What Docket collects, why we collect it, and what you can switch off.
Last updated 16 September 2026
The short version
- ·You can read Docket without an account. Browsing, searching, and opening stories need no sign-in.
- ·We ask before we measure. Optional usage data is only collected if you say yes, and we ask on your very first visit, before anything is recorded.
- ·Saying no costs you nothing. Every feature works the same either way.
- ·We do not sell your data. No advertising networks, no data brokers, no cross-site tracking or profiles sold on.
- ·You can change your mind. Your answer lives under Profile → Privacy & data, and you can switch it at any time.
Who we are
Docket is an independent daily briefing on AI and the law, built for legal teams, students, and anyone following how the two are converging. We summarise and link to reporting from established publishers — we show a short excerpt and always send you to the original source. We are not the publisher of the articles we link to, and their own privacy policies apply once you click through.
This policy covers the Docket website and explains what we collect, why, and what you can turn off. It is a description of our own practices, not legal advice.
What we collect
We have deliberately kept this short. There are five categories, and only one of them is optional.
- ·1. What you give us when you create an account. Your email address, which we use to send you a one-time sign-in link — we never set a password, so we never store one. If you set a display name or an experience level (Quick read, Deep dive, For students), we store those too.
- ·2. What you do with your account. Stories you save, sources you follow, stories you have opened, and comments you post. This is the content of the product itself: it is what fills your Library and what shapes the recommendations on your home feed. Comments are visible to other readers; everything else in this list is visible only to you.
- ·3. What stays on your device. Your text-size setting, your recent searches, and your answer to the privacy question below are stored in your browser and never sent to us. Clearing your browser data removes them.
- ·4. Optional usage data — only if you agree. A short, fixed list of events — which screens get opened, which stories get read, saved, or shared, which sources get followed — so we can see what is working and what is not. It is stored in our own database rather than sent to an analytics company, and it is anonymous by construction: no account, no email, no IP address, and nothing you typed. The next section sets out exactly what a stored event contains. If you decline, none of it is collected, stored, or sent anywhere.
- ·5. Technical records we cannot switch off. Our hosting and database providers keep standard server logs — IP address, browser type, timestamps, errors — for a short period. These exist to keep the site running and to defend it against abuse. They are a security and reliability necessity rather than a choice, so they are not covered by the optional consent above.
What the usage data actually looks like
If you agreed to the optional usage data, this is the complete list of what gets recorded. There is nothing else: the events are fixed in the code, and anything not on this list is discarded before it is stored.
- ·Page view — the route you moved to, such as /search or /library.
- ·Story opened — the story’s category and which publication it came from.
- ·Story saved — whether you saved it or removed it.
- ·Story shared — whether you used your device’s share sheet or copied the link.
- ·Source followed — whether you followed or unfollowed.
- ·Search run — how many results came back and whether any did. Never the words you searched for.
Every event is tagged with a random ID created when you open Docket and destroyed when you close the tab. It is not your account ID, and it is not kept between visits, so two visits cannot be joined together into a history of you. We do not store your IP address alongside these events, and the table they live in is write-only to the website — it can be added to, but not read back out, except by us in aggregate.
If you change your answer to no, anything still waiting to be sent is thrown away, the random ID is destroyed immediately, and nothing further is recorded.
Why we use it
- ·To run the product you asked for — signing you in, remembering your saves and follows, showing your Library, posting your comments.
- ·To make the feed more relevant — your follows and saves nudge the "Latest" list towards the topics and sources you already care about.
- ·To improve Docket — but only with the optional usage data above, and only if you agreed to it.
- ·To keep the site up and secure — using the technical records above.
We do not use your data to train AI models, and we do not use it to build advertising profiles.
What we never do
- ·We never sell or rent your personal data.
- ·We never share it with advertising networks or data brokers.
- ·We never track you across other websites.
- ·We never record the text of your searches or your draft comments as usage data.
- ·We never ask you for sensitive information — health, political views, or details of your legal matters. Please do not put confidential or privileged client information into comments.
Who else handles your data
We use a small number of service providers to run Docket. They process data on our instructions and are not permitted to use it for their own purposes.
- ·Supabase — our database and sign-in system. Your account, saves, follows, and comments are stored there.
- ·Vercel — our hosting provider. It serves the site and keeps short-lived request logs.
- ·The publishers we link to — when you open a story at its source, you are on their site under their privacy policy, not ours.
We may also disclose data if we are legally required to, or where it is necessary to protect the site or its readers from abuse.
How long we keep it
- ·Account data — kept while your account exists. Delete your account and we delete it.
- ·Saves, follows, and view history — kept until you remove them or delete your account.
- ·Comments — kept until you delete them; deleting your account removes them too.
- ·Optional usage data — kept in our database for up to 12 months, then deleted. Because it is never tied to your identity, we cannot pick your own events out of it on request — switching the setting off stops any further collection instead.
- ·Server logs — kept for a short period by our providers, then rotated out.
Your choices and your rights
- ·Change your usage-data answer at any time — Profile → Privacy & data. Switching it off stops collection immediately and destroys the random session ID.
- ·See or correct what we hold — your saves, follows, comments, and settings are all visible in the app; contact us for anything else.
- ·Delete your account and its data — contact us and we will remove it.
- ·Take your data with you — ask and we will export it in a machine-readable format.
- ·Object or complain — depending on where you live, laws such as the GDPR, the UK GDPR, or state privacy laws in the US may give you additional rights, including the right to complain to your local data protection authority. We will honour those requests regardless of where you are.
Cookies and local storage
If you sign in, we set a cookie that keeps you signed in. It is strictly necessary for the product to work and cannot be switched off without signing out. We use your browser’s local storage for the on-device settings described above — your text size, recent searches, and your privacy answer. If you opted into usage data, the random session ID is kept in your browser’s session storage, which the browser clears when you close the tab. We do not use advertising or cross-site tracking cookies.
Children
Docket is written for a professional and student audience and is not directed at children under 16. We do not knowingly collect their data; if you believe a child has created an account, contact us and we will remove it.
Changes to this policy
If we change what we collect in a way that widens it, we will ask you again rather than assume your previous answer still stands — the prompt reappears and your consent starts from "no" until you say otherwise. Smaller wording changes will simply update the date at the top.