Last updated: October 27, 2026
This policy explains what information Cyentia Institute (“Cyentia,” “we”) collects through cyentia.com, why we collect it, and what you can do about it. We’re a research firm, not an advertising business. We don’t sell personal information, and we don’t run advertising or cross-site tracking on this site.
Who we are
This site is operated by Cyentia Institute LLC, 42841 Creek View Plaza, Ste 120 #360, Ashburn, VA 20147. For any privacy questions or requests, email [email protected].
What we collect and why
When you browse the site
We count page views with Koko Analytics, which runs on our own web server rather than a third-party analytics service. It doesn’t use cookies. To tell unique visitors apart within a single day, it combines your IP address and browser information with a secret value that changes every 24 hours and keeps only a one-way hash of the result. Your IP address and browser details themselves aren’t stored. What we see is aggregate: which pages were viewed, how often, and which sites referred visitors. We keep these statistics for 36 months.
The site is hosted by WP Engine, and requests pass through Cloudflare’s network. Like any web host, they process technical information (your IP address, browser type, the pages you request) to deliver the site and protect it from abuse, and they may keep server logs for a limited time.
When you contact us
Our contact form asks for your name, email address, company (optional), and message. The submission is emailed to us and stored in the site’s database so we can reply and follow up on your inquiry. We don’t use it for anything else, and we don’t add you to the newsletter unless you sign up.
When you sign up for our newsletter
The newsletter form asks for your email address and, optionally, your name and company. We store the submission in the site’s database and send it to MailerLite, the service we use to send email. Every email includes an unsubscribe link. MailerLite may record whether emails are opened and which links are clicked, so we can see what readers find useful.
When you create a member account
Free membership requires a username, email address, and password. WordPress stores your password in hashed form; we can’t see it. For Retina subscribers, we also record your organization and the industry sector(s) your subscription covers, which we use to control access to Retina content. Use of Retina is also governed by your subscription agreement.
We don’t collect payment card information on this site.
Spam protection
Our forms use Cloudflare Turnstile to keep out automated spam. Turnstile processes technical signals such as your IP address, browser type, and connection details to decide whether a request comes from a person or a bot. Cloudflare may also use these signals to improve its bot detection. See the Turnstile privacy addendum for details.
Cookies
We don’t use advertising or analytics cookies. The only cookies the site itself sets are functional ones it needs to work, mainly keeping you signed in after you log in to a member account.
A few older pages embed content from other services (YouTube videos, a Plotly chart, and an Adobe XD prototype). Those services may set their own cookies when the page loads, under their own privacy policies.
Who we share information with
We share personal information only with the service providers that run parts of the site for us, and only as needed for them to do that work:
- WP Engine (website hosting)
- Cloudflare (network delivery, security, and spam protection)
- MailerLite (newsletter delivery)
- Amazon Web Services (sending account and notification emails from the site)
We don’t sell or rent personal information. We may disclose information if required by law.
How long we keep it
- Page view statistics: 36 months, then deleted automatically.
- Contact and newsletter form submissions stored on the site: as long as we need them to respond and follow up, and deleted on request.
- Newsletter subscriptions: until you unsubscribe.
- Member accounts: until you ask us to delete your account, or the account is closed.
Your choices and rights
You can unsubscribe from the newsletter at any time using the link in any email. You can ask us to tell you what personal information we hold about you, correct it, or delete it by emailing [email protected]. Depending on where you live (for example, the EU, the UK, or California and other US states with privacy laws), you may have additional rights, and we’ll honor requests within the time those laws require. If you’re in the EU or UK, you can also complain to your local data protection authority.
Where information is processed
Cyentia is based in the United States, and the information described here is processed in the US. Our service providers may process it in other countries as part of providing their services.
Children
This site is meant for security and risk professionals and isn’t directed at children. We don’t knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 16.
Changes to this policy
If we change how we handle personal information, we’ll update this page and the date at the top.