Privacy Policy

We do not require you to create an account, and we do not ask for your name, email address or other directly identifying information to use the tools on this site. We collect:

• Usage and device data, collected automatically when you visit — such as pages viewed, approximate location, browser and device type, and referring pages — through our analytics and advertising providers described below.
• Cookies and similar technologies, set by us and by third parties (see “Advertising” and “Analytics”).
• Content you submit — in the “Where is Downtown?” tool, the map area you draw is stored so it can be combined into an anonymous heatmap. It is saved with a one-way, salted hash of a randomly generated browser identifier (used only to let you update your own submission) and a separate salted hash of your IP address (used only to limit spam/abuse). We do not store your raw IP address, and these submissions are not linked to your identity.

We use Google AdSense to show ads. Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this and other websites.

• Google’s use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visits to this site and/or other sites on the internet.
• You can opt out of personalized advertising by visiting Google Ads Settings.
• You can opt out of some third-party vendors’ use of cookies for personalized advertising at aboutads.info/choices and youronlinechoices.com.

For more information on how Google uses data from sites that use its services, see Google’s Privacy & Terms.

We use privacy-friendly analytics (Vercel Analytics) to understand aggregate traffic — for example, which pages are visited and roughly where visitors come from. This is used only in aggregate to improve the site.

We use the information above to operate and improve the site, understand which tools are useful, prevent abuse, and display advertising that helps keep the site free.

We do not sell your personal information. Information is processed by the third-party service providers that make the site work — principally Google (advertising) and Vercel (hosting and analytics) — each under their own privacy policies. Anonymous, aggregated data (such as the “downtown” heatmap) may be shown publicly on the site.

You can control or delete cookies through your browser settings and opt out of personalized advertising using the links above. Blocking cookies may affect how some parts of the site work.

We may update this policy from time to time. Material changes will be reflected by the “Last updated” date above.

Questions about this policy? Email observingthecity@gmail.com.