Privacy, kept small

// Analytics

We use Google Analytics (GA4) to understand, in aggregate, which pages people find useful — things like page views, rough (city-level) location, referrer, and device type. This helps us decide what to write next. Google sets cookies to do this and processes the data on our behalf; we do not use it to identify you personally, and we don't sell it. You can read Google's privacy policy for how they handle it.

The site is hosted on Vercel, and we also use Vercel Analytics — a privacy-friendly, aggregate measure of page views and performance that doesn't use cookies and doesn't track you across sites. Like any web host, Vercel also processes standard request data (such as IP address) to serve the site.

// Cookies & local storage

• Analytics cookies — set by Google Analytics, as above.
• The Worlds (the interactive pages at /worlds/) store at most two small values in your own browser's local storage — a visit counter and a “you've seen the reveal” flag — so a world can remember your visit. These never leave your device and are not sent to any server.

// Your choices

You can clear or block cookies in your browser at any time, use your browser's “Do Not Track” setting, or install Google's Analytics opt-out. Blocking cookies won't break the site — everything still works.

// Your rights

Depending on where you live — the EU/UK under GDPR, California under CCPA/CPRA, and similar laws elsewhere — you have the right to ask what personal data relates to you, to request its correction or deletion, to object to it being processed, and to opt out of any sale or sharing of it. We don't sell or share your data with anyone, and we hold no accounts, no email list and no database of visitors, so in practice there is very little to hold.

You can withdraw or change your analytics consent at any time by clearing this site's data in your browser, which resets the choice and asks again. To exercise any of the rights above, email us at [email protected] and we'll respond.

// Contact

Questions about your data, a request to have something looked at, or anything else — email us at [email protected].

// A reminder

404meanings is an independent, educational project — it isn't medical, legal or financial advice. See our About & method page for how the content is written and sourced.

This policy may be updated as the site grows; material changes will be noted here.