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Legal

Privacy policy

Effective November 10, 2026

The short version

The World Through Time has no accounts. It is free to use and is paid for by advertising from Google AdSense. The only form is the optional newsletter sign-up. We use Cloudflare Web Analytics, Google Analytics, and PostHog to understand which pages are read and how the map is used. The site's own files — fonts, map library, map data and relief tiles — are all served from this site. We do not sell personal information; see "Advertising" for what Google does with ad cookies.

Who we are

This site is operated by Plus Marketing Solutions LLC, a company organized under the laws of Wyoming, United States ("we", "us"), 30 N Gould St, Ste R, Sheridan, WY 82801. Questions about this policy: hello@theworldthroughtime.com.

What is collected

Server logs. Like every website, the servers that deliver this site — operated by our hosting provider, Cloudflare, Inc. — automatically record technical details of each request: IP address, browser and operating system, the page requested, the referring page, and the time. These logs are used to deliver the site, keep it secure and diagnose faults, and are kept only as long as the hosting provider's own retention requires.

Analytics. To learn which pages people read and how the map is used, the site runs Cloudflare Web Analytics, Google Analytics, and PostHog. These tools see the pages you visit, the page that referred you, your browser, device type and screen size, and an approximate location derived from your IP address. We use the results to decide what to write and fix next. We do not use them to identify you, and we do not combine them with any other information about you.

  • Cloudflare Web Analytics (Cloudflare, Inc.) counts visits without cookies, local storage or fingerprinting, and reports only aggregate figures. Cloudflare's privacy policy.
  • Google Analytics (Google LLC) sets cookies to tell visits apart and recognise returning visitors. According to Google, Google Analytics does not log or store IP addresses. We have not enabled Google Signals or any advertising features, so this data is not used to show you ads, and it is kept for no longer than 14 months. How Google uses data from sites that use its services.
  • PostHog (PostHog, Inc.) records page views and the clicks and navigation within the site, using a cookie or local-storage identifier to tell visits apart. Data is stored in the European Union. PostHog also records some sessions as replays of what happened on screen, with all text you type masked, to help us find what is confusing or broken. PostHog's privacy policy.

Advertising. The site shows ads from Google AdSense. See "Advertising" below.

Newsletter sign-ups. Only if you subscribe to the newsletter, we collect what you enter — your first name, email address and country — together with the page you signed up on, the time, and the consent wording shown to you. See "Newsletter" below. Nothing else you type on the site is collected.

Newsletter

What we keep. Your first name, email address and country; the page and time you signed up; the consent wording shown to you; and, as a plausibility check, the country our hosting provider derives from your connection. We do not store your IP address.

Why. To send you a weekly email with new articles and expanded glossary entries, addressed by your first name, and to understand roughly where our readers are. Nothing else: we do not sell, rent or share the list.

Where. The list is stored in Cloudflare D1, a database run by our hosting provider, Cloudflare, Inc.. We have not sent any email yet. Before we do, we will name the service that sends it here, and ask you to confirm your subscription.

How long. Until you unsubscribe. Every email will carry an unsubscribe link; you can also write to hello@theworldthroughtime.com. We delete unsubscribed addresses within 30 days.

Advertising

To keep the site free, it shows ads served by Google AdSense (Google LLC; in Europe, Google Ireland Limited). Google decides which ads appear, and we do not see who you are or which ads you are shown.

Google and its advertising partners use cookies and similar technologies to show ads, to limit how often you see the same ad, to measure how ads perform and to prevent fraud. With your permission, or where the law does not require it, ads may be personalised, that is, chosen on the basis of your earlier visits to this and other websites. Without it, Google shows non-personalised ads, chosen from the page content and your approximate location, which can still use cookies for frequency capping, reporting and fraud prevention.

Google processes this data as an independent controller under its own policy: how Google uses cookies in advertising and how Google uses information from sites that use its services.

Cookies and browser storage

The site remembers a few of your choices in your browser's local storage, so they survive a reload. They never leave your device:

  • gh-theme — light or dark mode, if you chose one;
  • gh-projection — which map projection you last used.
  • nl-done and nl-closed — whether you signed up for the newsletter or closed its sign-up card, so it is not shown to you again.

Google Analytics and PostHog set analytics identifiers, as described above:

  • _ga and _ga_<ID> — Google Analytics cookies, kept for up to two years;
  • ph_<project>_posthog — PostHog's identifier, stored as a cookie and in local storage, kept for up to one year.

Google AdSense and its partners set their own advertising cookies, for example __gads, __gpi and __eoi on this site and cookies such as IDE on Google's ad domains. Which ones, and for how long (usually up to 13 months), is set by Google.

Clearing your browser's cookies and site data removes all of these.

Your choices

You can block or delete cookies in your browser's settings, or use a content blocker; the site works fully without them. Google offers a browser add-on that opts you out of Google Analytics on every site. Visitors from the European Union, the rest of the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland are asked first, and Google Analytics and PostHog load only if they accept. Anyone, wherever they are, can switch both off — or back on — with "Privacy settings" in the site footer. You can turn off personalised ads from Google in Google's My Ad Center, and from many advertising companies at aboutads.info or youronlinechoices.eu. Visitors in Europe see Google's consent message and can change their advertising choices there at any time.

Third parties and links

Google AdSense, described above, is the only advertising script; no social-media scripts are loaded. The analytics providers named above receive the information described there, acting on our behalf. Glossary entries link to the sources they were written from — Wikipedia, Encyclopaedia Britannica, journals and others. Those sites are only contacted if you follow a link, and their own privacy policies then apply.

Do Not Track

Analytics runs whether or not your browser sends a Do Not Track signal; see "Your choices" above for ways to opt out.

Children

The site is a general-audience reference work and is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children.

California and other US state residents

We do not sell personal information. Google's advertising cookies may use information about your visits to show you personalised ads, which some state laws treat as "sharing" for targeted advertising. You can opt out as described under "Your choices", or by turning on a Global Privacy Control signal in your browser. If you have a question about your rights under a state privacy law, contact hello@theworldthroughtime.com.

Visitors outside the United States

The site is operated from the United States. Server logs and analytics data are processed there, or wherever our providers run their servers.

Visitors from the EU, the EEA, the UK and Switzerland

For these visitors the EU General Data Protection Regulation, the UK GDPR or the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection applies. The controller is Plus Marketing Solutions LLC, 30 N Gould St, Ste R, Sheridan, WY 82801, United States — hello@theworldthroughtime.com.

Why we process your data (legal basis).

  • Google Analytics and PostHog run only with your consent (GDPR Art. 6(1)(a)). You give it with "Accept" in the banner and can withdraw it at any time with "Privacy settings" in the site footer; withdrawing does not affect what was processed before.
  • Personalised advertising and the advertising cookies Google needs for it run only with your consent (Art. 6(1)(a)), given in Google's consent message. You can change it at any time through the same message. We and Google are jointly responsible for collecting this data on our pages and passing it to Google (Art. 26 GDPR); what Google does with it afterwards is Google's responsibility alone.
  • Server logs and Cloudflare Web Analytics are processed on the basis of our legitimate interests in delivering the site, keeping it secure and counting visits in aggregate (Art. 6(1)(f)).
  • The newsletter list is kept on the basis of your consent, given when you subscribe (Art. 6(1)(a)). You can withdraw it at any time by unsubscribing. Cloudflare Web Analytics sets no cookies and keeps no personal profiles.
  • The choices stored in your browser's storage are kept only because you chose them, and never leave your device.

How long it is kept. Google Analytics data: up to 14 months. PostHog data: up to one year. Your consent choice: one year in your browser, after which you are asked again. Server logs: as long as our hosting provider's retention requires. Newsletter sign-ups: until you unsubscribe, then deleted within 30 days.

Transfers outside Europe. We are a US company, and Cloudflare and Google process data in the United States. Both are certified under the EU–US Data Privacy Framework and its UK and Swiss extensions, which the European Commission recognises as providing adequate protection. PostHog stores this site's data in the European Union. Where a transfer is not covered by the Framework, it relies on the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses.

Your rights. You can ask for access to your data, its correction or deletion, restriction of or objection to its processing, and a copy in a portable format; and you can withdraw consent at any time. Write to hello@theworldthroughtime.com. Analytics data is pseudonymous — we do not know who you are — so to find yours we may ask for the identifier stored in your browser. You also have the right to complain to a data-protection authority, in particular the one where you live or work (in the UK the Information Commissioner's Office, in Switzerland the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner).

You are not required to provide any personal data to use the site, and we make no automated decisions about you.

Changes to this policy

If the site starts collecting anything more, this policy will be updated before that happens, and the effective date above will change.