What we collect, and why
Last updated 13 October 2026 (changed: the paid feature for ordering a report on your own question is now called custom reports, a new name only; on 12 October 2026, changed: How long we keep it, now covering unsubscribes, backups and the contact and quote forms; on 6 October 2026, added: podcast request counting, under What we collect; on 4 October 2026, changed: how to cancel a paid subscription, under Your choices; on 1 October 2026, added: Anthropic, PDFShift and Trigger.dev, and the Microsoft 365 backup copy)
KPsphere is operated by KPsphere LLC. This page describes exactly what data we hold, who else sees it, and how to have it removed. If anything here is unclear, email info@kpsphere.com and we will answer plainly.
What we collect
If you subscribe to emails
Your email address, and optionally your name, role and organisation if you choose to provide them. That is all — we do not ask for anything else, and nothing is required beyond the email address.
If you buy a paid subscription
Your chosen sectors, any companies you ask us to track, and a record of the custom reports you order. Payment is processed by Stripe. We never see, receive or store your card details — Stripe tells us only that a payment succeeded, which plan, and the email address used.
When you read a page
We count page views to see which research people find useful. Our own tracker records the page, the date, a coarse traffic-source category (search, social, email, direct), and — if you scroll or stay — how far and how long. It stores no IP addresses and sets no cookies.
When a podcast app requests an episode
When podcast request counting is enabled, we count initial requests for episode audio and note which app made the request. We don't store IP addresses or anything that identifies an individual listener. One app may request an episode more than once, and a platform like Spotify may fetch one copy for many listeners, so these numbers don't tell us how many people listened. Counts are kept for 90 days.
Business contacts from public research-award records
We send a small number of individual business emails to researchers and program staff whose work email address is published in public U.S. federal research-award records: the National Science Foundation's award database and NASA TechPort. We do not use any source that prohibits commercial messages, and we do not buy, rent or guess addresses.
- What we hold: the published work email address, name, the public award or program it was listed with (title, date, link to the record), the organisation, and when we retrieved it. We also record which of our emails were sent and whether they bounced or were answered.
- Why: to tell you, at most a few times, about free research briefings and reports in your field. Every such email says where your address came from, offers only free material, carries no attachment, and links only to kpsphere.com.
- How long: a contact who does not engage is closed after four emails or twelve months, whichever comes first. When a contact is closed, unsubscribes or bounces, we delete the address and keep only a one-way fingerprint of it, so that we never email it again.
- How to opt out: use the unsubscribe link in the email (it works at once and stays working permanently), reply with the word "unsubscribe", or write to info@kpsphere.com. Opting out needs no account and no information beyond the click.
We are an independent research publisher. These emails are not sent on behalf of, or with the endorsement of, the National Science Foundation, NASA or any other agency.
Third parties that also see something
We use a small number of outside services. Each is listed here with what it receives, because a privacy policy that only describes our own systems would be incomplete.
| Service | What it receives |
|---|---|
| Google Analytics | Present on most public pages. It sets cookies and collects your IP address, device and browser details, and the pages you visit. This is standard web analytics and is separate from our own cookie-free tracker. You can block it with any ad blocker or browser setting without affecting how the site works. |
| Google Fonts | Typefaces load from Google's servers, which means Google receives your IP address when a page loads. |
| YouTube | Some pages embed videos. YouTube sets its own cookies when a video is played. |
| Stripe | Handles all payments. Receives your card details directly — never through us — plus your email and billing address. |
| Resend | Delivers our emails to subscribers. Receives your email address and the message content. |
| Microsoft 365 | Sends and receives the individual business emails described above, from our own mailbox, and holds any reply you send. It also stores a weekly backup copy of the website and its data, including the subscriber list, in our private Teams workspace. |
| Anthropic | Provides the AI model that writes our reports. If you have a paid subscription, it receives the text of the custom reports you order and the names of any companies you ask us to track, so that it can write your reports. |
| PDFShift | Turns paid reports into PDF files. It receives each report and, for a paid subscriber, the name printed on its cover ("Prepared for"). |
| Trigger.dev | Runs the automated jobs that write and send our emails and reports. Those jobs read the subscriber list (email addresses, names, plans and settings) to do so. |
| Bluehost | Hosts the website and stores the subscriber list on its servers. |
| GitHub | Holds an encrypted-at-rest daily backup of site data, including the subscriber list, in a private repository. |
What we do not do
- We do not sell, rent or trade your data. Not to advertisers, not to data brokers, not to anyone.
- We do not share the subscriber list with third parties beyond the services above.
- We do not add you to any mailing list you did not ask for. The only email we send without a sign-up is the small number of individual business emails to published research-award contacts described above, each with a working opt-out.
- We do not build advertising profiles or run retargeting.
How long we keep it
Subscriber records are kept while you are subscribed. When you unsubscribe we stop emailing you at once and keep a record of the opt-out, so that you are never emailed again; ask us and we will delete the rest of your record. Copies already in our backups are not edited one by one. If you use the contact form or the quote request form, we keep your name, email, organisation and message so that we can reply, and a one-way scrambled form of your network address to limit abuse; ask us and we will delete them. Page-view counts are aggregate and not linked to any individual. Payment records are retained by Stripe under their own retention rules, which we do not control.
Your choices
- Unsubscribe — every email has a one-click link, and it takes effect immediately.
- Cancel a paid subscription — from the settings link in any KPsphere report email, or by writing to us.
- Ask what we hold on you — email us and we will tell you.
- Ask us to delete it — email us and we will, and confirm when it is done.
If you are in the EU, UK or California, you have these rights under GDPR, UK GDPR or the CCPA. We apply them to everyone regardless of location, because maintaining two standards would be more work than simply doing the better one.
Security
The subscriber list is not publicly accessible and is served only over authenticated connections. Paid subscribers are identified by a random token rather than a password, so there is no password for us to store or for anyone to steal. Card details never touch our servers.
No system is perfectly secure. If we ever discover a breach affecting your data, we will tell you directly rather than waiting to be asked.
Children
This site is intended for professional and adult audiences. We do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 16.
Changes
If this policy changes materially, we will update the date above and note the change. We will not quietly broaden what we collect.
Contact
KPsphere LLC — info@kpsphere.com
See also our Terms of Service.