Privacy, in plain language
Last updated
This page describes what neuralexpedition.com does with your data today. You can read every field report without giving us anything. Questions go to hello@neuralexpedition.com.
When you subscribe
The newsletter runs on Beehiiv. When you submit the form, we send Beehiiv:
- your email address;
- where the sign-up came from: UTM parameters from the link you arrived with (source, medium, campaign, term, content), otherwise “site”, the form you used and the page path you signed up on;
- the referring site (the first other website that sent you here, or your first page on this site);
- a referral code if you arrived through a reader's
?ref=link, so that reader is credited.
Beehiiv stores your subscription and sends the emails. The sign-up asks Beehiiv to send you a welcome email and can enrol you in a welcome automation (a short series of emails set up in Beehiiv). Every email has an unsubscribe link. Beehiiv processes this data under its own privacy policy.
An address that unsubscribed earlier is not re-added; the form says so and explains how to rejoin.
If you answer “What do you run models on?” on the welcome page, your answer is saved to your Beehiiv subscriber profile. The question is optional.
Spam and abuse protection
To stop automated sign-ups, the form checks a hidden field and how long it took to submit, and the sign-up endpoints count requests per connection. For that count your IP address is turned into a keyed hash (it cannot be read back as an IP address) and kept for up to 10 minutes in Upstash Redis, or in our server's memory.
When a sign-up fails, our server logs the error, which can include Beehiiv's response and therefore your email address. Our hosting provider also keeps request logs, which include IP addresses. These logs are kept by the hosting provider.
Analytics
We use PostHog (PostHog Cloud, US region by default) to see which pages and reports get read. It records page views, clicks on links and buttons (their label and target), and sign-up, share and welcome-question events, together with the page address and title, the referring page, the first page and referrer of your visit, UTM parameters and a random visit ID. Like any web request, sending these events gives PostHog your IP address and browser details.
- Before you choose: PostHog already records the anonymous events above, but keeps its state in memory only. No cookie, nothing in localStorage; every page load counts as a new anonymous visit.
- Accept: PostHog stores an anonymous ID in a cookie and localStorage so repeat visits are recognised, and our attribution data moves to localStorage.
- Decline: PostHog stops sending events straight away, on this page and later ones. Its cookie and stored ID are removed; only a small opt-out flag stays in localStorage so the choice sticks. Our attribution data stays in this tab only.
You can change your choice any time with “Privacy choices” at the bottom of every page.
Likes and dislikes on reports
The thumbs on a report add to a per-report counter stored in Upstash Redis. The counter holds totals only, nothing about who voted. Your own vote is remembered in your browser (see below).
What is stored in your browser
| Key | Where | What | When |
|---|---|---|---|
| neural-expedition:analytics-consent | localStorage | Your Accept or Decline choice for analytics. | After you choose; until you clear site data. |
| neural-expedition:attribution | sessionStorage, or localStorage after Accept | First page you landed on, the first referring site, UTM campaign parameters and a ?ref= referral code from the link you followed. | From your first page view. Without Accept it is gone when you close the tab. |
| neural-expedition:anonymous-session | sessionStorage, or localStorage after Accept | A random ID that ties analytics events from one visit together. | Same as above. |
| neural-expedition:feedback:<report id> | localStorage | Whether you liked or disliked a report, so the button stays selected. | Only if you vote; until you clear site data. |
| neural-expedition:welcome | sessionStorage | Hand-off from the sign-up form to the welcome page: your new subscription's ID, a signed token valid for 24 hours that lets the welcome question save your answer, your referral code, the answer you picked and when you signed up. | Only after signing up; gone when you close the tab. |
| neural-expedition:posthog-opt-in | localStorage | PostHog's own record of your choice (opted in or out). | After you Accept or Decline; until you clear site data. |
| ph_<project>_posthog (+ PostHog session keys) | Cookie, localStorage and sessionStorage | PostHog's anonymous visitor ID and session state. | Only after you Accept. Removed when you Decline. |
Other services your browser talks to
Report pages can load images directly from Beehiiv's image servers, and links to X, Hugging Face or other sites take you to services with their own policies. Fonts are served from this site.
Your choices
- Unsubscribe with the link in any email.
- To have your subscriber data corrected or deleted, or to ask what we hold, email hello@neuralexpedition.com.
- Change the analytics choice with “Privacy choices” in the footer, or clear this site's data in your browser.