Privacy Policy
Effective date: 2026-07-04 · Last reviewed: 2026-07-04
This Privacy Policy describes how WhichBot ("WhichBot," "we," "us," or "our") collects, uses, and protects information when you visit whichbot.net (the "Site"). We wrote it to be genuinely readable, because a privacy policy you can't understand protects nobody. The short version: we run an informational website, we collect as little as possible, we sell nothing about you to anyone, and you can reach a human at support@whichbot.net with any question this page doesn't answer.
1. Information we collect — and what we deliberately don't
Browsing requires nothing from you. Every page on this Site can be read without an account, registration, or any personal information. We do not require sign-ups, we do not gate content behind email walls, and we do not track you across other websites.
Newsletter subscription (voluntary). If you subscribe to our email newsletter, we collect the email address you provide and, where our email platform records it, basic engagement information such as whether an email was opened. We use this exclusively to deliver the newsletter and understand whether it's useful. Every email contains a one-click unsubscribe link; unsubscribing takes effect immediately and we do not re-add addresses that have opted out.
Support correspondence (voluntary). When you email support@whichbot.net, we receive your email address and whatever you write. We use it solely to respond to you and to fix whatever you reported. Support email to our domain is routed through Cloudflare Email Routing to a destination mailbox we control.
Technical and log data (automatic, infrastructure-level). Like virtually every website on the internet, the infrastructure providers that serve this Site — Vercel (hosting) and Cloudflare (DNS and email routing) — automatically process technical information necessary to deliver web pages and prevent abuse. This can include IP address, browser type and version, device type, operating system, referring URL, pages requested, and timestamps. This processing is inherent to how websites function and is governed by those providers' own privacy policies in addition to this one.
Analytics (aggregate only). If and when we use website analytics, we use aggregate, privacy-respecting measurement — page views, referral sources, approximate geography at the country/region level — to understand which content helps readers. We do not use analytics to build individual profiles, we do not use advertising trackers, and we do not sell or share personal information for advertising purposes.
What we never collect: we do not collect payment information (we sell nothing on this Site), government identifiers, precise location, biometric data, or any special-category data. We do not purchase data about our visitors from third parties.
2. How we use information
We use the limited information described above to: (a) operate, maintain, and secure the Site; (b) deliver the newsletter to people who asked for it; (c) respond to support requests and correction reports; (d) understand, in aggregate, which content is useful so we can write more of it; and (e) comply with legal obligations. That is the complete list. We do not use your information for advertising profiles, we do not sell it, we do not rent it, and we do not share it with data brokers.
3. Legal bases for processing (EU/EEA and UK visitors)
Where the GDPR or UK GDPR applies, our legal bases are: consent for the newsletter (which you may withdraw at any time by unsubscribing); legitimate interests for Site security, abuse prevention, aggregate analytics, and responding to messages you send us — interests we've assessed as minimally intrusive given the nature of the data; and legal obligation where retention or disclosure is required by law.
4. Cookies and similar technologies
We do not use advertising cookies, cross-site tracking cookies, or fingerprinting. Our infrastructure providers may set strictly necessary cookies for security purposes (for example, bot mitigation during a traffic surge). Privacy-respecting analytics, if used, operate without advertising cookies. Because we don't use non-essential cookies, we don't burden you with a cookie-consent banner — the most honest cookie policy is not needing one.
5. Third-party services we rely on
The Site is built on a small, named stack: Vercel (web hosting and content delivery), Cloudflare (domain DNS and email routing for support@whichbot.net), and Google Fonts (typeface delivery, which involves your browser requesting font files from Google's servers). If we adopt a newsletter platform (such as Beehiiv or Buttondown), subscriber emails will be processed by that platform under its privacy policy, and we will name it on this page. Each provider processes technical data as an independent service; we choose providers with strong privacy practices and only the access necessary to run the Site.
The Site links to external websites — robot manufacturers, news sources, and similar. Once you leave whichbot.net, those sites' privacy practices govern, not ours. We encourage reading their policies, and we try to link only to reputable sources.
6. Data retention
Newsletter addresses are retained until you unsubscribe or ask us to delete them, after which they are removed from active systems. Support emails are retained as long as needed to resolve your request and for a reasonable period afterward for context on follow-ups, then deleted in periodic cleanups. Infrastructure logs are retained by our providers on their standard short rotation schedules. We keep nothing longer than it is useful for the purposes above.
7. Security
The entire Site is served over HTTPS with certificates automatically managed by our hosting provider. We minimize what we collect precisely because the safest data is the data that was never gathered. Access to the support mailbox and any subscriber list is limited to Site operators. No internet transmission is perfectly secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security — but our minimal-collection design means the realistic worst case involves very little of your information.
8. International transfers
WhichBot operates from the United States, and our providers operate global infrastructure. If you access the Site from outside the US, the limited information described in this policy may be processed in the US or other countries where our providers operate, under those providers' compliance frameworks for international data transfers.
9. Your rights
Regardless of where you live, you may email support@whichbot.net to: access the personal information we hold about you (for most visitors: none); correct it; delete it; unsubscribe from communications; or object to or restrict processing. We respond to all requests within 30 days and do not discriminate against anyone for exercising privacy rights.
EU/EEA and UK residents additionally have the rights to data portability, to withdraw consent at any time, and to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. California residents have rights under the CCPA/CPRA to know, delete, correct, and opt out of "sale" or "sharing" of personal information — noting that WhichBot does not sell or share personal information as those terms are defined in the statute, and has not done so. We honor Global Privacy Control signals where applicable.
10. Children's privacy
The Site is a general-audience informational resource and is not directed to children under 13 (or the higher age of digital consent where applicable). We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has provided us personal information, contact us and we will delete it promptly.
11. Do Not Track
Because we do not track visitors across websites in the first place, our practical response to Do Not Track and similar browser signals is that there is nothing to disable — the Site behaves the same way for everyone.
12. Changes to this policy
When we change this policy, we update the effective date at the top. For material changes — anything that expands what we collect or how we use it — we will post a notice on this page and, for newsletter subscribers, mention it in the newsletter. Continued use of the Site after changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.
13. Contact
Privacy questions, rights requests, or anything unclear: support@whichbot.net. A human reads it.