Information we collect
When you subscribe, comment, react, vote in a poll, use the contact form or submit a contributor application, we may receive the information you submit. Contributor applications include a required phone number together with the applicant’s name, email address, topics, introduction, optional profile links and an optional profile photo. Basic technical information may also be processed to prevent spam, abuse and duplicate voting.
How information is used
Submitted information is used to operate the site, send requested newsletter updates, display approved comments, answer enquiries, review contributor applications, contact applicants about contributing, improve content and protect the service from abuse. When a contributor application is successfully submitted, the applicant’s phone number is also used to send an automatic acknowledgement SMS. Delivery states for the editorial notification email and acknowledgement SMS may be stored with the application so authorised administrators can identify and retry failed delivery attempts. We do not sell personal information.
Cookies and local storage
The site may use browser storage to remember reactions, poll choices and interface preferences. The secure CMS uses an essential sign-in cookie for authorised team members.
Third-party services
This website may use Vercel for hosting and deployment, GitHub for source code, article files, version history and the publishing workflow, Cloudflare R2 for newly uploaded Media Library images and files, Backblaze B2 for encrypted private off-site backups of Cloudflare R2 media, Upstash Redis for interactive features, Resend for email delivery, Text.lk for contributor application acknowledgement SMS messages, Google Analytics for audience measurement, Sentry for limited website and server error diagnostics, Cloudflare Turnstile and related security services for bot and abuse prevention, Sightengine for featured-image AI detection, Tinify/TinyPNG for editorial image optimization, IndexNow for public URL discovery notifications, Google PageSpeed Insights for owner-only public-site diagnostics, Pexels for authorised editorial stock-photo search and import, and Openverse for openly licensed image discovery and import. Those providers may process limited information under their own privacy terms. A public overview is available on our Trust & Transparency page.
Error monitoring and diagnostics
Tech Satahan uses Sentry to identify website and server errors, investigate failures and improve service reliability. Error reports may include limited technical diagnostics such as an error message, stack trace, affected page or API action, browser or runtime details and request method. Default personal-information collection is disabled, and performance tracing and session replay are not enabled. Error diagnostic data may be processed through Sentry’s European infrastructure under its own privacy and retention terms.
Media storage and delivery
New images and files uploaded through the Tech Satahan Media Library are stored in Cloudflare R2 and delivered through media.techsatahan.com. Media uploaded before the R2 migration may continue to be served from GitHub-backed site assets so existing articles remain available. Media Library metadata may include the filename, file type, size, dimensions, alternative text, article usage, upload time, storage provider and R2 object key. When an authorised team member permanently deletes an eligible R2 media item, the corresponding object is removed from R2, although a previously cached copy may remain temporarily in a browser or content-delivery cache.
Off-site media backups
Tech Satahan creates private encrypted off-site copies of Cloudflare R2 Media Library objects in Backblaze B2 for disaster recovery and service continuity. The transfer runs through a restricted automated workflow using bucket-scoped credentials. Backblaze backup files are not publicly accessible. When a file is replaced, prior versions may be retained for up to 30 days before automatic removal. Deleting an item from primary R2 storage does not necessarily remove its existing off-site backup immediately; a backup copy may remain until backup maintenance or a valid deletion request removes it.
Contributor application profile photos
An optional profile photo is resized in the applicant’s browser and stored privately with the application. It is available only to authorised administrators through the secure Studio, where it can be viewed, downloaded or copied as an authenticated link. The photo is removed when the application is permanently deleted.
Contributor application SMS messages
When you submit a contributor application, your phone number and the acknowledgement message are securely sent from our server to Text.lk for SMS delivery. The message confirms receipt of the application and is not a marketing subscription. Text.lk may retain technical delivery records, such as the recipient number, message identifier, delivery state and request time, under its own privacy and retention terms. Future contribution-related contact may also use the phone number where reasonably necessary to process the application.
Scheduled publishing and cron monitoring
Tech Satahan uses cron-job.org and secured automated endpoints to check for articles that are due to be published. Cron requests may create technical delivery records such as request time, response status, IP address and service logs. The public Cron Status page reports service availability and does not publish contributor applications, team profile details or article drafts.
Featured-image AI detection
When an authorised team member selects a featured image from the Tech Satahan Media Library, that featured image alone may be submitted to Sightengine for automated AI-generation analysis. Article text, inline article images, gallery images, contributor applications and team profile photos are not sent through this check. The resulting score, operation count and image-file fingerprint may be stored with the article and Media Library metadata so the exact same image is not checked repeatedly. When the result meets the configured AI threshold, the public caption is automatically fixed as “AI generated image”.
Media optimization
When Tinify/TinyPNG is configured, a new PNG, JPEG or WebP file uploaded by an authorised Studio user may be sent from the Tech Satahan server to Tinify for compression before the optimized result is stored in the Media Library. The service receives the image file and technical request data needed to perform the compression. Article text, comments, contributor applications, private team profiles and authentication credentials are not submitted with the image. If the optimization service is unavailable or its allowance is exhausted, Tech Satahan keeps the original upload workflow available rather than blocking publication.
Pexels Media Finder
Authorised Studio users may search Pexels using editorial search terms and import a selected photo into the Tech Satahan Media Library. The search term is sent from our server to the Pexels API; the API key is not exposed to the browser. When a photo is imported, Tech Satahan may retain its Pexels photo identifier, photographer name, photographer profile URL, original source URL, licence URL, alternative text and import time. These details may be used to provide public image credit and maintain an editorial source record. Selecting a Pexels photo does not mean that the photographer endorses Tech Satahan or the article.
Openverse Media Finder
Authorised Studio users may send editorial search terms to the Openverse API and import a selected openly licensed or public-domain image into the Tech Satahan Media Library. Openverse search may operate anonymously or through optional server-side API credentials that are not exposed to the browser. When an image is imported, Tech Satahan may retain the Openverse identifier, title, creator name and profile URL, source collection, original landing page, original media URL, licence name and version, licence URL, attribution text, alternative text and import time. Openverse indexes works from third-party providers, so editors must still review the original source and licence before publication.
Public media archive
During a production deployment, Tech Satahan automatically rebuilds the public archive at media.techsatahan.com from published article metadata and uploads the archive index and catalogue to Cloudflare R2. The archive may include the public article title and URL, featured-image URL, alternative text, caption, credit, original credit URL, publication date, update date and storage label. Drafts, private Studio data, account information and unpublished article content are excluded.
IndexNow search notifications
When a public article is published, updated, removed or released by scheduled publishing, Tech Satahan may send the article’s canonical public URL to the IndexNow service so participating search engines can learn that the URL changed. Draft article URLs, Studio pages, API routes, contributor applications and private account information are not included. Submission is a discovery notification only and does not guarantee indexing, ranking or removal from a search engine.
Owner-only PageSpeed diagnostics
The Tech Satahan owner may request an on-demand Google PageSpeed Insights test for a public URL on the configured Tech Satahan hostname. The Studio blocks external domains and private /admin and /api routes. Google receives the public URL and technical request information and returns Lighthouse-based performance, accessibility, best-practice and SEO diagnostics. The detailed result is displayed in the owner’s Studio session; the private audit log may retain the tested URL, device strategy, date and category scores for security and operational accountability.
Data retention and removal
Information is retained only as needed to provide the relevant feature, maintain security or meet legal obligations. To request access, correction or removal, contact us using the details below.
Policy updates
This policy may be updated when the website or its services change. The latest version published on this page applies.