AltHub

Privacy Policy

Last updated 21 September 2026

The short version: the site works without an account, and if you never sign in, the only thing we store that could identify you is the IP address of a request that makes us analyse a new project — reading the site stores nothing about you. Advertising and analytics are provided by Google, and are the reason most cookies are set.

Who runs this site

AltHub (althub.cc) lists open-source projects and the alternatives to them. For data-protection purposes we are the controller of the personal data described below, and you can reach us at [email protected].

Information about projects

Most of what the site holds is public information about software repositories, taken from the GitHub API: names, descriptions, topics, languages, licences, star counts, activity dates and README excerpts, together with summaries and comparisons generated from them. That is data about repositories, not about you.

What we collect about you

If you only read the site

Nothing we store identifies you, with the single exception described in the last bullet below.

  • Requests pass through Cloudflare and our web server, which keep short-lived operational logs in the ordinary way.
  • Each project page keeps a count of how many times it has been opened. It is a single number per project, with no identifier, session or per-visitor timestamp attached, and it exists to order the homepage.
  • Your IP address is used in memory to rate-limit bursts of automated requests, then discarded. Our application logs are written under a rule that forbids recording an IP address or an email address at all.
  • Searches typed into the search box are answered from our own database and are not stored.
  • Asking us to analyse a project. Typing a repository into the search box, or opening a project page we have never analysed, can make us analyse it: we fetch it from GitHub, generate a list of alternatives for it, and publish a page that did not exist before. When a request does that, we store the IP address it came from against that project, once — the address of whoever caused the page to exist, and nobody who reads it afterwards. We keep it so that a page can be traced back to the request that created it, and so that one source generating pages in bulk can be identified and stopped. It is not used to profile you, is not linked to anything else we hold, and is never shared.

If you sign in with GitHub

Signing in is optional and uses GitHub OAuth. We receive and store your GitHub username, display name, email address, avatar URL, and an access token limited to public data. We never receive your GitHub password, and the token grants no ability to write to your GitHub account.

If you save a project

We store which projects you saved, and when, against your account.

Cookies and local storage

  • Signing in. A session cookie, set only after you sign in. Without it the site cannot keep you signed in.
  • Google Analytics. Cookies that measure how the site is used.
  • Google AdSense and its partners. Cookies used to select and measure advertising — see below.
  • Local storage. Which tab you last used on the homepage is remembered in your browser. It never leaves your device, and is not a cookie.

Advertising

This site is supported by advertising served through Google AdSense.

  • Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this website or to other websites.
  • Google’s use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visit to this site and/or other sites on the Internet.
  • You can opt out of personalised advertising in Google Ad Settings.
  • You can opt out of some third-party vendors’ use of cookies for personalised advertising at aboutads.info/choices, or at youronlinechoices.com in Europe.

How Google uses data from sites that use its services is described in Google’s own policy.

Analytics

We use Google Analytics to see which pages are read and where readers arrive from. It sets cookies and processes that data on our behalf. You can opt out across every site that uses it with Google’s browser add-on.

What we do not do

  • We do not sell personal data.
  • We do not send marketing email. There is no mailing list.
  • We do not share your account details with anyone beyond the services listed below.

Services that process data for us

  • Cloudflare — content delivery, DNS, and protection against abuse.
  • A server we operate — where the application and its database run.
  • GitHub — the sign-in provider, and the source of the project data.
  • Google — analytics and advertising.

How long we keep things

  • Account details and saved projects: until you delete your account.
  • Page-view counts: indefinitely, as aggregate numbers that are not linked to anyone.
  • Operational logs: short-lived, and rotated by the system.
  • The IP address recorded against a project that was analysed on request: for as long as that project page exists. Write to [email protected] and we will erase it.

Your choices and your rights

Depending on where you live — the UK and EEA under the GDPR, California under the CCPA and CPRA, and other places with comparable laws — you have rights to access, correct, delete, export, or object to the processing of your personal data. We hold very little, so in practice these come down to your account.

  • Delete your account. Write to [email protected] and we will delete it. That removes your profile, the stored GitHub token, your sessions and your saved projects.
  • Revoke our access at GitHub. You can withdraw the OAuth authorisation at any time from your GitHub account settings, without asking us.
  • Erase a recorded IP address. If you asked us to analyse a project and want the address that request came from removed, write to [email protected] with the project and we will clear it. The page itself stays.
  • Advertising and analytics. Use the opt-outs linked above.

Requests go to [email protected]. If you are in the EEA or the UK and believe we have handled your data badly, you may also complain to your national data-protection authority.

Children

The site is not directed at children under 13, or under 16 in the EEA, and we do not knowingly collect their personal data.

Changes to this policy

Any change is published on this page with a new date at the top. If a change materially affects what we collect or how it is used, we will say so here rather than only moving the date.

Contact

Questions about this policy, or about anything the site holds: [email protected].

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