Privacy

mapbasedpolls is an independent project. This policy covers the site, the polls, the map, and the comments. It describes what the product actually stores today.

A voter cookie. The first time you open the site we set a cookie named mbp_vid. It holds a random id, not your name, email, or device name. The cookie is httpOnly, lasts about 400 days, and is only sent back to this site. We use it so one browser gets one vote per poll, and so a comment or a comment vote stays with the same browser.

Your country. Two more cookies, mbp_cc and mbp_detected, remember the country you picked and the country we guessed. They last about 400 days. The page can read them so the country picker stays on your choice.

The vote. A vote stores the option, the country you voted as, the country we detected if we had one, the voter id, the time, and the connection IP. The public map never shows the voter id or the IP. It shows how many people in each country chose each option. Admins can see the IP when they review abuse.

Comments. A comment stores the text (up to 500 characters), the poll, an optional parent comment, the voter id, the time, and the connection IP. On the page the author is shown as “Anon” plus the last four characters of that id. The IP is not shown there. Upvotes and downvotes on comments are stored the same way: comment, voter id, and direction. Comments cannot contain links. A captcha may run before a comment is posted.

An optional account. Sign up stores an email, a username, and a hashed password with Supabase, the service that keeps the database. The password itself is not stored in the poll tables. When you sign up or log in, votes and comments from the voter cookie in that browser are moved onto the account. The map still shows only country totals. Your email is not shown on a poll. An avatar you pick or upload is shown next to your name to people you are friends with.

Polls you create. A new poll stores the question (4 to 83 characters), up to eight options, a category, the time, the voter id of whoever submitted it, and the connection IP. It stays off the public map until an admin approves it. You can see it under My polls while it waits, marked in review. After approval the question is public. The IP and the voter id are not shown on the poll.

We do not store your phone number, precise location, or payment details. A password is stored only as a hash by the account service, and only if you create an account. We do not run advertising, and we do not use an analytics product that follows you across other sites. We do not sell personal data.

To suggest a country we first look at a country header the host may already provide, such as a CDN country code. If that header is missing, the server may send the connection’s IP address to ipwho.is and read back a country code. We keep the country code. We also store the IP on the vote, comment, or poll it belongs to, so admins can review abuse. It is not drawn on the map.

You can ignore the guess and pick another country before you vote. The vote is counted for the country you confirm, not silently for the guess. If both exist, we also keep the detected country next to the vote so we can see when they differ. That field is not drawn on the map.

The voter id exists so the map is one vote per browser. Country and vote data exist so the atlas can be drawn. Comments exist because you chose to post them. Creating a poll publishes that question to everyone.

If the GDPR or a similar law applies to you, we rely on the need to provide the service you asked for (showing polls, saving your vote, publishing country totals) and on a legitimate interest in keeping a single vote per browser and removing abuse. The cookies described here are required for that. We do not set marketing cookies. Details are on the cookie page.

Anyone can see poll questions, option totals, country totals on the map, and comment text with the short anonymous label. They cannot see your voter id.

An accepted friend can see which questions you answered. They see your option only after they answer the same question. A vote you mark “Hide this answer from friends” before you vote stays off that list.

Admins of the site can see account emails, the text of polls and comments, and the IP addresses stored for moderation. Those details are not on the public map. The host that serves the site can also see ordinary connection data, such as IP addresses in server logs. When a country lookup is needed, ipwho.is receives the IP for that lookup. We do not give vote records to advertisers. We will disclose data if the law requires it.

Cookies last about 400 days unless you delete them sooner. Votes and comments stay while the poll stays, because the country totals are the product. Clearing your cookies gives this browser a new voter id. The old votes remain inside the country totals, and we can no longer tell they came from you.

Pick a different country in the picker. Delete the site’s cookies in your browser if you want a fresh voter id. After that, this browser is no longer linked to the earlier votes or comments.

There is no public profile yet. If a comment should come down, or you want an account deleted, write to privacy@mapbasedpolls.com with the poll, the comment text, and roughly when you posted it. If you still have the same browser, say so. We will remove a comment we can match. Country totals are aggregates: deleting one anonymous vote out of a country count is not something we can do from an email alone.

Where the law gives you rights of access, correction, deletion, restriction, or objection, write to the same address and we will answer. You can also complain to your local data protection authority. In Poland that is the Prezes Urzędu Ochrony Danych Osobowych.

The site is not meant for children under 16. Do not put your name, school, or anyone else’s personal details in a comment or a poll.

If we start storing accounts, analytics, or anything else listed here as absent, we will update this page and the date at the top before we rely on it. Using the site after that means the new text applies. Voting rules sit in the terms, and how to behave in comments sits in the rules.

Privacy questions go to privacy@mapbasedpolls.com. The contact page lists what to include.