about you. If you click through, the link says you came from Real Alpha so they can count our clicks, and their privacy policy applies from there.

Applying for a listing

The application form for a listing asks for your company's name, website and what it makes, its founders' names, roles and X handles, your name and email address, and what you'd like help with, plus any link or note you add. We use it to reply to you, to send the price if it's a fit, and to set up your listing or interview if you go ahead. If you ask us to introduce you to a host, we share your company's and founders' details with that host. Applying doesn't sign you up for the newsletter.

Feedback

When you send feedback, from the Feedback link at the bottom of every page or in Settings, we keep what you wrote, the page you sent it from, when, and your email address if you leave one, which we use only to write back. When you report a problem with a segment, we keep which segment, the problem you picked, where its video was and when. Each one is kept in our own database on Cloudflare and goes to the Real Alpha team's channel on Slack, where only the people who make Real Alpha read it. We keep no IP address, cookie or ID with them, and leaving your address doesn't sign you up. Replies to the newsletter reach our inbox, and that same channel gets each one, with your name and address but not the email you replied to. To have a message deleted,write to us.

YouTube

The videos belong to their shows, and Real Alpha uses YouTube API Services to play them and to look up details such as their length. We copy the thumbnails to our own site, so browsing Real Alpha loads nothing from YouTube. Press play on a segment and YouTube's player loads in its privacy-enhanced mode; follow a link and you're on YouTube itself. Either way, Google's privacy policy covers what YouTube collects.

Hosting

Cloudflare hosts Real Alpha, runs the signup and stores our list of subscribers. Like any web host, it handles your IP address and browser details to deliver pages and block attacks, and it may set a short-lived security cookie to tell people from bots. Cloudflare's privacy policy covers that.

When you type your email address to sign up, or send feedback, Cloudflare's Turnstile checks that you're a person, not a bot. Its script loads from Cloudflare the first time you click into the email field or the feedback box, or open a segment's report, and runs a few quick tests in your browser, which send Cloudflare your IP address and browser details, but not what you type. Most people never see it; now and then it asks you to tick a box. Our server then asks Cloudflare whether you passed. Cloudflare's Turnstile privacy addendum covers it.

We and the services named on this page may handle your information outside your country, including in the US.

Unsubscribe or get in touch

Every newsletter ends with an unsubscribe link: one click and you're off the list, and our own list marks you unsubscribed within the hour. You can also stop it, or start it again, in Settings, under your name at the top of the page, in a browser where you signed up with Google or X or confirmed your address. Signing out on this site doesn't unsubscribe you. To see what we hold about you, fix it or delete it, from Kit and from our own list, or to ask anything about this page, write to hello@realalpha.tv. If you email us, about sponsoring or anything else, we use your message only to reply and, if it's feedback, to make Real Alpha better.