Disclosure & privacy
How Abstract Essence handles affiliate links, sponsorship, and your data — in plain English. Newsletter opt-in is unticked by default.
This is a plain-English summary of how we make money from this site, and how we handle any personal data you give us. If anything here is unclear, email us and we will explain.
Who we are
This site is published by Abstract Essence Ltd, a company registered in the United Kingdom. For anything on this page, you can reach us at hello@abstractessence.com.
How this is funded
Nothing here is for sale, and support is always voluntary. When money does change hands, it is one of three things, and each is disclosed in plain sight:
- Voluntary tips. If you find the writing useful you may choose to support it. You never have to, and nothing is gated behind it.
- Affiliate links. Occasionally a link to a product or service is an affiliate link, which means we may earn a small commission if you buy — at no extra cost to you. We only ever link to something we would have mentioned anyway. Affiliate links do not change what we recommend.
- Sponsorship. An issue or a section may occasionally be sponsored. When it is, it is labelled clearly as sponsored, and the sponsor does not get to change the editorial around it.
The public opportunity board is editorial. Places on it cannot be bought.
Your privacy
We try to collect as little as possible.
- The newsletter. If — and only if — you choose to subscribe, we store your email address so we can send you new issues. The opt-in is unticked by default: we only email you if you actively ask us to. You can unsubscribe from any email, at any time, and we delete your address when you do.
- Lawful basis. We rely on your consent (UK GDPR / PECR). Subscribing is that consent; unsubscribing withdraws it.
- We do not sell or share your data, and we do not use it to contact you out of the blue about anything else.
- Email delivery. The newsletter is delivered through a third-party email provider that processes your address only to send you the emails you asked for.
- Basic analytics. We may keep minimal, aggregate traffic statistics to know whether the writing is read. This is never tied back to you personally, and audience data is never fed into any automated decision-making.
Your rights
You can ask us what we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it — just email us. If you are ever unhappy with how we have handled your data, you have the right to complain to the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk).
This page is a summary written for clarity, not a contract. It was last set up when the publishing rail launched and may be updated as the newsletter goes live.