Version 2026-08-04
This site is a personal research and advisory site. There are two places where you actively submit personal data: the advisory enquiry form on /advisory/, and the newsletter subscription box on /writing/. Those two flows are what this notice describes in detail.
Separately from anything you type in, ordinary technical data is processed as you use the site. That is described under Technical data below. This notice does not claim that no tracking, cookies, or technical data occur.
Who decides what happens to your data
Sinclair (Po-Sung) Huang is the controller for both flows: he decides why and how advisory enquiry data and publication subscriber data are used, and he manages both.
Formspree and Substack act as service providers on his behalf — Formspree processes the enquiry form submissions, and Substack hosts the publication’s subscriber list and delivers its posts. He administers both through their publisher/dashboard tools.
Those platforms also process data for their own purposes — running your account with them, security, abuse prevention, technical logs, and general platform functionality — under their own privacy policies and terms. That separate processing is theirs, not his, and this notice cannot speak for it.
Your rights, and where to ask
For the personal data he holds about you, you may ask Sinclair to:
- confirm and let you review what is held;
- provide you with a copy;
- supplement or correct it;
- stop collecting, processing, or using it;
- delete it.
Write to research@sinclairhuang.org first. That is the contact point for all three sets of data he controls: enquiry submissions held at Formspree, the copies delivered to his email, and the subscriber list of his Substack publication. He acts on those requests directly through his Formspree and Substack dashboards.
A separate request to a platform is only needed for data that platform keeps for its own account, security, compliance, or platform purposes. If that turns out to apply to your request, he will tell you and point you to the right route.
Advisory enquiries
What is collected. Your name, email address, a description of the question or situation you are writing about, and — if you choose to provide them — your company and expected timeline. The form also records that you gave the required consent, which page the enquiry was sent from, and the version of this notice in force at the time.
What it is used for. Replying to you, and assessing whether an engagement is appropriate. Nothing else. Sinclair does not sell the data he receives, and does not use it for advertising or cross-site profiling.
An enquiry does not subscribe you to anything. Sending the form never adds you to the newsletter. There is no hidden or pre-ticked subscription field. If you also want the newsletter, subscribe separately on /writing/.
How long it is kept. Enquiry data is retained for at most 12 months after the last substantive contact, then deleted. Formspree’s dashboard holds submissions for 30 days on the current plan; copies forwarded to email are cleaned under the same 12-month policy. If an enquiry leads to a formal engagement, the records necessary for that engagement are kept for as long as contractual, accounting, and legal obligations require.
If you would rather not use the form. The name, email, question, and consent fields are required, so the form cannot be submitted without them. You can instead write to research@sinclairhuang.org or reach him on LinkedIn. Once such a message reaches him it is treated the same way as a form enquiry — used only to reply and to assess a possible engagement, under the same 12-month retention policy and the same exception for formal engagement records. The email and LinkedIn platforms themselves process your message under their own policies.
Please do not send in this form: trade secrets or confidential material, national identification numbers, medical or financial records, or personal data about other people. If your question depends on such material, say so in general terms and a suitable channel can be agreed first.
Newsletter subscription
The subscription box on this site is Substack’s own embedded form, and the publication’s list lives in Substack. Sinclair runs that publication and can see and manage its subscriber data in the Substack publisher dashboard: your email address, any name Substack makes available, your subscription status, and the subscription and activity data Substack reports to publishers.
What it is used for. Sending and managing this publication, and honouring your subscription choices. It is not used for unrelated marketing, and not for cross-site profiling.
Confirmation is required before posts are sent. Substack stores the address you enter in order to send you a confirmation email; newsletter posts only begin once you confirm. Until then, no issues are sent to you.
Retention, unsubscribing, and deletion. While your subscription is active, your subscriber data is held in Substack. Every issue carries an unsubscribe link, which stops future newsletter delivery — but unsubscribing does not by itself guarantee that every historical record is deleted straight away. You can ask Sinclair to remove the records he controls from his publication list: write to research@sinclairhuang.org and he will do it from the publisher dashboard. Data that Substack keeps on its own account — for account, security, compliance, or historical purposes — is retained and deleted under Substack’s own policy.
Technical data
Technical data is processed at different points, by different parties:
- Whenever any page loads — the site is hosted on GitHub Pages, which processes standard web-request data, including your IP address.
- When you load /writing/ — the embedded Substack subscription box is loaded from Substack, which may process technical data and set cookies as part of providing it.
- When you submit the enquiry form — Formspree processes the fields you submit, along with standard request data such as your IP address and browser information. Two anti-spam measures are enabled on this form. Formshield is Formspree’s own filter: it analyses the submitted content and known spam patterns using machine learning and classifiers. Google reCAPTCHA, the built-in option Formspree offers, is operated by Google and performs bot and risk analysis; it may set cookies when it runs, under Google’s own policy. A third measure sits in the form itself: a hidden field that automated submissions tend to fill in and people never see.
Service providers and international transfers
| Service | Role | What it handles |
|---|---|---|
| Formspree / Formshield | Processes enquiry form submissions on Sinclair’s behalf | The fields you submit and standard request data; Formshield analyses the message content and known spam patterns |
| Google reCAPTCHA | Bot and risk analysis on the enquiry form, enabled through Formspree | Performs the analysis when it runs and may set cookies at that point, under Google’s own policy |
| Substack | Hosts the publication’s subscriber list and delivers posts on Sinclair’s behalf | Email address, available name, subscription status and activity; the embedded box may also set cookies and process technical data |
| Email provider | Delivers enquiry notifications and replies | The content of the enquiry and subsequent correspondence |
| GitHub Pages | Website hosting | Standard web-request data, including IP address |
Each of these also processes data for its own account, security, and platform purposes under its own policy. They operate internationally, so data submitted here may be processed outside your country of residence, including in the United States.
Changes
This notice is versioned by date. Enquiries record the version in force when they were sent, so it is always clear which terms applied. The current version is shown at the top of this page.