Privacy Policy

Who is responsible

Tim Rutten runs this site and the newsletter personally and decides how your data is used. You can reach Tim at tim@timrutten.com. Tim is based in the Netherlands.

Subscribing to the newsletter

The newsletter goes out every two weeks. When you sign up, your email address is stored as a contact in Resend, together with the page or form you signed up from (for example the homepage, an essay or a library asset) and the dates you signed up, were sent a confirmation email and confirmed. Signup uses double opt-in: you only start receiving the newsletter after you click the confirmation link. If you don’t confirm within a day, you get one reminder. If you sign up from a library asset page, the asset is emailed to you once you confirm.

Purpose: to send you the newsletter, the short welcome series that follows confirmation, and anything you asked for when you signed up. Kept: for as long as you are subscribed. If you never confirm, you receive nothing beyond the one reminder, and the unconfirmed signup is deleted from Resend after 30 days.

Where you came from

When you sign up, the site also records how you found it: the campaign tags in the link you arrived on (utm_source, utm_medium and utm_campaign, if the link had them), the site that sent you (for example linkedin.com) and the first page you landed on. Until you subscribe, these are held in your browser’s session storage for the visit, not in a cookie, and they are only sent to the site if you subscribe. They are written once, when you sign up, and never changed afterwards.

Purpose: to understand which channels and pages bring in readers. Kept: on your subscriber record for as long as you are subscribed.

The signup card

On essay, concept and talk pages a small newsletter card can appear in the corner once you have read for a while. To show it at most once per visit, and not again after you close it or subscribe, your browser keeps a few small notes: in session storage, how many of those pages you have opened this visit and whether the card was shown; in local storage, when you last closed it, how often it has been shown, and whether you subscribed from this browser. They hold no email address or other personal details, they are never sent to the site, and you can remove them by clearing this site’s data in your browser.

Referral links

Every confirmed subscriber gets a personal “send to a colleague” link, included in each issue. The link carries a signed code that points to your subscriber record. It does not contain your email address. If someone subscribes through your link and confirms, their record notes that you referred them, and your record keeps a count of confirmed referrals. The page your link opens may tell your colleague that the link came from you.

Purpose: to see who helps the newsletter grow, so Tim can thank them, and to prepare for a possible referral reward later. Kept: for as long as the subscribers involved stay subscribed.

Clicks and replies

Links in newsletter emails go through Resend’s click tracking, which records the click before sending you on to the page. Open tracking is off, so whether you open an email is not recorded. When you click a link in a newsletter email or reply to one, the date is saved on your subscriber record as the last time you engaged. Clicks on confirm and unsubscribe links don’t count. Replies arrive through Resend and are forwarded to Tim’s normal inbox, where Tim reads and answers them.

Purpose: to know how many readers are actually engaged, and to keep the list healthy. If you haven’t clicked or replied for 120 days (counted from your confirmation if you never have, or from when this tracking started if that is later), you get one “still want this?” email with a link to stay subscribed. Using that link, or clicking or replying to any newsletter email, keeps you subscribed for another 120 days. If you do none of these within 14 days of that email, you are unsubscribed automatically. Kept: your record holds only the most recent engagement date, replaced with each new click or reply. Resend keeps its own log of clicks and sent emails for 30 days. Replies stay in Tim’s inbox for as long as they are useful, and are deleted on request.

Your role

Right after you sign up, the form asks what your role is: CMO, VP or Head of Marketing, leading toward it, or other. Your answer is saved with your signup and kept when you confirm; if the address was already subscribed, it is not saved. The first welcome email asks the same question with one-click links; clicking one saves that answer and counts as engagement. Both are optional, and a later answer replaces an earlier one.

Purpose: to understand who reads the newsletter. It does not change what you receive. Kept: for as long as you are subscribed.

Contact form

When you use the contact form, your name, email address and message are sent to Tim by email through Resend. Using the form does not subscribe you to anything. Purpose: to reply to you. Kept: in Tim’s inbox for as long as they are useful, and deleted on request.

Site analytics

The site uses Vercel Web Analytics to count page views and a few events, such as a newsletter signup or confirmation and the form it came from. These numbers are only looked at in aggregate and are not used to identify individual visitors. Tim also reviews monthly totals drawn from subscriber records, such as how many readers are engaged, where new subscribers came from, and who referred the most readers.

Legal basis

• Sending the newsletter, the welcome series and any asset you signed up for: your consent, given when you confirm your subscription. You can withdraw it at any time by unsubscribing.
• Recording where you came from, referrals, clicks, replies and your role, and the 120-day check-in: legitimate interest in understanding and looking after a small, engaged newsletter. You can object at any time.
• Answering contact form messages: legitimate interest in replying to people who get in touch.

When you unsubscribe

You can unsubscribe with one click from the link in any email. You are also unsubscribed automatically if you don’t answer the 120-day “still want this?” email within 14 days, as described under Clicks and replies. Either way, your record stays in Resend, marked as unsubscribed, so you are not emailed again. The record is kept on purpose: deleting it would let your address be added and emailed again by mistake. If you want it deleted entirely anyway, including everything described above, email tim@timrutten.com and it will be removed.

Services that process your data

• Resend stores subscriber records, sends all emails, tracks clicks on newsletter links and receives replies. Subscriber data is stored in the EU. Resend processes it under a data processing agreement, with standard contractual clauses for any transfer outside the EU.
• Vercel hosts the site and provides the analytics described above, under a data processing agreement, with standard contractual clauses for any transfer outside the EU.
• Google (Gmail) hosts Tim’s inbox, which receives forwarded replies and contact form messages.

These services process data on Tim’s behalf and under their own terms. Your data is not sold or shared with anyone else.

Your rights

You can ask to see the data held about you, have it corrected or deleted, receive a copy of it, restrict how it is used, or object to its use. Email tim@timrutten.com and you will get an answer within a month. You can also complain to a data protection authority: in the Netherlands, that is the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens.

Changes

If this policy changes in a way that affects what is collected about you, the date at the top changes and subscribers are told in the next issue.