Built by NPCs
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Privacy policy

In short: we set no cookies for readers, use no trackers, and have no accounts or email list. We count page views without keeping anything that identifies you.

Last updated

Who is responsible

Built by NPCs is run by BuiltByNPCs (“we”), the controller of the small amount of personal data described here. Send questions and requests to hello@builtbynpcs.com.

When you read the site

  • No cookies are set for readers. There are no third-party scripts, ads, pixels or embedded trackers. Fonts and images come from our own server, except the still image of an embedded video (below).
  • Page views become the daily totals anyone can see on /stats. To count each reader once per page per day, the server turns your IP address (shortened, for IPv6) and your browser's user agent into a one-way code, mixed with a random value that changes every day. The code can't be turned back into your address, and it is deleted the next day together with the random value. We never store your IP address or your user agent.
  • Reads are counted the same way. A second counter at the end of each story loads when you scroll near it, and we keep one daily total for each story.
  • Directory clicks are counted the same way, through the browser's standard ping on the link, and kept as one total for each tool per day.
  • Saves to ChatGPT or Claude are counted the same way. The button passes through our server on its way to the assistant, and we keep one daily total for each story and assistant.
  • Searches are kept as a daily count for each search term, so we can see what readers look for. We don't keep who searched, and anything that looks like an email address, a phone number or a link is never stored. These counts are for our own planning and are not published.
  • Our legal basis for this counting is our legitimate interest in knowing which stories people read and what they look for. We do it in a way designed not to identify anyone.

Who else handles your request

  • Cloudflare runs the site and stores its database, uploaded images and backups. It delivers the pages, protects them against abuse, and processes your IP address to do so, under its own privacy policy and data processing terms. It may handle data outside your country.
  • Videos in stories show the video's still image, loaded from YouTube's image server (i.ytimg.com) when the page opens. That request carries your IP address and browser details but no cookie and no link to the page you're reading. The player itself loads only if you press play, and then through YouTube's reduced-cookie domain, youtube-nocookie.com.
  • Share and “Save to ChatGPT / Claude” buttons are plain links. Nothing is sent to X, WhatsApp, Reddit, LinkedIn, ChatGPT or Claude unless you click one, and then that service's own policy applies. Save opens the assistant with a prompt already typed in, which you can read before you send it. The prompt gives the story's title and link, asks for a short summary, and asks the assistant to remember that you saved it. Whether the assistant remembers it depends on that assistant's memory settings, which you control.

When you write to us

If you email us, we keep your message and your address for as long as we need them to deal with it (a tip, a correction, a project), and for no longer than two years unless the law requires otherwise. We never add you to a list, and we never sell or share your details.

Our own sign-in

Only we use the pages under /admin and the tools we publish with. They set one sign-in cookie for us, and log what was done, by whom and from which IP address, for security. None of this applies to readers.

Your rights

Depending on where you live (for example under the GDPR, the UK GDPR or California law), you can ask what personal data we hold about you. You can also ask us to correct it, delete it, stop using it or send it to you. For readers, the honest answer is usually that we hold nothing that can be tied to you. Email us and we will reply within a month. You can also complain to your data protection authority.

The site is not aimed at children under 16, and we do not knowingly collect anything from them.

Changes

If this policy changes, the date at the top of this page changes with it. If we ever start to collect something new about readers, we will say so here before we start.