What we collect
- Account info when you register: name, email, date of birth, gender (optional), and a hashed password we never store in plain text.
- Profile info you choose to add: avatar, region, country, biography.
- Content you create: forum posts, comments, video and text guides, species submissions, chat messages.
- Technical data: IP address, browser user-agent, approximate geolocation (city / country derived from IP), session identifiers, and timestamps of activity.
How we use it
- To operate the service — authenticate you, render your content, and let other users find you.
- To send transactional emails (welcome, password reset, account changes) and, if you opt in, digests and notifications.
- To improve the site: analytics on which pages and guides are popular — see Advertising and analytics below.
- To detect abuse, spam, and credential attacks.
Who we share it with
We don't sell your personal data. We share strictly as needed with our hosting provider, our email delivery service, and the two Google services named below. Every cookie any of them sets is listed in the Cookie Policy.
Advertising and analytics
This site uses Google Analytics 4 to count page views. It is off until you turn it on in the cookie panel, and it may set and read cookies in your browser or use similar identifiers such as web beacons.
No advertising is running on this site at present. The site is built to carry it and the controls and disclosures are in place, but no ad slot is configured, so nothing described below is happening today. It is stated here so the terms are known in advance rather than announced afterwards. If advertising is enabled it would be served by a third-party network such as Google AdSense, it would remain off until you accept the advertising category, and then:
- Google, as a third-party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads on this site. Its use of advertising cookies lets it and its partners serve ads to you based on your visits here and to other sites.
- Third parties may place and read cookies in your browser through the ad slots on this site, or use web beacons to collect information as a result of ads served here. The list of companies Google may use is published at Google's ad technology providers.
- The data these services receive includes your IP address, the pages you visit here, your browser and device type, and approximate location derived from your IP. Google's own account of what it does with it is at How Google uses information from sites that use its services.
Your choices about advertising
Nothing that measures or advertises is switched on until you say so. Analytics and advertising cookies are denied by default until you answer the cookie banner, and you can change that answer at any time from Cookie choices in the footer of every page. You can also:
- Turn off personalised advertising for your Google account at My Ad Center.
- Opt out of third-party vendors' use of cookies for personalised advertising at aboutads.info or youronlinechoices.eu.
- Block or clear cookies in your browser at any time — see the Cookie Policy for how.
Declining does not lock you out of anything. You will still see ads; they will just be chosen without your browsing history.
Your rights
- See and correct your details on your Profile page.
- Get a copy of your data — ask through the Contact page or a support ticket, and we will send it to your account's email address within 30 days.
- Delete your account — from your Profile, under Danger zone → Request deletion. It is removed 30 days later; you can cancel before then.
- Opt out of any non-transactional email — every newsletter / digest contains an unsubscribe link.
Retention
Account data is kept while your account is active and for up to 30 days after deletion request. Server logs are kept for up to 90 days. Anonymised analytics may be kept indefinitely.
Children
The service is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect data from children under that age.
Changes
We may update this policy from time to time. Significant changes will be announced via the homepage and, when relevant, by email. The "Last updated" date above always reflects the current version.