What this site knows about you, and what it doesn't

The short version

• Mostly local. Usage counts ("Lab stats on this device"), your theme, Pip's memory, and saved projects live in your browser's local storage. No cookies, no ad trackers, no analytics scripts phoning home.
• Live data is the exception. When you ask for live data — the Situation Room or Pip's live-data answers — your coordinates go to a small proxy (/api/live) that forwards them to public data agencies and hands the answer back. The proxy is stateless: it does not save your coordinates.
• Location is opt-in. The browser asks permission first, and we explain why before that prompt appears. Coordinates are used for the request only, unless you explicitly tick "Save this location on this device."
• Email is mailto. Contact and mailing-list signup open your own mail app. Nothing is submitted to the site; the message goes to the operator's mailbox.
• Nothing is sold. There is no mechanism on this site that sells personal information, because there is nothing to sell from.

What stays in your browser (local storage)

These values never leave your device. You can see the analytics yourself in the "Lab stats on this device" dialog in the footer of the homepage, and you can wipe everything by clearing this site's browser data.

pl_analytics_v1 — local usage counts

First-visit date, visit count, how many times tools were opened or run, posts read, Pip questions asked, and short phrases Pip couldn't answer (capped at 60 characters; anything containing "@" is skipped, so no email addresses land in there). Verified by reading the code: this block makes no network calls — nothing is sent anywhere.

pl-theme — light/dark theme preference

Which theme you picked, so the site remembers next time.

pl_pip_v1 — Pip's memory

The name you tell Pip ("my name is…") and a couple of counters like jokes told. Only what you volunteer.

pl_minilab_projects_v1 — Mini Lab projects

Automation projects you build and save in Mini Lab.

pl_sit_loc — Situation Room location

Written only if you tick "Save this location on this device." Unticking it removes it.

pl_live_loc_v1 — older Pip live-data location

A previous version of Pip's live-data answers stored the location it used. The current version keeps it for the page visit only and no longer writes this key; an old value, if one exists from before, is still read for compatibility but never written again.

Location

The Situation Room and Pip's live-data answers can use your location to fetch nearby weather, alerts, earthquakes, water conditions, and hazards. How it works:

• You click "Use my location" and first see an explainer — what the location is for and how long it is kept — before your browser ever shows its permission prompt.
• If you allow it, your precise coordinates are used for that request: they are sent to /api/live, which forwards them to the relevant public data agencies (below) and returns the answer.
• Your coordinates are not permanently saved by PlainLogic. The only exception is the Situation Room's "Save this location on this device" checkbox: if you tick it, that browser remembers the location for next time; unticking it removes it.
• You never have to share your location at all. Picking a city or typing coordinates by hand always works instead.

What reaches PlainLogic's servers

Static pages are served by the host like any website. Beyond that, the only server-side piece is the live-data proxy at /api/live:

• It receives the source you asked for plus lat/lon as request parameters, calls the public agency APIs (National Weather Service, USGS, NOAA, NASA EONET, Open-Meteo, RainViewer), normalizes the response, and returns it.
• It is a stateless serverless function: it writes your coordinates to no database and no file. The API key used for USGS water data stays on the server and is never exposed to the browser.
• Like any hosted endpoint, responses pass through the host's edge network (Vercel): answers are cached briefly per data source (a few minutes), and standard server logs may record that a request happened. That is hosting plumbing, not a profile of you — there are no accounts and nothing is tied to an identity.

Email and the mailing list

Most contact paths on the site are mailto: links: clicking one opens your own mail app with the address filled in. Nothing is sent from the page itself, and nothing is submitted to a site database. When you press send, the message lands in the operator's mailbox at help@plainlogic.org — and stays there like ordinary email.

Chatting with Pip's contact mode is the exception: when you confirm a send inside the chat, your name, email address, and message are POSTed to PlainLogic's server, validated, and emailed to help@plainlogic.org via the Resend email service. The submission is retained only in that mailbox — it is not stored in a site database, added to any mailing list, or used for marketing. Submissions are rate-limited per IP to keep the form usable, and a spam trap discards obvious bot traffic. Nothing is ever sent without your explicit confirmation in the chat.

Mailing-list signup works the same way: the form opens your mail app with a prefilled signup note; you are on the list only if you send it. Plain email is not encrypted end-to-end — treat it accordingly.

Third parties

PlainLogic pulls live data from public agencies and a few infrastructure providers. When their code or data is involved, their privacy policies apply — PlainLogic does not control them:

• Data agencies: National Weather Service (weather.gov), USGS (earthquake.usgs.gov, waterdata.usgs.gov), NOAA (tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov, swpc.noaa.gov), NASA EONET, Open-Meteo (fallback weather), RainViewer (radar tiles).
• Maps & libraries: OpenFreeMap vector tiles, the MapLibre GL JS library (loaded from a CDN).
• Fonts: Google Fonts (Manrope and DM Mono).

Retention

• Browser data (analytics, preferences, saved locations, projects): kept until you clear this site's browser data. The "Lab stats on this device" dialog resets with it.
• Live-data requests: answers are cached at the edge for minutes per source; host server logs follow the host's standard retention.
• Email you send: kept in the operator's mailbox like ordinary correspondence.

Security limitations

No system is perfectly secure, and this site makes no claim to be. Local browser data is only as protected as your device and browser; email sent via mailto: travels as ordinary email, which is not encrypted end-to-end.

No sale of personal information

PlainLogic does not sell personal information and has no advertising or data-broker relationships. There is no mechanism on this site that could sell your data, because the site does not collect data in a form that could be sold.

Questions about privacy

Email help@plainlogic.org. This page will be updated here if the site's data handling ever changes.