Last Updated: September 2026
1. Introduction
History Rewind ("we," "us," or "our") operates the website history-rewind.com (the "Site"). This Privacy Policy explains what limited data we process when you visit the Site, why we process it, and the rights you hold over that data. If you have any questions about this policy, you can reach us at contact@history-rewind.com.
2. What We Collect and Why
The Site is a static website with no accounts, logins, or newsletters, so there is nothing to sign up for and nothing you have to tell us in order to read it. The one place where you can choose to send us personal details is the contact form. We also measure how the Site is used through Google Analytics 4, and whether that measurement uses cookies depends on where you are and on the choice you make in the cookie banner. We do not currently display advertising, but if we introduce it we would do so through Google AdSense to support the Site. Each of these is described in more detail below.
If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland, analytics cookies and identifiers are set only if you accept them through the cookie banner. Everywhere else they are set from the first page you load and stay in use until you reject them. In both cases, once they are in use, Google sets the _ga and _ga_* cookies and processes your IP address (used by Google to approximate a coarse, city-level location; it is not stored by us), your device and browser type, the pages you view, and your interactions with them.
If you reject analytics, no analytics cookies are set and nothing is read back from your device, and the same is true before you choose if you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland. Google still receives a cookieless page view under Google Consent Mode: a record that a page was opened, with no cookie and no other lasting identifier attached to it, although, as with any request to a web server, Google receives your IP address in order to answer it.
If you write to us through the contact form, we process the name, email address, and message you type into it. We ask for these so that we can understand what you have written and reply to you, and we use them for nothing else: no marketing, no mailing list, no profiling. Your message is passed to our email inbox by Web3Forms, a third-party form delivery service, and is not stored in a database on the Site. Using the form is entirely optional, and you can email us directly instead.
3. Google Analytics
We use Google Analytics 4 to count visits and see which pages are read. It is the only measurement tool on the Site, and nothing it collects is used to identify you by name or to build an advertising profile. Google Analytics is provided by Google Ireland Limited and Google LLC, which process the measurement data on our instructions; where that data goes afterwards is set out under "Who Processes Your Data and International Transfers" below. The Google Analytics tag loads on every page whatever you decide, because it is also what carries your decision to Google, and what changes is what the tag is then allowed to do.
Before you make a choice, what happens depends on where you are. If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland, nothing is stored on or read from your device until you accept, so a first visit produces only the cookieless page view described below. Everywhere else, analytics cookies are on from the first page you load and stay on until you reject them. Google works out which of the two applies from the region your connection appears to come from. Advertising cookies and identifiers are denied for every visitor, wherever you are, until you accept advertising in the banner.
If your browser sends a Global Privacy Control signal, we treat it as a rejection. Analytics cookies are then not set even in the regions where they would otherwise start switched on, and Google receives only the cookieless page view described below. Accepting through the banner afterwards overrides the signal, because that is you telling us directly.
If you accept analytics, Google sets two first-party cookies in your browser, _ga and _ga_G-HNRRX32W0V. Each holds a randomly generated number that lets Google tell one browser apart from another so that a returning visitor is not counted as a new one, and each expires two years after your most recent visit. Alongside those cookies Google receives the pages you open and when, how you interact with them, the page or search that sent you here, your device type, screen size, browser and operating system, and your IP address.
If you reject analytics, no cookies are set, any analytics cookies already in your browser are deleted, nothing already on your device is read, and no lasting identifier reaches Google. Google still receives one cookieless page view for each page you open, carrying the time, the name of the event, general context such as country, device category, browser family and where you arrived from, and a random number generated for that request alone, which is not written to your device and cannot be traced back to you. Nothing in it is joined to your earlier or later visits.
Google uses your IP address to answer the request in the first place and to work out an approximate location that is no more precise than a city. Google states that it does not log or store the IP addresses of visitors from the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland: those addresses are dropped before logging, the location lookup runs on servers inside those regions, and only the continent, country, region and city it produces, together with that city's coordinates, are kept. We never see your IP address at any point, and we cannot ask Google for it.
Google keeps the underlying analytics data for 14 months, the retention period we have set on this property, and deletes it automatically after that. The same period applies to the cookieless page views recorded when you have not accepted.
You can turn analytics off at any time, in more than one way. The quickest is the Manage Cookie Preferences button under "Managing Your Choices" below, which reopens the banner and applies your new choice at once and on every page you load afterwards. Google's own opt-out add-on at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout blocks Google Analytics in your browser on every site, not only this one. Clearing site data in your browser settings removes the _ga cookies along with everything else the Site has stored. Blocking cookies for this Site, or for all sites, in your browser settings stops them being set again.
4. Advertising
The Site does not currently display advertisements. If we introduce advertising, we would use Google AdSense, provided by Google, and Google and its advertising partners would use cookies and similar identifiers — including the DoubleClick cookie — to serve ads based on your visits to this Site and to other sites across the internet. We will update this policy before that happens.
Such ads would be either personalized or non-personalized. Personalized ads draw on data about your prior activity to show advertising that Google considers more relevant to you. Non-personalized ads are based only on general context, such as the page you are currently viewing and your approximate location, and do not build an advertising profile from your browsing history.
Under Google Consent Mode the Site denies ad storage, ad user data, and ad personalization for every visitor, wherever in the world you are, and they stay denied until you accept advertising through the cookie banner. Any ads we introduced would therefore be non-personalized unless and until you give consent, and for visitors in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland that consent is also what the law requires.
You can control the advertising you see across the internet and opt out of personalized advertising through the following tools:
- Google Ads Settings: https://www.google.com/settings/ads
- Google's advertising technologies: https://policies.google.com/technologies/ads
- Digital Advertising Alliance opt-out: https://www.aboutads.info/choices
- Your Online Choices (EEA/UK): https://www.youronlinechoices.eu
5. Legal Basis for Processing
If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland, our legal basis for analytics, and for any advertising we introduce, is your consent, under Article 6(1)(a) of the General Data Protection Regulation and the equivalent rules in the United Kingdom and in Swiss federal data protection law. Nothing is stored on or read from your device in those regions until you give it. You give it through the cookie banner, and you may withdraw it at any time without affecting the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdrew it. See "Managing Your Choices" below.
If you are anywhere else, analytics starts when the page loads and we do not ask for your consent first. We work out which of the two applies from the region your connection appears to come from, so it follows your connection rather than your residence. Where a data protection law of that kind nonetheless applies to you, the basis we rely on is our legitimate interest in knowing how many people read the Site and which pages they read, under Article 6(1)(f) or its local equivalent, and you can object at any time by rejecting analytics in the cookie banner. Advertising is a separate matter: if we introduce it, we will ask for your consent first wherever you are.
For messages sent through the contact form, our legal basis is our legitimate interest in reading and answering correspondence addressed to us, under Article 6(1)(f). You decide whether to write to us, and you can ask us to delete your message at any time.
6. Who Processes Your Data and International Transfers
Google Analytics is provided by Google Ireland Limited and Google LLC, which act as our analytics processor. That holds whether or not you accept analytics, because rejecting removes the cookies and identifiers rather than the page view itself. If we introduce advertising through Google AdSense, we would share data with Google so that Google and its advertising partners can serve and measure ads; for that ad-serving activity Google would act as an independent data controller. Data collected through these services may be transferred to and processed in the United States. Google relies on the Standard Contractual Clauses and its certification under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework as the safeguard for these transfers.
Messages sent through the contact form are passed to our inbox by Web3Forms, which acts as our processor for that delivery alone. Apart from Google and Web3Forms, we do not share your data with anyone, and we never sell it.
7. Data Retention
Analytics data associated with cookies and identifiers is retained by Google for the retention period we have configured, which is set to a maximum of 14 months, after which it is deleted automatically. The cookieless page views recorded when you have not accepted are held for the same period, and because they carry no identifier there is nothing in them to link back to you at any point during it.
Messages you send through the contact form stay in our email inbox for as long as we need them to deal with what you wrote about, and in any case no longer than two years, after which we delete them. You can ask us to delete a message sooner at any time.
8. Cookies and Local Storage
The Site uses a small number of first-party cookies and browser storage entries, listed below. No third-party advertising cookies are set. Whether the analytics cookies are set before you make a choice depends on where you are, as set out under "Google Analytics" above.
- _ga and _ga_G-HNRRX32W0V: Google Analytics cookies used to tell one browser apart from another and to measure sessions. Each holds a randomly generated number and expires two years after your most recent visit. Analytics category; set only after you accept if you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland, and set from the first page you load everywhere else until you reject them.
- cookieConsent: stored in your browser's local storage to record the choice you made in the cookie banner. It holds a version number, the date and time you chose, and a separate yes or no for analytics and for advertising. The record expires six months after you chose, at which point analytics returns to the regional default described above and we ask you again. Strictly necessary.
- rewindArrival: a transient flag held in session storage that carries the rewind animation across a single page navigation and is cleared immediately afterwards. Strictly necessary.
- cookieBannerDismissed: a flag held in session storage, set only if you close the cookie banner with the Escape key, so that it is not shown again for the rest of your visit. It records no choice and grants no permission, and it is gone when you close the tab. Strictly necessary.
If we introduce advertising through Google AdSense, Google and its advertising partners would set third-party advertising cookies, including the DoubleClick cookie, to serve and measure ads and, where you consent, to personalize them. Those cookies would be set only after you accept, wherever you are. We will update this list before that happens.
9. Managing Your Choices
When you first visit the Site, the cookie banner gives you three routes: accept everything, reject everything, or manage your preferences and decide on analytics and advertising separately. Accepting and rejecting are both a single click and equally easy. Dismissing the banner without choosing is not consent, and it is not a rejection either, so it appears again on your next visit and until then the regional default described under "Google Analytics" above applies.
Rejecting means that nothing beyond the strictly necessary entries listed above is stored on or read from your device, that any analytics cookies already set are deleted, and that the only thing Google receives is the cookieless page view, also described in that section. A rejection is applied again on every page you load, so you never have to repeat it. A choice lasts six months, after which we ask you again, and you can change or withdraw it at any time using the button below, which reopens the banner showing your current settings.
You can also remove any cookies and storage entries at any time by clearing site data through your browser settings, and Google's opt-out add-on, linked under "Google Analytics" above, switches Google Analytics off across every site you visit rather than only this one.
10. Your Rights
If you are located in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland, you have the following rights over your personal data:
- Access to the data we hold about you.
- Rectification of data that is inaccurate or incomplete.
- Erasure of your data.
- Restriction of how we process your data.
- Portability of your data to another provider.
- Objection to our processing of your data.
- Withdrawal of consent at any time.
Where we rely on legitimate interests rather than your consent, you have the right to object under Article 21. That covers reading and answering messages sent through the contact form, and the analytics measurement that starts without a consent step outside the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland. Rejecting analytics in the cookie banner counts as an objection, and we act on it straight away and on every page you load afterwards.
To exercise any of these rights, email us at contact@history-rewind.com. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection supervisory authority if you believe your data has been handled improperly.
11. California Privacy Rights
If you are a California resident, the California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act, gives you specific rights. Through Google Analytics we collect identifiers, such as the online identifier held in the _ga cookies, and internet or other electronic network activity, such as the pages you view and how you interact with them. If we introduce advertising through Google AdSense, the same categories would be collected for that as well. Analytics is on by default in California, as it is everywhere outside the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland, and you can switch it off with one click in the cookie banner.
We do not sell your personal information for money, and we do not currently display advertising. Google acts as our service provider for analytics and is contractually restricted to processing that data on our instructions, so the analytics described above is neither a sale nor a sharing for cross-context behavioral advertising. If we introduce Google AdSense to display personalized advertising, that use would constitute "sharing" for cross-context behavioral advertising under the California Privacy Rights Act. You have the right to know what we collect, to request deletion of your data, and to opt out of that sharing. Personalized advertising is off by default for every visitor wherever you are, and any visitor can also opt out using the advertising controls listed in the "Advertising" section above. If your browser sends a Global Privacy Control signal, we treat it as an opt-out and as a rejection of analytics, so the analytics cookies are not set even though they would otherwise be on by default where you are. We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of these rights. To make a request, contact us at contact@history-rewind.com.
12. Children
The Site is not directed to children under the age of 16, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from them. If you believe a child has provided us with data, please contact us and we will delete it.
13. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will revise the "Last Updated" date at the top of this page. We encourage you to review the policy periodically.
14. Contact
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or how we handle your data, contact us at contact@history-rewind.com.