1. Introduction

Welcome to StaticFog (“we,” “us,” or “our”). We operate the website at https://staticfog.com (the “Site”), a modern technology platform providing practical guides, tutorials, and insights covering AI tools, cybersecurity, VPNs, digital marketing, business technology, and online productivity.

This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and protect your personal information when you visit the Site, subscribe to our newsletter, create an account, or otherwise interact with us. Please read this policy carefully. By accessing or using the Site, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy.

We are committed to protecting your privacy and complying with all applicable data protection laws, including:

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) — European Economic Area
The UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 — United Kingdom
The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) — California, USA
The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) — United States
Other applicable federal, state, and international privacy laws

2. Who We Are (Data Controller)

For purposes of applicable data protection law, the data controller responsible for your personal information is:

StaticFog

Website: https://staticfog.com

Physical Address: 245 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States

General Enquiries: contact@staticfog.com

Support & Data Requests: support@staticfog.com

Phone: +1 (212) 555-4827

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us at the email addresses above.

3. Information We Collect

3.1 Information You Provide Directly

We collect personal information that you voluntarily provide when you:

Subscribe to our email newsletter (email address, and optionally your first name)
Submit a contact form (first name, last name, email address, subject, and message content)
Create a user account or sign in (email address, username, and password)
Leave a comment on an article (name, email address, optional website URL, and comment content)
Contact us directly by email (any information included in your message)
Respond to surveys or promotional offers (any information you voluntarily share)

3.2 Information Collected Automatically

When you visit the Site, certain information is collected automatically through cookies, server logs, and similar tracking technologies, including:

IP address and approximate geographic location (country and city level)
Browser type, version, and language settings
Operating system and device type (desktop, mobile, tablet)
Pages viewed, time spent on pages, and navigation paths through the Site
Referring website, search engine, or search terms used to find the Site
Date and time of your visit and session duration
Clickstream data and interaction events (scrolling, clicking, video plays)
Internet service provider (ISP)

3.3 Information from Third Parties

We may receive information about you from third-party services integrated into the Site, including:

Analytics providers (e.g., Google Analytics) — aggregated and anonymised usage statistics
Advertising networks (e.g., Google AdSense, affiliate networks) — interaction data for displayed advertisements
Social media platforms — if you interact with social sharing buttons or embedded content from platforms such as Twitter/X, YouTube, or LinkedIn
Email service providers — delivery and engagement data (opens, clicks) for newsletter emails

3.4 Sensitive Information

We do not intentionally collect sensitive personal information such as racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious beliefs, trade union membership, genetic data, biometric data, health information, or information about sexual orientation. Please do not submit sensitive personal information through our contact forms, comments, or other input fields.

4. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect for the following purposes, each supported by a legal basis as required by applicable law:

To operate and deliver the Site

Legal basis: Legitimate interests / Contract performance. We use your data to provide, maintain, and improve the Site, deliver content you request, manage your account or newsletter subscription, and ensure the Site functions correctly.

To respond to your enquiries and provide support

Legal basis: Legitimate interests / Contract performance. We use your contact details to respond to questions, feedback, technical support requests, or other communications you initiate.

To send our newsletter and marketing communications

Legal basis: Consent. We send our email newsletter only to users who have explicitly opted in. You may withdraw your consent and unsubscribe at any time by clicking the “Unsubscribe” link in any newsletter email, or by emailing support@staticfog.com. Withdrawal of consent does not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before withdrawal.

To understand and improve Site performance

Legal basis: Legitimate interests. We use anonymised and aggregated analytics data to understand how visitors use the Site, identify popular content, diagnose technical problems, and improve user experience.

To display advertising and manage affiliate relationships

Legal basis: Consent (where required by law) / Legitimate interests. We may display third-party advertisements on the Site. Some content contains affiliate links. Advertising partners may use cookies to deliver interest-based advertising. See Section 7 for more details.

To moderate user-generated content

Legal basis: Legitimate interests / Legal obligation. We use your submitted information (such as comments) to moderate content, enforce our Terms & Conditions, and maintain the integrity of the Site.

To comply with legal obligations

Legal basis: Legal obligation. We may process your personal data to comply with applicable laws, respond to lawful requests from public authorities, enforce our policies, or protect our legal rights and the safety of our users.

To prevent fraud and ensure security

Legal basis: Legitimate interests / Legal obligation. We use technical data and activity logs to detect, investigate, and prevent fraudulent or abusive activity, cyberattacks, and other misuse of the Site.

5. Cookies and Tracking Technologies

We use cookies and similar tracking technologies (including web beacons, pixel tags, and local storage) to operate and improve the Site. We categorise these as follows:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Essential for the Site to function. These cannot be disabled. They maintain your session, remember your login state, and store your cookie consent preferences. No consent is required for these cookies.

Analytics & Performance Cookies

These help us understand how visitors interact with the Site. We use Google Analytics to collect anonymised usage data. We have enabled IP anonymisation so your full IP address is never stored by Google. You can opt out of Google Analytics by installing the Google Analytics Opt-Out Browser Add-On at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

Functional Cookies

These remember your preferences — such as display settings — to improve your experience on return visits.

Advertising & Targeting Cookies

Set by our advertising partners to build a profile of your interests and deliver relevant advertisements. These are placed only with your consent where required by applicable law.

Social Media Cookies

Set by social media platforms whose content (such as embedded videos or share buttons) we include on the Site. These may track your activity across other websites.

When you first visit the Site, you will be presented with a cookie consent banner. You can manage or withdraw cookie consent at any time through the Cookie Settings link in the footer, or through your browser settings. Disabling certain cookies may affect Site functionality.

Full details of every cookie we use — including name, provider, purpose, and retention period — are available in our Cookie Policy at: https://staticfog.com/cookie-policy/

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to third parties for their own marketing purposes. We may share your information in the following limited circumstances:

Service Providers

We engage trusted third-party companies to help us operate the Site and deliver our services, including hosting providers, email delivery platforms, analytics services, and content delivery networks. These parties are contractually bound to process your data only on our instructions and in accordance with applicable data protection law. They may not use your data for their own purposes.

Advertising and Affiliate Partners

If advertising is displayed on the Site or affiliate links are used, our advertising and affiliate partners may receive limited data (such as cookie identifiers and interaction events) as described in Section 7. We do not share your name, email address, or other directly identifying information with advertisers.

Legal Requirements

We may disclose your personal information if required to do so by applicable law or regulation, or if we believe in good faith that disclosure is necessary to: comply with a legal obligation or lawful request from a public authority; protect and defend our legal rights or property; prevent or investigate possible wrongdoing; protect the personal safety of users or the public; or protect against legal liability.

Business Transfers

If StaticFog is involved in a merger, acquisition, asset sale, financing, or other corporate restructuring, your personal information may be transferred as part of that transaction. We will notify you via a prominent notice on the Site or by email before your data is transferred and becomes subject to a different privacy policy.

With Your Consent

We may share your information with third parties when you have given us explicit, informed consent to do so.

Aggregate and Anonymised Data

We may share aggregated or anonymised data that cannot reasonably be used to identify you with third parties for analytics, research, or business purposes.

7. Advertising and Affiliate Links

7.1 Third-Party Advertising

We may work with third-party advertising networks — including Google AdSense and other programmatic ad partners — to display advertisements on the Site. These partners may use cookies, pixel tags, and similar tracking technologies to:

Deliver advertisements based on your prior visits to the Site and other websites (interest-based advertising)
Measure the effectiveness of advertising campaigns
Prevent the same advertisement from being shown to you repeatedly (frequency capping)
Build anonymous audience segments for targeted advertising

We do not share your name, email address, or other directly identifying personal information with advertising partners. You can opt out of interest-based advertising from Google at https://adssettings.google.com, and from many other participating companies through the Network Advertising Initiative at https://optout.networkadvertising.org/ or the Digital Advertising Alliance at https://optout.aboutads.info/.

7.2 Affiliate Links

Some links in our content — particularly in VPN reviews, software comparisons, and tool recommendations — may be affiliate links. If you click an affiliate link and make a purchase or take another qualifying action, StaticFog may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.

Affiliate relationships do not influence our editorial content or conclusions. We only recommend products we have genuinely researched and consider relevant for our readers. All affiliate links are clearly disclosed at the top of articles containing them, in compliance with the FTC’s Endorsement Guides (16 CFR Part 255), UK ASA/CAP rules, and equivalent international advertising standards.

8. Data Retention

We retain personal information only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes described in this Privacy Policy, unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by applicable law. Our specific retention periods are:

Newsletter subscriber email addresses: retained until you unsubscribe or request deletion
Contact form submissions: retained for up to 2 years, or until the matter is resolved, whichever is sooner
User account data: retained for as long as your account remains active, plus up to 1 year after deletion for legal, dispute resolution, or compliance purposes
Comment data: retained until you request removal or until we determine removal is appropriate
Analytics data: aggregated and anonymised analytics data may be retained indefinitely; individual-level data is subject to third-party retention limits (Google Analytics: up to 26 months)
Server and access logs: retained for up to 90 days
Legal correspondence and compliance records: retained for the period required by applicable law, typically up to 7 years

When personal data is no longer required, we delete or anonymise it securely. If deletion is not immediately possible (for example, because data is stored in backup archives), we will securely isolate the data and protect it from further processing until deletion is possible.

9. International Data Transfers

StaticFog operates from the United States, and our Site is accessed by visitors from around the world. Your personal information may be transferred to, stored in, and processed in countries other than your country of residence, including the United States and countries within or outside the European Economic Area (EEA).

Where we transfer personal data from the EEA or the United Kingdom to countries that have not been deemed to provide an adequate level of data protection, we ensure appropriate safeguards are in place, such as:

Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) approved by the European Commission
The UK International Data Transfer Agreement (IDTA) or addendum to the EU SCCs
Transfers to organisations participating in approved data privacy frameworks

By using the Site, you acknowledge that your information may be transferred to and processed in the United States and other countries, which may have data protection laws that differ from those in your country of residence.

10. Your Privacy Rights

If you are located in the European Economic Area, you have the following rights under the GDPR:

Right of Access (Article 15): the right to request a copy of the personal data we hold about you
Right to Rectification (Article 16): the right to request correction of inaccurate or incomplete personal data
Right to Erasure / ‘Right to Be Forgotten’ (Article 17): the right to request deletion of your personal data, subject to certain exceptions
Right to Restriction of Processing (Article 18): the right to request that we restrict processing of your data in certain circumstances
Right to Data Portability (Article 20): the right to receive your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format
Right to Object (Article 21): the right to object to processing based on legitimate interests or for direct marketing purposes
Rights Related to Automated Decision-Making (Article 22): the right not to be subject to decisions based solely on automated processing that significantly affects you
Right to Withdraw Consent (Article 7): where processing is based on consent, the right to withdraw it at any time without affecting the lawfulness of prior processing

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at support@staticfog.com. We will respond within 30 days. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with your national data protection supervisory authority.

If you are located in the United Kingdom, you have equivalent rights under the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 as those listed above for EEA residents. You have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at https://ico.org.uk if you believe your rights have been violated.

10.3 Rights Under CCPA/CPRA (California Residents)

If you are a California resident, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) as amended by the CPRA grants you the following rights:

Right to Know: the right to request disclosure of the categories and specific pieces of personal information we have collected about you, how we collected it, the purposes for collection, and the categories of third parties with whom we share it
Right to Delete: the right to request deletion of personal information we have collected about you, subject to certain exceptions (such as where retention is necessary to complete a transaction or comply with a legal obligation)
Right to Correct: the right to request correction of inaccurate personal information we hold about you
Right to Opt-Out of Sale or Sharing: we do not sell your personal information. We may share data with advertising partners for cross-context behavioural advertising. California residents may opt out of such sharing by adjusting cookie preferences or contacting us
Right to Limit Use of Sensitive Personal Information: we do not collect sensitive personal information as defined by the CPRA for purposes that would trigger this right
Right to Non-Discrimination: we will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your CCPA rights, including by denying services, charging different prices, or providing a different level of service quality

To submit a California privacy rights request, email support@staticfog.com with the subject line “California Privacy Rights Request.” We will respond within 45 days, with a possible 45-day extension where reasonably necessary and with notice to you.

California residents may also designate an authorised agent to make requests on their behalf by providing written authorisation or a valid power of attorney.

10.4 Rights for Residents of Other US States

Residents of Virginia (VCDPA), Colorado (CPA), Connecticut (CTDPA), Texas (TDPSA), and other US states with enacted privacy legislation may have rights similar to those described under the CCPA/CPRA, including rights to access, correct, delete, and opt out of the sale or sharing of personal data. To exercise these rights, please contact us at support@staticfog.com.

10.5 Exercising Your Rights — Verification

To protect your privacy and security, we will take reasonable steps to verify your identity before processing any rights request. We may ask you to provide sufficient information to confirm that you are the person whose data is subject to the request. We will not charge a fee for responding to rights requests unless requests are manifestly unfounded, excessive, or repetitive.

11. Children’s Privacy

The Site is not directed to children under the age of 13 in the United States (or under 16 in the EEA and UK where a higher age threshold applies). We do not knowingly collect personal information from children below these age thresholds.

If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has provided us with personal information without your consent, please contact us immediately at support@staticfog.com. We will investigate and, if confirmed, delete the relevant information as promptly as possible.

If we become aware that we have inadvertently collected personal information from a child below the applicable age threshold, we will take immediate steps to delete that information from our records.

12. Security of Your Information

We implement appropriate technical and organisational security measures designed to protect your personal information against unauthorised access, disclosure, alteration, accidental loss, or destruction. Our security measures include:

Encrypted data transmission using HTTPS/TLS for all data sent to and from the Site
Secure access controls limiting data access to authorised personnel only, on a need-to-know basis
Regular security reviews, vulnerability assessments, and updates to our systems and infrastructure
Use of reputable, security-certified third-party hosting and service providers
Secure password hashing for user account credentials

However, no method of electronic transmission or storage is 100% secure. While we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security. In the event of a personal data breach that is likely to result in a risk to your rights and freedoms, we will notify you and the applicable supervisory authority in accordance with applicable law.

13. Third-Party Links, Embedded Content, and External Services

Our Site contains links to third-party websites, embedded videos, social media content, and other external resources. We also include affiliate links and advertising from third-party networks. We are not responsible for the privacy practices, content, or security of any third-party websites or services.

When you click a link to a third-party site or interact with embedded content (such as a YouTube video or a social media widget), you leave the StaticFog environment and your use of that third-party service is governed by its own privacy policy. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of every external website you visit.

Key third-party services integrated into the Site and their privacy policies:

Google Analytics: https://policies.google.com/privacy
Google Ads / AdSense: https://policies.google.com/privacy
YouTube (Google): https://policies.google.com/privacy
Twitter / X: https://twitter.com/en/privacy
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/legal/privacy-policy

14. Do Not Track Signals

Some browsers include a “Do Not Track” (DNT) feature that signals to websites that you do not want your online activity tracked. There is currently no universally accepted standard governing how websites should respond to DNT signals. Our Site does not currently respond to DNT browser signals.

You can manage tracking preferences using our cookie consent tool, browser settings, or the opt-out links provided in Section 5 and Section 7 of this Privacy Policy.

15. Email Communications

If you subscribe to our newsletter, we will use your email address to send you periodic updates about our new content, AI tool guides, technology insights, and related information.

You can unsubscribe from our newsletter at any time by:

Clicking the “Unsubscribe” link at the bottom of any newsletter email
Emailing support@staticfog.com with the subject line “Unsubscribe”

After unsubscribing, we will remove your email address from our active mailing list promptly. We may retain your email address on a suppression list for a limited period to prevent accidental re-subscription. Transactional emails (such as account notifications or responses to your direct enquiries) are not marketing communications and may still be sent to you even after unsubscribing from the newsletter.

16. User-Generated Content

If you post comments or other content on the Site, you understand that this content may be publicly visible to other visitors. Do not include personal information in comments that you would not want to be publicly accessible.

We reserve the right to remove any comment or user-generated content at our sole discretion. If you would like us to remove a comment you posted that contains your personal information, contact us at support@staticfog.com.

17. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our data practices, applicable law, new features, or other operational reasons. When we make material changes, we will:

Update the “Last Updated” date at the top of this Privacy Policy
Display a prominent notice on the Site homepage or a relevant page
Where required by applicable law, send an email notification to newsletter subscribers or registered account holders

We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically. Your continued use of the Site after any changes become effective constitutes your acceptance of the revised Privacy Policy, to the extent permitted by applicable law. If you do not agree to the revised policy, you should discontinue use of the Site.

18. Contact Us

If you have any questions, concerns, or requests relating to this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us: