This policy explains what personal data The New Economist collects, why, and what you can do about it. It is written to be read rather than to be survived.
The short version
You can read this site without giving us anything. We use analytics to count visits and, in future, advertising to pay for the work — both of those set cookies, and neither runs until you agree to it. We do not sell your data. You can ask us what we hold and tell us to delete it.
Who is responsible
The New Economist is the data controller for personal data collected through this website, within the meaning of the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018. For anything in this policy, including requests about your data, write to editor@neweconomist.co.uk.
What we collect, and why
- Server logs. Our host records your IP address, browser type and the pages requested. This is ordinary web server operation and is used to keep the site running and to investigate abuse. The legal basis is our legitimate interest in operating a secure website. Logs are held by your hosting provider.
- Analytics. We use Google Analytics to count visits, see which pages are read and understand roughly where readers come from. This sets cookies and shares data with Google. The legal basis is your consent, and it does not run unless you give it.
- Advertising. Where advertising is running, ad networks set cookies to limit repetition, measure performance and, if you allow it, personalise what you are shown. The legal basis is your consent.
- Anything you send us. If you email a correction or a question, we keep the message so we can deal with it and, where it results in a published correction, so we have a record of why the correction was made.
We do not run comments, we do not ask you to register, and we do not build reader profiles.
Cookies and consent
Cookies are small files stored by your browser. A few are strictly necessary to deliver the site and are set regardless, as UK law permits. Everything else — analytics and advertising — is set only after you consent, in line with the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations.
You are asked once, on your first visit. Declining costs you nothing: the site works identically either way. You can change your answer at any time through the cookie settings link, and you can clear or block cookies through your browser settings independently of anything we do.
Advertising in detail
This site is not currently running advertising. When it does, advertising will be served by Google AdSense, Google will act as a third party and will set its own cookies, and this section will apply from that point. Nothing described in this section is happening yet.
- Google uses cookies to serve advertising based on your visits to this and other sites.
- You can turn off personalised advertising from Google in your Google Ad Settings. You will still see advertising; it will simply be less targeted.
- To opt out of personalised advertising more broadly, see Your Online Choices, which covers participating networks across the UK and EU.
- How Google handles data from sites that use its services is described in Google’s partner sites policy.
Who else sees your data
We do not sell personal data and we do not share it for anyone else’s marketing. Data reaches third parties only where they provide a service we use: our host, Google for analytics and advertising, and our email provider where you have subscribed. Each acts under its own terms and its own privacy policy.
We may disclose data where the law requires it, or to establish or defend a legal claim.
Transfers outside the UK
Some of these providers process data outside the United Kingdom, including in the United States. Where that happens, transfers rely on the safeguards permitted under UK data protection law — an adequacy decision, or the International Data Transfer Agreement and its addendum to the standard contractual clauses.
How long we keep things
- Server logs: typically a few weeks, at our host’s standard retention.
- Analytics data: retained by Google under the retention period set on the property, and held in aggregate thereafter.
- Newsletter subscriptions: until you unsubscribe, after which your address is removed.
- Correspondence: kept while it is relevant, and longer where it documents a published correction.
Your rights
Under UK data protection law you can ask us to give you a copy of the personal data we hold about you, correct it if it is wrong, delete it, restrict what we do with it, or provide it in a portable format. You can object to processing based on legitimate interests, and you can withdraw consent at any time — withdrawing it does not affect anything done beforehand.
Write to editor@neweconomist.co.uk and we will respond within one month. There is no charge.
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your data you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk, or on 0303 123 1113. We would rather you raised it with us first, but you are not obliged to.
Children
This site is written for adults and is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 13. If you believe we have, tell us and we will delete it.
Changes to this policy
When this policy changes materially — a new processor, a new category of data — the change and its date are noted here. Minor wording fixes are made without a note.
Last reviewed August 2026.