Last updated September 21, 2026

Privacy Policy

We run a site about surveillance. It would be absurd to build one that watches you. This page explains exactly what we collect and what we do not.

The short version
  • No analytics, no cookies, no advertising, and no tracking pixels.
  • We do not sell, rent, or share your information.
  • The only information we receive is what you deliberately send us through the contact form or by email.
  • You can reach us anonymously. See Sending a tip anonymously.

What we do not collect

This is a static website. Pages are built ahead of time and served as plain files. There is no database of visitors and no account system.

Specifically, DeflockBCS does not use:

  • Google Analytics or any other analytics or measurement service
  • Cookies, local storage, or session storage for tracking
  • Advertising networks, retargeting, or conversion pixels
  • Social media tracking widgets or embedded like buttons
  • Browser fingerprinting of any kind

Fonts are served from this site rather than from a third party, so loading a page does not report your visit to an outside company.

What we do collect

The contact form

If you use the form on our contact page, you send us three things: a name, an email address, and a message. The form is processed by Netlify, our hosting provider. Submissions are stored in our Netlify account and forwarded to us by email.

Netlify applies automated spam filtering to submissions. The form also includes a hidden field that people never see and bots often fill in, which lets us discard obvious junk.

Whatever you put in those fields is what we get. If you would rather not give us a real name, put anything you like in the name field. We do not verify it.

Email

If you email us at deflockbcs@proton.me, we receive your message and your email address. Our mail is hosted by Proton Mail. We keep correspondence only as long as it is useful to the work, and we delete tip-related mail once a story is published or the tip is closed out.

Server logs

Netlify records standard server logs when a page is requested. These can include an IP address, the page requested, a timestamp, and a browser user agent string. We do not build profiles from these logs and we do not use them for analytics. They are retained by Netlify under their privacy policy and their own retention schedule, which we do not control.

Sending a tip anonymously

Some of what we publish comes from people who have a reason to stay unnamed. If that is you, take the precautions seriously. We cannot protect information we never should have received in the first place.

  • Do not use a work computer, a work phone, or a work network. Employer devices and networks are frequently monitored.
  • Create a throwaway email account from a provider that does not require a phone number, and use it only for this.
  • Consider using the Tor Browser, which hides your IP address from both us and our host.
  • Strip metadata from documents and photos before sending them. Files often carry the device, location, and account that made them.
  • Think about whether the document itself identifies you. A record only a handful of people could have accessed narrows the field no matter how it was sent.

We will never publish the identity of a source without explicit permission. We also cannot promise that a third party such as our host, your email provider, or your employer has not logged something on their end.

Services we rely on

We keep the list short on purpose. Each of these has its own privacy policy, and we have no control over their practices.

  • Netlify hosts the site and processes contact form submissions. Privacy policy
  • Proton Mail hosts our email. Privacy policy
  • GitHub stores the source code and written content of this site, which is where our editing tool saves changes. Privacy policy

We link heavily to primary sources: city agendas, court opinions, contracts, reporting, and video. Once you follow a link you are on the site of another organization and their rules apply. A link is not an endorsement, and several of the things we link to track visitors aggressively.

Children

This site is meant for a general adult audience. We do not knowingly solicit or collect information from children.

Your information, your call

If you have contacted us and want your message and email address deleted from our records, write to deflockbcs@proton.me and we will remove them. You do not need to give a reason. If you have already asked us not to publish something you sent, that stands whether or not you follow up.

Changes to this policy

If we add a service that changes any of the above, we will update this page and change the date at the top. We are not going to quietly add analytics and leave this page saying otherwise.

Questions

Ask us at deflockbcs@proton.me or through the contact page.