1. Information We Collect
Interactive USA Map Portal is a free educational resource. We do not require account registration. We do not passively collect personal identifiable information (PII) such as your name, email address, or location simply by browsing this site.
Contact Form
The only way we directly collect personal information is when you voluntarily submit our Contact Form. When you do, we collect:
- Your name
- Your email address
- A subject line and message body
This information is submitted by you knowingly and voluntarily, for the sole purpose of us receiving and responding to your message. It is stored securely on Cloudflare's infrastructure (Cloudflare KV), which operates under its own GDPR-compliant Data Processing Agreement. We do not share this data with any third party, and we do not use it for any purpose other than replying to your enquiry.
By submitting the contact form, you confirm your consent to this processing in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
2. Local Browser Storage
When you visit individual state pages, this website stores a small list of the state names you have recently visited in your browser's local storage (not cookies). This list is used exclusively to display a "Recently Visited" strip on the homepage for your convenience.
This data:
- Is stored entirely on your own device, inside your browser
- Never leaves your device — it is never sent to our servers or any third party
- Contains only state name identifiers (e.g. "texas", "california") — no personal information
- Can be cleared at any time via your browser settings (Clear browsing data → Cached data / Site data)
This is classified as functional storage. It serves no tracking purpose beyond improving your own browsing experience on this site.
3. Third-Party Services
This website uses the following third-party services. Each involves your browser making a direct request to an external server, which receives your IP address as a standard part of the HTTP protocol. We do not control these services and encourage you to review their respective privacy policies.
Google AdSense (Advertising)
We display advertisements through Google AdSense (Google LLC, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA). Ads on this site are served as non-personalized by default — they are selected based on the content of the page you are viewing, not on your browsing history or personal profile.
For visitors in the European Economic Area (EEA) and the United Kingdom: Google will display a consent notice before any advertising cookies are set. You may accept or decline. If you decline, non-personalized, cookieless ads continue to be shown. This consent mechanism is managed directly by Google via its Funding Choices platform and is compliant with the IAB Europe Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF 2.2).
For visitors in California: Google will display a notice providing you the option to opt out of the sale or sharing of your personal information for advertising purposes, in accordance with the CCPA/CPRA.
For all other visitors, non-personalized ads are shown by default. You may opt out of interest-based advertising at any time by visiting Google's Ad Settings or optout.aboutads.info. Google's privacy policy is available at policies.google.com/privacy.
OpenWeatherMap (Live Weather Data)
State pages display live weather information retrieved from OpenWeatherMap (OpenWeather Ltd, UK). When you view a state page, your browser sends a direct API request to OpenWeatherMap's servers. This request includes your IP address as a technical requirement of the HTTP protocol. OpenWeatherMap does not set cookies on your browser and does not return any tracking identifiers. Their privacy policy is available at openweathermap.org/privacy-policy. We do not receive or store any data from this exchange.
4. No Third-Party Analytics. No Behavioral Tracking. No Data Selling.
We do not use any of the following on this website:
- Google Analytics or any other third-party analytics platform
- Microsoft Clarity, Bing tracking, or any Microsoft analytics tools
- Session recording, heatmapping, or behavioral analytics tools
- Social media tracking pixels (Facebook, X/Twitter, TikTok, etc.)
- Fingerprinting or cross-site tracking technologies
This website uses a simple, privacy-preserving first-party aggregate visit counter operated entirely on our own servers. It records only two values: a running total of page visits and a daily visit count. It does not record or store your IP address, browser information, pages visited, or any other personal or identifying information. No cookies are set and no data is shared with any third party.
We do not sell, rent, trade, or otherwise transfer your personal information to any third party for commercial purposes. Contact form data is never shared with any party outside of the secure server infrastructure used to operate this site.
5. Data Retention
We retain personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purpose for which it was collected:
- Contact form messages — retained for a maximum of 12 months from the date of receipt, after which they are permanently deleted from our systems. If your enquiry requires ongoing correspondence, data may be retained until that correspondence is closed.
- Local browser storage — retained in your own browser until you clear your browser data. We have no access to or control over this data.
You may request early deletion of your contact form submission at any time by contacting us at the address in Section 9.
6. Your Rights — European & UK Residents (GDPR / UK GDPR)
If you are located in the European Economic Area (EEA) or the United Kingdom, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and UK GDPR apply to your personal data. You have the following rights:
- Right of Access (Art. 15) — You may request a copy of any personal data we hold about you.
- Right to Rectification (Art. 16) — You may request correction of inaccurate data.
- Right to Erasure (Art. 17) — You may request that we delete your personal data. We will action this within 30 days.
- Right to Restriction (Art. 18) — You may request that we restrict processing of your data in certain circumstances.
- Right to Data Portability (Art. 20) — You may request a machine-readable copy of data you provided to us.
- Right to Object (Art. 21) — You may object to processing based on legitimate interests.
- Right to Lodge a Complaint — You have the right to lodge a complaint with your national supervisory authority. In the EU, find your authority at edpb.europa.eu. In the UK, the relevant authority is the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).
Legal basis for processing contact form data: Legitimate interest — we have a legitimate interest in receiving and responding to messages sent to us by users who voluntarily initiate contact.
Regarding international transfers: Contact form data is processed on Cloudflare's infrastructure, which may operate servers outside the EEA. Cloudflare maintains Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) and a GDPR-compliant Data Processing Addendum applicable to all customers. Google (AdSense, Fonts) and OpenWeatherMap similarly maintain SCCs for international data transfers.
To exercise any of the above rights, please contact us using the details in Section 9.
7. Your Rights — California Residents (CCPA / CPRA)
If you are a California resident, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) grants you the following rights:
- Right to Know — You may request disclosure of the categories and specific pieces of personal information we have collected about you.
- Right to Delete — You may request deletion of personal information we have collected from you.
- Right to Correct — You may request correction of inaccurate personal information.
- Right to Opt Out of Sale or Sharing — We do not sell or share your personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising. Google AdSense on this site is configured to serve non-personalized ads by default. For California visitors, Google displays a dedicated opt-out notice in accordance with CCPA/CPRA requirements.
- Right to Non-Discrimination — We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your CCPA rights.
To submit a verifiable consumer request, please contact us using the details in Section 9 and include "CCPA Request" in your subject line.
8. Children's Privacy
This website is an educational resource intended for general audiences. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 13. Our contact form is not intended for use by children under 13 without parental supervision. All advertising on this site is configured as non-personalized, consistent with the requirements of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).
If you believe a child under 13 has submitted personal information to us through the contact form, please contact us immediately so we can delete it.
9. Contact & Rights Requests
For any questions about this Privacy Policy, to exercise your data rights under GDPR, UK GDPR, CCPA, or any other applicable law, or to request deletion of your contact form data, please reach us at:
Email: contact@interactiveusmap.info
We will respond to all rights requests within 30 days. For complex requests we may extend this by a further 60 days, in which case we will notify you of the extension within the initial 30-day period.
This Privacy Policy may be updated periodically to reflect changes in our practices or applicable law. The "Last Updated" date at the top of this page indicates when the most recent revision was made. Continued use of this website after a policy update constitutes acceptance of the revised terms.