Privacy policy

What we collect when you read, subscribe, pay, or use our calculators, which services process it, and how to see or delete your data.

Last updated: Sep 30, 2026

This policy explains what The Dental Signal ("we", "us") collects when you visit the site, subscribe, pay for a plan, or use our calculators and checklists; which outside services handle it; and the choices you have. We do not sell your personal information.

In short

The site, memberships, and newsletter run on our own installation of Ghost, an open-source publishing platform, on a virtual private server we operate, rented from Hostinger. We do not use Ghost(Pro), Ghost's hosted service.
To subscribe, we need your email address. Your name is optional.
Payments go through Stripe. We never see or store your full card number.
Calculator entries are stored without your email address or name.
We don't use advertising trackers or third-party analytics. We count visits with Umami, a cookie-free analytics tool we host ourselves.

1. What we collect

When you subscribe or create an account

Your email address, and your name if you give it. Ghost stores these with your account details: your plan and subscription status, when you signed up, the page or referring site you signed up from, and, if you signed up through a calculator, which one. Ghost also records when you were last active on the site while signed in.

Our newsletter emails record whether you open them and which links you click, per subscriber. We use this to understand which topics are useful and to keep our sending healthy.

Signing in works by a one-time link sent to your email address, so there is no password for us to store.

When you pay

Stripe collects your card details and billing information directly. We receive your subscription details from Stripe, along with your card's brand and last four digits, which your account page shows so you can recognize the card. We never see or store your full card number.

When you use a calculator

Results are calculated in your browser, and you see them in full without giving an email address. When you calculate, we store the figures you entered, any optional practice details you chose (such as state, practice type, and practice age), and your browser's user-agent string (browser and operating system type). This record contains no email address or name. We use it only in aggregate, to build benchmarks.

If you copy a link to your results, the link contains the numbers you entered, so anyone you share it with can see them. We don't store the link.

After your results you can choose to subscribe to the newsletter. That is a normal Ghost signup, handled as described above, and it is not linked to your calculator entries.

When you arrive through a referral link

If you follow a subscriber's referral link, we remember the referral code on your device (see cookies and local storage) so the referrer can be credited. If you then sign up through one of our on-page forms, your email address, the referral code, and the page you signed up on are recorded in our database at Supabase. If you use a calculator after arriving through a referral link, the referral code is attached to that calculator record.

When you comment or email us

Signed-in members can comment on articles. Your comment and your name are shown publicly next to it. If you email us, we keep the correspondence so we can reply and follow up.

When you browse

We count page views and a few anonymous events, such as a calculator being run, a result link being copied, or a signup form being submitted, with Umami, an open-source analytics tool running on our own server. It sets no cookies, stores no personal identifiers, and is not combined with your account.

What any website receives

Like any website, our server and the services listed below receive your IP address and basic browser information when your browser requests a page, script, or font. We don't use this to build profiles of you.

2. How we use it

To send the newsletter and the emails you've asked for, including sign-in links.
To provide paid access and manage billing.
To build aggregate benchmarks from anonymous calculator entries.
To credit referrals.
To answer your messages.
To decide what to write about, based on which articles and emails readers find useful.
To keep the site secure and prevent abuse.

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information, and we do not share it for advertising.

3. Services that process data for us

Service	What it does for us	What it receives
Ghost (self-hosted)	Runs the website, memberships, comments, and newsletter on a server we operate	Your account and newsletter data, stored on our server
Hostinger	Provides the virtual private server the site and its database run on	All data stored on the site, held on their infrastructure
Mailgun	Delivers newsletters and sign-in emails; records opens and clicks	Email address, name, email content, open and click events
Stripe	Processes payments and manages subscriptions; its script loads on our pages	Name, email address, card and billing details; sets the `__stripe_mid` and `__stripe_sid` cookies
Supabase	Database for calculator entries and referral records	Calculator figures, optional practice details, and browser type; for referred signups, email address, referral code, and signup page
jsDelivr	Delivers Ghost's signup, account, search, and comment scripts	IP address and browser information
Umami (self-hosted)	Counts page views and anonymous events, on our own server	Page address, referring site, browser type, screen size, and country (derived from IP address, which is not stored)
Bunny Fonts	Delivers the site's web fonts from fonts.bunny.net	IP address and browser information

Each service handles data under its own privacy policy.

4. Cookies and local storage

We don't use advertising or third-party analytics cookies. The site uses the following:

ghost-members-ssrCookie
Set by Ghost to keep you signed in as a member.
ghost-members-ssr.sigCookie
Set by Ghost to verify the sign-in cookie above.
__stripe_midCookie
Set by Stripe for payment fraud prevention. Stripe's script loads on every page.
__stripe_sidCookie
Set by Stripe for payment fraud prevention, for the current session.
ds_refCookie
Remembers a referral code from a link so the referrer can be credited. Kept 90 days.
ds_ref_codeLocal storage
Remembers a referral code from a subscriber's personal link. Kept 30 days.
ghost-historyLocal storage
Set by Ghost: the last few pages you visited in the past 24 hours, used to record which page led to a signup.
ds_abtest_bucketLocal storage
Which version of our signup prompts you see.
ds_exit_intent_shownLocal storage
Stops a signup prompt from reappearing for 7 days.
ds-checklist:*Local storage
Your checklist progress, stored only on your device.

A few short-lived session storage entries also prevent signup prompts from repeating during a visit. Local storage lives in your browser; clearing your browser's site data removes it.

5. How long we keep it

We keep your account while you're a member, free or paid, and delete it when you ask. Stripe keeps payment records under its own retention rules. Calculator entries are kept for benchmarking; because they carry no email address or name, we can't find or delete an individual entry on request. We keep correspondence as long as it's useful for answering you.

6. Your choices and rights

Unsubscribe. Every newsletter has an unsubscribe link. You can also change newsletter settings in your account.
Update. Change your name, email address, or payment details in your account.
Access. Ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
Deletion. Ask us to delete your account and associated personal information.

For access or deletion, email info@thedentalsignal.com from the address on your account so we can confirm it's you. We'll respond as soon as we can, and within any time limit the law in your location sets.

If you live in California, you have the right to know what personal information we collect, to ask us to delete it, and not to be treated differently for exercising these rights. We do not sell personal information or share it for cross-context behavioral advertising.

7. Children

The Dental Signal is a professional publication for adults working in dentistry. We don't knowingly collect information from anyone under 18. If you believe a minor has given us personal information, email us and we'll delete it.

8. Security

The site is served only over encrypted HTTPS connections, and card payments are handled by Stripe rather than by us. No system is perfectly secure, but we take reasonable steps to protect the information we hold.

9. Changes to this policy

When we change this policy, we update the date at the top of the page. For significant changes, we may also let subscribers know by email.

10. Contact

Questions about privacy: info@thedentalsignal.com.