Privacy Policy

Dear Yesterday is a personal history newsletter (“we,” “us,” “our”). We take your privacy seriously and want you to understand exactly what information we collect, why we collect it, and how we protect it.

This policy applies to the Dear Yesterday website at dearyesterday.co and the weekly newsletter delivered by email.

What We Collect

When you sign up for Dear Yesterday, we ask for:

• Your first name and email address — so we can send your newsletter and address you personally.
• Your date of birth — used to calculate your precise current age, which is the core mechanic of the product.
• A target person’s name and date of birth — this may be a loved one (e.g. a parent or grandparent), a historical figure selected from our presets, or your own date of birth again if you choose “Relive” mode. This information is used solely to calculate the equivalent historical date for your newsletter.
• Your preferred send day — so we deliver on the day of the week you choose.

We may also collect basic technical information automatically:

• Analytics data — We use Vercel Analytics to understand how visitors interact with our website. This includes page views, referral sources, and general device and browser information. Vercel Analytics is privacy-focused and does not use cookies for tracking.
• Email engagement — Our email delivery provider (Resend) reports whether emails were delivered, opened, or clicked. We use this to monitor deliverability and improve the newsletter.

A Note on Third-Party Dates of Birth

If you choose to enter a loved one’s date of birth, we want to be transparent about how that information is handled. We use it for one purpose only: to calculate the historical date that corresponds to your current age applied to their life. We do not contact that person, share their date of birth with anyone else, or use it for any purpose beyond generating your newsletter content. If you request data deletion, this information is removed along with all your other data. Unsubscribing marks your subscription as inactive — we keep a minimal record (your email and unsubscribe date) so we don’t accidentally re-add you in the future.

How We Use Your Information

• To generate and deliver your personalized weekly newsletter
• To calculate historical equivalent dates for your content
• To communicate with you about your subscription (e.g. confirming signup)
• To monitor and improve the service (deliverability, content quality)

We do not sell, rent, or share your personal information with third parties for marketing purposes. Full stop.

Service Providers

We use a small number of trusted services to operate Dear Yesterday:

• Supabase — Database hosting (stores your account and subscription data)
• Resend — Email delivery
• Vercel — Website hosting and analytics
• Cloudflare — DNS and email routing
• Anthropic (Claude) — AI content generation for newsletter narratives. Your personal information is not sent to the AI model; only historical facts and dates are used in content generation.

Each of these providers has their own privacy policies and data protection practices. We select providers that maintain strong security standards.

Cookies & Tracking

We keep cookies to a minimum. Our analytics provider (Vercel Analytics) is cookie-free. Your browser may store standard technical cookies required for the website to function, but we do not use advertising cookies, retargeting pixels, or third-party trackers.

Sponsored Content & Affiliate Links

Our newsletters may occasionally include sponsored content or affiliate links. These help keep Dear Yesterday free. When present, they are clearly identified. We only feature products and services we believe are genuinely relevant to our readers. For more details, see our Sponsorship & Affiliate Disclosure.

Data Retention

We retain your data for as long as your subscription is active. If you unsubscribe, we mark your account as inactive and keep a minimal record (your email and unsubscribe date) so we don’t accidentally re-add you in the future. You may request full deletion of your data at any time by emailing us.

Your Rights

You can, at any time:

• Unsubscribe — Every newsletter includes a one-click unsubscribe link.
• Request your data — Email us and we will provide a copy of all personal data we hold about you.
• Request deletion — Email us and we will permanently delete your account and all associated data.
• Correct your information — If anything is wrong, let us know and we will fix it.

If you are located in the European Economic Area, you have additional rights under the GDPR, including the right to data portability and the right to lodge a complaint with your local supervisory authority.

If you are a California resident, you have rights under the CCPA including the right to know what personal information is collected, request deletion, and opt out of the sale of personal information. We do not sell personal information.

Children’s Privacy

Dear Yesterday is not intended for children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under the age of 13. If we learn that we have collected data from a child under 13, we will delete it promptly.

Security

We use industry-standard security practices to protect your data, including encrypted connections (HTTPS), secure database hosting with row-level security, and limited access to production systems. No system is perfectly secure, but we take reasonable measures to protect the information you entrust to us.

CAN-SPAM Compliance

In accordance with the CAN-SPAM Act, every newsletter we send includes our physical mailing address and a clear, functional unsubscribe mechanism. Unsubscribe requests are honored immediately.

Our mailing address is:

Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy from time to time. If we make material changes, we will notify subscribers by email. The “last updated” date at the top of this page reflects the most recent revision.

Contact Us

If you have questions about this privacy policy or your personal data, email us at hello@dearyesterday.co, or write to us at: