Cost City

Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

Your privacy matters to us, and we strive to set a golden standard between protecting your privacy and improving website usability. This policy explains:

  • What information we collect.
  • Why we collect it.
  • How we protect your privacy.

Our approach is inspired by global privacy regulations, including GDPR (Europe) and CCPA (California), and reflects our commitment to respecting your privacy and trust.

2. What We Collect

We collect anonymized, aggregate data to better understand how the website is being used. Specifically:

  • Operating System: To ensure compatibility with different devices.
  • Screen Resolution: To optimize layouts and improve user experience.
  • Timezone: To understand general trends about the most active times of day for our users.
  • Language Preferences: To analyze the languages spoken by our visitors and identify trends, such as increased visits from German-speaking users.
  • Touch Support: To improve usability for devices with touchscreens.
  • Country: To understand visitor demographics and analyze geographic trends in a non-identifiable way.
  • Traffic Sources (Domain Only): To understand how visitors discover our website, we collect only the domain name of the referring website or service (e.g., google.com, wikipedia.org). This helps us analyze traffic sources and improve accessibility without storing full URLs or personal information.

3. Why We Collect Data

Purpose

We collect this information solely to:

  • Analyze aggregate trends, like which devices or languages are most common.
  • Improve the design, functionality, and accessibility of the website.
  • Identify opportunities to expand outreach based on traffic sources.

What We Don't Do

  • We do not use this data to adjust content dynamically or serve ads.
  • We do not track your behavior across other websites.
  • We do not share, sell, or process this data for third-party use.

All data collection is done in-house, with a focus on safety and privacy.

4. How We Respect Your Privacy

Our mindset is simple: We only collect what's necessary to improve the website as a product, not the user as a product. This means:

  • Data is stored in separate categories (e.g., operating systems, screen resolutions) to ensure no connections between traits.
  • Timestamps are randomized (e.g., by ±30 seconds) to prevent reconstructing user patterns.
  • After 6 months, granular data is aggregated into daily summaries, and raw records are permanently deleted.

By focusing only on the website, we ensure that no identifiable data persists.

5. How Long We Keep Data

From the moment data is stored, it is anonymized and cannot be linked back to any individual. To ensure privacy:

  • Granular, randomized data is kept for up to 6 months, specifically for analyzing the website as a product.
  • After 6 months, data is aggregated into daily summaries for long-term insights.
  • After one year, summaries are combined into monthly trends, and raw data is deleted.

Data is anonymized by separating categories, randomizing timestamps, and avoiding any direct or indirect connections between data points. This ensures that all data remains fully anonymized and untraceable to any individual.

6. Our Philosophy

We believe in an open and respectful internet. An internet where your browsing habits aren't for sale, and websites prioritize their users over invasive practices. We do not collect or process any data for:

  • Ads or targeted content.
  • Personalizing content based on user behavior.
  • Selling or sharing information with third parties.

Our focus is solely on making the website better for everyone - without compromising your trust.

7. Your Rights

While we don't collect identifiable information that can be modified or deleted, we're happy to explain our processes or answer your questions.

8. Transparency and Trust

We are committed to openness. Our data collection methods are simple and transparent, and anyone familiar with JavaScript can inspect the source code directly. (Developers, feel free to take a look!)

9. Contact Us

If you have questions or concerns, you can reach us at:

Email: privacy@cost.city

10. Changes to This Policy

This privacy policy may change as we improve the website or adapt to new privacy regulations. Any updates will be posted here with a clear revision date.

Effective Date: 2026-03-15