Privacy Policy
This policy explains what happens to your data when you use History of the World (the "site"). The short version: the site itself collects nothing. It has no account system, no backend server, and no database — it's a static collection of files, and nothing you do on it is sent to, or stored by, whoever runs the site.
Data we collect
None. We don't use analytics, advertising networks, tracking pixels, or any other mechanism to observe how you use the site, and we don't set any cookies.
Local storage (stays on your device)
The site uses your browser's localStorage — a storage mechanism built into
every browser that keeps data only on your own device — for two small things, purely so
the site remembers your preferences between visits:
- which timeline categories you've chosen to show, and in what order
- the last keyword you typed into the "Create a new column" search box
Neither of these is ever transmitted anywhere. They never reach us, because there is no "us" on the other end to receive them — there's no server this site talks to. You can clear this at any time through your browser's site settings, and doing so has no effect beyond resetting those two preferences.
Third-party services
None. Every asset the site needs — the typefaces and every image shown in an event panel — is hosted on this same site rather than fetched from a third party at runtime. Your browser never connects to Google Fonts, Wikimedia, or any other external server just by visiting this site. (Several of the images were originally sourced from Wikimedia Commons, and remain credited to their original photographer/institution in the panel where they appear, as their Creative Commons licenses require — but the files themselves are served from here, not fetched from Wikimedia on the fly.)
For reference — not because your browser talks to them — here are the privacy policies of the two organizations whose work this site has drawn on: Wikimedia Foundation (source of the historical images, credited individually in each panel) and Google (source of the Fonts, self-hosted here rather than loaded from Google's servers).
Data sharing and selling
There's nothing to share or sell — we don't collect anything in the first place, and this site has never been, and will never be, monetized through advertising or the sale of visitor data.
Your rights under GDPR and similar laws
Regulations like the EU/UK GDPR give you rights to access, correct, delete, and export personal data held about you, and to object to how it's processed. Because this site does not collect or store any personal data at all — on its own servers or anyone else's, since nothing is fetched from a third party at runtime — there is simply nothing for us, or anyone, to access, correct, delete or export on your behalf. If you have a question about this policy or how the site handles data, see Contact below.
Children's privacy
The site doesn't knowingly collect personal data from anyone, including children, because it doesn't collect personal data from anyone at all. The content itself (history, at times including war, violence and other mature subject matter) is not specifically designed for children.
International data transfers
None that this site controls. Since every asset is served from wherever this site itself is hosted, visiting it doesn't cause your browser to send anything to a third-party server in another country. Standard internet routing still means your request to reach this site at all may cross borders on the way here, as with any website — that's governed by your own network and hosting provider, not by anything this site does.
Changes to this policy
If what the site loads or how it behaves changes in a way that affects this policy, we'll update this page and its "last updated" date above.
Contact
Questions about this policy or how the site handles data can be sent to info@historyoftheworld.org.