Privacy Policy

We collect minimal to no personal information.

• Learning Progress: Your quiz results, article completion, XP, achievements, and streaks are stored only in your browser's localStorage. This data never leaves your device and is not transmitted to any server.
• Newsletter (Optional): If you choose to subscribe to our newsletter, we collect your email address solely to send you educational updates. You can unsubscribe at any time.
• Analytics: We use Google Analytics to understand aggregate usage patterns (which pages are read, roughly how visitors found the site). Google Analytics uses cookies and only runs after you accept analytics cookies in the banner at the bottom of the screen.
• Donations: If you donate via Stripe, Stripe processes your payment details directly — we never see or store your card number. We do store the donation amount, timestamp, and the email Stripe provides so we can send a receipt via Resend, our transactional email provider.

Any information we do collect is used solely to:

• Provide and improve our educational content
• Send newsletter updates (only if you opted in)
• Understand aggregate usage patterns to improve the site
• Process donations and send payment receipts
• Serve advertising that helps fund free access to this site (see Section 4)

We do NOT:

• Sell or rent your data to third parties
• Share more than the minimum data our payment/analytics/ad vendors need to function
• Build user profiles beyond what Google Analytics/AdSense do on our behalf under their own privacy terms

We use your browser's localStorage to save your learning progress, preferences, and gamification data (XP, achievements, streaks). This data:

• Stays on your device
• Is not transmitted to our servers
• Can be cleared anytime through your browser settings
• Will be lost if you clear browser data or switch devices

Cookies are opt-in. The banner at the bottom of the screen lets you accept or decline non-essential cookies. Declining (or ignoring it) keeps Google Analytics and Google-served personalized ads turned off for you — we set Google's default consent signals to "denied" until you explicitly accept.

Our site includes:

• Google Analytics: Aggregate, cookie-based usage analytics. Only runs if you accept cookies. See Google's Privacy Policy.
• EthicalAds: A single, non-tracking image ad in the footer. EthicalAds does not use cookies, does not build user profiles, and does not track you across sites — it targets ads only by page content.
• Google AdSense: We display (or, during Google's review period, have applied to display) Google AdSense ads to help fund free access to this site. AdSense may use cookies to serve ads based on your visits here and other sites, but only if you've accepted cookies — see how Google uses advertising cookies and Google Ads Settings to opt out of personalization directly with Google.
• Stripe: Donation payments are handled entirely by Stripe on Stripe-hosted pages. We never see or store your card details.
• Resend: Sends transactional emails only — magic-link sign-in and donation receipts. No marketing emails unless you opt into the newsletter.
• External Links: Links to academic papers, research institutions, and other educational resources. These sites have their own privacy policies.
• GitHub: Our source code is hosted on GitHub. Visiting our repository is subject to GitHub's privacy policy.
• Hosting Provider: Our site is hosted on Vercel, which may collect basic server logs (IP addresses, request times) for security and performance purposes.

You have the right to:

• Access any data we hold about you (which is likely none)
• Request deletion of your newsletter subscription
• Clear your local browser data at any time
• Use our site without providing any personal information

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at:

cultural-community@culturesherpa.org