Privacy policy

Last updated: May 28, 2026

Bellwether is an independent editorial publication covering US prediction markets. This page explains what data we collect when you visit bellwether.market, why we collect it, who else sees it, and how to control it. We’ve written it the way we’d want a privacy policy written for us — plainly, with the specific tools named, and without the legalese padding that hides the actual answers.

We do not run advertising trackers. We do not sell personal data. We do not enrich your profile against third-party data brokers. The full list of what we actually do is below.

TL;DR — what we collect

  • Newsletter signups. Your email address, only if you give it to us. Stored at Beehiiv, our newsletter platform.
  • Anonymous analytics. Aggregate page views, country-level location, and referrer via Plausible Analytics. No cookies, no personal identifiers, no cross-site tracking.
  • Affiliate click tracking. When you click a /go/ link, we record the click (which campaign, which platform, anonymous session ID) via Pretty Links, our self-hosted WordPress plugin. We do not pass your email or any personal data to the affiliate platform — they only know “someone arrived from bellwether.market.”
  • CDN and security logs. Cloudflare sees IP addresses, browser metadata, and request timing as part of standard CDN delivery. We do not access these logs for analytics; they are operational only.

That is the whole list. There is no fourth bucket we left out.

What we collect, in detail

Newsletter (Beehiiv)

If you subscribe to the Bellwether weekly roundup, we collect your email address and the timestamp of your signup. The data lives in Beehiiv, our newsletter service. Beehiiv stores subscriber lists in the United States. You can unsubscribe with one click from the footer of any email, which deletes your address from the active list within seven days.

We do not require name, phone number, or any profile field beyond email. We do not segment based on inferred attributes (income, employer, interests). We segment only on observed behavior — what you opened, what you clicked — and only to send a better newsletter, not to build a marketing profile.

Analytics (Plausible)

We use Plausible Analytics, an EU-hosted, cookie-free, privacy-friendly alternative to Google Analytics. Plausible does not set cookies, does not assign persistent identifiers, and does not collect personal data. The dashboard we see shows aggregate page views, top pages, country (not city), browser type, and referrer.

That is all. We cannot identify you from Plausible data. We cannot follow you across sites. We cannot rebuild a session that retraces your specific path. We can see “1,200 people read the Kalshi review yesterday and 41% of them came from Google.”

Affiliate click tracking (Pretty Links)

When you click a link that starts with /go/ — for example, /go/kalshi or /go/polymarket — our WordPress install (running the Pretty Links plugin) records the click before redirecting you to the partner platform. The click record stores: which /go/ link, which page it was clicked from, the anonymous session ID Plausible already gave you, and the timestamp. We do not store IP, email, or any personal identifier.

This data is how we know which guides are working and which affiliate offers are landing. We never pass personal data through to the affiliate platform. The partner only knows “this visit came from bellwether.market” — they cannot tie it back to who you are on our side, because we don’t tie it that way either.

CDN and security (Cloudflare)

Cloudflare delivers bellwether.market from servers close to you and filters out hostile traffic before it reaches our WordPress install. As part of standard CDN delivery, Cloudflare temporarily sees your IP address, browser type, and request metadata. Cloudflare’s privacy policy explains what they retain and for how long. We do not access Cloudflare’s logs for analytics or marketing purposes — they exist only to keep the site online and to block attacks.

Cookies

We use essential cookies only. There is no advertising cookie, no Facebook pixel, no Google Tag Manager, no LinkedIn Insight Tag, no retargeting layer. If a cookie banner ever appears on bellwether.market, it will be for jurisdictional compliance (EU/UK visitors), not because we are setting trackers.

Who else sees your data

The only third parties that touch your data are:

  • Beehiiv — newsletter sends. They see your email address (only if you subscribed).
  • Plausible — anonymous analytics. They see aggregate traffic patterns, no personal identifiers.
  • Cloudflare — CDN delivery. They see request metadata, briefly.
  • Affiliate networks (when you click a /go/ link) — Polymarket, Kalshi, Robinhood, Coinbase, Kraken, MoonPay, and the Dub Partners network. They see only that a click arrived from bellwether.market. If you then create an account with them, their own privacy policy governs your relationship from that point forward. See our affiliate disclosure for the full list.

We do not share data with advertising networks. We do not sell or rent email addresses. We have no business relationship with any data broker.

Your rights

Regardless of where you live, you can:

  • Access any data we hold about you. Email privacy@bellwether.market.
  • Delete any data we hold about you. Unsubscribing from the newsletter removes you from Beehiiv within seven days. For any other deletion request, email privacy@bellwether.market and we will action it within thirty days.
  • Opt out of analytics by enabling Do Not Track in your browser or by using a content blocker. Plausible respects DNT signals.
  • Opt out of affiliate click tracking by not clicking /go/ links — there is no other way we track you.

California residents (CCPA): You have the right to know what personal information we collect, the right to delete it, and the right to opt out of any “sale” of personal information (we do not sell personal information). Submit requests to privacy@bellwether.market.

EU/UK residents (GDPR): You have the rights of access, rectification, erasure, restriction, portability, and objection under GDPR. Our lawful basis for processing newsletter data is consent; for analytics, legitimate interest. Submit requests to privacy@bellwether.market. We respond within thirty days.

Data retention

  • Newsletter subscriptions: kept until you unsubscribe, then deleted within seven days.
  • Plausible analytics: aggregate data, retained indefinitely in non-identifiable form.
  • Affiliate click logs: retained for twenty-four months for editorial analysis, then purged.
  • Cloudflare logs: retained per Cloudflare’s standard policy (we do not control or extend this).

Children

Bellwether is intended for adults 18 or older — or 21 or older where state law requires it for prediction-market platforms (Iowa, for example, requires 21+ for Kalshi). We do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 18. If you believe a minor has subscribed, email privacy@bellwether.market and we will remove the record.

Changes to this policy

If we materially change how we collect or use data, we update this page and update the “Last updated” date at the top. We do not email you about minor edits — but if we ever add a new tracker or a new third-party integration, that is a material change and we will say so clearly here.

Contact

Questions about this policy, or requests to access or delete your data: privacy@bellwether.market

Where to go next

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Bellwether — bellwether.market · Editor: Dana Okafor · Last updated: May 28, 2026.

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