Plain English
CriticStorm counts how the site is used so we can make it better. We do it without cookies, without storing your IP address, and without following you anywhere else.
When you use the site we record anonymous events: which pages are viewed, what is searched for (and how many results came back), Into the Storm ratings, data reports, and clicks through to a critic's review or a retailer. Each event carries coarse context only: your country (from Cloudflare, our host), a device type (phone, tablet or desktop), a browser family, and a rounded screen width.
Each day we create a new random key. A visitor is counted as a one-way scramble of that key with your network address and browser, cut short. We never store the address itself. Every key is deleted after a day or two, so a count from one day can't be linked to another day, or traced back to you, even by us.
If your browser sends a Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control signal, nothing about your visit is recorded at all.
Into the Storm ratings and data reports are tied to a random token your browser keeps for this site, so you can change or remove your rating. We store only a one-way scramble of that token, plus a salted scramble of your network address to stop ballot stuffing, never the address itself.
Usage events are deleted after 180 days. The site runs on Cloudflare, which processes requests in order to deliver it.