diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index e116236d..5a49e4d7 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -212,6 +212,7 @@ endif()
 
 # static library
 add_library(mimalloc-static STATIC ${mi_sources})
+set_property(TARGET mimalloc-static PROPERTY POSITION_INDEPENDENT_CODE ON)
 target_compile_definitions(mimalloc-static PRIVATE ${mi_defines} MI_STATIC_LIB)
 target_compile_options(mimalloc-static PRIVATE ${mi_cflags})
 target_link_libraries(mimalloc-static PUBLIC ${mi_libraries})
@@ -248,6 +249,7 @@ endif()
 
 # single object file for more predictable static overriding
 add_library(mimalloc-obj OBJECT src/static.c)
+set_property(TARGET mimalloc-obj PROPERTY POSITION_INDEPENDENT_CODE ON)
 target_compile_definitions(mimalloc-obj PRIVATE ${mi_defines})
 target_compile_options(mimalloc-obj PRIVATE ${mi_cflags})
 target_include_directories(mimalloc-obj PUBLIC
diff --git a/readme.md b/readme.md
index 583d54ed..fd600763 100644
--- a/readme.md
+++ b/readme.md
@@ -255,6 +255,32 @@ OS will copy the entire 1GiB huge page (or 2MiB large page) which can cause the
 [linux-huge]: https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/5/html/tuning_and_optimizing_red_hat_enterprise_linux_for_oracle_9i_and_10g_databases/sect-oracle_9i_and_10g_tuning_guide-large_memory_optimization_big_pages_and_huge_pages-configuring_huge_pages_in_red_hat_enterprise_linux_4_or_5
 [windows-huge]: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/database-engine/configure-windows/enable-the-lock-pages-in-memory-option-windows?view=sql-server-2017
 
+## Secure Mode
+
+_mimalloc_ can be build in secure mode by using the `-DMI_SECURE=ON` flags in `cmake`. This build enables various mitigations
+to make mimalloc more robust against exploits. In particular:
+
+- All internal mimalloc pages are surrounded by guard pages and the heap metadata is behind a guard page as well (so a buffer overflow
+  exploit cannot reach into the metadata),
+- All free list pointers are 
+  [encoded](https://github.com/microsoft/mimalloc/blob/783e3377f79ee82af43a0793910a9f2d01ac7863/include/mimalloc-internal.h#L396) 
+  with per-page keys which is used both to prevent overwrites with a known pointer, as well as to detect heap corruption,
+- Double free's are detected (and ignored),
+- The free lists are initialized in a random order and allocation randomly chooses between extension and reuse within a page to 
+  mitigate against attacks that rely on a predicable allocation order. Similarly, the larger heap blocks allocated by mimalloc 
+  from the OS are also address randomized.
+
+As always, evaluate with care as part of an overall security strategy as all of the above are mitigations but not guarantees.
+
+## Debug Mode
+
+When _mimalloc_ is built using debug mode, various checks are done at runtime to catch development errors. 
+
+- Statistics are maintained in detail for each object size. They can be shown using `MIMALLOC_SHOW_STATS=1` at runtime.
+- All objects have padding at the end to detect (byte precise) heap block overflows.
+- Double free's, and freeing invalid heap pointers are detected.
+- Corrupted free-lists and some forms of use-after-free are detected.
+
 
 # Overriding Malloc
 
diff --git a/src/alloc-override.c b/src/alloc-override.c
index 9610702e..e7e3fc48 100644
--- a/src/alloc-override.c
+++ b/src/alloc-override.c
@@ -103,7 +103,7 @@ terms of the MIT license. A copy of the license can be found in the file
   void operator delete[](void* p, std::size_t n) noexcept MI_FORWARD02(mi_free_size,p,n);
   #endif
 
-  #if (__cplusplus > 201402L || defined(__cpp_aligned_new)) && (!defined(__GNUC__) || (__GNUC__ > 5))
+  #if (__cplusplus > 201402L && defined(__cpp_aligned_new)) && (!defined(__GNUC__) || (__GNUC__ > 5))
   void operator delete  (void* p, std::align_val_t al) noexcept { mi_free_aligned(p, static_cast<size_t>(al)); }
   void operator delete[](void* p, std::align_val_t al) noexcept { mi_free_aligned(p, static_cast<size_t>(al)); }
   void operator delete  (void* p, std::size_t n, std::align_val_t al) noexcept { mi_free_size_aligned(p, n, static_cast<size_t>(al)); };
diff --git a/src/page.c b/src/page.c
index 76d8b13b..f0521e57 100644
--- a/src/page.c
+++ b/src/page.c
@@ -381,7 +381,7 @@ void _mi_page_free(mi_page_t* page, mi_page_queue_t* pq, bool force) {
 }
 
 #define MI_MAX_RETIRE_SIZE    MI_LARGE_OBJ_SIZE_MAX  
-#define MI_RETIRE_CYCLES      (16)
+#define MI_RETIRE_CYCLES      (8)
 
 // Retire a page with no more used blocks
 // Important to not retire too quickly though as new
@@ -406,7 +406,7 @@ void _mi_page_retire(mi_page_t* page) {
   if (mi_likely(page->xblock_size <= MI_MAX_RETIRE_SIZE && !mi_page_is_in_full(page))) {
     if (pq->last==page && pq->first==page) { // the only page in the queue?
       mi_stat_counter_increase(_mi_stats_main.page_no_retire,1);
-      page->retire_expire = MI_RETIRE_CYCLES;
+      page->retire_expire = (page->xblock_size <= MI_SMALL_OBJ_SIZE_MAX ? MI_RETIRE_CYCLES : MI_RETIRE_CYCLES/4);
       mi_heap_t* heap = mi_page_heap(page);
       mi_assert_internal(pq >= heap->pages);
       const size_t index = pq - heap->pages;