Your privacy here
No accounts, no ads, no third-party trackers, and nothing sold. The short version: this site tries to know as little about you as possible.
The Missing Manual is free educational content. You can read every guide without signing in, and there is no advertising network or analytics company watching over your shoulder. Here is exactly what happens with data.
Stored in your browser, never sent to us
Your preferences and progress - theme, reading position, streaks, quiz and practice results, and any notes you make - are kept in your own browser's local storage on your device. That data never leaves your machine, and clearing your browser storage removes it.
Anonymous usage stats
To see which guides actually help, the site records coarse, anonymous events like page views and searches. It is built to be un-trackable:
- Your raw IP address and browser User-Agent are never stored.
- Instead, a one-way hash is derived from them that rotates every day, so the same visitor cannot be followed across days.
- Only coarse signals are kept - a device class (mobile / tablet / desktop), the path viewed, and the host of the referring site.
None of this identifies you, and none of it is shared or sold.
Optional push notifications
If - and only if - you opt in, the site stores a browser push subscription so it can send you a review reminder later. You can turn this off any time by unsubscribing, which removes the subscription.
AI Search and AI Tutor
When you use AI Search or the AI Tutor, your question is sent to a third-party AI provider to generate an answer, and may be logged to monitor usage and cost. Please do not put personal or sensitive information into those prompts.
Cookies
There are no advertising or tracking cookies for readers. A session cookie is used only for the site operator's own admin login, not for visitors.
Questions
Questions about any of this? Email [email protected] or see the contact page.