{
  "slug": "buttondown",
  "category": "newsletters",
  "name": "Buttondown",
  "description": "Hosted newsletter service for writing and sending email newsletters in Markdown, with paid subscriptions, archives, custom domains and an API.",
  "website": "https://buttondown.com",
  "license": null,
  "platforms": [
    "web"
  ],
  "jurisdiction": {
    "code": "US",
    "name": "United States",
    "eyes": "Five Eyes",
    "eu": false,
    "gdpr": false,
    "cloud_act": "provider"
  },
  "pick": false,
  "pick_reason": null,
  "disclosure": null,
  "grade": "F",
  "score": 28,
  "coverage": 100,
  "summary": "Buttondown scores 28 out of 100 (grade F) on the newsletter platforms criteria. It meets 1 of 8 criteria: no ads or data sales. It partly meets no trackers or telemetry and TLS configuration. It does not meet open source, independent audit, transparency report, tells users about requests and security headers. It is based in the United States: Five Eyes member; subject to the US CLOUD Act. Automated tests: SSL Labs grade B and Mozilla HTTP Observatory grade C-.",
  "url": "https://privacyratings.com/newsletters/buttondown/",
  "markdown": "https://privacyratings.com/newsletters/buttondown/index.md",
  "answers": {
    "open_source": {
      "title": "Open source",
      "weight": 3,
      "answer": "no",
      "evidence": null,
      "note": "Closed source."
    },
    "no_trackers": {
      "title": "No trackers or telemetry",
      "weight": 3,
      "answer": "partial",
      "evidence": "https://buttondown.com/legal/privacy",
      "note": "The website uses Seline, a cookieless analytics service, and the policy describes collecting data for internal analytics."
    },
    "no_ads": {
      "title": "No ads or data sales",
      "weight": 2,
      "answer": "yes",
      "evidence": "https://buttondown.com/pricing",
      "note": "Funded by paid plans, with no ads."
    },
    "independent_audit": {
      "title": "Independent audit",
      "weight": 2,
      "answer": "no",
      "evidence": null,
      "note": "No independent audit is published."
    },
    "transparency_report": {
      "title": "Transparency report",
      "weight": 2,
      "answer": "no",
      "evidence": null,
      "note": "No transparency report or government request policy is published."
    },
    "user_notice": {
      "title": "Tells users about requests",
      "weight": 1,
      "answer": "no",
      "evidence": null,
      "note": "No published policy on notifying users about data requests."
    },
    "tls": {
      "title": "TLS configuration",
      "weight": 2,
      "answer": "partial",
      "evidence": "https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=buttondown.com&hideResults=on",
      "note": "Grade B"
    },
    "security_headers": {
      "title": "Security headers",
      "weight": 1,
      "answer": "no",
      "evidence": "https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/observatory/analyze?host=buttondown.com",
      "note": "Grade C- (45/100+)"
    },
    "web_standards": {
      "title": "Modern web standards",
      "weight": 1,
      "answer": "pending",
      "evidence": null,
      "note": "Not tested yet."
    }
  },
  "tests": {
    "ssllabs": "B",
    "observatory": "C-",
    "internetnl_web": null,
    "internetnl_mail": null,
    "trackers": [
      {
        "name": "Cloudflare Web Analytics",
        "host": "static.cloudflareinsights.com",
        "effect": "partial"
      }
    ],
    "tested_at": "2026-10-01T10:59:47.602Z"
  },
  "last_modified": "2026-10-01T11:14:42Z"
}