Privacy Policy
Version: privacy-2026-11-04e · Effective: November 4, 2026
The short version
- Signing up costs nothing. The Briefing is a paid newsletter. We email you the price and a payment request before the first issue. If you don't pay, you won't get it.
- We ask your birth month and year first. What happens next depends on your answer.
- Our signup form has steps. Each step saves when you press Next, even if you don't finish.
- If you're 18 or older and give us a phone number, we keep it whether or not you tick the text box. Without a tick, we won't send you marketing texts. We are not sending any texts now.
- If you're 13 to 17, we keep very little: your name, birth month and year, your parent's or guardian's email, and your tick that they agreed. No phone. No texts. Everything goes to that email.
- We don't let children under 13 sign up, and we keep no details from a stopped signup.
- We keep signups in Google Sheets, in our main Google Workspace account. Anyone using that account can see them.
- We share your details only as described on this page.
- You can ask us to delete your details at any time: privacy@ntkintel.com.
Who we are
NTK Intel is an independent newsletter and website about Grand Theft Auto VI. NTK Intel is a trade name, not a separate company. The people responsible for it are responsible for your data, and we will give their details to a court, a regulator or anyone else legally entitled to them.
Contact: privacy@ntkintel.com, which goes to our main team inbox, or 30765 Pacific Coast Highway #471, Malibu, CA 90265. Legal notices: legal@ntkintel.com.
NTK Intel is independent and not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Rockstar Games, Take-Two Interactive or any official Grand Theft Auto VI channel.
What we collect
You give us this on the signup form:
| When | Who | Details | Why | How long we keep it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Start | Everyone | Birth month and year | To decide which signup you get, and to work out an age band for totals | If signup stops: not kept. Otherwise: see "If you don't finish" and "If you unsubscribe" |
| Step 1 | 18 and older | Name (required), email address | To email you about The Briefing, including the price and a payment request, and to send it if you pay | See "If you don't finish" and "If you unsubscribe" |
| Step 1 | 13 to 17 | Your name, your parent's or guardian's email, and your tick that it's theirs and they agreed | To ask them to confirm, send them the price and a payment request, and send The Briefing to them if they pay | Until 30 days after the payment request if they don't pay, or 30 days after they unsubscribe. If they don't confirm, 30 days |
| Step 1 | 18 and older | Phone number, if you give it. We keep it even if you don't tick the text box. | To keep your signup details together. So you can turn on texts later without entering it again. If you tick the box and we start sending texts, to text you updates, release news and offers. If we add accounts or payments and you use them, to message you about those | Until you ask us to delete it or stop texts. No more than 365 days while we have no accounts and aren't sending texts |
| Step 2, can be skipped | 18 and older | Gender, how much of a gamer you are | To understand our readers as a group and choose what to cover | Until 30 days after you unsubscribe, or until you ask us to delete it |
| Step 3, can be skipped | 18 and older | Your answers to quick click questions: which games you'd want us to cover next, plus anything you type under Other, what you want most in the newsletter, what gaming or media services you already pay for, how hard it is to tell what's real about GTA VI, which extras you'd use if we added them, whether you'd want first access to a members' side, how you follow GTA VI news, and what you play on. We don't ask what you'd pay | To understand what readers want and shape what we build, including whether a paid option makes sense | Until 30 days after you unsubscribe, or until you ask us to delete it |
We work out this from what you give us:
| Details | Why | How long we keep it |
|---|---|---|
| Age band, such as 18–24, from your birth month and year | For group totals. We don't share totals for very small groups | Same as your birth month and year |
| A group score from four of your Step 3 answers, showing how much a group of readers seems to value extras | To help us decide what to build. It's a rough signal about groups, not a price. We don't save a score for each person, or use it to decide what you're offered | Group totals only. Very small groups are hidden |
We record this when you sign up:
| Details | Who | Why | How long we keep it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Email, text and parent permission records: the exact wording you agreed to, the version, when and the site it came from | Everyone who signs up | To prove what you asked for and honor your choices | While you're signed up, plus 3 years |
| Your browser type and the site address it reports | Everyone who signs up | Part of those records, and to spot fake signups | With those records, removed if you ask us to delete your details |
| How you found us: campaign tags, a referral code, the website that sent you, the page you signed up on | 18 and older | To learn which channels work | 3 years, or until you ask us to delete it |
| Email activity: whether an email was opened or a link was clicked | 18 and older | To improve the newsletter and keep the list healthy | Up to 12 months |
| A claim on a Founders Club spot, if we run it: the order and time | 18 and older | To keep the 99-spot count true | The order and time stay for good. If you ask us to delete your details, your link to the claim is removed |
If you email us, or use the button that opens a short note to us, we get your email address, the name your mail app shows and whatever the message says. It goes to our main team inbox in Google Workspace. The button fills in "Bring on the Intel", and sending it is up to you. We use your message to answer you if it needs an answer, and a note from you may help our later emails reach you. We don't add your message to your signup details, and a note doesn't confirm your signup or sign you up for anything else. We keep messages for up to 12 months. Please don't send us anything you'd rather we didn't have.
We don't ask for your street address or payment details to sign up. When you pay, a payment provider (planned: Stripe) handles your card, and we won't see or store your full card number. We keep payment records as long as tax and accounting rules need them, which we expect to be 7 years.
Please give us only your own details. Don't enter someone else's email or phone number without their permission.
Saving as you go
Each time you press Next, that step goes to our list straight away. You don't need to reach the last step.
If you don't finish: step 1 saves when you press Next, and we send a confirmation email, usually right away but sometimes later on a busy day, so you can still confirm later. We only email you more after you confirm. If you don't confirm, we delete your details after 30 days. If you confirm but leave out later steps, we just don't have those answers.
If you skip step 2 or 3: we just don't have those answers. Skipping doesn't change anything about your signup.
If you unsubscribe: we stop emailing you right away. We keep a scrambled version of your address so that we never email you again by mistake. We delete your name, phone number, birth month and year, age band and answers after 30 days, and other details after 24 months.
How we use it
- Email you the price and a payment request before the first issue, if you opted in and confirmed.
- Send The Briefing, our weekly paid email, if you pay.
- Decide which signup you get, based on your birth month and year.
- If you're 18 or older and ticked the text box: text you updates, release news and offers, if we start sending texts.
- If you're 18 or older: understand our readers as a group, so we can decide what to cover and build.
- Stop spam and fake signups, and keep the site secure.
If you gave us a phone number and didn't tick the text box, we won't send you marketing texts or calls. That includes release news and any message trying to sell you something. We don't have accounts or payments today. If we add them and you use them, we may text you about those, such as a receipt or a problem with a payment. We'll update this policy before that starts. We don't use your number to look up more about you, and we don't share it with ad platforms.
We use gender and age band to understand our readers as a group. We don't use them to decide who gets an offer or a different price, except that paid offers are only for people 18 or older.
Who sees it and who we share it with
Our team. Signups can be seen through our main Google Workspace account. Only people we've given that account can see them.
We share your details with the service providers listed below, if the law requires it, and if NTK Intel moves to a new owner. If we ever want to share them any other way, we'll update this page and ask you first. If we work with sponsors, we would share only group-level numbers, such as "60% of readers play weekly", and never your name or contact details.
We use these service providers. They get only what they need to do their job.
| Provider | What for | What it handles |
|---|---|---|
| Google (Google Sheets, Google Apps Script, Gmail sending) | Stores our signup list, processes signups and may send confirmation emails | Everything in the signup tables above. It gets these from Cloudflare, not from your browser, so the form doesn't give Google your IP address |
| Cloudflare | Hosts the website, runs our signup layer and runs a check that stops bots on the form | Your IP address and normal website request details, signup details as they pass through, the short-lived counts described under "Cookies and tracking", and the results of the bot check |
| Stripe (planned) | Takes payments | Name, email, payment details directly from you |
| Squarespace | Forwards ntkintel.com to www.ntkintel.com | Your IP address and request details on that one step, and its own short-lived cookie |
| Resend | Sends confirmation emails and the payment request, and is planned to send The Briefing | Email address, name if used, the confirmation link, and for readers 18 and older, email activity |
We have no text provider today, because we don't send texts. We'll update this policy before that changes.
Your details are kept in Google Sheets. A spreadsheet isn't built like a customer database, and we'll move to a different system if we outgrow it. If we do, this policy will be updated.
We may disclose details if the law requires it. If NTK Intel moves into a new company, or is sold or merged, our list may move with it, and the new owner must honor this policy.
Our providers may handle data in the United States and other countries.
Cookies and tracking
Our website doesn't set cookies and has no advertising pixels, with one exception below for the address without "www". We record basic page events, such as a form being submitted, without cookies and without your email address, and these stay in your browser's page.
One small exception. If a signup is stopped, we leave a small note in that browser so the form stays closed for up to 24 hours. It holds no name, email, birth date or ID, and it never leaves your device.
Some things outside the page itself still see normal web traffic. Our website runs on Cloudflare, so Cloudflare receives your IP address and request details whenever you open a page or use the form, and handles them under its own terms. If the Founders Club is open, a page that shows it asks our site for the spot count, through Cloudflare.
Our signup layer. The form talks to our own code running on Cloudflare, not directly to Google. That code reads your IP address to limit how many requests one connection can send, which helps stop abuse. It doesn't store your IP address. It keeps a count under a scrambled code made from the IP address and the time period, in the program's short-term memory on Cloudflare and in Cloudflare's cache in one data center. We stop using a count when its time period ends, 24 hours at most. The cached copy expires then too, and Cloudflare clears the memory on its own schedule. The code changes each period and isn't linked to any signup, and we can't look it up for a particular person. A scrambled code like this isn't anonymous, so we're telling you about it. Our code writes no logs. It sends your signup details on to Google without your IP address.
Going to ntkintel.com without "www". Our domain company, Squarespace, forwards you to our site. On that one step, Squarespace receives your IP address and request details, and sets a short-lived cookie of its own called "crumb". We don't use that cookie or get anything from it.
One exception for Google. A one-click unsubscribe button in your mail app can go straight to Google, so Google may receive the IP address of whatever sends that click, which is often your mail provider. The bot check comes from Cloudflare and reads technical signals from your browser to tell people from bots.
If your browser sends a Global Privacy Control or Do Not Track signal, optional analytics stay off.
Emails to readers 18 and older may have standard open and click tracking. Emails to readers under 18 don't.
If we ever add advertising pixels, we will update this policy first and ask you before they load. They won't run for anyone we know is under 18.
Your rights and choices
- Unsubscribe: every email has an unsubscribe link. It works right away.
- Stop texts: email privacy@ntkintel.com, or reply STOP if we start sending texts. If you ask us to stop texts, we also delete your stored phone number. If you only untick the box while you're still in the form, we keep the number and stop any texts.
- Delete your phone number only: email privacy@ntkintel.com. You don't need a reason.
- See or correct your details: email privacy@ntkintel.com.
- Delete your details: email privacy@ntkintel.com. We'll send a link to your address to confirm that it's you, then erase your row: name, email, phone, birth month and year, age band, gender, answers, and how you found us, and delete messages you've sent us. This covers partly finished signups too. We'll answer within 30 days. We keep two things: a scrambled version of your address so that we never email you again, and the consent record, without browser details. Deleted details may stay in Google's version history or backups for some time. Google doesn't give us a set period for this.
- US state residents, including California: you may have rights to know, access, correct and delete your data, to appeal a decision on your request, and to opt out of sale, sharing or targeted advertising. We won't treat you differently for using these rights.
- Outside the United States: we run NTK Intel from the United States and aim it at readers here. If you sign up from somewhere else, your details are handled in the United States, and you can use the choices on this page.
Under 18
Under 13. NTK Intel isn't for children under 13. If the birth month and year show someone is under 13, signup stops and we keep no name, email, birth date or other signup details from that attempt. Our abuse limits described under "Cookies and tracking" still apply to the connection. If we learn another way that we hold a child's details, we delete them. Parents: email privacy@ntkintel.com with the email address and we'll remove it. You don't need proof.
13 to 17. You can sign up using your parent's or guardian's email, with their agreement. We collect only your name, birth month and year, that email and your tick. We use them only for The Briefing: asking them to confirm, a payment request to them, and the newsletter to that email if they pay. We don't take payment from anyone under 18. We don't keep a phone number, ask the other questions, record how you found us or track opens on those emails. If you gave us your own email by mistake, or a parent didn't agree, email privacy@ntkintel.com and we'll remove the signup. You can use the same note button, or write to us. We only use your message to answer you, and we don't count or analyze it. When you turn 18, we keep treating what we got from you before 18 the same way unless you tell us otherwise.
Your rights if you're under 18, and your parent's. You or your parent or guardian can ask to see, correct or delete what we hold, or to stop any further use of it. Email privacy@ntkintel.com.
Think someone signed up who shouldn't have? Email privacy@ntkintel.com with the email address that was used. You don't need a login or proof. We'll erase that signup, normally within 3 days and no later than 30 days, and tell our providers to do the same.
Security
We use HTTPS, limit who can reach the list and keep passwords and keys out of our code. No way of storing or sending data is completely secure.
Changes
We may update this policy as NTK Intel grows, including after a legal review. If we make a material change, we'll update the date above and tell subscribers by email before it takes effect.
Based in part on a template prepared and made publicly available by General Legal, PC (github.com/General-Legal/legal-templates).