At LifeQuestioning, we value your privacy. We use what we collect only as described here: to run and improve the site, send emails you choose to receive, and (where you allow it) measure traffic and marketing. We do not sell your email list or hand your contact details to other companies for their own marketing.

Who we are

LifeQuestioning ("LifeQuestioning", "we", "us", or "our") operates the website at lifequestioning.com. We are the data controller for the personal information described in this policy. If you have any privacy questions or requests, you can reach us through our Contact page. You can learn more about who runs the site on our About Us page.

We process your personal information based on one or more of the following:

• your consent (for example, when you opt in to receive emails or accept optional cookies);
• our legitimate interests in operating, improving, and securing our website and services;
• compliance with legal obligations, where applicable.

Cookies, analytics, and marketing

Our website shows a cookie consent banner with Accept All, Reject All, and Manage Preferences. You can change your mind later from Cookie Settings in the footer. Optional categories are off until you choose them.

• Necessary: needed for basic operation (for example remembering your consent choices, basic site preferences, and an anonymous token so reactions and poll votes are not counted twice, and so we can see where the submit flow loses people (which button, how far, where you left, short error codes), fix it, and improve the feature, without your name or email).
• Analytics: if you allow, we use Google Analytics cookies for fuller traffic and usage measurement. Even if you reject Analytics, Google's Consent Mode may still send limited cookieless measurement pings (no analytics cookies) so Google can estimate aggregate traffic.
• Marketing: if you allow, we may use the Meta Pixel and Google Tag Manager for marketing and related tools configured there (for example Pinterest, where used). Those providers process data under their own policies.

We do not currently use Google AdSense or other third-party display-ad networks on this Site.

You can learn how Google uses information from sites that use its services (including Analytics) at google.com/policies/technologies/partner-sites.

Third-party providers (such as Google and Meta) may process measurement data in accordance with their own privacy policies. That is different from selling your email list.

Contact Us form

When you use our Contact Us form, we collect your name, email address, message, and the page you were on when you submitted it (when available). We use this to respond to your feedback or request and to improve the site.

Comments, reactions, polls, and sharing

If you leave a comment on an article, we store the comment text. We may also store technical details such as your IP address and browser user agent to help prevent abuse and keep the site secure. Comments may be visible to other readers and may be reviewed by site admins for moderation.

Reactions (for example like/dislike), article poll votes, and share-button clicks are stored mainly as aggregate counts for the article. To prevent double-counting and abuse, we may set a necessary anonymous cookie (or similar token) and keep a server-side record of that token with the article and your choice, not your name or email. Your browser may also remember your choice locally for the interface.

For reader questions, we may also store anonymous interaction events so we can see whether people answered from the in-article question or from a timed reminder popup, whether they closed that popup without answering, whether they left or navigated away while the popup was still open, and whether after the popup they continued reading on the page or left. These events are tied to the article and the interaction type, not to your name or email.

Public contributor submissions

If you submit a post or story through the public contributor flow, we collect the email you verified with a one-time code, your name, country, optional profession or degree, bio, optional photo, optional profile link, the original article file, and which guidelines/terms you agreed to (including that your name, photo, and bio may appear on the article if published).

We use this to:

• confirm you control the inbox and stop submissions in someone else's name;
• prefill your details if you submit again from the same verified email;
• review the piece (including for hate speech, harassment, originality, and safety);
• email you about status, notes from the team, or a live article link if we publish;
• if published, show your name, photo, bio, country, profession, and Profile link in the article author section. Your email is not shown on the public Site;
• keep the original file for the editorial team only. It is not a public download and is not auto-edited.
• While you use the submit flow we also store anonymous events: which button you clicked, the referring site name, how far you got, where you left, and a short error code if something failed. These use the same anonymous visitor token as reactions and polls. They do not include your name, email, file, or the text you typed. We keep them for about six months so we can see where people get stuck, leave, or hit an error, fix the submit flow, and improve the feature. We do not use these events to identify you.

If an admin later changes the public fields on your contributor profile, we email you and include a Contact Us link if you do not agree. We do not email you when a save does not change those public fields. We do not share sensitive personal information with the public without your consent.

A Super Admin may grant or remove a verified tick if you are a psychologist, counselor, therapist, or medical professional, or someone whose profession or degree qualifies them to write about these professionally, after we verify you using whatever details we can obtain about you. The badge is not automatic and is not a government identity check. Public contributors who are published receive a public profile on the article either way. You choose the topic and write it yourself. The team later files the article under a site category.

Staff authors and admins

Admin accounts are for people who operate the Site. We store username, email, role (Admin or Super Admin), login-related security data, and an optional author profile (name, country, profession, bio, photo, and one public link). Super Admin has every Admin right, including a public author profile.

Invite links are bound to one email address. We store a hashed token and expiry, not a reusable open signup. Super Admins can ask an Admin to complete their profile, and can edit that public profile. If public fields actually change, we email that Admin.

Staff emails are not shown on public articles. Complete author profiles may appear as the byline when no community contributor is linked. Unpublished drafts, contributor files, and other people’s emails are for editorial use inside the admin portal.

Aggregate site traffic (articles)

When our systems serve public article content, we may record aggregate statistics for operations (for example coarse page or section type, general device category, and referring domain when your browser sends a normal Referer header). This is used as combined statistics to understand site usage, not to build a marketing profile about you, and it is separate from marketing email metrics.

Email Sign-Up and Marketing Communications

When you sign up for emails from LifeQuestioning, we collect your email address so we can send you new articles, newsletters, and updates about LifeQuestioning. We may also store your browser timezone and approximate local time at signup so we can schedule emails more reasonably.

We use this information to:

• send you the emails you requested;
• share new articles, newsletters, and updates;
• manage our mailing list;
• understand basic engagement with our emails, such as opens or clicks, where permitted by law and our consent settings;
• improve our communications and services.

We do not sell your email list. We do not share your email with third parties for their own marketing lists.

You can unsubscribe from marketing emails at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link in any email or by contacting us through our Contact Us form. If you unsubscribe, we will stop sending you marketing emails. We may keep a limited record of your email (for example a suppression record) so we can honor that choice and avoid emailing you again by mistake.

We keep personal information only as long as needed for the purposes above, or longer if the law requires. How long depends on the type of data (for example email list records, contact messages, or security-related comment logs).

We take reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect your personal information against unauthorized access, loss, or misuse.

Your privacy rights

If you are in a location where privacy laws give you additional rights, you may have rights to access, correct, delete, or object to the use of your personal information, and to withdraw consent at any time (for example via Cookie Settings in the footer). To make a request, please contact us through our Contact page. We will do our best to help within what we can reasonably retrieve or remove from our systems.

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising in the sense defined by laws such as the CCPA/CPRA. Where measurement partners (for example Google Analytics or Meta) process data as described above, that is governed by their own policies and our cookie settings.

Children's privacy

LifeQuestioning is intended for a general, adult audience and is not directed to children under the age of 13 (or the minimum age required in your country). We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us through our Contact page and we will take reasonable steps to delete it.

Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes to our practices, the technologies we use, or legal requirements. When we do, we will revise the last-updated date. A Super Admin may also email all public contributors and admins that this page changed. If we introduce new consent categories or materially change how we use your data, we may re-prompt you through the cookie banner. We encourage you to review this page periodically.

If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding your personal information, please feel free to contact us using our Contact Us form. We will be happy to assist you.

By using our website, you acknowledge that you have read this privacy policy.