What we keep and how you control it
Last updated October 8, 2026. Plain version of the privacy policy.
Without a profile
We keep no profile and nothing that names you. Your choices stay in the address of the page. If you press thumbs up on a story, read a story or leave a comment, the site keeps what is listed under "Stories" below, without your name unless you type it in a comment. The company that hosts the site (Cloudflare) also keeps ordinary server records, such as the pages requested and the time.
With a profile
| What | Why | When |
|---|---|---|
| First name | To greet you ("Hi, Neil") | Always, with a profile |
| Email address | To confirm the profile is yours, to send sign-in and password links | Always, with a profile |
| Password, as a salted one-way scramble | To let you sign in. It cannot be read back, by us or anyone | If you made a password. Not needed if you use Google |
| Your choices: level, people, years the money lasts, years until moving, country, state or metro area, age, sex, healthy habits, stocks in the mix, Social Security, other income | To fill in the calculators for you, and so you can see how a different choice changes the answer. Only choices a calculator uses are kept | Only while the first choice is on |
| Places and stories you open | To suggest places and stories based on what you look at | Only while the second choice is on ("Suggest places and stories based on what I look at") |
| How long you might live: where you live and where you would move, and the figures the page showed (expected age, the range, the four chances), with your age, sex and habits | To fill in How long might I live? for you, to show the figure in My profile, and to suggest a first length for Will the money last? | Only while the first choice is on |
| Places you saved with the heart (kind, name, country, the page address and the place's photo address), up to 60 | To list them in My profile under My places | Until you remove them or delete the account. Tapping a heart is your own action, so it needs no choice to be on |
| A place you tapped a heart on while signed out, kept in your own browser (not sent to us) | So it can be saved when you sign in | Until you sign in (then it is saved) or clear your browser |
| A short list of places you have looked at, kept in your own browser (not sent to us) | To decide whether to offer the second choice | Only while the first choice is on |
| How often each sign-up wording is shown, how often its button is pressed, and how many profiles are made after it: a count per wording per day, with no name, email, internet address or cookie, so no one can be identified from it | To learn which wording helps people most | 24 months |
| The sign-up wording you were given, the date until a prompt stays hidden after Not now, a Never ask choice, and the place or choices you meant to save before you made a profile, kept in your own browser (not sent to us) | So the wording does not change from page to page and the prompt does not come back too soon; so what you meant to save is saved after you sign up | Until you sign in (then it is saved), 3 days for choices, 7 days for Not now, or until you clear your browser |
| A switch saying you chose Never ask | So the offer bar does not come back | Until you turn it on again or delete the account |
| A record of your agreement to the Terms and Privacy and that you are 18 or older, and of each choice you turned on or off, with the date and the wording and its version | To show what you agreed to | Always, with a profile. After you delete the profile a short anonymous copy stays (see "After you delete" below) |
| Time of your last sign-in | To delete profiles nobody uses | Always, with a profile |
| One cookie with a random code | To keep you signed in | While you are signed in |
Stories: comments, thumbs up, reading counts
| What | Why | When |
|---|---|---|
| Your comment, the name you typed, and scrambled versions of your email (if you gave one), internet address and browser type | To show the comment, and to block spam and repeat abuse | Until you or Neil remove the comment. Ask by email and it is erased for good. Removed comments and spam are erased 30 days after removal |
| A thumbs up: a scramble of your internet address and browser type, the same on each visit | To count one thumbs up per reader and let you take it back | Until you take it back |
| Reading counts: that an article was read, how far, how long, and the name of the site that sent you; with a scramble that changes every day | To see which stories are read | 24 months |
| A block on a spammer: a scramble of an internet address or email | To stop repeat spam | Until Neil lifts it |
The two choices
Both are unticked until you say yes, and both are optional. They are separate. You can tick them when you create your profile, or leave them empty and decide later. If you leave the first one empty, nothing about your choices is stored. Once you have changed a choice on a calculator, a small bar asks whether to keep your choices in your profile. Yes keeps them; Not now hides the bar and asks again no sooner than 7 days later; Never ask stops the bar for good (the bar can be turned on again in My profile). Until you say Yes, your choices stay in the page and nothing is sent to us. The second choice is offered once, in the same way, never on the first day, and only after you have looked at three different places on the site; that count of places is kept only in your own browser until you say yes. The first keeps your choices. The second, which needs the first, notes the places and stories you open, only to suggest more places and stories. In My profile the second choice reads "Suggest places and stories based on what I look at", with the line "Off: we do not note what you look at." Unticking the second erases what it collected. Unticking the first erases your saved choices.
Where, and for how long
Stored with Cloudflare. Kept until you delete it, or until 24 months after you last used the profile. Links in emails (sign-up, sign-in, password) are deleted 7 days after they expire; a sign-up you never confirmed is therefore kept for at most about 8 days and then deleted.
After you delete
Deleting your profile erases your name, email address, password, saved choices, places and records of choices. One short record stays so that we can show what you agreed to: a one-way scramble of your email address (not the address), what you agreed to and its wording and version, the date you agreed and the date of deletion. It holds no name and no saved choices. It is kept for 3 years after the deletion and then erased.
Your controls, in My profile
- Read every item we hold, change it, or delete it, one at a time or all at once.
- Turn either choice off, and turn the offer bar on or off.
- Change your password (it asks for the current one), add a password if you came in with Google, change your email address (we confirm at the new address and tell the old one), and sign out on every device.
- Download everything as one file, including your saved places.
- Delete your account: a small link at the very bottom of My profile, below the page footer. You type DELETE to confirm. It erases the account and everything saved with it, including your saved places and your life expectancy, except the short record of what you agreed to (see "After you delete").
What we never do
We never sell, rent or give your individual details to anyone. We may describe our readers as a group, with no names or emails, and never show a group of fewer than 5 people. We do not use advertising cookies. Profiles are for people 18 and older.
Questions
From Here, Anywhere is run by Neil Solomon, Mexico City, Mexico.