Humanity Observatory

Privacy

We keep this simple because we collect almost nothing.

What we collect

  • There are no accounts, forms or sign-ups on Humanity Observatory, so we hold no personal details you give us.
  • We run no advertising trackers. If you accept the analytics banner, Google Analytics sets a cookie so we can see how people use the site, and ad storage and ad personalisation stay off. If you decline or ignore the banner, no analytics cookie is set and nothing is sent to Google.
  • Like any website, our server records the technical details of each request, such as the page asked for, the time, your IP address and the browser you use. We use these only to keep the site running and secure.
  • The site is delivered through Cloudflare, which passes your request on to our server and helps protect the site from abuse. Cloudflare therefore sees the same request details.

Search

The search box sends the words you type to our server, as part of the page address, so it can show you results. We do not keep a list of searches or link them to you, but the address is part of the server’s ordinary request record described above.

Cookies and storage

  • We set no cookies of our own.
  • Once you press Accept or Decline, your browser keeps that choice in its local storage under the name obs_consent_v1 so we do not ask again. Nothing else is stored in your browser.
  • If you accept analytics, Google Analytics sets a cookie called _ga and a second one starting _ga_, which tell it which visits come from the same browser. Google gives them a lifetime of up to two years, renewed whenever you visit. Declining removes them.

Google Analytics, only if you accept

  • Nothing from Google is loaded until you press Accept. Before that, and for ever if you decline or ignore the banner, your browser makes no request to Google.
  • If you accept, Google processes the data for us: the pages you view, how you reached them, and basic details of your device and browser, with an approximate location. Google also receives your IP address, as any website you load would. Google may process it in countries outside your own; see Google’s privacy policy.
  • Google keeps analytics data for up to 14 months.
  • We turn off ad storage and ad personalisation, and we do not use the data for advertising.

Your cookie choice

You can change your analytics choice at any time. Declining removes the analytics cookies, and from the next page you open nothing is sent to Google.

Nothing else is loaded from other companies

Pages use your device’s own fonts, draw charts and maps in your browser from data held on this site, and use no map-tile provider, embedded video or social-media button.

Links to other sites

We link to the official statistics offices and agencies whose figures we publish. They have their own privacy practices, which we do not control.