Effective date: 9 November 2026.
This Privacy Policy describes how the website Shadow Dossier (https://shadowdossier.com, the “site”) handles information when you visit it or contact us. Questions about this policy can be sent to [email protected] with the subject line “Privacy”.
What this site is
Shadow Dossier is a news and public-affairs website. Public account registration is disabled, comments on articles are closed, and there is no newsletter sign-up form. You can read the site without providing any personal information.
Information processed when you visit
Like most websites, requests to the site and its service providers can include your IP address, browser and device information, the requested URL, the referring page and the time of the request. This information is used to deliver pages, keep the site secure and — depending on your choices — to measure aggregated traffic and to show advertising, as described below.
Information you send us
If you email us (for example at [email protected]), we receive your email address, the content of your message and any attachments. Messages to our domain are forwarded by Cloudflare Email Routing to our editorial mailbox. We use this information only to read and respond to your message, assess corrections or tips, and keep a record of correspondence. We do not sell it or add you to mailing lists. Please do not send sensitive personal information you do not want us to hold.
Hosting, security and delivery
The site runs on WordPress. It is hosted on DigitalOcean and delivered through Cloudflare (content delivery network and security), which may process request metadata to deliver and protect the site. Security-event logging is used to block abusive login attempts. Search terms you enter appear in the page URL, so please do not include sensitive personal information in site searches.
Analytics (only with your consent)
Shadow Dossier uses Google Analytics 4 to understand aggregate page views and similar usage. Analytics is off by default: Google’s tag is not loaded, and no Google Analytics cookies are set, until you choose Accept on the cookie banner. Before you make a choice, Google consent signals for analytics and advertising are set to denied (Google Consent Mode).
When you accept analytics:
- We load Google’s gtag.js and measure page views.
- Google Signals and ad-personalization signals are disabled for the Analytics tag.
- We do not use Google Analytics for remarketing audiences or user-ID tracking.
- Google Analytics 4 does not log or store full IP addresses.
Google processes Analytics data on our behalf under Google’s terms; processing may take place on Google infrastructure in various countries. Event-level Analytics data is kept for the period set in the property’s data-retention setting (at most 14 months); aggregated reports may be kept longer. Learn more in How Google uses information from sites or apps that use its services.
Advertising
Shadow Dossier may display advertising served by Google (including Google AdSense) and other third-party advertising vendors. These ads help fund the site.
- 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 you based on your visits to this site and/or other sites on the Internet.
- You may opt out of personalized advertising by visiting Google Ads Settings (My Ad Center). You can also opt out of some third-party vendors’ use of cookies for personalized advertising at www.aboutads.info.
- If personalized ads are turned off, you may still see non-personalized ads, which use cookies or similar technologies for purposes such as frequency capping, aggregated ad reporting and combating fraud and abuse.
- For more information on how Google uses data when you use our site, see How Google uses information from sites or apps that use its services and How Google uses cookies in advertising.
Visitors in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland: advertising cookies and personalized ads are used only with your consent, which is requested through a consent message before any such cookies are set. You can withdraw or change your consent at any time using the Cookie settings link in the site footer. Where you do not consent, ads may be limited or non-personalized.
Advertising is kept separate from editorial content and does not influence our reporting.
Cookies and similar technologies
sd_cookie_consent— a first-party cookie that stores your cookie choice (about 6 months). Necessary to remember your preference._gaand_ga_*— Google Analytics cookies, set only after you accept analytics.- Advertising cookies (for example Google’s
__gads,__gpiand related cookies) — set by Google and its partners only when advertising is active and, where required, after you consent. - WordPress may set authentication cookies for site administrators; these are not used for ordinary readers.
- Cloudflare may use technologies strictly necessary to deliver and protect the site.
You can change your choice at any time using the Cookie settings link in the footer, which reopens the consent banner. You can also delete cookies or block third-party cookies in your browser settings.
Other third-party resources
- Google Fonts — the site theme loads fonts from Google’s font service, which receives your IP address and browser data when a page loads.
- Gravatar — some templates may request avatar images from Gravatar.
- Social links and embeds — links to our Telegram channel and any social sharing buttons or embeds connect you to those platforms, whose own privacy policies apply.
Your rights
Depending on where you live (for example under the EU/UK GDPR or U.S. state privacy laws), you may have the right to access, correct, delete or restrict the use of your personal data, to object to processing, to withdraw consent at any time, and to lodge a complaint with your data-protection authority. Because the site does not maintain reader accounts, the personal data we hold is limited (for example, emails you send us). To make a request, email [email protected] with the subject line “Privacy”. Analytics and advertising data can also be managed through the Cookie settings link and Google’s controls listed above.
We do not sell personal information.
Children
The site is not directed at children under 16, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children.
Changes to this policy
We may update this Privacy Policy when our practices change, for example when advertising, analytics or embedded services are added or modified. The effective date above will be updated when we publish changes.
Contact
Shadow Dossier — [email protected]