Laughing Squid Privacy Policy

Last updated: October 28, 2026

This Privacy Policy explains what information Laughing Squid LLC (“Laughing Squid,” “we,” “us”) collects when you visit laughingsquid.com (the “Site”) or subscribe to our newsletter, how we use it, who we share it with, and the choices you have. Other websites and services we operate may have their own policies.

Who we are

The Site is operated by Laughing Squid LLC, based in New York, New York, USA. For any question about this policy or your information, email us at privacy@laughingsquid.com.

Information we collect

Information you give us

Your email address, if you sign up for our newsletter.
Your name, email address, and anything else you include, if you email us or contact us through the Site.

Information collected automatically

When you visit the Site, we and our partners automatically collect information through cookies, pixels, scripts, and similar technologies, including:

Device and browser information, such as browser type, operating system, screen size, and language.
Your IP address and the approximate location derived from it (such as city, region, or country).
Online identifiers, such as cookie IDs and advertising IDs.
Usage information, such as the pages you view, how long you stay, links you click, the site that referred you, and how you interact with ads.
Inferences about your likely interests, drawn from this information and used to choose which ads you see.

We do not ask for, and do not knowingly collect, sensitive personal information such as precise geolocation, government ID numbers, financial account details, or health information.

How we use information

To run, maintain, secure, and improve the Site.
To show advertising, including ads based on your interests, which is how we pay for the Site.
To understand how visitors use the Site and which stories they read.
To send our newsletter to people who sign up for it.
To reply to messages you send us.
To earn commissions through affiliate links.
To prevent fraud and abuse, and to comply with legal obligations.

Advertising

CMI Marketing, Inc., d/b/a Raptive (“Raptive”) is a service provider of this Site for the purposes of placing advertising on the Site, and Raptive will collect and use certain data for advertising purposes. To learn more about Raptive’s data usage, click here: https://raptive.com/creator-advertising-privacy-statement

Ads on the Site are delivered through Raptive and its advertising partners, which may include ad exchanges, demand-side platforms, ad servers, video players, and measurement and identity companies. These companies use cookies and similar technologies to collect the automatically collected information described above, so they can show ads, limit how often you see the same ad, measure ad performance, and show ads related to your interests on this and other websites.

Raptive also uses a cookie named _rcid, which is set on the laughingsquid.com domain by a service that runs on our Cloudflare account. The cookie contains a random identifier, your IP address, and the date it was set. It lasts up to 400 days, and each time you return the 400 days start over. Raptive uses it to recognize your browser when you come back, which keeps its advertising identifiers working longer in browsers that limit other cookies, such as Safari. These identifiers can include one based on a hashed (scrambled) version of an email address you’ve provided elsewhere.

To learn more about interest-based advertising, or to opt out with participating companies, visit the Network Advertising Initiative (https://thenai.org/how-to-opt-out/) or the Digital Advertising Alliance (https://optout.aboutads.info). Opting out doesn’t stop ads from appearing; it means the ads you see will be less tailored to you.

Analytics and audience measurement

Google Analytics. We use Google Analytics 4, placed on the Site through the Site Kit by Google plugin, to understand how visitors use the Site, such as which pages are popular and how people find us. For visitors in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland, Google Analytics is generally set so that it does not store analytics cookies unless you accept them in the consent interface described in “Cookies and your choices”. Until you accept, it may still send Google limited measurement data that does not use cookies. Google Analytics uses cookies and processes usage information, device information, and information derived from IP addresses.

Google’s privacy policy is at https://policies.google.com/privacy, and you can learn how Google uses information from sites that use its services at https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites. You can opt out of Google Analytics with Google’s browser add-on at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

WordPress.com and Jetpack Stats. The Site runs on WordPress VIP, operated by Automattic Inc., which records details of each visit, such as your IP address, browser, the page you visited, the referring page, and your country, to provide us with traffic reports. Automattic keeps these logs for 28 days. Automattic’s privacy policy is at https://automattic.com/privacy/.

Audience measurement. Comscore and Nielsen, audience measurement partners in Raptive’s ad code, measure audience size and ad reach on the Site using cookies and similar technologies. You can learn about their practices and choices at https://www.scorecardresearch.com/privacy.aspx and https://www.nielsen.com/legal/privacy-principles/digital-measurement-privacy-statement/.

Affiliate links

Some posts contain affiliate links, including links through the Amazon Associates program, Meh, and Archie McPhee. If you click one and make a purchase, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. These programs use cookies to track that your purchase came from the Site. See our Affiliate Disclosure at https://laughingsquid.com/affiliate-disclosure/.

Our free newsletter is sent through beehiiv. If you subscribe, your email address is stored with beehiiv, which also records email opens and link clicks so we can understand newsletter performance.

During signup, beehiiv offers recommendations for other newsletters, which you may choose to subscribe to. We use beehiiv’s referral and Boosts features, and our newsletter may include sponsorships and advertising. We do not provide subscriber email addresses directly to advertisers or sponsors outside beehiiv’s normal advertising features.

You can unsubscribe anytime using the link at the bottom of any newsletter. beehiiv’s privacy policy is at https://www.beehiiv.com/privacy.

Many posts include videos and other content embedded from services such as YouTube, Vimeo, Instagram, Threads, TikTok, Tumblr, SoundCloud, and Getty Images, as well as social sharing buttons. When a page with this content loads, those services may collect information about you, set cookies, and track your interaction with the embedded content, just as if you visited their sites directly. Author images are loaded from Gravatar, operated by Automattic. Their use of your information is covered by their own privacy policies.

Service providers

We share information with companies that help us run the Site and our business, including WordPress VIP and Automattic (hosting, contact forms, and site statistics), Cloudflare (domain registration and DNS, and running the service described under “Advertising” that sets Raptive’s _rcid cookie, which processes visitors’ IP addresses), beehiiv (newsletter and related features), Google (Gmail and analytics), Asana (editorial and contact-message workflow), and the advertising and audience-measurement companies described above. Messages sent through our contact form are stored in Jetpack Forms and may also be forwarded to Gmail or included in Asana tasks for follow-up.

We may also disclose information when required by law, to protect our rights or the safety of others, or as part of a merger, sale, or transfer of our business.

Cookies and your choices

Browser settings. Most browsers let you block or delete cookies. If you do, some parts of the Site may not work as intended.
“Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information.” In the United States, use the “Do not sell or share my personal information” link at the bottom of every page to opt out of the sale or sharing of your information for targeted advertising.
Global Privacy Control. We treat a Global Privacy Control (GPC) signal from your browser as a request to opt out of the sale or sharing of your information for targeted advertising on this browser.
Do Not Track. The Site does not respond to the older “Do Not Track” (DNT) browser setting, because there is no common standard for it. This does not affect how we treat GPC signals.
Visitors in Europe and the UK. If you visit from the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland, Raptive displays a consent interface for its advertising technologies. You can accept, reject, or customize those advertising choices and, where available, change them through the Site’s privacy-preferences link. Google Analytics generally does not store analytics cookies unless you accept them there. Jetpack Stats and our beehiiv newsletter signup form are not controlled by that interface and load for all visitors.

Your privacy rights in the United States

Depending on the state you live in (including California, Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia, and other states with consumer privacy laws), you may have the right to:

Know what personal information we have collected about you, and access a copy of it.
Correct inaccurate personal information.
Delete personal information we have collected from you.
Opt out of the sale or sharing of your personal information, and of its use for targeted advertising.
Appeal our decision if we deny your request.

To opt out of sale, sharing, or targeted advertising, use the “Do not sell or share my personal information” link at the bottom of any page, or turn on Global Privacy Control in your browser.

To make any other request, email privacy@laughingsquid.com with the subject “Privacy request” and tell us your state and what you are asking for. Because we generally don’t know visitors’ names, we may ask for information that lets us connect your request to the data we hold, such as the email address you used for the newsletter. You may use an authorized agent to make a request on your behalf; we may ask the agent for proof that you authorized them.

We will respond within 45 days, or tell you if we need more time as the law allows. To appeal a decision, email privacy@laughingsquid.com with the subject “Privacy appeal.” We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of these rights.

Notice to California residents

In the past 12 months, we have collected the following categories of personal information, from you directly and automatically from your device, for the purposes described in “How we use information”:

Identifiers, such as IP address, cookie and advertising IDs, and email address (if you subscribe or contact us).
Internet or other electronic network activity, such as pages viewed and interactions with the Site and ads.
Approximate geolocation derived from your IP address.
Inferences drawn from the information above, such as likely interests.

We disclose relevant categories to service providers that help us run the Site, including WordPress VIP/Automattic, Cloudflare, beehiiv, Google, and Asana, as appropriate to their services, and to the advertising and audience-measurement partners described above where applicable. We do not have separate direct audience-data-sharing arrangements beyond the services described in this policy.

Under California law, allowing advertising and measurement partners to collect identifiers, internet activity, approximate location, and inferences through the Site may be considered a “sale” or “sharing” of personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising. You can opt out as described above. We do not collect or use sensitive personal information to infer characteristics about you, and we do not knowingly sell or share the personal information of anyone under 16.

Visitors in the European Economic Area, United Kingdom, and Switzerland

Laughing Squid LLC is the controller of the personal information described in this policy. For advertising technology operated through Raptive, and for Google Analytics, we seek your consent where required. Jetpack Stats and our beehiiv newsletter signup form are not controlled by Raptive’s consent interface and load for all visitors. We rely on our legitimate interests to operate and secure the Site and on your consent to send you our newsletter.

You have the right to access, correct, delete, restrict, or object to our processing of your personal information, to receive a copy of it, and to withdraw consent at any time (without affecting processing that already happened). To exercise these rights, email privacy@laughingsquid.com. You also have the right to complain to your local data protection authority.

We are based in the United States, and your information is processed there and in other countries where our service providers operate, which may not offer the same level of protection as your home country.

Visitors in Brazil

If you are in Brazil, Brazil’s General Data Protection Law (Lei Geral de Proteção de Dados, or LGPD) applies to our processing of your personal information. We process it only when we have a legal basis under the LGPD, such as your consent, our legitimate interests, or compliance with a legal obligation, for the purposes described in “How we use information”.

You have the right to ask us to confirm whether we process your personal information; to access it; to correct incomplete, inaccurate, or outdated information; to anonymize, block, or delete information that is unnecessary, excessive, or processed in violation of the LGPD; to port it to another provider; to delete information we process with your consent; to know which public and private entities we share it with; and to be told that you may refuse consent and what happens if you do. You may also withdraw your consent at any time, and object to processing that is not based on consent if it does not comply with the LGPD.

To exercise these rights, email privacy@laughingsquid.com. Requests are free. If we can’t act on a request right away, we will tell you why. You also have the right to file a complaint with Brazil’s National Data Protection Authority (ANPD).

Your personal information is processed in the United States and in other countries where our service providers operate.

Visitors in Canada

If you are in Canada, we and our advertising partners use cookies and similar technologies for interest-based advertising as described in “Advertising” and “Cookies and your choices”. You can opt out of interest-based advertising through the industry opt-out tools listed in “Advertising”, or by blocking or deleting cookies in your browser. To access or correct the personal information we hold about you, or to withdraw your consent, email privacy@laughingsquid.com. You also have the right to complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada or, if you live in Quebec, the Commission d’accès à l’information du Québec.

Children

The Site is a general-audience site and is not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has given us personal information, email privacy@laughingsquid.com and we will delete it.

How long we keep information

Newsletter subscription and unsubscribe records are managed by beehiiv under its standard practices. Unsubscribing stops newsletter delivery but does not necessarily erase all related records.

Messages sent through our contact form are stored in Jetpack Forms, and copies may also be kept in Gmail or Asana. We generally archive those records rather than delete them on a fixed schedule, retaining them for correspondence history, editorial follow-up, and business or legal recordkeeping as appropriate.

Analytics and advertising providers retain information according to their policies and applicable account settings. You may request deletion by emailing privacy@laughingsquid.com, subject to applicable rights and recordkeeping obligations.

Security

We use reasonable measures to protect the information we hold, but no website or internet transmission is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee the security of information you send us.

Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will change the “Last updated” date at the top of this page. If we make significant changes, we may also tell you through a notice on the Site or in our newsletter.

Contact us

Laughing Squid LLC
New York, New York, USA
Privacy requests: privacy@laughingsquid.com
Other questions: https://laughingsquid.com/contact/