Privacy Policy
thefractals.net (also reachable at wastingmytime.net) is a personal fractal art site. This page explains what information is collected when you visit, why, and the choices you have. The short version: there are no accounts, no sign-ups and nothing to buy here, and we never sell your data.
Information we collect
When you load a page, a small first-party script records an anonymous visit so we can see which fractals people enjoy and keep the site running well. Each visit record can include:
- the page you viewed, the date and time, and the site that referred you (for example a search engine or social link);
- your IP address and the approximate country derived from it;
- browser, operating system and device type (from your browser's user-agent), and your preferred language;
- basic display and performance details, such as screen size, time zone, graphics (WebGL) support and how long a page took to render, which help us make the fractals run smoothly on more devices;
- simple engagement figures, such as how long a page stayed open and how far it was scrolled.
We do not collect your name, email address or anything you type, and this data is not used to identify you personally. It is stored on our own server, is not shared with or sold to anyone, and is only viewed by the site owner in aggregate.
Cookies and local storage
The site itself uses two small first-party cookies:
wmt_vid: a random visitor ID so repeat visits aren't counted as new visitors (expires after one year);wmt_seen: marks whether you've visited before (one year);
We also use your browser's session storage so device details are only sent once per visit. Advertising cookies set by Google are described in the next section.
Advertising
This site uses Google AdSense to show ads, which helps cover hosting costs. Ads are kept off the full-screen fractal pages.
- Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this website or other websites.
- Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visits to this site and/or other sites on the Internet.
- You can opt out of personalized advertising by visiting Google's My Ad Center. You can also opt out of some third-party vendors' use of cookies for personalized advertising at www.aboutads.info (or youronlinechoices.eu in Europe).
- Learn more about how Google uses information from sites that use its services.
Visitors in the European Economic Area, the UK and Switzerland are asked for consent before personalized ads are shown, through Google's consent message. You can change your choice at any time from the privacy link that message provides.
Shared snapshots
If you use a Share button, the image and fractal settings you chose are uploaded to create a short link that anyone with the link can view. Your IP address is used briefly to limit how many shares can be created per hour, which prevents abuse. Don't share anything you wouldn't want public.
Contact form
If you use the contact form, we store what you send (topic, message, and the optional name and reply email), the time, your approximate country, your browser's user-agent and a salted one-way code derived from your IP address that's used only to limit how many messages can be sent. Messages are stored privately on our server, are only read by the site owner, and your reply email is only used to answer you.
Other services
- Cloudflare delivers and protects the site. Like any network provider, it processes your IP address and request details to serve pages and block attacks. See Cloudflare's privacy policy.
- Ko-fi: the Tip link takes you to ko-fi.com, which has its own privacy policy. Nothing is shared with Ko-fi unless you choose to visit or tip.
- Cloudflare Turnstile may be used on the contact form to tell people from bots. It runs a privacy-preserving check in your browser and does not set advertising cookies.
- Links to social sites (Reddit, Facebook, X and others) only send you there when you click them.
Your choices
- Block or clear cookies in your browser settings. The fractals work fine without them.
- Personalized ads: use the Google and industry opt-out links above.
How long we keep data
Visit logs and contact messages are kept for up to 13 months, so traffic can be compared year over year, and are then deleted automatically. You can ask for a message you sent to be deleted sooner through the contact form. Logs are never published.
Children
This site is a general audience art site. It is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them.
Changes to this policy
If this policy changes, the updated version will be posted here with a new "Last updated" date.
Contact
Questions about privacy? Use the contact form and choose "Privacy question". See also the About page.