The Fence is published by Railing Media Ltd (company number 12083516), registered office 2 Archer Street, London W1D 7AW. We are the “data controller” for the personal data described here. For any privacy question or request, email info@the-fence.com. Last updated 13 June 2026.

Depending on how you use The Fence, we may hold:

• Account — your name, email and (if you sign in with Google) your profile photo.
• Subscription & billing — what you bought, your subscription status, billing name and address, and a record of the card type and last four digits. We never see or store your full card number — payment is handled by Stripe.
• Delivery — the postal address for print subscriptions (and, for gifts, the recipient’s name, email and address).
• Newsletter — your email and preferences, if you subscribe.
• Usage — a count of free articles you’ve read this month (for the metered paywall), plus standard technical data such as IP address and browser type.
• Correspondence — messages you send us.

We use your data for these purposes and legal bases:

• To provide the service — accounts, subscriptions, payments, delivery and support (basis: performance of our contract with you).
• To run the website — the paywall meter, security and fraud prevention, and improving the service (basis: our legitimate interests).
• Newsletters — sending Off The Fence / Capital Letter where you’ve opted in (basis: consent; you can unsubscribe any time).
• Legal & accounting — keeping transaction records (basis: legal obligation).

We don’t sell your data. We share it only with the service providers that run The Fence, each acting on our instructions:

• Stripe — payments and subscription billing.
• Supabase — secure database for your account and entitlements.
• Google — sign-in (if you choose it) and our email delivery.
• Substack — newsletter delivery.
• Our print fulfilment partner & Royal Mail — name and address, to post the magazine.
• Vercel — website hosting.

We may also disclose data where required by law.

Some of these providers process data outside the UK (for example in the US). Where they do, we rely on UK ‘adequacy’ regulations or standard contractual clauses (the UK International Data Transfer Agreement) to keep your data protected to UK standards.

We keep account and subscription data for as long as your account is active, and afterwards only as long as needed for our legitimate purposes. Transaction and tax records are kept for six years as required by UK law. We delete or anonymise data when it’s no longer needed.

Under UK data protection law you have the right to access, correct, delete, restrict or object to our use of your data, to data portability, and to withdraw consent at any time. To exercise any of these, email info@the-fence.com.

If you’re unhappy with how we’ve handled your data you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ico.org.uk), though we’d appreciate the chance to put things right first.

We use a small number of cookies — mostly strictly necessary ones that keep you signed in and run the paywall. We don’t use advertising or analytics tracking cookies. Full details, and how to change your choices, are in our Cookie Policy.

We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect your data, and sign-in is passwordless to reduce risk. No online service can be guaranteed perfectly secure.

The Fence is intended for adult readers and is not directed at children under 16.

We may update this policy from time to time. The version on this page is current; significant changes affecting you will be notified by email.