Privacy policy

Last updated: 27 August 2026

This Privacy Policy explains how Flash Science ("we", "us"), available at https://flashscience.org, handles information when you visit our website. We keep things simple: we exist to publish educational content, not to collect your personal information.

The site is operated by Sok Heng Oeun, who is the data controller for the purposes of the UK and EU General Data Protection Regulation. You can reach him at contact@flashscience.org.

The short version

As of the date above, the only cookies this website can use are the measurement cookies set by Google Analytics, which tell us — in aggregate — which articles are being read. For readers in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland even those are off by default: no analytics cookie is set unless you choose to allow it. There is no advertising, no tracking pixel, no social widget and no comment system. The sections below explain exactly what is measured, and what changes when advertising starts.

Information we collect

We do not require you to create an account, and we do not ask for personal information to read our content. Information may reach us in two ways:

• Information you send us. If you email us at contact@flashscience.org, we receive your email address and the contents of your message. We use this only to reply and handle your request. Our legal basis is legitimate interest — answering someone who wrote to us.
• Technical information. Like nearly all websites, our hosting server automatically records basic technical logs (such as IP address, browser type, pages visited and access times) for security and performance purposes. Our legal basis is legitimate interest — keeping the site running and defending it against abuse.

Cookies

Cookies are small files stored by your browser. Flash Science sets no cookies of its own. One third-party service, Google Analytics, sets measurement cookies as described below — and for readers in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland it is configured not to set them without your consent.

Advertising is described below and is not running today. If it is switched on, this policy will be updated on the same day, and readers in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland will be asked for consent before any advertising cookie is placed.

You can block or delete cookies at any time in your browser settings; this site will continue to work normally without them.

Advertising and Google AdSense

We intend to display advertising served by Google AdSense to cover the cost of running this site. It is not running yet. When it starts:

• Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on a user's prior visits to this website or other websites.
• Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to users based on their visits to this site and/or other sites on the Internet.
• You may opt out of personalised advertising by visiting Google Ads Settings, or opt out of some third-party vendors' cookies at www.aboutads.info.

Consent in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland. Google requires publishers serving ads to readers in those regions to use a consent management platform certified by Google. We will use Google's own certified consent message, which appears before any advertising cookie is set and lets you accept, refuse, or choose per purpose. Refusing is a real option: you will still be able to read everything on this site, and you may see non-personalised advertising instead. You can reopen that choice at any time from the link in the site footer once advertising is live.

Analytics

We use Google Analytics 4 (measurement ID G-VTGBWKLH6J) to understand which articles readers find useful. What we look at is aggregate: counts of pages viewed, approximate country, device type and referring site. We do not use it to identify individual readers, and we do not sell or share the data.

For readers in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland the tag runs in consent-denied mode by default: no analytics cookie is set and no identifier is stored unless you choose to allow it. Google processes this data on our behalf, which may happen on servers outside your country, including in the United States. You can block Google Analytics everywhere by installing the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on.

Embedded content and media

Our pages load web fonts from Google Fonts. Google may receive standard technical data (such as your IP address and browser type) when your browser fetches those font files. All images on this site are served from our own domain; we do not embed third-party media, trackers, social-media widgets or comment systems.

Children's privacy

Flash Science is a general-audience educational site. It is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 13 (or under 16 where local law sets that age). If you believe a child has sent us personal information, contact us and we will delete it. Because the site is not child-directed, we do not use Google's child-directed treatment settings; if that changes, this section will change with it.

Your rights

We hold almost no personal data about you — typically nothing at all unless you have emailed us. Where we do hold something, you have the right to:

• Access it, and receive a copy.
• Correct it if it is wrong.
• Erase it.
• Object to or restrict our use of it.
• Withdraw consent at any time, where we relied on consent.
• Complain to a data protection authority. In the UK that is the Information Commissioner's Office; in the EEA it is the supervisory authority where you live.

Email contact@flashscience.org and we will act on it. We do not charge for this and we will not ask you to justify the request.

California residents. We do not sell or share personal information as those terms are defined by the CCPA/CPRA, and we have not done so in the preceding twelve months. You have the same rights of access and deletion described above, and we will not discriminate against you for using them.

Data security and retention

The site is served over HTTPS. Server access logs are kept by our host for a limited period for security and diagnostics and are not used to build a profile of you. Emails you send us are kept only as long as needed to handle your request, or as required by law, and then deleted.

Where a third-party service such as Google processes data on our behalf, that data may be handled outside your country, including in the United States, under the transfer safeguards those providers publish.

Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The date at the top shows when it was last revised. If we start using advertising or analytics, that is a change we will make on the day it happens, not afterwards.

Contact

Questions about this policy: contact@flashscience.org.