What we found
Circle: DA creator has your email address.
Trustpilot reviewers report being added to communities without consent, with no mechanism to leave. One reviewer: "This is a privacy violation. Just because someone has my email address does not give them the right to add me to their group." Users must contact the host directly to be removed. Circle deflects to "independent community owners."
Mighty Networks: DMighty Networks lets any Host collect your health data, political views, religious beliefs, and sexual orientation — GDPR's most protected categories.
Privacy policy states Hosts can "choose and customize categories of Personal Data to collect, including Special Categories of Personal Data" — health, political opinions, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, biometric data under GDPR. No verification of Host GDPR compliance, no mandatory DPO, no audit of how Hosts handle this data.
Patreon: DPatreon says it never sells your data.
Data shared with advertising partners, analytics providers, and affiliated companies. Uses cookies for "personalised advertising (online behavioural advertising)." Explicitly does not respond to Do Not Track browser signals. Privacy Watchdog score: 32/100 (Grade F).
Stan Store: DStan Store says it's "all-in-one" for $29/month.
Email automation, pixel tracking (Meta, Google, TikTok, Pinterest), AutoDM, and broadcast emails all locked behind the $99/month Creator Pro plan. Creators can collect email addresses at $29 but cannot send automated emails to them. 241% price increase to unlock core marketing features.
Teachable: DYou sign up for an online course on Teachable — a New York company, or so you think.
Since 2020, owned by Hotmart, headquartered in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, with EU entity in Amsterdam. Unified privacy policy covers hotmart.com, teachable.com, and enotas.com.br (Brazilian invoicing). Student data may flow between US, Brazil, and Netherlands.
Kajabi: DKajabi tells you they don't sell your data.
Kajabi's own CCPA disclosure states: "Under the CCPA's broad definition of 'sell,' which includes even the common flow of information in the digital analytics and advertising ecosystem, Kajabi does 'sell' personal information." They use third parties that place tags, cookies, and tracking mechanisms for targeted advertising.
Skool: DBuild a community on Skool, grow it to thousands of members, create hundreds of discussion threads.
Cancelling means losing all community posts, course content, and engagement data. Only email list export available. No bulk content download. Community URL lives at skool.com — no redirect path. Course content must be downloaded file by file.
VidApp: DVidApp's privacy policy says no third-party tracking.
Apple App Store privacy label for VidApp includes a "Data Used to Track You" section, confirming data may be used to track users across apps and websites. Direct contradiction between privacy policy text and App Store disclosure.