Privacy Policy
Overview
Etymology Map is a static website with no user accounts. This policy explains the little data that is involved in using the site: a few preferences kept in your browser, and anonymous usage totals that help us decide which words to add next. It also explains what may change if the site starts showing advertising.
What's stored in your browser
The site saves one small preference (whether you've chosen light or dark mode) using your browser's local storage. This stays on your device, is never transmitted anywhere, and is used solely to remember your preference on your next visit. If you play the word game, your browser also remembers whether you have played today's daily game, your result and your day streak, the same way. A tip about the game is shown once on your first visit, and your browser remembers that it has been shown. You can clear all of it at any time by clearing your browser's site data for this page.
Anonymous usage statistics
We collect a small amount of anonymous usage data. It is not tied to you or to your device in any way, and it is used for two things only: finding popular words that are missing from the collection, so we can expand it, and improving the website for the people who use it.
What is counted:
- which words' pages are viewed, and roughly how long they stay on screen;
- searches for words that aren't in the collection yet;
- how often the "Read the full story" section is opened and the Share button is used;
- visits to pages that don't exist, so we can fix broken links;
- finished games of the word game on the Play page, as a score range only (for example "800 to 849 points"), so we can tell you what share of players you beat.
These events are added straight into daily totals, such as "the word coffee was viewed 40 times on this day". We don't store IP addresses, and we don't use cookies, local storage, device fingerprints or any visitor or session identifier for this, so the totals can't be linked to a person, and your visits can't be followed from page to page or from one day to the next. Search text is only kept if it looks like a word (letters only, at most four words); anything else, such as numbers or email addresses, is thrown away before it is stored.
The totals are processed and stored by our hosting provider, Cloudflare, and are deleted after about 13 months. We don't sell or share them, and we don't use them for advertising. If your browser sends a Global Privacy Control or Do Not Track signal, the site doesn't send these usage events at all.
Cloudflare also gives us general traffic figures, such as page views, countries and device types, without using cookies. We also use Google Search Console, which shows which Google searches lead to the site; it doesn't add anything to our pages.
What we don't collect
We don't require sign-in and we don't collect personal information. There are no accounts, no tracking cookies and no third-party analytics or tracking scripts on the site. The only form is the optional Feedback form described below.
Feedback
The Feedback link in the footer sends us a message. We receive what you type, the page you were on and, only if you choose to give one, your email address so we can reply. We use it to improve the site and to answer you, and we don't share it or add it to anything else. Messages are stored with our hosting provider, Cloudflare, and may be forwarded to us by email through the email service Resend. We don't store your IP address with the message.
Third-party content delivery
The interactive map is rendered using open-source libraries (d3-geo, topojson-client) and world map coastline data, all of which are hosted directly on this site rather than loaded from a third-party CDN. Your browser does not make requests to any other company's servers to render the map.
Advertising
This site may show advertisements served by Google and other third-party advertising vendors. These vendors may use cookies or similar technologies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this site or other websites, in order to show you more relevant advertising. You can learn more about how Google uses this information, and opt out of personalized advertising, at policies.google.com/technologies/ads.
Children's privacy
This site is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children.
Changes to this policy
If this policy changes (for example, when advertising is enabled), the "last updated" date above will be revised to reflect that.
Contact
Questions about this policy can be sent to [email protected].