We value your privacy — and we try to keep things simple, secure, and transparent.

What We Collect

We only collect the data you choose to share:

  • When you sign up for our newsletter or membership, we store your email address securely.
  • If you become a paid member, your payment is handled through Stripe, our secure payment provider.
  • We do not collect sensitive personal information beyond what is required for membership access, payments, site security, and basic operation of the website.

How We Use Your Data

We use your information to:

  • Send you newsletters and updates, if you’ve signed up.
  • Manage your account, if you’re a member.
  • Provide access to member-only or paid content, where applicable.
  • Process payments through Stripe, if you become a paid member.
  • Understand basic readership activity through Ghost’s built-in analytics.
  • Display and manage advertising where applicable.
  • We will never contact you for unrelated promotions, and we do not sell or rent your personal information.

Membership and Payments

All payments are securely processed through Stripe. We do not store your payment details — Stripe handles that securely on its end.

Contributions or donations made through this site are voluntary and non-refundable — they do not constitute the purchase of a product or service unless explicitly stated otherwise.

Analytics

This site uses Ghost’s built-in, privacy-focused analytics.

These tools give us anonymous or aggregated insights — like how many people read an article — without tracking you across the web.

We do not use Google Analytics.

Advertising and Cookies

This site may display advertising through Google AdSense or other third-party advertising partners.

Ads may appear for visitors who are not signed in. Members, including free members, can read without ads while signed in.

Third-party vendors, including Google, may use cookies, local storage, or similar technologies to serve, measure, and improve ads. Google’s use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads based on a user’s visits to this site and/or other sites on the Internet.

Where required by law or by the policies of our advertising partners, we use a consent mechanism to ask for permission before serving personalized ads or using advertising cookies, local storage, or similar technologies that require consent. The availability and form of this consent message may depend on your location and applicable privacy regulations.

You can manage or withdraw your consent through the consent message shown on this site where applicable. You can also opt out of personalized advertising through Google’s Ads Settings.

What We Don’t Do

  • We do not sell or rent your personal information.
  • We do not use Google Analytics.
  • We do not use tracking pixels for our own analytics.
  • We do not contact you for unrelated promotions.
  • We do not intentionally collect sensitive personal information beyond what is required to operate the site, memberships, payments, and related services.

Third-Party Services

This site may use trusted third-party services to operate properly, including:

  • Ghost, for publishing, membership, email delivery, and site analytics.
  • Stripe, for payment processing.
  • Google AdSense, for advertising and consent management.
  • Amazon Associates or other affiliate programs, for affiliate links.

These services may process data according to their own privacy policies and technical requirements.

Affiliate Disclosure

At Irrelevant Matters, our primary focus is to share ideas, spark curiosity, and promote understanding without dogma or unnecessary confusion. That said, sustaining this space and continuing to publish meaningful content requires resources — this beautiful spinning rock we share also happens to have rent and hosting fees.

To help keep things afloat, we occasionally use affiliate links in our posts. This means that if you click on a link and decide to make a purchase, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. These commissions help maintain the website and support the time needed for writing, researching, and exploring these topics. Importantly, we only recommend books, tools, or products that align with the spirit of Irrelevant Matters — things we genuinely believe are worth your time.

Transparency matters. Whenever a post contains affiliate links or promotional content, we clarify it at the top of the post. Rest assured, recommendations are based on their merit, not potential earnings. The ultimate goal remains the same: to enrich your experience and spark meaningful thought.

Questions?

If you have any questions about this privacy policy, you can reach out via the membership platform or unsubscribe at any time using the link in our emails.

Last updated: May 2026