Privacy

• Reading the site needs no account, and nothing is stored in your browser to follow you from visit to visit. The site carries no advertising.
• Page views are counted to learn which pages are read, without cookies.
• An account keeps your email address, your name and the lists of companies you save, and nothing else about you.
• What the front page recommends is worked out in your browser from what you opened there; no record of it is kept anywhere else.
• Your data is never sold, never shared for advertising and never used to train AI models.
• Write to privacy@livingteardown.com for a copy of your data, to correct it, or to have it deleted.

Living Teardown is run by its founder, in Thailand, who decides what happens to readers' data: the "data controller" under Thailand's Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA) and, for readers in Europe, the GDPR. Questions about your data go to privacy@livingteardown.com.

When you read the site

The page, the page you came from, your browser and device type, and your approximate location, which the analytics service works out from your IP address and keeps with the visit. Why: to learn which teardowns are read and fix what does not work (our legitimate interest in running a useful site). Nothing is stored in your browser for this, so a return visit counts as a new one. Kept for up to a year.

When you sign in

Your email address, your name if you give one and the day your account was made, plus a record of each sign-in (time, IP address and browser) kept by the sign-in service. Why: to run your account, which you asked for (a contract with you), and to keep it safe. Kept until you delete your account.

When you save companies

The names of your lists, the companies on each and when you added them, and when you last opened each company you saved, so the sidebar can mark what is new since. Only you can see your lists. Why: to keep them for you (a contract with you). Kept until you remove them or delete your account.

When you write to us in the chat

Your messages, the page you wrote from, and the email address if you give one for a reply. Why: to answer you (your request). Kept until you ask us to delete them.

When a page fails

An error report: what went wrong, on which page, in which browser. No name or email address is sent with it. Why: to fix it (our legitimate interest). Kept for up to 90 days.

In the site's logs

Each request's IP address, page and time, kept for a few days by the hosting service to run the site and protect it from abuse.

Everything the site stores in your browser is there for something you did. None of it is for advertising or for counting visits, so there is no banner to accept. Settings shows what this device remembers and clears it.

theme (a cookie)

Your choice of dark or light, for a year.

The sign-in cookies

Only once you sign in: your session (livingteardown-wos-session), a marker that you are signed in (livingteardown-signed-in) and the page preview cookie that shows you your own pages. Two short-lived cookies hold a sign-in step for ten minutes.

browse (a cookie)

Whether you browse companies as cards or as a list, for a year.

Recently opened (browser storage)

The companies and products you opened last, for the sidebar, the search and what the front page recommends. It stays on your device.

The sidebar (browser storage)

Whether you collapsed the sidebar, and which of your lists you folded.

Your lists (browser storage)

Only once you sign in: a copy of your lists for the visit, so the sidebar shows them at once, and a company you starred before signing in, until you have.

The chat (browser storage)

Once you write a message: a key to your own conversation, so the reply finds you.

These services hold some of your data for us, only to do the job named, under contracts that bind them to protect it. Nobody else receives it unless the law requires it.

Vercel (United States)

Runs the site and serves its pages; keeps a short log of requests (address, page, time) to run and protect it.

Neon (United States)

The database: your account, and the weekly email's list of addresses.

WorkOS (United States)

Signs you in: sends the six-digit code, checks it, and keeps your account's email address and name.

PostHog (United States)

Counts page views: the page, where you came from, your browser and device, and your approximate location from your IP address.

Sentry (United States)

Receives a report when a page fails: the error, the page and the browser, so it can be fixed.

Our support inbox (United States)

The chat's messages and the email address you give in it, kept in our own customer support system, which runs on Vercel and Neon.

Cloudflare (Worldwide)

Receives email sent to our addresses, such as privacy@livingteardown.com, and forwards it to us.

The services above store data in the United States. When your data goes there from Thailand, Europe or elsewhere, it is protected by each service's data protection terms, including the European Commission's standard contractual clauses where the GDPR requires them, as the PDPA and the GDPR allow.

You can ask for a copy of your data, in a format you can take elsewhere; have it corrected; have it deleted; ask us to stop or limit using it; and withdraw your consent to the weekly email at any time. Write to privacy@livingteardown.com from the address on your account; you get an answer within 30 days.

If you are unhappy with the answer, you can complain to Thailand's Personal Data Protection Committee (pdpc.or.th) or, in Europe, to your country's data protection authority.

For readers in California: the site does not sell or share personal information, as the California Consumer Privacy Act defines those words.

Write to privacy@livingteardown.com from the address on your account, or ask in the chat. Your account, your lists, its sign-in record at the sign-in service are deleted within 30 days, and you get an email when it is done.

Every connection to the site is encrypted. The sign-in service holds no password, because there is none: you sign in with a code sent to your email. API tokens are stored only as a fingerprint that cannot be turned back into the token. Only the person who runs the site can reach the database. If your data is ever exposed, the PDPC is told within 72 hours and so are you when it puts you at risk.

The site is written for working adults. If you believe a child under 16 has given us their data, write to privacy@livingteardown.com and it is deleted.

A change to this policy is made on this page with a new date at the top. When a change matters to how your data is used, signed-in readers are told by email before it applies. The terms cover the rest of using the site.