Privacy Policy

01Who we are

darkMatter (“we”) publishes this site and operates the newsletter described below. For data-protection purposes the controller is Dark Matter Bio LLC, a Wyoming limited liability company, 1309 Coffeen Avenue, STE 1200, Sheridan, WY 82801, United States, reachable at privacy@darkmatter.bio.

We are not currently offering, selling or taking payment for any sequencing service. We do not collect, hold or process genetic data, samples or health records through this site.

02What we collect

Two things, and only when you provide them:

• Your email address, when you subscribe to the newsletter, together with the date and time, the page you subscribed from, your IP address, and the version of the consent wording shown to you. Those extra fields exist so we can prove your consent was freely given.
• The name, email address and message you send through the contact form, used only to reply to you.

If you consent to analytics cookies, we also receive standard measurement data: pages viewed, approximate location derived from a truncated IP address, referring site, device and browser type. This is described in the cookies section below.

03Why we may use it, and on what basis

We rely on your consent (Article 6(1)(a) UK/EU GDPR) to send you the newsletter and to set analytics cookies. You may withdraw either at any time, and withdrawing is as easy as giving it.

We rely on our legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f)) to answer a message you send us, to keep the site secure, and to prevent abuse of our forms.

We do not use your data for automated decision-making or profiling, and we do not use it to build advertising audiences.

04The newsletter

Subscription is double opt-in: after you submit your address we email you a single-use confirmation link, valid for 24 hours. If you do not click it, the address is deleted within 30 days and you receive nothing further.

Every email includes a one-click unsubscribe link and supports one-click unsubscribe from your mail client. Unsubscribing takes effect immediately; we keep a suppression record of the address so we do not accidentally re-add you.

05Cookies and analytics

We set a strictly necessary cookie to remember your cookie choices. It contains no personal identifier and cannot be switched off, as the site cannot honour your preference without it.

With your consent we use Google Analytics 4 to understand which pieces are read. IP anonymisation is enabled and advertising features and data sharing are switched off. No analytics script loads before you consent, and declining changes nothing about how the site works for you.

You can change or withdraw your choice at any time through “Cookie settings” in the footer. In full: the site itself sets no cookies. Your choice is kept in your browser’s local storage under the name dm.consent, not in a cookie. It records whether you accepted analytics, the version of this list and when you chose, and it is never sent to us. We ask again after 12 months, or sooner if this list changes. Google Analytics is not currently switched on, so no analytics cookies are set.

06Who we share it with

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioural advertising. We use a small number of processors who act only on our instructions under a data-processing agreement:

• Stalwart Mail Server — sending and delivery of the newsletter and transactional email, on a server hosted by Hetzner Online GmbH in Germany
• DigitalOcean — serving the site and running the form endpoint
• Google — analytics measurement, only with your consent

Some of these providers are based outside the UK and EEA. Where that is the case, transfers rely on the UK International Data Transfer Addendum and the EU Standard Contractual Clauses. We may also disclose data where we are legally required to.

07How long we keep it

Subscriber addresses and their consent records are kept while you are subscribed and for 24 months after you unsubscribe, so we can evidence that consent existed and honour your suppression. Unconfirmed addresses are deleted within 30 days.

Contact-form messages are kept for 24 months after the conversation ends. Analytics data is retained for 14 months.

08Your rights

Depending on where you live, you have some or all of the following rights. Exercising them is free, and we will not treat you differently for doing so.

• Access a copy of the personal data we hold about you
• Have inaccurate data corrected
• Have your data deleted — for the newsletter this is immediate on request
• Restrict or object to processing, including a right to opt out of “sale” or “sharing”, neither of which we do
• Receive your data in a portable format
• Withdraw consent at any time, without affecting processing that already happened
• Complain to a regulator: the ICO in the UK, your national authority in the EU, or the California Privacy Protection Agency

09Security

The site is served over HTTPS. Access to the subscriber list is limited to people who need it and protected by two-factor authentication. Form submissions are validated server-side and rate-limited. API credentials are held server-side and never exposed to the browser.

No system is perfect. If we ever discover a breach affecting your data, we will notify the relevant regulator within 72 hours and tell you directly where the law requires it.

10Children

This site is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 16. If you believe a child has subscribed, write to privacy@darkmatter.bio and we will delete the record.

11Changes

When we change this policy we update the version and date at the top. If a change materially affects how we use your data, we will tell subscribers by email before it takes effect and, where the law requires, ask for consent again.

Questions

Write to privacy@darkmatter.bio. We answer data requests within one month, as the regulation requires.