Privacy notice

The short version

You can browse and read poll results without an account. If you create one, we keep the smallest amount of information needed to run your account, count your vote once, and send only the emails you asked for. We do not sell your data, and we do not run polls on elections or voting intention.

What we collect, and why

Each item below has one purpose. If we cannot name the purpose, we do not collect it.

• Account details (email, display name, avatar from your sign-in provider) — to create and secure your account.
• Your votes — to record your opinion once per poll and to build aggregate results.
• Optional profile details (country, region, city, age band, gender) — to show aggregate breakdowns. Every field is optional and can be left blank or cleared later.
• Email preferences and consent records — to honour and evidence your choices.
• Usage analytics (page views, poll views, shares, an anonymous rotating session id, referring site) — to understand what is popular and to spot abuse.
• Moderation and audit records — to keep the platform safe and to show who made a staff decision.

What we deliberately do not collect

No exact date of birth, no precise location or GPS, no device fingerprinting, no cross-site advertising trackers, no sensitive categories such as health, religion, caste, biometrics or financial data. We never store the full URL you came from with its query string attached to your activity.

Age

UnofficialPoll is for adults. You must be 18 or older to create an account and vote. We do not knowingly collect data from children. If we learn an account belongs to someone under 18, we remove it and its data.

How your vote appears

Results are always published as aggregate counts and percentages. Your individual vote is never displayed next to your name or profile. Demographic breakdowns are suppressed entirely for any group too small to be shown safely, so a result can never single you out.

Consent

Optional emails and research invitations are off until you switch them on. Withdrawing a consent is as easy as giving it, from the Privacy centre or the one-click unsubscribe in any email. We keep a dated record of each grant and withdrawal, including which version of this notice applied.

Who can see your data

Only you and, where necessary for their job, our staff. Access is limited by role: moderators see moderation queues, analysts see aggregates, and only administrators can act on privacy requests. Staff actions on your data are written to a tamper-proof audit log.

Processors we use

Cloud hosting and database (our backend provider), email delivery (Resend) and an AI gateway used only to draft poll questions. Poll drafting never includes your personal data. Each provider handles data on our instructions only.

How long we keep things

Account data lives for as long as your account does. Raw analytics events are kept for a short window and then reduced to daily aggregates. Email delivery events, view and share logs expire on their own schedules. Our retention register is reviewed by staff and enforced by an automated job.

Exporting and deleting

The Privacy centre gives you a machine-readable copy of your data on demand. You can also request deletion; we hold the request for 14 days in case you change your mind, then remove your profile, votes, email records and consents. Aggregate totals already published remain, because they no longer identify you.

Security

Access to data is enforced in the database itself, not just in the interface. Secrets and API keys are held server-side and are never shipped to your browser. Privileged actions require an explicit role and are audited.

Your rights

You can ask us for access, correction, deletion, a copy of your data, withdrawal of consent, or to raise a grievance. Use the Privacy centre, or write to privacy@unofficialpoll.com. We aim to respond within 30 days.

Changes to this notice

We version this notice. When it changes materially we raise the version number and ask you to review your consents. Your previous consent records stay linked to the version that applied at the time.