Privacy
Privacy policy
You came here to look at stories, not to be looked at.
Last updated:
PicaLook is a place to look at pictures, not a place that looks at you. This policy explains, in plain words, what little information the site handles, why it needs it and how long it keeps it.
At a glance
- Reading needs no account, and readers get no cookies.
- No analytics, no advertising, no tracking pixels and no third-party scripts.
- A guest comment stores the name you type and your comment, nothing more.
- Messages sent through the contact form are deleted automatically after 90 days.
When you read
You can read every story without an account, and we do not build a profile of what you look at. Like almost every website, our web server keeps standard access logs: your IP address, the page requested, your browser’s user agent and the time. We use these logs only for security and to keep the site running smoothly. They are rotated and deleted after about two weeks.
The site is served over HTTPS using Let’s Encrypt certificates, so pages travel between the site and your browser encrypted.
When you comment
To comment, you type a name and your comment. We do not ask for an email address. Your comment is held for review, and if our moderators approve it, it is published with the post and shows the name you entered, so pick a name you are happy to show publicly and keep private details out of the text. Comments that are not approved are deleted automatically after 30 days.
When you contact us
The contact form asks for your name, your email address, a topic and your message. We use them only to read your message, reply to you and deal with your request. They are not used for newsletters or marketing, and they are deleted automatically after 90 days.
Keeping spam out
To slow down spam, the site briefly uses your IP address in memory to limit how many comments or messages can be sent in a short time. These addresses are not stored in the site’s database.
Cookies
Readers get no cookies at all. The only cookie the site sets is a session cookie for the site’s administrators when they sign in to manage it.
Third parties
A few files come from outside providers. When your browser fetches them, those providers receive your IP address and browser information, as they would for any website that uses them, and they handle it under their own privacy policies:
- Google Fonts (fonts.googleapis.com and fonts.gstatic.com) supplies the typefaces used across the site.
- Unsplash (images.unsplash.com) supplies the photos on the home page.
Images inside posts are hosted on the site itself. We do not sell personal information, and we do not use it for advertising.
Writers’ blogs
A writer’s name, portrait, bio, website link and published posts are public, because that is what a blog is for. Writers can ask us to remove a single post or their whole blog at any time.
Your requests
You can ask what information we hold about you, or ask us to correct or delete it, for example a comment you posted. Use the contact page and choose “Privacy request”. As readers do not have accounts, please include details that help us find what you mean, such as the link to the post, the name you used and roughly when.
Changes to this policy
If the way the site handles information changes, we will update this page and the date at the top of it.