Legal
Privacy Policy
Plain language: how Beneath handles the little information it receives, and how cookies, analytics, advertising and video embeds are treated.
Who we are
Beneath is an independent documentary journalism publication. This policy explains what happens to information when you read a story, contact us or watch one of our films.
The publisher responsible for this site is Eric Snead.
You can read every story without creating an account.
Information you give us
If you use the contact form we store the name, email address, subject and message you submit, along with the page you sent it from and the date. We use it only to reply and to keep a record of the correspondence.
We do not ask for payment details anywhere on this site, and we do not sell or rent the details you send us.
Assessment entries and link activity
When you save an assessment result, we store your display name, email, answers, score and answering time. Your display name, score and answering time can appear on the leaderboard; your email is private.
The publisher receives an email when an entry is saved. When link tracking is enabled, links clicked during the attempt can be included, and new links clicked later in the same visit can generate a follow-up email. These emails and activity records are private to the publisher.
Where the site asks for analytics consent, linked click tracking runs only after you accept. Choosing essential-only prevents linked click tracking. Your score can still be saved and the publisher can still receive the submission notification.
This tab may keep a temporary notification queue and entry reference in session storage so delivery can retry during the visit. The entry reference expires after six hours without activity. Newsletter consent is separate and optional.
Clicks on Readwise, YouTube and other websites show which link was selected on Beneath. They do not tell us whether you signed up, subscribed or purchased on the other website.
Information collected automatically
Like most websites, the servers that host Beneath record technical information for every request: IP address, browser and device type, the page requested and the time of the request. This is used to deliver the site, keep it secure and diagnose faults.
Approximate location (usually city level) can be inferred from an IP address by our hosting provider as part of standard network operations.
Cookies and local browser storage
Reading Beneath requires no cookies. The discovery feed stores your position in your own browser's local storage so you can return to where you were; that value stays on your device and is not sent to us.
A session cookie is set only if you sign in to the private studio, which is restricted to the publisher. Advertising and analytics cookies are described below and are set by third parties only when those services are enabled.
Analytics
Google Analytics is not currently enabled on Beneath. Assessment-related activity is described separately above. If the publisher enables a third-party analytics service, it will be named here.
Advertising and Google AdSense
Advertising is not currently enabled on Beneath. When it is switched on, this page will name the advertising service before any advertising appears, and the following disclosures will apply.
Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on a user's prior visits to this website or other websites. Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to users based on their visit to this site and/or other sites on the internet. Users may opt out of personalised advertising by visiting Google Ads Settings, or opt out of a third-party vendor's use of cookies for personalised advertising by visiting aboutads.info.
YouTube and other embeds
Some stories include a YouTube documentary. The player is not loaded until you choose to play the video; once it loads, Google and YouTube may set cookies and receive your IP address, and YouTube's own privacy terms apply.
Where we link to documents, data or other websites, those services have their own privacy policies and we are not responsible for them.
How we use information
To answer messages you send us, to keep the site secure and available, to understand which stories are read (only if analytics is enabled) and to display advertising (only if advertising is enabled).
We do not use your information for automated decision-making or profiling that produces legal effects.
Sharing and retention
We share information with the service providers that run the site: our website hosting platform, our email delivery provider if we contact you, and the analytics and advertising services named above when they are active. These providers process data on our behalf or, in the case of Google advertising, as independent controllers.
Contact messages are kept until your enquiry is resolved and for a reasonable period afterwards so we can pick up a thread; you can ask us to delete them sooner. Server logs are retained by our hosting platform for a limited security period.
We do not sell or rent personal information to anyone.
Your privacy rights
Depending on where you live, you may have the right to ask what personal information we hold about you, to receive a copy, to have it corrected or deleted, to object to or restrict certain processing, to withdraw consent, and to complain to your local data protection authority.
California residents may also ask us to disclose the categories of information collected, to delete it, and to correct it. We do not sell or share personal information as defined by the CCPA/CPRA.
To make a request, email ericdsnead@gmail.com. We aim to respond within 30 days.
Advertising personalisation and opt-outs
You can decline personalised advertising through the Google controls below, through any consent prompt shown to you, through your browser's cookie controls, or by using the settings on your device.
Children
Beneath is written for a general audience and is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect information from children.
Changes to this policy
If we add or remove a service — for example by enabling analytics or advertising — we will update this policy and change the date below before that service goes live.
Contacting us about privacy
Write to ericdsnead@gmail.com, or use the contact form, marking your message as a privacy request.
Last updated October 2026