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UPDATE (2026-08-05): Substack is honoring the opt-out / withdrawal of consent right under the various data protection laws.
I created a quick-and-dirty* template generator, that can be broadly applied, no matter where you live. tools.priva.cat
For jurisdictions where a law exists (that I’m aware of), I include the relevant law. But the template also includes a larger appeal to the OECD Privacy Principles and Fair Information Practice Principles, which are widely adopted and foundational to most privacy laws.
The truth is, personal data is a fundamental, human right, and it shouldn’t be conditional on where you live. Regardless of geography, what Substack is doing here violates basic principles of fairness, transparency, accuracy, purpose, and consent. Substack has the technical means to deactivate Pangram support at the account level, and if they want to do right by their users, they won’t make compliance contingent on whether you’re lucky enough to live in a place that recognizes human rights.
That said, as individuals, we need to take affirmative steps regarding our data. We can’t sit back and hope that Substack will come to this conclusion through beneficence alone.
To use the form generator, just enter in relevant information (and for those in the US, choose your state), generate the letter, and copy that to the clipboard for mailing. Voila!
* To create this form generator, I relied on a combination of my own data protection knowledge, a scan of the data protection laws (iapp.org/resources/glob…), and Claude. While I’ve done some sanity-checking, I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice. It’s possible I missed a law, or cited an incorrect statutory instrument.
The reason I’m putting this out is because the underlying argument is valid, and it’s trivially easy for Substack to apply. If I missed a citation, or fouled up something else, please let me know. If you’re aware of laws in a jurisdiction that I missed, please leave a comment! The content is easy to update.
Marion Pandora JHong Dr Sam Illingworth Katalina Hernández AI Governance Lead ⚡ Karen Smiley
