Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

This website, exactonlinecompass.com, provides a free online compass and related reference material. This policy describes how the site handles information about the people who visit it.

The site is operated by [OPERATING ENTITY — TO BE CONFIRMED]. If you have questions about anything in this policy, contact contact@exactonlinecompass.com.

2. Information we collect

We do not ask you to create an account, and the site has no login. In normal use we do not collect information that identifies you.

Three kinds of information are nonetheless involved when you use the site, and each is described in the sections that follow: information you choose to send us, information your browser makes available to the page, and information handled by the companies that serve the site and its fonts.

3. Personal information

The only way to send us personal information through this site is to contact us deliberately. If you write to us by email, or use the contact form — which opens a message in your own email application — we receive whatever you choose to include: typically your name, your email address and the content of your message.

We use that information to answer you, and for nothing else. We do not add it to a mailing list, and we do not sell or rent it.

4. Automatically collected information

Like any website, this site is delivered by a hosting provider, and that provider records standard server access logs. Those logs typically include the IP address of the requesting device, the time of the request, the page requested, and the browser’s user-agent string. They are produced by the hosting infrastructure rather than by code on this site, and they are used for delivering the site and for security and abuse prevention.

The compass itself reads two sources of device information, and both are worth being precise about:

• Motion and orientation sensors. When you start the compass, the page reads your device’s magnetometer and accelerometer through your browser’s device orientation API. The readings are used to draw the dial and are not transmitted anywhere.
• Location. If, and only if, you allow it, the page reads your coordinates through your browser’s geolocation API. They are used to compute your local magnetic declination, which is what converts a magnetic heading into a true one. The magnetic model runs inside the page, so your coordinates are not sent to us or to anyone else.

5. Cookies and similar technologies

This site uses cookies for one purpose: the website analytics described in section 8.

Google Analytics sets two cookies in your browser — "_ga", and a second beginning "_ga_" followed by the measurement ID. They hold a randomly generated identifier that lets Google Analytics recognise a returning browser and count it as one visitor rather than several. They contain no name, no email address and nothing you have typed. Both expire two years after your most recent visit.

Separately, the site stores one item of browser local storage under the key "theme", to remember whether you chose light or dark mode. That value stays in your browser, is readable only by this site, is not transmitted with your requests the way a cookie is, and contains nothing but the word "light" or "dark".

You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings, and clearing your site data removes both the cookies and the theme preference. Blocking them does not affect the compass, which does not use them.

We do not use tracking pixels, web beacons, fingerprinting or advertising identifiers.

6. How we use your information

We use the limited information described above only to:

• Deliver the website and keep it available and secure.
• Operate the compass on your device — the sensor and location readings exist only to produce the heading you are looking at.
• Remember your light or dark mode preference between visits.
• Reply to you, where you have contacted us.

7. Third-party services

The site loads its typeface, Geist, from Google Fonts. This means that when a page loads, your browser makes a request to Google’s servers (fonts.googleapis.com and fonts.gstatic.com), and Google receives your IP address and user-agent as part of that request. We do not control and do not receive that data.

The site also uses Google Analytics, which sends Google information about your visit. Exactly what is sent, and how to opt out, is set out in the next section.

Google’s handling of the data it receives through either service is governed by its own privacy policy.

The site is served by a hosting provider, which processes requests and keeps the server logs described above.

Those are the only third parties involved. Apart from the analytics tag and the font request, the compass makes no network requests while you use it — in particular, nothing it reads from your sensors or your location is ever sent anywhere.

8. Analytics and website performance

This site uses Google Analytics 4, a service provided by Google, to understand how many people use the compass and which pages they reach. We use it to decide what to improve. We do not use it to identify individuals, and we do not try to.

When you open a page, the analytics tag sends Google information about that visit:

• The address and title of the page, and the page that referred you to it.
• An approximate location — typically city level — derived from your IP address. Google Analytics 4 does not store your IP address; it is used to derive that location and then discarded.
• Your device type, screen size, operating system, browser and language.
• The randomly generated identifier held in the cookies described in section 5, which is what distinguishes a returning browser from a new one.

9. Advertising and marketing

This site carries no advertising, and we do not send marketing email. We operate no advertising cookies, no remarketing lists and no conversion tracking of our own, and we do not share information with advertising networks.

Google Analytics can optionally be linked to Google’s advertising products. Where that linking is enabled on an Analytics property, Google may use the data for advertising purposes; where it is not, it may not.

You can opt out of Google Analytics on this and every other site by installing Google’s official opt-out browser add-on, by blocking cookies for this site, or by using a browser or extension that blocks the tag. The compass works normally either way.

10. Data sharing and disclosure

We do not sell, rent or trade personal information.

Information is shared only in the narrow circumstances described here: with the hosting provider that delivers the site, as an unavoidable part of serving it; with Google, both as the font request described above and as the analytics data described in section 8; and where we are required to disclose something by law, or where disclosure is necessary to protect our rights or the safety of others.

11. Data security

The site is served over HTTPS, which encrypts traffic between your device and the server. Browsers in fact require a secure connection before they will release motion sensor data at all, so the compass does not function without it.

Because the compass processes sensor and location data entirely within your browser, that data is never in our custody, which removes a category of risk rather than merely managing it. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, however, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

12. Data retention

We hold no database of visitors ourselves, so there is nothing of that kind for us to retain.

Analytics data is held by Google for the retention period configured on the Analytics property, within the limits Google allows. Server logs are retained by the hosting provider for the period set by that provider’s own policy. Email you send us is kept for as long as needed to deal with your enquiry and any reasonable follow-up. Your theme preference stays in your own browser until you clear your site data.

13. Your privacy rights

Depending on where you live, data protection law may give you rights over personal information held about you — commonly including the right to ask what is held, to have it corrected or deleted, to object to or restrict its use, and to receive a copy of it. Some jurisdictions also give you the right to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information; we do not sell or share personal information, so there is nothing to opt out of.

In practice the only personal information we are likely to hold is correspondence you have sent us. To exercise any right, write to contact@exactonlinecompass.com and we will respond.

This policy does not assert compliance with any particular statute. Whether a specific law applies to this site, and what it requires, is a question for qualified legal advice, which has not yet been obtained.

14. Children’s privacy

This site is a general-purpose reference tool and is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. Because the site has no account system and collects no personal information in ordinary use, there is normally nothing of a child’s for us to hold. If you believe a child has sent us personal information, contact contact@exactonlinecompass.com and we will delete it.

15. External links

Some pages link to external websites, for example to scientific or reference material. We are not responsible for the content or the privacy practices of sites we do not operate. Following an external link takes you outside this policy, and we encourage you to read the privacy policy of any site you visit.

16. Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this policy as the site changes. The date at the top of the page shows when it was last substantively revised. Where a change materially affects how information is handled — adding analytics, for instance, or a form that posts to a server — we will update this page before making that change live.

17. Contact

For any question about this policy or about how the site handles information, write to contact@exactonlinecompass.com, or use the contact page.