Privacy

Privacy

The short version: censuswall has no accounts and no advertising, and asks you for nothing. It does count how many people read each page, and that counting uses two cookies. In Europe and the UK, you are asked before either of them is set.

Who is responsible

censuswall is published from Pennsylvania, in the United States, and is run by one person rather than a company. There is no office to visit, so the way to reach whoever decides what this site collects is hello@censuswall.com. Everything on this page is answered from there.

What you type stays with you

On Your year and the search box, everything you enter is worked out in your own browser. Nothing you type is sent to us or anyone else, and nothing is put in the address bar. One thing does leave the browser: the country you choose decides which prepared file the page downloads next, so that choice is in the request, the way asking for any page is. Your date of birth is not — it never leaves your device. Compare is worked out in your browser too, with one difference: the two places you name go into the web address, so the comparison can be linked and shared. That means those two places reach the server, like any page you ask for, and stay in your browser's history. Nothing else you type there is sent. A picture you make to share (on Your year or Play) is drawn in your browser too; it goes only where you send it yourself. The one exception is the contact form, and it is the next section: that page exists in order to send.

The contact form

Contact is the one page on this site that sends anything, and only when you press Send. It carries what you put in it — your name, if you give one, your email address, what the message is about, and the message itself — to us as an email, handled by Cloudflare, who run this site. We use it to answer you and for nothing else: it is not added to any list, not passed to anyone, and never used for advertising. Your message then sits in our mailbox as long as an email does, and you can ask us to delete it.

So that the same form cannot be used by a machine thousands of times over, the site counts how many messages have come from one internet address today. It does not write the address down: what is kept is a scrambled form of it that cannot be turned back into an address, and it is thrown away after a day. The form sets no cookie and keeps nothing in your browser.

What your browser keeps

Two cookies, both belonging to Google Analytics, which counts readers: _ga and _ga_G-44HRCRVRZX. They hold a random number for your browser and when your visit began — not your name and not anything you type. Up to three other small things stay in your browser's own storage, on your device only and never sent: which map you prefer, your best scores on Play, and, if you have been asked about counting, your answer. Every one of them is listed, with how long it lasts and how to refuse it, on Cookies.

Counting visits

Readers are counted twice over, by two different services.

Google Analytics is the one that uses the cookies above. Your browser loads its script from Google (googletagmanager.com) and sends Google the page you read, the random number that stands for your browser, your rough location worked out from your internet address, and what kind of browser and device you are on. Google holds that data under its own terms and we see only totals. If you are reading from the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, none of that happens unless you say yes first: the script is loaded in a state that forbids it storing anything, and only your answer releases it. Everywhere else the counting begins on arrival, and Cookies explains how to refuse it. Nothing on the site stops working either way.

Cloudflare Web Analytics is the second, added by the site's host. It sets no cookies, does not follow you across other sites and builds no profile. We see totals: which pages were read, which site or search brought each visit, roughly from which countries, on what kind of browser and device, and how fast the pages loaded.

Hosting

The site is served by Cloudflare. Like any web host, Cloudflare handles your computer's internet address to deliver pages and to protect the site from attacks. We do not keep records that identify visitors. Cloudflare's own policy is at cloudflare.com/privacypolicy.

Live figures

Right now fetches earthquakes, carbon dioxide and temperature from our own server, which collects them from USGS, NOAA and NASA. Your browser does not contact those agencies.

If you write to us

We receive your email address and your message, and use them only to reply. We do not share them or add you to any list.

What lets us count you

In Europe, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, your consent, asked before anything is stored and withdrawable whenever you like by clearing this site's data in your browser. Everywhere else, our own interest in knowing which pages people read, which you can refuse in the ways Cookies sets out.

How long any of it lasts

We keep nothing ourselves. There is no database here, no account and no list. The two cookies last two years in your browser unless you clear them sooner, and the counting they feed sits with Google under its own terms and its own retention settings. The things kept in your browser's storage stay until you clear them.

Where it goes

Google Analytics is run by Google, a company in the United States, so the counting leaves Europe when it happens at all. Google sets out its own basis for those transfers in its terms. The site itself is served from whichever Cloudflare machine is nearest you, which may be in any country.

What you can ask for

If you are in Europe or the United Kingdom you can ask what is held about you, ask for it to be corrected or deleted, object to it, or ask for it to be sent elsewhere. The honest answer will usually be that there is nothing here to send: we hold no name and no account, the counting sits with Google, and the rest is on your own device. Write to hello@censuswall.com and we will tell you what we can. Pennsylvania, where the site is published, gives no equivalent right, and there would be nothing to answer it with in any case.

If you want to complain

Readers in the United Kingdom can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office; readers in an EU country can complain to their own data protection authority. You are welcome to write to us first, and we would rather you did.

Advertising

There is none today. If that changes, this page will change first, and where the law requires it you will be asked before any advertising cookie is set.

Children

We ask nobody for anything, children included. The counting described above does not know how old a reader is and makes no attempt to find out.

Last updated 21 September 2026.