Privacy policy
Last updated 30 September 2026
The short version
- No accounts. You never need to sign up or give us anything to read the site. Ads come from Google, and Google's advertising cookies are used only with your consent where the law requires it (see Advertising).
- We count, we don't track. We count page views and what people search for, as anonymous totals, to learn which topics to write next. We never build a profile of you.
- Feedback is only what you type. If you send us a message, we keep it for up to 12 months.
- We never sell what you send us, and we only share data with the service providers that run the site (below).
Who runs this site
Knowledge Atlas (knowledge-atlas.org) is run by its owner, who decides how the personal data described here is used (the "controller"). For anything about your privacy, write to hello@knowledge-atlas.org.
What we collect, and why
When you visit a page
The site is hosted by Cloudflare. Like any web host, Cloudflare necessarily processes technical information such as your IP address and browser type in order to deliver pages to you and protect the site against attacks. We don't store your IP address. If Cloudflare blocks a request as an attack, its security tools may show us that request's IP address; we use this only to protect the site.
Page view statistics
We use Cloudflare Web Analytics to count page views, see which sites send visitors here, and check that pages load quickly. According to Cloudflare, it doesn't use cookies or other storage in your browser, and doesn't fingerprint visitors by IP address or browser details. We only see totals.
Anonymous usage counts
To improve the map, the site counts a few actions:
- Searches: the words you search for and the top result. Before anything is sent, anything that looks like an email address, phone number or long number is removed, and the text is cut to 100 characters.
- Clicks: which topic you open on the map, which search result you choose (its position in the list), when you use the random-topic button, and which resource or source links you follow.
These are stored only as daily totals (for example "the search how do planes fly happened 4 times on 3 October"). No IP address, cookie or identifier is attached, so a count can't be linked back to you. Counts are deleted after 24 months.
These counts are switched off automatically if your browser sends a "Do Not Track" or "Global Privacy Control" signal. You can also switch them off here:
The feedback form
If you send feedback, we store what you type: the type of message, your message, the page it's about, and, only if you choose to give them, your email address (so we can reply) and a name to show with a quote. We use it to fix mistakes, improve pages, and reply to you. We quote a comment on the site only if you tick the box that allows it. Feedback is deleted automatically after 12 months, or sooner if you ask.
To stop spam, the form uses Cloudflare Turnstile, a check that tells people from bots without puzzles. To do this, Cloudflare processes technical signals from your browser, such as your IP address and browser details. According to Cloudflare, these signals are used for bot detection, and Turnstile doesn't use cookies for this.
Emails
Messages sent to our email addresses are forwarded by Cloudflare to the mailbox we read, which is hosted by Google. We keep emails only as long as we need them to deal with your message, usually no longer than 12 months.
Settings stored in your browser
The site saves two small settings in your browser's local storage (not cookies): that you've closed the privacy notice, and whether you've switched off the usage counts above. They never leave your device, and you can clear them at any time in your browser settings. Google's advertising and consent tools may store cookies or similar data in your browser, as described below.
Advertising
We show ads provided by Google AdSense, on topic pages only (never on the map, the home page, search, or pages about health, law or money). Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on a user's prior visits to this website or other websites. Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to our visitors based on their visits to this site and/or other sites on the Internet.
You can opt out of personalised advertising in Google's Ads Settings, or opt out of some third-party vendors' use of cookies for personalised advertising at aboutads.info. Learn how Google uses information from sites that use its services.
Your choice in Europe, the UK and Switzerland. If you visit from these places, Google's consent message asks for your choice before advertising cookies are used or ads are personalised. You can change your choice at any time with the privacy and cookie settings link that Google's consent tool adds to the page.
Ads are chosen by Google, not by us. They never influence which sources we cite or which evidence level a page gets.
Legal basis
Where laws such as the EU or UK GDPR apply, we rely on our legitimate interest in running, improving and protecting a free educational website for statistics, spam protection and handling feedback, and on your consent for quoting your comment publicly, and for advertising cookies and personalised ads. You can withdraw consent at any time.
Who else processes data
- Cloudflare: hosting, the feedback database, statistics, Turnstile and email forwarding.
- Google: the mailbox that receives emails sent to our addresses, and advertising (see above).
These providers operate worldwide, so your data may be processed in countries other than your own.
Your rights
You can ask to see, correct or delete anything you've sent us, or object to how we use it. Write to hello@knowledge-atlas.org. Because we don't ask who you are, please tell us roughly what you sent and when, so we can find it. You may also have the right to complain to your local data protection authority.
Children
The site is for a general audience and is not directed at children under 13. If you're under 16, please ask a parent or guardian before sending us a message.
Changes
If we change this policy, we'll update the date at the top of this page.