The short version
northstar is a free, curated library of books, case studies, and playlists. We collect the bare minimum needed to make the site work, never sell anything to anyone, and you can read everything here without an account.
What we collect
If you create an account: your email, your chosen display name, and a hashed password. We use this to let you save and like resources across devices, and to email you password resets.
If you subscribe to the newsletter via the embedded form: that signup goes directly to Substack, not to us. Substack's privacy policy applies there.
We record the timestamp of your most recent login so we can tell, in aggregate, how the site is being used. Nothing granular, just a single “last seen” date per account.
Analytics
We use Vercel Analytics, which is privacy-preserving by design: no cookies, no cross-site tracking, no personally identifying data. It tells us aggregate page views and anonymous events (e.g. “how many people clicked share”) so we know what content is useful. We can't tie any of this back to you as an individual.
Cookies
A single cookie: an authentication token, set only after you log in. It expires automatically and is removed when you log out. No marketing cookies, no third-party trackers.
Affiliate links
Book pages include Amazon affiliate links. If you buy something through one, Amazon pays us a small commission at no extra cost to you. We don't share any information about you with Amazon, they only know that the click came from pmnorthstar.in. Affiliate revenue funds the site so it can stay free and paywall-less.
What we never do
We never sell your data. We never share your email with third parties. We don't run advertising. We don't use fingerprinting or session-replay tools. We don't share what you save or like with anyone else.
Your rights
You can delete your account at any time, which removes your email, name, password hash, saved items, and likes from our database. To do this, contact us via the channels on the About page.
Changes to this policy
If we change this policy meaningfully we'll update the date at the top and, if you have an account, send you an email.