The principle

Honest Picture ("Honest Picture," "we," "us," or "our") is built so that the most sensitive thing you do here — answering honest questions about your life — happens entirely on your own device. We designed it this way on purpose. A site about seeing your life clearly should not quietly harvest it. This policy explains, in plain language, what information the site does and does not collect, how it is used, who it may be shared with, and the choices and legal rights you have.

This policy applies to https://honestpicture.com (the "site") and covers our assessment tool, our research library, and the rest of the site. By using the site, you agree to the practices described here.

Your assessment answers (processed only in your browser)

The Context Assessment is a client-side application. This is the core of our privacy design:

  • Your answers are processed only in your browser to generate your context picture.
  • They are not stored on our servers, in a database, or in your browser's local storage.
  • They are not transmitted to us or to any third party.
  • They are not linked to your identity, because we never ask for it and we do not require an account.
  • When you close or refresh the page, your answers are gone.

The Daily Reality Check game works the same way: your guess and streak are kept only on your own device (in your browser's local storage, so the page can remember you played today) and are never transmitted to us or anyone else. Clearing your browser data removes them.

Information we collect

Beyond the assessment, the site collects only a limited set of standard information:

  • Information you choose to give us. If you email us, we receive your email address and whatever you include in your message. We use it only to respond.
  • Information collected automatically. Like virtually every website, our hosting provider and analytics may record standard technical data: your IP address, approximate (city/country-level) location derived from it, browser and device type, operating system, referring page, and the pages you view. This is used for security, reliability, and aggregate analytics — never to build a profile of you by name.
  • Cookies and similar technologies. Small files and equivalents may be stored on your device for the purposes described in the next two sections.

Cookies and similar technologies

A cookie is a small text file a website stores on your device. We (and our service providers) may use the following categories:

  • Strictly necessary cookies. Needed for the site to function and to remember basic preferences (such as a consent choice). These do not require consent.
  • Analytics cookies. Help us understand aggregate, largely anonymised usage — which pages are read and roughly how many people visit — so we can improve the site. See Analytics below.
  • Advertising cookies. Set by Google and other third-party advertising partners to serve and measure ads. See Advertising and Google AdSense below.

You can control or delete cookies through your browser settings, and, where required by law, we will ask for your consent before setting non-essential (analytics or advertising) cookies. Blocking some cookies may affect how parts of the site work.

Advertising and Google AdSense

This site is supported in part by advertising served through Google AdSense, an advertising service provided by Google LLC. To fund the free research library, we display ads, and this involves the following:

  • Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this website and other websites.
  • Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visit to this site and/or other sites on the internet.
  • These cookies may collect data such as your IP address, device identifiers, and browsing activity to help show more relevant ads and measure their performance. We do not receive or store this data ourselves, and we never share your assessment answers with advertisers — those answers never leave your browser.

You can control the ads you see and opt out of personalised advertising:

Where required (for example, for visitors in the EEA, UK, and Switzerland), we use a consent mechanism so that non-essential advertising and analytics cookies are set only after you agree, and you can change your choice at any time.

Analytics

We may use a privacy-conscious analytics service (such as Google Analytics or a similar tool) to understand aggregate traffic. Analytics data is used only in aggregate, is not combined with your assessment answers, and is not used to identify you personally. Where the tool supports it, we enable IP anonymisation. You can opt out of Google Analytics using Google's opt-out browser add-on. See how we use data for specifics.

How we use information

  • To operate, maintain, secure, and improve the site.
  • To respond to your emails and requests.
  • To understand aggregate usage and make the content better.
  • To display advertising that helps fund the site.
  • To comply with legal obligations and enforce our terms of use.

Legal bases (for EEA/UK visitors)

Where the GDPR or UK GDPR applies, we rely on: your consent (for non-essential cookies and advertising/analytics); our legitimate interests in running and securing the site and responding to you; and legal obligation where applicable. You may withdraw consent at any time.

How information is shared

We do not sell your personal information. We share limited data only with service providers who help us run the site, under contracts that limit their use of it:

  • Hosting and content delivery (to serve the site and keep security logs).
  • Analytics providers (aggregate usage).
  • Advertising partners, including Google, as described above.
  • Where required by law, or to protect the rights, safety, and security of the site and its users.

Data retention

We keep information only as long as needed for the purpose it was collected. Email correspondence is retained until it is no longer needed and then deleted on request. Server logs and analytics are retained for limited periods consistent with security and standard provider defaults. Your assessment answers are never retained at all, because they are never collected.

International data transfers

The site is operated from, and its providers may process data in, the United States and other countries. Where personal data is transferred internationally, we rely on appropriate safeguards (such as standard contractual clauses) offered by our providers.

Your privacy rights

Because we do not build profiles or store your answers, there is usually no personal dataset about you for us to export or delete. Depending on where you live, you may still have rights over any information we do hold (such as email correspondence):

  • EEA/UK (GDPR): the right to access, correct, delete, restrict, or object to processing, to data portability, and to withdraw consent or lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority.
  • California (CCPA/CPRA): the right to know what personal information is collected and how it is used, to request deletion, to correct it, to opt out of "sale" or "sharing" of personal information, and not to be discriminated against for exercising these rights. We do not sell personal information.

To exercise any right, email hello@honestpicture.com and we will respond within the time required by applicable law.

Children's privacy

This site is intended for adults and is not directed at children under 13 (or the applicable minimum age in your jurisdiction, such as 16 in parts of the EU). We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has provided us information, contact us and we will delete it.

Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control

Because there is no common industry standard for Do Not Track (DNT), we do not respond to DNT signals. Where required, we honour recognised opt-out signals such as Global Privacy Control (GPC) for the "sale"/"sharing" of personal information.

Security

We use reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect information, including serving the site over HTTPS and minimising what we collect. No method of transmission or storage is perfectly secure, but collecting as little as possible is our strongest safeguard.

Third-party links

Our pages link to external sources, studies, and services. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of those sites; please review their own policies.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as the site evolves or as laws change. Material changes will be reflected in the "last updated" date above, and, where required, we will provide additional notice.

Contact us

Questions about privacy, or want to exercise a right? Email hello@honestpicture.com or use our contact page. For related detail, see how we use data.