Privacy

Last updated August 8, 2026.

This page describes exactly what Fynoptic collects, where it's stored, and who else ever sees it. It's written to match what the site's code actually does, not as a generic template — if something changes, this page will change with it.

If you create an account

Signing in is handled by Firebase Authentication, a Google Cloud service. When you sign up or sign in with email and password, Firebase stores your email address. If you choose "Continue with Google" instead, Google handles that step directly and shares your Google account's email with Firebase.

Two other pieces of profile information are optional and only exist if you set them yourself in your profile settings: a display name and an avatar photo.

Fynoptic never sees or stores your password — Firebase handles that directly and we have no access to it.

Staying signed in: the site tries to keep you signed in across visits (using your browser's IndexedDB or local storage, whichever it can use). If your browser blocks that kind of persistent storage, it falls back to keeping you signed in only for that one browser session, and you'll need to sign in again the next time you visit.

If you upload an avatar photo

Avatar photos are uploaded to Firebase Storage, also a Google Cloud service, at a path shaped like avatars/{uid}/{timestamp}-{filename}. Two limits are enforced on upload:

• Only image files are accepted.
• Files larger than 3 MB are rejected.

You can also skip the upload and paste a photo URL instead — if you do both, the uploaded file takes priority.

What stays on your device and is never sent anywhere

Your course progress, quiz history, flashcard scores, and site preferences are stored locally in your browser — in localStorage and, for one of them, a cookie. None of it is transmitted to Fynoptic, to any server, or to anyone else. It exists only on the device and in the browser you're using, and clearing your browser's site data for Fynoptic deletes all of it.

Specifically, this is everything stored that way:

• Course Progress (ff_course_progress) — which course modules you've completed.
• Dark Patterns Course State (ff_dp_state, and a duplicate copy in a cookie named ff_dp_state_v2 that expires after 180 days) — your progress through that course's videos, articles, and exercises.
• Your Display Name (ff_user_name) — a copy of the name you entered in profile settings, used to print your name on a course completion certificate.
• Risk Audit Submissions (ff_risk_audits) — your saved answers from the course's risk-audit exercise.
• Flashcard Progress (fynoptic.flashcards.v1) — which flashcard terms you've answered, how many attempts, and when.
• Theme Preference (fynoptic-theme) — whether you're using light or dark mode.
• Accessibility Preferences (ff_a11y_hc and ff_a11y_dys) — whether you've turned on high-contrast mode or the dyslexia-friendly font.
• Articles You've Read (ff_articles_read) — which article pages you've visited, used to show a "Read" marker and let you filter to unread articles on the articles page.

No analytics, no ads, no tracking scripts

Fynoptic does not run any analytics, advertising, or third-party tracking script. The site's Firebase configuration happens to include an analytics identifier, but Firebase Analytics is never turned on anywhere in the code — that identifier just sits there unused. A handful of events (like finishing a course module) are logged, but only to your own browser's developer console, for our own debugging during development. Nothing about your visit or activity is sent to us or to any third party for tracking purposes.

The one exception: the Fix-it Bot chat assistant

If you use the Fix-it Bot chat widget, whatever you type into it is sent to a chat backend we operate, hosted on a third-party service called Render, so it can generate a reply. Only the text of your message is sent — not your name, email, or any other account information. That backend is a free-tier instance that can take up to about a minute to wake up if it's been idle, which is why the bot sometimes shows a "still waking up" message before responding.

This is the only place on the site where something you type is sent off your device to a service other than the sign-in and storage systems described above.

Questions

If you have questions about any of this, or want us to delete account data we hold about you, email info@fynoptic.org.