Privacy policy

Effective date: October 13, 2026. This privacy policy explains how AltComedy.com ("AltComedy", "we", "us") collects, uses and shares information when you visit the website at altcomedy.com (the "site"), and the choices and rights you have. We've tried to write it in plain language. If anything is unclear, please contact us.

Summary

AltComedy.com is a reading site. You don't need an account, and we don't ask you to sign up for anything.
We use Google Analytics 4 to understand how the site is used, and Google AdSense to show ads that pay for the site. Both use cookies and similar technologies. Ads may be personalised.
If you're in the European Economic Area (EEA), the United Kingdom or Switzerland, Google's consent message asks for your choices before personalised ads and related cookies are used.
If you send us a message through the contact form, it's processed by Formspree and delivered to us so we can reply.
The site is hosted on Cloudflare Pages, which processes technical data such as IP addresses to deliver and protect the site.
We don't sell your personal information for money, and we never ask for payment details.

Who we are

AltComedy.com is an independent editorial site about alternative comedy, launched in 2025. The operator of AltComedy.com is the data controller for the personal information described in this policy, except where a third party (such as Google) acts as an independent controller, as explained below. You can reach us about anything in this policy through our contact form, choosing the "Privacy request" topic.

Information we collect

Information you give us

When you use our contact form, we receive the information you enter: your name (optional), your email address, the topic you choose and your message. We also receive the date and time you sent it. Please don't include sensitive information (for example about health, beliefs or finances) that you don't need to share.

Information collected automatically

When you visit the site, some information is collected automatically by the services we use:

Usage and device data collected by Google Analytics, such as the pages you view, how long you stay, how you arrived (for example from a search engine or another site), your browser and device type, screen size, language, and approximate location (country or city level) derived from your IP address. Google Analytics 4 does not log or store full IP addresses.
Interaction events recorded by Google Analytics, such as clicks on links to other websites and the fact that the contact form was submitted. The content of your message is not sent to Google Analytics.
Advertising data collected by Google through AdSense, such as cookie identifiers, your IP address, browser information, the pages on which ads are shown and your interactions with ads. Google uses this to serve, measure and, where permitted, personalise ads.
Technical request data processed by our host, Cloudflare, such as your IP address, the requested address, browser user agent and the time of the request. Cloudflare uses this to deliver pages and protect the site against abuse and attacks.

Information stored only on your device

Theme preference. If you switch between light and dark mode, your choice is saved in your browser's local storage under the key theme. It stays on your device and is never sent to us.
Site search. When you open search, your browser downloads a static index of our pages and searches it locally. Your search terms are not sent to us or stored by the site.

The site itself has no user accounts, no comments and no server-side logging run by us. We don't knowingly collect special categories of personal data.

Google Analytics

We use Google Analytics 4 (measurement ID G-E0SEYD232J), a web analytics service provided by Google. It uses cookies such as _ga and _ga_* to distinguish visitors and sessions. We use the reports to understand which pages are useful, find broken pages and decide what to write next. We look at aggregated reports; we don't try to identify individual visitors.

You can learn how Google uses information from sites that use its services at How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services. You can prevent Google Analytics from collecting data about your visits by installing the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on, or by declining analytics cookies where you are offered the choice.

AltComedy.com is funded by advertising served through Google AdSense (publisher ID ca-pub-3842191947397990). Please note:

Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this website or other websites.
Google's use of advertising cookies, including the DoubleClick cookie, enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visits to this site and/or other sites on the internet.
Ads on this site may be personalised. Other third-party vendors and ad networks may also serve ads on the site and use cookies, web beacons or similar technologies to collect information for ad measurement and personalisation.
Where personalised ads are not permitted or you have not consented, Google may show non-personalised ads, which still use cookies for purposes such as frequency capping, aggregated reporting and fraud prevention.

Your choices:

You can opt out of personalised advertising from Google by visiting Google Ads Settings.
You can opt out of some third-party vendors' use of cookies for personalised advertising at www.aboutads.info/choices (United States) or www.youronlinechoices.eu (Europe).
You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings. See our cookie policy for details.

For more on how Google uses data from sites that show its ads, see How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services.

If you visit from the EEA, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, a consent message provided by Google, a Google-certified consent management platform, is shown when you first arrive. It lets you accept or refuse the use of cookies and personal data for advertising and related purposes, and to manage your choices by purpose and by vendor. Your choices are respected by Google's advertising services. You can change or withdraw your consent at any time through the privacy and cookie settings link provided by the consent message, or by clearing your cookies, which will cause the message to appear again.

Contact form (Formspree)

Our contact form is processed by Formspree, a form-handling service. When you submit the form, Formspree receives your entries, processes them on our behalf and forwards them to us by email. We use the information only to read, respond to and keep a record of your message (for example, a correction request), and to keep the form free of spam. We don't add you to any mailing list. Formspree's handling of data is described in its own privacy policy on formspree.io.

Hosting (Cloudflare)

The site is a static website hosted on Cloudflare Pages. Every time your browser requests a page, Cloudflare processes technical data, including your IP address, to deliver the content quickly and to protect the site against attacks and abuse. Cloudflare may set strictly necessary security cookies in some circumstances. See the Cloudflare privacy policy.

How and why we use information

Where the EU or UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) applies, we rely on these legal bases:

Purpose	Data	Legal basis
Delivering the site and keeping it secure	Technical request data (Cloudflare)	Legitimate interests in operating a secure, working website
Remembering your theme choice	Local storage value on your device	Legitimate interests; strictly necessary for a feature you request
Understanding how the site is used	Analytics data (Google Analytics)	Consent where required by law; otherwise legitimate interests in improving the site
Showing personalised ads and measuring them	Advertising cookies and identifiers (Google AdSense)	Consent
Showing non-personalised ads, preventing ad fraud	Limited advertising data	Consent where required for cookies; legitimate interests in funding the site
Replying to messages and handling corrections	Contact form entries (Formspree)	Legitimate interests in responding to you; where you make a rights request, compliance with legal obligations

We don't use your information for automated decision-making that has legal or similarly significant effects on you.

We share information only with the service providers described above, and only as needed for them to provide their services:

Google (Analytics and AdSense). For advertising, Google and its partners may act as independent controllers of the data they collect.
Formspree (contact form processing).
Cloudflare (hosting, content delivery and security).

We may also disclose information if required by law, to respond to valid legal requests, or to protect the rights, safety and security of the site, our readers or others. We don't sell, rent or trade the messages you send us.

How long we keep information

Contact messages are kept only as long as we need them to respond and keep a record of the issue (for example, a correction), and then deleted. You can ask us to delete your message sooner.
Google Analytics data is kept for the retention period set in our Google Analytics account. Event-level data in standard Google Analytics 4 can be kept for a maximum of 14 months; aggregated reports are retained by Google.
Advertising cookies remain on your device for the periods set by Google and its partners, which are listed in our cookie policy, unless you delete them sooner.
Your theme preference stays in your browser until you clear your site data.
Cloudflare request data is retained by Cloudflare according to its own policies.

If you are in the EEA, the UK or Switzerland, you have the right to:

access the personal data we hold about you;
ask us to correct inaccurate data;
ask us to delete your data;
ask us to restrict how we use your data;
object to processing based on legitimate interests;
receive your data in a portable format, where applicable;
withdraw consent at any time, without affecting processing that took place before you withdrew it;
complain to your local data protection authority.

Much of the data described here (analytics and advertising data) is held by Google rather than by us, and is linked to cookie identifiers rather than your name. You can control it most effectively through the consent message, your browser and the Google tools linked above. To exercise your rights over anything you've sent us, use the contact form and choose "Privacy request". We may need to verify your request, for example by replying to the email address you used, and we'll respond within the time required by law.

Your rights in California (CCPA/CPRA)

If you live in California, the California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act, gives you rights over your personal information:

Right to know what categories and specific pieces of personal information we have collected about you, the sources, the purposes and the categories of third parties we share it with.
Right to delete personal information we have collected from you, subject to legal exceptions.
Right to correct inaccurate personal information.
Right to opt out of the "sale" or "sharing" of personal information.
Right to limit the use of sensitive personal information. We don't knowingly collect sensitive personal information.
Right to non-discrimination for exercising any of these rights.

Categories collected in the last 12 months: identifiers (such as cookie IDs, IP addresses and, if you contact us, your email address); internet or other electronic network activity (such as pages viewed and interactions with ads); approximate geolocation; and the content of messages you choose to send. Sources are you, your browser and device, and the service providers listed above. We use this information for the purposes described in this policy.

Sale and sharing: We don't sell personal information for money. However, allowing Google and other advertising partners to collect information through cookies for personalised advertising may count as "selling" or "sharing" personal information for cross-context behavioural advertising under California law. To opt out, you can turn off personalised ads in Google Ads Settings, use the opt-out tools at www.aboutads.info/choices, block third-party cookies in your browser, or ask us through the contact form. We don't knowingly sell or share the personal information of consumers under 16.

To make a request, use the contact form and choose "Privacy request". You may use an authorised agent, and we may need to verify your identity and the agent's authority before acting on a request. Residents of other US states with consumer privacy laws can make requests the same way.

Children's privacy

The site is written for a general adult audience. It is not directed at children under 13, or under 16 in the EEA and the UK, and we don't knowingly collect personal information from them. If you believe a child has sent us personal information through the contact form, please contact us and we will delete it.

International data transfers

Google, Formspree and Cloudflare may process data in the United States and other countries outside your own, which may not have the same data protection laws. Where personal data from the EEA, UK or Switzerland is transferred, these providers rely on recognised safeguards, such as the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses (and their UK equivalents) or certification under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, as applicable to each provider.

Security

The site is served over HTTPS, and we keep the information we hold to a minimum. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, but we take reasonable steps to protect the information we receive.

Links to other websites

Our articles link to other websites, such as comedians' official sites, streaming services and reference sources. We aren't responsible for their privacy practices, so please read their policies when you visit them.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy when our services or the law change. When we do, we'll change the effective date at the top of this page and, for significant changes, make that clear on the site. Please check back from time to time.

Contact us

For questions about this privacy policy or to make a privacy request, please use our contact form and select "Privacy request" as the topic.