Privacy — TaxKiln's data charter
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TaxKiln operates on a single principle: we collect nothing about you that we don't structurally need to operate the site. No cookies. No tracking pixels. No email capture. No retargeting. The free and ungated content isn't a loss-leader for a funnel, it IS the model. Below is the complete privacy posture, in plain English. Every claim is verifiable: open your browser's network tab while reading this page and you'll see our own first-party beacon and nothing else.
The promise
We collect nothing about you we don't structurally need. This isn't aspiration, it's verifiable. Every analytics request, every third-party domain TaxKiln loads, every cookie set is visible in your browser's network tab. We commit to keeping that list short and auditable.
What Kiln Analytics is
We use Kiln Analytics, our own cookieless first-party software. No IP stored, no personal data, no third-party trackers. It counts visits, not people, and honours Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control. - Our own software. The numbers are stored in our own database. Nothing is sent to a third party. - Cookieless. It sets no cookies and saves nothing on your device. There is no localStorage and no fingerprint. - Aggregate only. It records totals: which pages were viewed, what was downloaded, which tools were used. It cannot build a profile of you. - Respectful by default. If your browser sends Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control, the beacon switches itself off and records nothing. - A replacement for Google Analytics and similar trackers, so our pages load faster and your data stays with us.
What Kiln Analytics is not, and does not do
- No cookies, so no cookie-consent banner. - No third-party trackers. No Google Analytics, no advertising pixels, no ad networks. - No IP address stored. (Every web request shows an IP to whatever serves the page, at the network layer. We simply never record or keep it.) - No visitor ID, no device ID and no fingerprinting. It cannot follow you from page to page as a person, or from one visit to the next. - No selling, sharing or sending your data anywhere. There is nothing personal to sell. - It never sees or stores anything you type: not form contents, not names, not email addresses.
Exactly what it records
- The page visited (the path, for example /guides/late-payment). - The referring site's host only (for example chatgpt.com or google.com). Never the full link and never your search terms. - Whether a file was downloaded or a tool was used (the file name or tool name). - The date and time. - Nothing else.
Why there is no cookie banner
Because Kiln Analytics stores nothing on your device and holds no personal data, we do not show a cookie-consent banner. This is the same basis used by privacy-first tools such as Plausible and Fathom, and it is intended to meet UK PECR, the UK and EU GDPR, and South Africa's POPIA.
What we don't have at all
TaxKiln does not have any of: email capture forms, newsletter signup, 'subscribe for updates' invitations, lead-gen forms, retargeting pixels (no Meta Pixel, no LinkedIn Pixel, no Google Ads tag), affiliate trackers, A/B test variant cookies, session recording (no Hotjar, no FullStory, no Mouseflow), chatbot trackers, behavioural advertising tags, or third-party advertising networks. Compare to most UK tax sites which carry 20 to 40 third-party connections per page load. TaxKiln carries zero.
What we therefore can't do
Sell your data (we don't have it). Email you (we don't capture it). Retarget you across the web (no pixels deployed). Profile you (no cookies, no persistent identifiers, no PII). Sell access to your reading behaviour (none collected). Track your conversion path (no funnel exists). Build advertising audiences (no audience data collected). Share your behaviour with third parties (no behavioural data exists to share). These aren't policy commitments that could change with new ownership, they're structural absences. The data doesn't exist.
Compare to typical UK tax sites
Most UK tax content sites load 20 to 40 third-party connections per page: Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Google Ads, Meta Pixel, LinkedIn Insight Tag, HubSpot tracking, Hotjar session recording, Salesforce Pardot, Mailchimp, and various affiliate networks. TaxKiln loads zero third-party tracking connections. You can verify this yourself by opening your browser's developer tools, switching to the Network tab, refreshing the page, and filtering by third-party domain. If we ever add any, we'll update this page and the footer.
GDPR position
TaxKiln does not process personal data under GDPR Article 4(1). Aggregate analytics with no PII collection means no data subjects are identifiable from TaxKiln's records. We have no DPIA requirement because we have no high-risk processing. No DPO requirement because we have no large-scale processing of personal data. Reader rights under GDPR Articles 15 to 22 (access, rectification, erasure, restriction, portability, objection, automated-decision) are theoretically available but we genuinely have no PII tied to your reading activity to action.
Sponsorship transparency
TaxKiln carries sponsor placements on some pages (clearly labelled 'Sponsored' or 'Sponsored by [Brand]'). Sponsorship does NOT change the privacy posture. Sponsors don't get reader data, behavioural data, or anything else from TaxKiln. Sponsors pay for placement, not for audience data. See [/why/sponsorship-policy](/why/sponsorship-policy) and [/sponsor](/sponsor) for the full rate card and vetting framework.
Verify it yourself in 60 seconds in your browser
1. Open your browser's developer tools (F12 in Chrome / Firefox; Cmd+Option+I in Safari). 2. Switch to the Network tab. 3. Refresh this page. 4. Filter by domain or look for third-party requests. You'll see only first-party requests to TaxKiln and our own analytics endpoint. No third-party tracking domains. Optionally install Privacy Badger or uBlock Origin, they should detect zero trackers on TaxKiln. If you find anything we haven't disclosed, email us and we'll update this page.
Why we operate this way
TaxKiln's hero is 'We're here for the businesses that actually pay.' Being on the reader's side means not extracting from them at any layer. Free + ungated content isn't a loss-leader — it IS the model. The sponsorship rate card publicly displayed on /sponsor + the absence of email capture + the absence of tracking = the three structural commitments that make 'free tax information where you aren't the product' a verifiable claim rather than marketing copy. Other UK tax sites are structurally unable to match this — their business models require lead-gen, conversion optimization, or affiliate revenue. TaxKiln's structural absences are the moat.
If we ever add a new third-party tool — analytics or otherwise — this page is updated the same day, and the footer strap is updated alongside it. The verifiable-claim posture only works if we keep it honest.
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