We collect very little. Here's all of it.

Your email address

Sign up for the weekly alpha and we get your email address, plus where on the site you signed up and whether you used Google or X. We use them to send you the newsletter, and for nothing else.

Kit, the service that sends our emails, keeps your address, and Kit's privacy policy covers what happens to it there. Our own server passes your address to Kit and keeps no copy. Like most newsletter tools, Kit can tell us whether an email was opened and which links got clicked, so we can see which picks people liked.

Sign in with Google

You can sign up with the "Continue with Google" button in the signup forms, or with Google's One Tap prompt, which pops up for visitors who aren't subscribed. Either way, picking your Google account subscribes you.

Google tells us your name, verified email address and profile photo. It doesn't give us your password or anything else in your account. Our server checks that the sign-in really came from Google, then sends only your email address to Kit. Your first name and photo come back to your browser so the nav can show it's you, and the photo loads straight from Google.

The button and One Tap come from Google's sign-in script, and Google's privacy policy covers them. The script loads on the subscribe page, when you open the signup panel, and on other pages to offer One Tap to visitors who aren't subscribed, so Google sees those visits. It can also set a cookie on this site, g_state, to remember things like whether you signed out or closed its prompt.

To stop Google sharing, remove Real Alpha from your Google Account's connections. That doesn't delete what we already have: unsubscribe, or write to us.

Sign in with X

You can also sign up with the "Continue with X" button in the signup forms. It takes you to X to sign in, then brings you back here, subscribed.

On X's screen, you let Real Alpha see your profile, your email address, and the posts and accounts you can see, which X requires before it shares who you are. We use that access once, to read your name, profile photo and confirmed email address, and don't keep it. Our server sends only your email address to Kit. Your first name and photo come back to your browser so the nav can show it's you, and the photo loads straight from X.

While you sign in, two cookies of ours carry it. ra-x-state lets our server check that X's reply belongs to the sign-in you started, and expires after ten minutes. ra-x brings the result back to the page you were on, which deletes it on arrival; it expires after five minutes regardless. X itself is covered by X's privacy policy.

To stop X sharing, remove Real Alpha from your X account's connected apps. That doesn't delete what we already have: unsubscribe, or write to us.

In your browser

After you sign up, your browser keeps ra-subscriber: your email address, plus your first name and photo if you used Google or X, so the nav can show you're subscribed. The nav's "Sign out on this device" button clears it. If you sign out, ra-nudge-snooze keeps One Tap away for a week. Both stay in your browser, and clearing this site's data removes them.

When you save a segment, your browser keeps ra-saved: each saved segment's title, show, video and times, and when you saved it, so the Saved page can list them. It never leaves your browser. Tapping the bookmark again removes a segment, and clearing this site's data removes them all.

Counting visits

We count visits with Cloudflare Web Analytics, which uses no cookies and doesn't fingerprint you. It records the page you viewed, the site that sent you, your country, your browser, operating system and device type, and how fast the page loaded. We only see totals, and we may share totals, like page views per month, with sponsors.

Sponsors

When a sponsor presents Real Alpha, their name, logo and link are served from our own site, so showing them tells the sponsor nothing about you. If you click through, the link says you came from Real Alpha so they can count our clicks, and their privacy policy applies from there.

Applying for a listing

The application form for a listing asks for your company's name, website and what it makes, its founders' names, roles and X handles, your name and email address, and what you'd like help with, plus any link or note you add. We use it to reply to you, to send the price if it's a fit, and to set up your listing or interview if you go ahead. If you ask us to introduce you to a host, we share your company's and founders' details with that host. Applying doesn't sign you up for the newsletter.

YouTube

The videos belong to their shows and play on YouTube. We copy the thumbnails to our own site, so browsing Real Alpha loads nothing from YouTube. Press play on a segment and YouTube's player loads in its privacy-enhanced mode; follow a link and you're on YouTube itself. Either way, Google's privacy policy covers what YouTube collects.

Hosting

Cloudflare hosts Real Alpha and runs the signup. Like any web host, it handles your IP address and browser details to deliver pages and block attacks, and it may set a short-lived security cookie to tell people from bots. Cloudflare's privacy policy covers that.

When you type your email address to sign up, Cloudflare's Turnstile checks that you're a person, not a bot. Its script loads from Cloudflare the first time you click into the email field and runs a few quick tests in your browser, which send Cloudflare your IP address and browser details, but not what you type. Most people never see it; now and then it asks you to tick a box. Our server then asks Cloudflare whether you passed. Cloudflare's Turnstile privacy addendum covers it.

What we don't do

We don't sell or rent your information, use it for ads, or tell sponsors who you are. The services named here handle it only to do their part, and some of them may do that outside your country, including in the US. If we ever want to use your information in a new way, we'll ask you first.

Unsubscribe or get in touch

Every newsletter ends with an unsubscribe link: one click and you're off the list. Signing out on this site doesn't unsubscribe you. To see what we hold about you, fix it or delete it, or to ask anything about this page, write to hello@realalpha.tv. If you email us, about sponsoring or anything else, we use your message only to reply.