Privacy
This site runs first-party, cookieless analytics: it counts page views in aggregate, on infrastructure we control, and shares nothing with anyone. The analytics sets no cookie and no identifier. There is no consent banner because there is no cross-site tracking and no advertising to consent to — but you can still switch it off, here or in account settings, and we honour a Global Privacy Control or Do Not Track signal automatically.
If you create an account, we store the email address and name you give us, and the maps you build. We do not sell that data or share it with advertisers. Authentication is handled by a self-hosted service; no third-party identity provider sees your details unless you choose to sign in through one.
The map — its basemap tiles, fonts, label glyphs and icon sprites — is served entirely from infrastructure we control, so loading a page does not tell a third party that you visited.
You can delete your account at any time from account settings. Your maps are removed and your account record is anonymised.
You can also ask for a copy of your personal data — your account record and every map you have built, with its formula and style — in a structured, machine-readable form. Email privacy@census-area-explorer.example and we will respond within one month.
What the site keeps on your device
None of this is used to track you and none of it is shared. It is the minimum the features you use need in order to work.
| What | Why | Cleared |
|---|---|---|
| Session cookie | Keeps you signed in. Set only after you log in; signed, HttpOnly, SameSite=Lax — the last of which is also what blocks cross-site request forgery. | 30 days after your last visit, or when you sign out |
| Sandbox draft | The formula you build before signing in, held in local storage so it survives the signup step. | When you discard it, or you clear the browser's site data |
| Statistics cache | Figures for areas you have looked at, held in IndexedDB so panning the map does not re-download them. | Evicted as space is needed; cleared with the browser's site data |
| Analytics opt-out | A single flag in local storage recording that you turned analytics off on this device. | When you turn analytics back on, or clear site data |