TierMarks

Legal

Privacy

What we collect, why it exists, how long it is kept, and how to have it removed.

  • No ads, no cross-site trackersWhat is collected exists to keep reader grades honest and to run the site.
  • Raw IP addresses are never storedNetwork identifiers are salted one-way hashes, and the salts rotate.
  • Votes lose their identity at 13 monthsIdentity columns are nulled for good; the anonymous tallies stay auditable.
  • What you search is not recordedA search counts as one anonymous event. The text you typed is never kept.

TierMarks runs no advertising and no cross-site trackers. What we do collect exists for exactly two purposes: keeping user scores honest (fraud prevention) and running the site. Our lawful basis for the integrity processing is legitimate interest (GDPR Art. 6(1)(f)).

What is collected when you vote

  • Your grade(s) for the product.
  • A hashed network identifier, a salted, one-way hash derived from your IP address and browser signature. Raw IP addresses are never stored in our database or cache. Hashing salts rotate every 90 days and retired salts are destroyed 90 days later.
  • A random voting cookie (strictly necessary, fraud prevention and duplicate control, no consent banner is required for it, and it identifies a browser, not a person).
  • Coarse timing signals (when the vote arrived, how long the page was open).

Optional email verification stores your email address (normalized) so your votes count double. Verification is never required to vote.

What is collected when you comment

The comment text you write, the display name you choose (optional), the same voting cookie, and a salted IP hash for abuse control. Comments are plain text and are moderated; the same retention and erasure rules apply.

The newsletter

Signing up in the footer stores your email address, a confirmation token, and the sign-up state (pending, confirmed, or unsubscribed). Nothing else is attached to it: no browsing history, no vote or comment linkage. No mail is sent until you click the confirmation link (double opt-in), every mail carries a one-click unsubscribe, and an unsubscribed address is never re-added without a fresh sign-up and confirmation. To have the address erased entirely rather than marked unsubscribed, use the contact page.

Site analytics

We measure our own traffic first-party: no third-party analytics, no advertising identifiers. Each visit is counted under a one-way hash of your IP address and browser signature whose salt rotates daily, so visits cannot be linked across days and raw IP addresses or user-agent strings are never stored. We record which pages were viewed, the referring site’s domain, a coarse device class (mobile/desktop), and interactions like playing a trailer or casting a vote. Raw analytics events are deleted after 90 days.

Site search is counted the same way, and only at the moment you commit to it: pressing Enter or choosing a suggestion records one anonymous event under the same daily-salted hash. What you typed is not recorded — not the query, not the individual keystrokes, and search text is never stored in our database or logs.

The homepage trailer

The homepage hero loads a muted trailer from YouTube’s no-cookie domain (youtube-nocookie.com) once the page has finished loading. Because it loads automatically rather than on a click, you should know what that means: the request itself reaches Google and exposes your IP address and browser to them under their own policy, and the player may store data on their domain if you interact with it. We set nothing, read nothing back, and record nothing about the trailer playing. Pressing the sound button is the one exception — that gesture is counted as a single anonymous event under the same daily-salted hash described above. The embed is not loaded at all if your browser asks for reduced motion.

Retention

  1. 24 hoursEdge/security logs at our CDN retain raw IPs for at most 24 hours.
  2. 72 hoursDeleting a verified account nulls your identity on all your votes within 72 hours.
  3. 90 daysRaw analytics events are deleted, and vote hashing salts rotate.
  4. 13 monthsIdentity columns on vote records are irreversibly nulled.

Anonymized grade tallies are kept so scores stay auditable. When a verified account is deleted, the anonymous grades survive, which is disclosed at deletion time.

Processors

These services process data on our behalf, each under its own policy:

  • CloudflareEdge network, bot challenge (Turnstile)
  • VercelHosting and request logs
  • NeonDatabase
  • UpstashRate-limit counters (hashed keys only)
  • ResendVerification and sign-in emails
  • SentryError reports, scrubbed of IPs, cookies, and identifying headers

Your rights

Access, erasure, and objection requests: support@tiermarks.com. We answer within 30 days.