Who we are

The Daily Automaton is published by Captivated Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales under company number 15936109, with its registered office at Electric Works, 3 Concourse Way, Sheffield, S1 2BJ, United Kingdom. We are the data controller for this site, which means we decide how and why your data is used, and we handle personal data in line with the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018. For anything in this policy, email hello@thedailyautomaton.com.

The short version

  • You can read the whole paper without giving us any personal information.
  • There are no accounts, no sign-up, and no forms.
  • Our analytics are cookieless and anonymous. We can see that an article was read; we cannot see that you read it, and we could not identify you if we wanted to.
  • The site itself stores nothing in your browser — no cookies, no local storage.
  • We do not sell your data, and we use no affiliate links.
  • We show advertising through Google AdSense, which does use cookies. In the UK, the European Economic Area and Switzerland we ask your consent first, and you can refuse.

What we collect

Nothing directly. There are no accounts and no forms, so there is no point at which you hand us anything. The pages are static files; light and dark are chosen by your own system setting, which your browser never sends to us.

Analytics

We use Plausible to see which articles get read and where readers come from. It was added on 29 September 2026; before that date this site ran no analytics of any kind, and an earlier version of this page said so.

Plausible is not built like most analytics. According to its published data policy it sets no cookies and uses no browser cache, no local storage and no persistent identifier — nothing is placed on your device at all. Visits are counted using a hash of your IP address, your browser's user-agent string, the site domain and a salt that is thrown away and replaced every 24 hours. The raw IP address and user-agent are never stored. There is no profile of you, nothing that follows you to any other site, and nothing that lets us pick one reader out.

What we actually see is a count: which pages were viewed, which sites sent readers here, a rough country or region, and the general type of browser and device. All of it is processed and stored in the EU. Plausible sets out the detail in itsdata policy.

This is why you are not asked to consent to analytics. The rules that require a cookie banner are about storing information on your device or reading it back, and this stores nothing on your device. The advertising below is a different matter, and is handled differently.

Hosting

The site is hosted on Cloudflare Pages and served through Cloudflare's global network. To deliver pages and protect the site from attack, Cloudflare processes limited technical information such as your IP address and browser type. SeeCloudflare's privacy policy.

Advertising and cookies

We use Google AdSense to show advertising, which helps cover hosting and the domain. To do that, Google may set cookies — small files stored in your browser — and use similar identifiers to serve adverts, measure whether they worked and, with your consent, personalise them. Those cookies are set by Google, not by us.

If you are in the UK, the EEA or Switzerland you will see a consent message the first time you visit, run through Google's certified consent management platform. You may consent, refuse, or choose exactly which purposes you allow. Refusing is as easy as accepting, and you can change your mind at any time.

You can also manage advertising directly with Google:

You can also block or delete cookies in your browser settings. The paper will read exactly the same, though you may still see adverts — just non-personalised ones.

Advertising is kept visibly separate from the reporting. It is labelled, ruled off, and never placed between an article and the sources that support it.

Our lawful bases

Under UK GDPR we need a lawful basis to process personal data. We rely on our legitimate interests to operate and secure the site, to serve it reliably through our hosting provider, and to understand in aggregate which of our articles are read — a narrow interest, served by a tool that builds no profile and stores nothing on your device. For advertising cookies, and any personalised advertising shown to visitors in the UK, the EEA and Switzerland, we rely on your consent — given or refused through the consent message, and withdrawable at any time.

How long we keep your data

We hold no personal data about you, so there is nothing for us to keep. What our analytics leave behind is a set of counts with no one named in them. Our providers retain the limited technical data they process — Cloudflare's security logs, Google's advertising data — under their own retention practices, set out in the policies linked here.

Where your data goes

Google and Cloudflare are global companies, so processing may involve transfers outside the UK. Both operate under safeguards intended to protect data transferred internationally, described in their own policies above. Plausible states that it processes and stores all visitor data within the EU.

Your rights

Under UK data protection law you have the right to access personal data held about you, to have it corrected or erased, to restrict or object to its use, and to data portability. Because we hold none directly, most requests will concern our providers, and we will help you direct them appropriately.

If you have a concern, please contact us first so we can try to put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office atico.org.uk.

A note on the pictures and the bylines

Not a data matter, but it belongs somewhere findable. Our illustrations are generated with an AI image model and labelled as illustrations; our correspondents are personas rather than people. The reporting beneath them is real and cited. The About page explains all of this properly.

Changes

We may update this policy as the site grows. When we do, the date at the top of this page changes.

Contact

Questions about this policy or your data? Emailhello@thedailyautomaton.com.

This policy is governed by the laws of England and Wales.