Ancientist

Privacy Policy

At Ancientist, we take your privacy seriously. This policy explains what data we collect, why, and how we handle it.

Personal Data

We do not collect personal data unless you voluntarily provide it. We do not track user activity for profiling or marketing purposes.

Analytics

We use Google Analytics to understand how visitors use our website and to measure site performance. Google Analytics may use cookies and collect information about website usage, such as pages viewed, traffic sources, and interactions with the site. We use this information to improve our content, user experience, and website performance.

Advertising — Google AdSense

We use Google AdSense to display advertisements, which helps us keep our content free. Google AdSense may use cookies and collect data to serve personalized ads based on your browsing activity. We have implemented GDPR consent controls for users in the EU and comply with applicable US state privacy laws, including CCPA.

You can manage your ad preferences or opt out of personalized advertising via Google’s Ad Settings. For more information, see Google’s Privacy Policy.

Comments

When you leave a comment, we collect the information in the comment form, your IP address, and browser user agent for spam detection. Your email address may be hashed and sent to Gravatar to retrieve your profile picture. See Automattic’s Privacy Policy. Approved comments display your profile picture publicly.

Media

Avoid uploading images containing EXIF GPS data. Images on this site can be downloaded by visitors, and any embedded location data may be extractable.

Cookies

When leaving a comment, you may opt in to saving your name, email, and website in cookies for convenience. These cookies expire after one year. Google AdSense also sets cookies for ad delivery and frequency capping.

Data Retention

Comments and their metadata are kept indefinitely to streamline moderation of follow-up comments. Registered users can view, edit, or delete their profile data at any time — except their username. Administrators can also access and manage this information.

Your Rights

We do not collect or store personal data beyond what is outlined in this policy, so in most cases there is nothing to retrieve or erase on that front.

However, if you have left comments on the site, you can request that we remove your comments and any associated data (name, email, IP address). To submit a removal request, contact us directly.

Some data may still be retained where required by law or for legitimate security purposes.

EU/EEA users (GDPR): You have the right to access, rectify, erase, restrict, or object to processing, and the right to data portability.

California residents (CCPA/CPRA): You have the right to know, delete, and opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information.

Where Your Data Goes

Comments may be processed by an automated spam detection service. Ad data is processed by Google. Analytics data is processed by Simple Analytics.

Policy Updates

We may update this policy periodically. Changes will be posted on this page. We recommend reviewing it from time to time.