The Defiant

Last updated: July 6, 2026

1. Scope

This Privacy Policy explains how Defiant Media Inc., a Delaware corporation headquartered in Brooklyn, New York ("The Defiant," "we," "us"), handles personal information across our websites, newsletters, and services, including the editions The Defiant and Converge (the "Services"). It applies to readers, newsletter subscribers, account holders, and paying subscribers. Questions: admin@thedefiant.io.

2. What We Collect

2.1 Information you give us:

Newsletter signup: email address and any preferences you set.
Account registration: email, name (optional), password (stored hashed by our auth provider).
Paid subscriptions: billing details are collected and processed by our third-party payment processor; we do not store your full card number.
Correspondence: anything you send to our editorial, sponsorship, or support addresses.

2.2 Information collected automatically:

Usage and device data: pages viewed, referrers, approximate location (from IP), device/browser type — via our analytics and infrastructure providers.
Cookies and similar technologies: see Section 6.
Email engagement: our newsletter platform records opens, clicks, and delivery events via tracking pixels and tracked links.
Paywall metering: we count the articles you read to operate the metered paywall (via cookies and, for logged-in users, your account).

2.3 California category disclosure (collected in the past 12 months):

Identifiers — Email address, name (optional), IP address, online identifiers (collected).
Commercial information — Subscription purchases and billing history (via our payment processor) (collected).
Internet/network activity — Pages viewed, referrers, email opens/clicks, paywall meter counts (collected).
Geolocation — Approximate location derived from IP (not precise GPS) (collected).
Protected classifications, biometrics, sensory, employment, education data, inference profiles — not collected.

2.4 We do not knowingly collect government IDs, precise geolocation, biometrics, or other sensitive categories, and we never ask for wallet private keys.

3. How We Use Information

We use personal information to:

deliver the Services — articles, newsletters, accounts, premium subscriptions, and the metered paywall;
process payments and manage renewals and cancellations;
measure and improve content, products, and site performance;
send newsletters and service messages (every marketing email includes an unsubscribe link);
sell, deliver, and measure advertising and sponsorships, including reporting aggregate audience metrics to sponsors (aggregates, never subscriber lists);
protect the Services — security, fraud prevention, rate limiting, abuse and bot detection;
enforce our Terms of Service, establish and defend legal claims, and comply with law; and
develop new products and features consistent with the purposes above.

4. Who We Share It With

We do not sell personal information for money. We share it with:

Newsletter platform — Newsletter delivery, subscriber management, email analytics
Analytics providers — Site analytics and tag management
Payment processor — Payment processing for subscriptions
Infrastructure and security providers — Hosting, content delivery, security, bot management
Content management provider — Content management (limited personal data, e.g., author records)
Advertising/measurement partners — Ad delivery and campaign measurement on our sites
Professional advisers, authorities — Legal compliance, audits, protecting rights, safety, and enforcing our agreements
A successor entity — In a merger, acquisition, financing, reorganization, or asset sale

Our service providers are contractually required to protect personal information, to use it only to provide services on our instructions, and to maintain appropriate confidentiality and security measures.

Analytics and advertising cookies may constitute "sharing" (cross-context behavioral advertising) under California law even without money changing hands. Section 9 covers your opt-out rights.

We may create, use, and share aggregated or de-identified data that cannot reasonably identify you (e.g., audience statistics reported to sponsors) for any lawful purpose; we do not treat such data as personal information and commit not to re-identify it.

5. Legal Bases (EU/UK Visitors)

Where GDPR/UK GDPR applies, we process personal data based on: contract (accounts, subscriptions, paywall), consent (newsletter marketing, non-essential cookies), legitimate interests (analytics, security, audience measurement, product development, journalism), and legal obligation (tax, accounting).

6. Cookies and Privacy Signals

6.1 We use essential cookies (login sessions, paywall metering, security — always on), analytics cookies, and advertising/measurement cookies where sponsor campaigns require them. Blocking essential cookies may prevent parts of the Services (login, paywall) from working.

6.2 You can control non-essential cookies through our cookie preferences tool where offered, your browser settings, and industry opt-out tools.

6.3 We honor the Global Privacy Control (GPC) signal as an opt-out of sale/sharing for the browser it is set on (see Section 9). Other than GPC, we do not respond to legacy browser "Do Not Track" signals, for which no settled standard exists.

7. Retention and Account Closure

7.1 We keep personal information as long as needed for the purposes in Section 3, and thereafter as needed to comply with law, resolve disputes, enforce agreements, and maintain security. As guidance: account data for the life of the account plus a wind-down period; billing records as required by tax and accounting law; newsletter data until you unsubscribe (plus a permanent suppression record so we don't re-add you); analytics data per our analytics provider's retention settings; server and security logs for short rolling windows.

7.2 You can close your account in your account settings or by emailing admin@thedefiant.io. On closure we delete or de-identify associated personal information, except records we retain for legal, billing, security, or dispute purposes. If you revisit the Services afterward, the technologies in Section 6 apply again.

8. Security

We use industry-standard safeguards: encryption in transit (TLS), access controls, and reputable infrastructure providers. Payments are handled by a PCI-DSS-certified payment processor. No method of transmission or storage is perfectly secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security; if a breach affects you, we will notify you as required by applicable law.

9. Your California Privacy Rights (CCPA/CPRA)

If you are a California resident, you have the right to:

Know/access the categories (Section 2.3) and specific pieces of personal information we collect, use, and disclose.
Delete personal information we hold about you, subject to legal exceptions.
Correct inaccurate personal information.
Opt out of "sale" or "sharing." We do not sell data for money, but our analytics/advertising cookies may be "sharing" under the CPRA. Opt out by enabling GPC in your browser (which we honor) or by emailing admin@thedefiant.io with "Do Not Sell or Share" in the subject line.
Limit use of sensitive personal information (we do not collect CPRA-sensitive categories in the ordinary course).
Non-discrimination for exercising any of these rights.

Submit requests to admin@thedefiant.io. Requests are free. We will verify your identity (e.g., by confirming control of your email) and respond within the statutory window; authorized agents may submit requests with proof of authorization.

10. EU/UK Visitors (GDPR Basics)

If you are in the EEA, UK, or Switzerland, you have the rights of access, rectification, erasure, restriction, portability, and objection (including to legitimate-interests processing), and the right to withdraw consent without affecting prior processing. Contact admin@thedefiant.io; requests are free and we aim to respond within one month. You may complain to your local supervisory authority. Our processors are primarily US-based; international transfers rely on Standard Contractual Clauses and, where applicable, the EU–US Data Privacy Framework. The statutory rights in this Section and Section 9 are offered to residents of the jurisdictions whose laws grant them; elsewhere we handle requests at our discretion.

11. Children

The Services are news publications about financial technology and are not directed to children under 16; children under 16 may not create accounts, and we do not knowingly collect their personal information. If you believe a child has provided us personal information, contact admin@thedefiant.io and we will delete it.

12. Newsletter and Marketing Choices

Every newsletter includes a one-click unsubscribe link. Unsubscribing from marketing does not stop transactional messages (receipts, subscription notices, security alerts), which we send as part of operating your account. Manage preferences through the link in any email or your account settings.

13. Third-Party Sites and Social Features

Our articles link to third-party sites, protocols, and services, and may include social sharing features. Their privacy practices are their own; this Policy does not cover them.

14. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Policy at any time; updates are posted here with a new "Last updated" date. For changes that materially expand how we use personal information, we will give reasonable advance notice (site notice or email to registered users), and where the law requires consent for a new use, we will obtain it. Your continued use of the Services after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the updated Policy.

15. Contact

Defiant Media Inc., Brooklyn, New York.

Privacy requests: admin@thedefiant.io

Legal notices: admin@thedefiant.io

Editorial and corrections: editorial@thedefiant.io

Sponsorships and licensing: sponsors@thedefiant.io