PickSide

Privacy Policy

Last updated: 7 October 2026

This policy explains what PickSide (pickside.win, “we”) collects, why we collect it and the choices you have. PickSide is a website where you pick one side on clear questions and see aggregated results. You can browse and vote without an account.

Information we collect

  • Votes: the side you pick on each question and when you change or withdraw it. Individual votes are private; only aggregated counts are public.
  • Account information (only if you sign in): your email address, plus an optional nickname and avatar that you choose.
  • Google account information (only if you use Google sign-in): see “Google user data” below.
  • Membership (only if you subscribe): subscription status, billing period, order identifiers and amounts, received from our payment provider Polar. Card and billing details are collected by Polar; we never see them.
  • Content you submit: questions and references you propose, and reports you send.
  • Daily email (only if you subscribe and confirm): your email address, language and time zone.
  • Security data: a random guest identifier in a cookie, and a hash of your network address that changes every day, used only to detect abusive voting. We do not store raw IP addresses in our database.

Google user data

  • When you choose “Continue with Google”, PickSide requests only the openid, email and profile scopes. From Google we receive your Google account ID, your email address and whether it is verified, your name and your profile photo URL.
  • We use the Google account ID and verified email address solely to sign you in, create your PickSide account or link Google to your existing account. Your profile photo URL is stored but shown only if you turn on “Use my Google profile photo as avatar” in Settings. Your Google name is not stored.
  • We do not sell Google user data, use it for advertising, or use it to develop, improve or train AI or machine-learning models. We do not access your contacts, Gmail, Drive or any other Google service, and we never post on your behalf.
  • Google user data is not shared with anyone except our hosting provider Cloudflare, which stores it on our behalf, or where required by law.
  • It is kept while your account exists and deleted when you delete your account. You can also revoke PickSide’s access at any time at myaccount.google.com/permissions.
  • PickSide’s use and transfer of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

How we use information

  • To provide PickSide: record votes, calculate results, keep your private history across devices and run the membership features you choose.
  • To send emails you asked for: sign-in links, confirmed Daily emails and essential notices about your account or membership. No marketing emails without your consent.
  • To protect the service: rate limits and detection of automated or abnormal voting.
  • To review proposed questions and reports. The text of a proposed question is processed by Cloudflare Workers AI to find similar questions and draft translations; no personal data is sent with it.
  • We do not sell personal information, show personalised ads or use third-party tracking cookies.

What is public

  • Results are published only as aggregated counts and percentages.
  • Members may choose, question by question, to show their avatar or nickname next to their side. This is off by default and can be turned off at any time.
  • Like-minded matching runs only if you opt in and shows approximate similarity, never your individual votes. Your history is visible only to you.

Cookies and local storage

  • Cookies and storage: a random first-party cookie identifies this browser for guest votes (__Host-ps_g), a session cookie keeps you signed in (__Host-ps_s), a non-identifying hint cookie (ps_h), and local storage keeps your language, theme and cached public results. No third-party tracking or advertising cookies.
  • We use Cloudflare Web Analytics, which does not use cookies and does not track you across websites.

Service providers

  • Cloudflare: hosting, database, email delivery, abuse protection, cookieless analytics and AI processing of proposed questions.
  • Polar (polar.sh): payments, invoices and the customer portal, as merchant of record.
  • Google: sign-in, only if you choose it.
  • These providers process data only to provide their services to us. We may also disclose information where required by law or to protect users and the service.

Retention

  • Retention: guest data stays in your browser cookie (up to 400 days); account data is kept until you delete the account; payment records are kept as required by tax law; sign-in links expire after 15 minutes; security logs are kept for up to 90 days.

Security

  • All connections use HTTPS. Sign-in and session tokens are stored only as hashes, guest identifiers are signed, and back-office access is limited by role and logged. No method is 100% secure, but we work to protect your data.

Your rights and choices

  • Delete your account at any time in Settings. This withdraws your votes, removes your email, nickname, avatar and Google link, and cancels membership renewal.
  • Unsubscribe from Daily with the one-click link in every email, and turn off public display or matching at any time.
  • To access, correct or export your data, object to processing or make any other request, email privacy@pickside.win. We reply within 30 days. Depending on where you live (for example the EU, the UK or California), you may have additional rights, including the right to complain to a data protection authority.

Children

  • PickSide is not directed to children under 13. Accounts and memberships require you to be at least 13 (16 in the EU/UK unless a parent or guardian agrees). If we learn that a child under 13 has given us personal information, we will delete it.

International transfers

  • Our providers operate globally, so your data may be processed outside your country. They use recognised safeguards such as Standard Contractual Clauses.

Changes to this policy

  • When this policy changes we will update the date above, and we will announce material changes on the site.

Privacy contact: privacy@pickside.win