Privacy Policy
Updated: October 18, 2026
Effective date: October 18, 2026.
This policy explains what information ElNinoLive ("we," "us") collects when you use this website, why we collect it, and the choices you have. The short version: we collect as little as a modern website can get away with, we never sell personal data, and the only personal information we ask for — a newsletter email address — is volunteered by you.
What we collect
Analytics. By default we use Plausible, a privacy-focused analytics service that counts page views without cookies and without storing personal identifiers or full IP addresses. It tells us which pages are read and roughly where visitors come from, in aggregate. If we additionally enable Google Analytics 4, it may set cookies and collect device and usage information subject to Google's policies; we configure IP anonymization where available. We also use Microsoft Clarity (Microsoft Corporation) to see how pages are actually used — it records anonymised session replays and builds heatmaps of clicks and scrolling, and it sets cookies. Anything you type into a form here — your address in the newsletter box, or the message in the contact form — is masked in your browser before the replay is sent, so it never reaches Clarity and we cannot read it there. Clarity is loaded on exactly the same terms as Google Analytics: never for a visitor who declines, and never before consent where consent is required. It is not loaded at all in our embeddable widget, which carries no analytics of any kind so that it cannot track the readers of sites that host it. Visitors in the EEA, the United Kingdom and Switzerland are asked for consent before Google Analytics, Clarity or advertising cookies are set, and there is one consent prompt for all of them: Gatekeeper, the IAB-registered consent tool provided by Ezoic (described below). Google Analytics and Clarity load only if you allow the measurement purposes in that prompt; if you allow necessary cookies only, neither of them loads at all. If the prompt cannot load in your browser (for example because an ad blocker stops it), we treat that as no consent and load neither. You can review or change your choice at any time via the "Cookie settings" link in the footer.
Server logs. Our hosting infrastructure keeps standard, short-lived technical logs (IP address, user agent, requested URL) for security, abuse prevention and debugging. These are retained only as long as operationally necessary.
Newsletter data. If you subscribe to the El Niño Briefing, we store the email address you provide, the signup date, and which signup form on this site you used (for example, the one under the live map) — the last only so we can see which forms work. We use the address solely to send the newsletter and service messages about it. Every issue includes a one-click unsubscribe; unsubscribed addresses are removed from the active list. To keep bots off the list, our signup forms use Cloudflare Turnstile (Cloudflare, Inc.): once you start using a form, it checks in the background, usually without asking you anything, that a person rather than a bot is signing up. Since October 18, 2026, each issue contains a small tracking image from our newsletter provider, Buttondown, which records whether the email was opened. Buttondown records this per address; we use only the overall open rate of each issue, to report it to sponsors, and never to profile individual readers. If your email app blocks images, this is blocked too.
Contact email. If you write to us, we keep the correspondence for as long as needed to handle your request.
Contact form. Every address on this site is written out in full, so you can always write from your own mail client. If you use the form instead, it sends us the email address and message you type — nothing else — and delivery goes through Brevo (Sendinblue SAS, France), which processes that message solely to place it in our inbox. We keep the correspondence for as long as it takes to deal with it.
We do not collect names, accounts, payment details or precise location, and we have no user registration.
Advertising
Display advertising. This site is built to carry advertising, including Google AdSense. When AdSense is active, Google and its certified partners may set cookies or use device identifiers to serve and measure ads, including personalized ads where you have consented or where law permits. You can opt out of personalized advertising through Google's Ads Settings (adssettings.google.com) and learn more at Google's advertising privacy documentation. Where required by law (for example in the EEA and UK), a consent prompt governs whether personalized advertising cookies are used at all.
Ezoic. We also work with Ezoic Inc. (United States), an advertising technology company. Its scripts load on the pages of this site (not in our embeddable widget): a consent tool called Gatekeeper, which asks visitors for their privacy choices where the law requires it and is the only consent prompt on this site; an ad script that serves and measures ads once ad placements are switched on; and Ezoic's analytics, which may set cookies and collect device and usage information to measure how pages perform. Ezoic and its partners process that data under their own privacy policy (ezoic.com/privacy-policy) and only on the terms you choose in the consent prompt where consent is required.
Ezoic's own disclosure of the partners it works with and the cookies they may set is shown below; Ezoic supplies and updates it.
The embeddable widget
Websites may embed our status widget in an iframe. When a page containing the widget loads, our server receives a standard page request (as in "server logs" above) and our analytics counts a widget view. The widget contains no advertising and sets no advertising cookies into host pages.
How we share information
We share data only with the service providers necessary to run the site — hosting, analytics, email delivery and (when active) advertising partners named above — each processing it under their own contractual and legal obligations. We disclose information if legally compelled to. We never sell personal information.
Data retention
Newsletter addresses are kept until you unsubscribe or we discontinue the newsletter. Technical logs rotate on short schedules. Analytics data is aggregate and non-identifying.
Your rights
Depending on where you live (including under GDPR and CCPA-style laws), you may have rights to access, correct, delete or export personal data we hold about you, and to object to or restrict certain processing. For any such request, email — in practice, the only personal data we typically hold is a newsletter address and, if you have written to us, the contact message and the address you sent it from — we will confirm deletion promptly. You will not be discriminated against for exercising any right.
Children
This site is a general-audience informational service and is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children; if you believe a child has subscribed to the newsletter, contact us and we will remove the address.
International visitors
We publish worldwide. Data may be processed on servers in countries other than yours, including the United States, under the safeguards our providers maintain.
Changes to this policy
We will post any changes on this page with an updated effective date, and material changes will be noted in the newsletter. Questions about this policy: , or see the contact page.