What we store, and why

The Meridian keeps only what its features need. Reading never requires an account; listening is part of a free member account.

Visitors

We don’t run visitor analytics or advertising trackers. Your chosen voice and speed are kept in your browser.

Free member accounts

Signing in with your email (a link or one-time code) creates one account per verified email. For it we store:

• If you sign in with Google, Apple or Microsoft: that service confirms your email address and sends it to us (Apple may give us a private relay address if you choose “Hide My Email”). We don’t receive your password, contacts or anything else from your account, and we never post to it.
• Your email address, when you signed up, when you verified it and your last sign-in (kept by our sign-in provider).
• What you choose to add: your name, US city and state, time zone, interests, and preferred narrator.
• What you save or follow: saved articles and events, followed communities, startups and organizations, your listening queue and the place you reached in each story, and any private calendar feed links you create.
• For Listen: to keep AI narration affordable, the server counts new recordings using a one-way hash of your network address (it can’t be turned back into the address).
• The day you last used the site while signed in (no times, pages or devices), so we can count active members.

None of this appears on any public page, and it’s never shown to other members or to the organizations you follow. Following happens inside The Meridian only: it doesn’t join a community, share your details with it, or register you for events.

Your location. You choose your city and state. Your browser may suggest a time zone, but we never guess where you are from it. “Use my location” is optional: your device’s position is rounded to about 1 km, sent once to OpenStreetMap’s Nominatim service to find the city, and not stored. You confirm the city before anything is saved.

Maps. Map tiles are loaded by your browser from OpenStreetMap, which receives your network address as with any website. Listings are placed at the city they’re based in, using only their public city and state.

The newsletter is separate

Creating an account never subscribes you. You subscribe only by ticking the newsletter box or choosing Subscribe, and every email has a one-click unsubscribe link. Unsubscribing doesn’t delete your account, and deleting your account doesn’t send you anything.

Network submissions

When you introduce yourself through Join The Meridian Network, only The Meridian’s editor sees what you send. Your email is never published. A listing becomes public only after review, and only if you asked to be considered. If you later create an account with the same verified email, you can choose to link your earlier submissions to it; we never link them automatically.

Your choices

• Change your details, interests, time zone and newsletter choice in your account or My Meridian.
• Delete your account from your account page. This removes your profile, preferences, follows, saved items, listening and calendar feeds. You can also unsubscribe from the newsletter in the same step. Submissions you sent to the network are kept by the editor but unlinked from you; ask us and we’ll remove them.

Last updated November 3, 2026.