Privacy policy

Visitors of websites that show a counter

When a page displays a Live Flag Counter widget, your browser downloads the image from us. To count that view we use the following information from the request, and only this:

• IP address — used for a moment to look up your country, and to recognise a repeat visit. We turn it into a salted, one-way hash (HMAC-SHA256 with a secret key that is different for every counter). The IP address itself is never written to disk, and the hash can't be turned back into an address.
• Browser user agent — reduced to the browser name, operating system and device type (desktop, mobile or tablet). The full string is not stored.
• Referring page — reduced to the website's host name (for example blog.example.com), so site owners can see where their counter is shown.

The widget sets no cookies, uses no local storage and runs no scripts on the website that shows it.

Individual visit records (country, browser, OS, device, site, time) are deleted automatically after 90 days. After that only daily totals per country remain. Visitor hashes used to recognise repeat visits are deleted once they are no longer needed for that purpose.

People who create counters

• Without an account we store your counter's settings and a scrambled (bcrypt) version of your edit key. If you ask us to email you the details, we send the email and do not keep your address.
• With an account we store your email address, optional name, a scrambled password (or your Google account ID if you sign in with Google) and which counters belong to you. We email you only for account security (confirmation and password resets).
• Contact form: your name, email address and message are kept so we can answer, and deleted once they are no longer needed.
• Cookies on this website: one strictly necessary session cookie, only once you use a form or log in. It keeps you signed in and protects forms against forgery. No analytics or advertising cookies.

Statistics visibility

Statistics pages are public by default so you can share them; you can make them private in your counter's settings at any time. Counter IDs are random, so other counters can't be guessed.

Where data is processed

Data is stored in our own database. Country lookups happen on our server using a downloadable database — no third party sees visitors' addresses. Country data: IP Geolocation by DB-IP, licensed under CC BY 4.0. To keep out spam bots, the forms for creating a counter, signing up, logging in and contacting us use Google reCAPTCHA. It loads only with those forms, Google may set its own cookies for the check, and Google's Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Your choices

• Delete a counter and all of its statistics from its edit page.
• Reset a counter's statistics without deleting it.
• Delete your account from the account settings page.
• Questions or requests about your data: email privacy@liveflagcounter.com or use the contact form.