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Current Zeitgeist is responsible for the personal data described on this page. For anything about it, write todata@currentzeitgeist.com.
Visitors
We count visits with Cloudflare Web Analytics, which uses no cookies or local storage and doesn't fingerprint you. Our pages are served by Cloudflare, which processes technical data such as IP addresses to deliver and protect the site. If the site guesses your country to suggest your country's page, that choice is stored only in your browser.
Pictures of apps and games are loaded from Apple's and Valve's (Steam's) own servers, so those companies see your IP address when your browser fetches them, as they would on any page that shows their artwork. We don't send them which page you were on. Other pictures come from our own image server.
Profiles. If you make a profile, your name, username, photo and any badges show next to your comments and on your profile page. Your profile is private unless you make it public: then your bio, country, the date you joined, your posts, comments and reputation show to signed-in readers, and, only if you choose, the countries and topics you follow. Your reputation is worked out from what you do here (forecasts that came true, posts you shared before they trended, likes from others). If you apply for a verified badge, the owner reads what you send (who you are, your links) to decide, and keeps it with the decision. Your likes are counted but not listed. Your profile text and photo are checked automatically before they show (by OpenAI's moderation model or by Cloudflare's Workers AI, which don't keep them for training); a photo the check flags is kept only until the owner reviews it. Photos are shrunk in your browser, stripped of their metadata (such as where they were taken) and served from our image server. Change or delete any of it on your profile page; deleting your account deletes all of it. Legal basis: our contract with you (the service you ask for).
Saved things. When you tap ♡ on a game, an art style, a chart's entry or a page, we keep it with your account (its name, link and picture, and when you saved it) and list it under "Saved" on your profile. Others see them only if your profile is public and "Show what I saved" is on; a game's page shows how many people saved it, never who. A name that doesn't come from our own data is checked the same way as a profile's text. Unsave anything with its ♡; deleting your account deletes all of them. Legal basis: our contract with you.
Media on subject pages. For each subject's media row we look up the past week's most-liked public Bluesky posts with a picture, a video or a link to a post, for its hashtags (UI design, game development …). We keep such a post's address, text, author's name and picture link for 14 days (longer only if readers like, share or comment on it), show it only through Bluesky's or the linked platform's own embed, and drop it as soon as it is deleted on Bluesky.
Shared posts and pictures. When you share a post, we keep its link and the platform's own preview (title, author and picture, asked once of the platform's official embed service), with your profile, until you remove it or delete your account. Pictures you post are checked first, shrunk in your browser, stripped of their metadata (such as where they were taken) and served from our image server until you delete them or your account. To sort a post, its text and picture go to Cloudflare's Workers AI model (which doesn't keep them for training), which decides where it matters, what it's about and how it's likely to make people feel; it never decides anything about you. We count plays and opens on the site per day; who played what is kept 2 days, only to count each person once. A shared post shows only through its platform's embed, which loads when you press play or "Show the post"; the platform then receives what any embedded post sends it, under its own privacy policy.
What deserves attention. If you pick the issues you think deserve more attention, your picks can say something about your political or other views. So we ask for your explicit consent first (GDPR Art. 9(2)(a)), keep your picks only to count them and to show how what people care about changes over time, and show them only as totals (never with your name or on your profile). We keep them until you withdraw your consent on any of those boxes, which deletes all your picks at once; deleting your account deletes them too. The totals shown count the last 90 days. We also keep weekly totals (how many people picked each issue, only counts of 3 or more), with nothing that leads back to anyone. Issues you suggest are public, with your profile, and checked like a comment.
Trending on YouTube. Country pages can show YouTube's most popular videos there today (in "On social media"). The list comes from our server, which asks YouTube using YouTube API Services and keeps the answer only briefly in a cache; the thumbnails load from YouTube's image servers (Google sees your IP address when your browser fetches them). When you press play, YouTube's own player loads from its privacy-enhanced address (youtube-nocookie.com), and YouTube receives what any embedded player sends it. We don't send YouTube anything about you. Google'sPrivacy Policy applies to what YouTube does.
Videos in "Seen from outside". Country pages can show videos about the country, found with YouTube API Services. Until you press play, the page shows only a thumbnail from YouTube's image servers. When you press play, YouTube's own player loads from its privacy-enhanced address (youtube-nocookie.com), and YouTube receives what any embedded player sends it, under Google's Privacy Policy.
"On social media". Some pages list TikTok videos, Instagram posts and YouTube videos that popular Bluesky posts shared. Until you press play, the page shows only each item's preview picture: for TikTok and Instagram the link preview image a Bluesky post carries (from Bluesky's image server, cdn.bsky.app), for YouTube a thumbnail from YouTube's image servers. When you press play, the platform's own player or embed loads in a window on the page: TikTok's embed player, Instagram's embed (its script from instagram.com) or YouTube's privacy-enhanced player. The platform then receives what any embedded player sends it, under its own privacy policy:TikTok's, Instagram'sor Google's. We don't send them anything about you. The counts come from Bluesky's public search, and we keep nothing about those Bluesky posts or their authors (the media on subject pages below are the exception).
Sponsored cards are the same for everyone on a page: no tracking, no cookies and no profiles. When you click one, we count the click by day for the sponsor, with nothing about you.
To show how many people are reading now, each open page sends us a short signal about once a minute with a random number that lives only in that browser tab, and the page's address. It sends no cookies; we keep no IP address and no history, only the current count.
Search runs in your browser for our own pages. Longer searches also ask our server for older topics; it limits how many searches one IP address can make a minute, without storing the address. When a search finds nothing at all, we count the words searched and the day, nothing about who searched, so we can add what readers look for. We never keep searches that look like an email address or a phone number, and we delete the counts after 30 days. A search that found nothing on 3 or more days of a week becomes a word we look for in public news, like the words readers watch (below).
Accounts and Pro
Words you watch or set alerts for are looked for every day in public news headlines (GDELT), so we can show how much the news covers them. We keep the counts and headlines under the word, never linked to your account, and a word only you watch is kept only on days when several headlines already name it. Words that look like an email address or a phone number are never looked for.
If you flag an AI-written summary, we count the flag by summary, reason and day, not linked to your account, and delete the counts after 90 days.
If you sign in, we store your email address, your name if a sign-in provider gives it to us, your sign-in methods (a password is stored only as a salted hash), your sign-in sessions with the IP address and browser they came from, your subscription status, your alert settings and your preferences (who you said you are, what you follow, what you chose to hide or blur, and your map choice). We use them only to run your account, keep it secure, show you the pages you set up and send the emails you ask for. A copy of your preferences is kept in your browser so pages can apply your filters as they load; signing out deletes it.
Weekly email. If you turn on "Your world this week", we email you on Mondays, built from what you follow and your filters. It is off until you turn it on, and every email has a link that turns it off.
Calls. If you make a call, we store it and how it turned out, under a name made of two words and a number that we pick for you. That name, your points and your judged calls are public on the leaderboards and your profile unless you hide them; your email address and real name never are.
Pulse answers. If you answer a Pulse question, we store your choice, when you answered and the country your connection came from (in the US, also its state). Only totals are ever shown or shared: across all readers from 30 answers, a country's or US state's from 100, and a country's counts leave our account database (for our archive and Pro downloads) only from 10 answers. Nobody else sees your own answers.
Age and gender (optional). You can add your birth year and gender to your account to help break Pulse results down by age and gender. They are stored apart from your answers, used only to count anonymous groups (shown only from 100 answers), never shown with your answers, shared or used for anything else. Change or delete them any time on youraccount page. Pulse is for adults: if a birth year shows you are under 18, we delete your Pulse answers, don't keep the year, and stop taking answers from your account.
Weekly check-in. If you take the weekly check-in, we store your answers for that week, when you answered and the country your connection came from (in the US, also its state). It uses your birth year and gender (asked once, as above) so the results reflect your country's adults. Only estimates for groups of people ever leave our account database, and they are shown only once enough people have answered. Nobody else sees your own answers; answering again the same week replaces them, and deleting your account deletes them. We keep a check-in for 13 months and then delete it (the estimates made from everyone's answers are kept). Like Pulse, it is for adults.
Sensitive questions (only with your consent). Some check-in questions can reveal political opinions (where your country is heading, its most important problem, trust in the government, where you stand on a few debates) or religious and philosophical beliefs (a few short questions a week about what matters to you in life, from the Twenty Item Values Inventory). The law treats these as special categories of data, so we ask them only after you give separate, explicit consent (an unticked box you tick yourself), we keep the date and version of that consent, and you can withdraw it any time on your account page, which deletes all of those answers. Without it, those questions are never shown. Our legal basis is your explicit consent (Article 9(2)(a) of the GDPR). These answers are cleared after 90 days, are never broken down by age, gender or any other group within a country, and are never used to choose what you see, for advertising, or sold.
API keys. If you make an API key, we store its name, when it was made and last used, its last 4 characters and a one-way hash of it, never the key itself. We count your calls per month to apply your plan's allowance, and our host logs each request briefly to keep the service secure.
Cookies. Signing in sets essential cookies only: the session cookie, a short-lived signed copy of it so pages load faster, and a cz_auth cookie that tells our pages you are signed in (it contains no personal data). There are no advertising or tracking cookies.
Who else is involved. If you choose "Continue with Google" (or Apple or X, when offered), that company confirms who you are and shares your email address and name with us. Forms that send email or check a password use Cloudflare Turnstile to stop bots. Sign-in codes, trial reminders and alerts are sent through our email provider, Resend, and emails you send us are received by our email host, Zoho Mail. Payments are handled by Polar, the merchant of record, on its own checkout: we never see your card details, and Polar gets your email address only when you start a checkout.
Where your data is kept. Our account database (your account, answers and settings) and our archive run on Cloudflare, a US company, which handles them for us under its data processing addendum. For data from the EU, the UK and Switzerland, Cloudflare relies on the EU–US Data Privacy Framework and its UK and Swiss extensions, with the EU Standard Contractual Clauses as a fallback. The other providers named on this page handle only what they need for their part, under their own data processing terms.
Comments, reactions and votes. What you post is shown with your public calls name if you have one, otherwise as "A reader". Comments are sent to OpenAI's moderation service to check them before they appear (it doesn't keep them to train models). Reports are kept with the comment; appeals until they are decided. Removed comments and the record of the decision are kept for 6 months for appeals. Deleting your account deletes your comments, reactions, votes and reports.
Community discussions. A discussion you start on Community shows without your name, with your profile's country; answers and other posts show with your profile. They are checked like comments. To keep each discussion's best answer and check the badges on answers, the discussion and its answers (their text, badges and medal counts, not who wrote them) are sent through OpenRouter to an AI model, with data collection turned off and nothing kept by the model's provider. We keep your world cred and what it was earned or lost for, the discussions you watch, the topics and people you follow, and your alerts (for 90 days). Projects and their notes are private: only you see them. Deleting a post, or your account, deletes it, and a best answer that drew on your answers is taken down and written again without them.
Ask AI. A question you ask the assistant, and the last few questions and answers of the same conversation, are sent through OpenRouter to the AI model that answers it, with data collection turned off. We don't store your questions or the answers; we count how many questions you ask each month, for your plan's limit. On the Ask page the conversation stays in your browser tab (its session storage) until you close the tab or start a new conversation. Don't put personal details in a question.
My Business. If you set up My Business, we store what you enter: your business's name, website, type, industry, where it sells, its town for a local business, what it tracks and your goals, plus each week's brief as sent. The words and names you track are looked for in public sources like any watched word: the collector gets the words, never who tracks them. To write each brief's "do this" lines, the brief's numbers, your business type, industry and countries, and the names you track are sent through OpenRouter to an AI model, with data collection turned off; for the first guess at setup, so are your website address and the sentence you write. Never your email address. Deleting the business, or your account, deletes all of it. If you verify your website by email, we send a code to the address you choose at its domain; we keep only a scrambled copy of the code (until it's used or expires) and how the website was verified, never the address.
Connected Google accounts (Business). If you connect Google Search Console or Google Analytics to My Business, Google shares read-only access with us. We read only daily totals for the site or property you choose: searches, impressions and clicks (with the top search terms), and visits by country, US state and channel. We never read or keep anything about one visitor, and we can't change anything in your accounts. The totals are kept for 100 days, shown only to you (on your business page and in your Monday brief), and never shared, sold, used for advertising, combined across members, sent to an AI model or used to train one. Your access token is stored encrypted. Disconnecting, deleting the business or deleting your account ends the access at Google and deletes what we kept. Current Zeitgeist's use and transfer of information received from Google APIs to any other app will adhere to theGoogle API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.
Business enquiries. What you send through the Business form (name, work email, company, message) is used only to reply to you and to set up an agreement, and is deleted within 2 years if nothing comes of it.
Why we may use your data
- Running the site and keeping it safe (serving pages, counting visits, stopping bots and abuse): our legitimate interest in a working, secure site.
- Your account and what you set up (sign-in, subscription, alerts, calls, API keys, My Business and connected accounts): to provide the service you asked for.
- What you choose to give (emails you turn on, Pulse answers, your age and gender, the weekly check-in): your consent, which you can withdraw any time by turning them off, deleting them or deleting your account.
- The check-in's sensitive questions: your explicit consent, given separately (Article 9(2)(a) of the GDPR).
- Business enquiries: our legitimate interest in replying to you.
Your choices
You can delete your account yourself on your account page (cancel any subscription first), or ask us for a copy of your data or its deletion atdata@currentzeitgeist.com. Deleting the account removes it, its sessions, sign-in methods, preferences, Pulse answers, check-in answers and consent, age and gender, calls, API keys, My Business and its connected accounts straight away. Polar keeps billing records as long as tax law requires.
You can also ask us to correct your data, to limit or stop how we use it, or to send it to you in a portable format, at the same address. If you think we've got something wrong, you can complain to your data protection authority.
Data about the world
Our data is aggregated public signals (pageviews, trending searches, charts), not data about individuals, apart from the people we quote, below.
News headlines. To show news headlines in your language, our processing sends the headlines we show, and nothing else, once to OpenAI's AI model, which translates them. They are public news titles, not data about you or any reader.
Public posts. To count what people post about, our server reads a small random sample of public Bluesky posts each hour. Each sampled post's text, with account mentions, email addresses and links cut out, is sent once through OpenRouter to an AI model that names its themes and its main feeling, with data collection turned off and nothing kept by the model's provider. We keep only the day's counts per language (how many posts were about each theme, and with which feeling). This is our legitimate interest in reporting what the public talks about.
For the AI-written "why it's rising" note on a topic's page, our processing also reads up to 6 popular public Bluesky posts naming a topic that is rising that day (10 likes or more, from the last 4 days). Their text, with account mentions, email addresses and links cut out, is sent once through OpenRouter to the AI model with the topic's news, with data collection turned off and nothing kept by the model's provider. The note says in general words how people react; it never quotes or names a post, and we don't store the posts.
To show what people are saying, we also keep the address of each sampled post that isn't a reply, for 3 days, and once a day pick a few of the most liked per theme, only from accounts with at least 1,000 followers, never from accounts that ask apps to hide them from logged-out readers, and never posts marked as adult. We keep those picks (the post's address and its author's handle, not the text) for 14 days and show them as cards that our server reads live from Bluesky's public API when you view them: a deleted post, or one whose author has since asked apps to hide them from logged-out readers, disappears from our pages too. A post in another language than the page's is shown translated (the original is a click away): Cloudflare's translation model translates it. Nothing is stored; a card is cached for a few hours. The pictures in a card (the author's, and any in the post) load from Bluesky's image servers (cdn.bsky.app), which receive your IP address under Bluesky's privacy policy. Posts load only for signed-in readers. If you'd like a post of yours not to appear, write todata@currentzeitgeist.com.
People we write about
Our subject pages and Influential people quote what people have said in public about their field: in articles, posts, talks, interviews and podcasts. For each person we keep their name, their role as stated by the source and when it was checked, the subjects their quotes are filed under, the quotes themselves word for word, where and when they were said, and a link to the source. We do this to report on public debate (our legitimate interest in journalism and commentary), using only what was published.
If we quote you, you can ask us to correct a quote, update your role or remove a quote or your page, by writing to data@currentzeitgeist.com or usingReport a problem next to any quote. A quote we remove is never shown again, including if it turns up in a new source. You also have the rights listed above.
Last updated 15 October 2026 (public posts in the "why it's rising" notes; news headlines translated).