Privacy

Effective date (last updated): 2026-10-30

Lanternfair is operated by Digital Scavenger LLC (North Carolina, USA). We collect only what we need to calculate your chart and run the service.

What we collect

Birth details: date of birth, time of birth (optional), city of birth, and the gender used for the chart.
The country where you live (and the state or province, in the US and Canada), used to decide which features are available where you are.
Your nickname and language. The default nickname we assign includes the element of your Day Master (for example, "Metal"); you can change it in Settings.
Invites you send or accept, and your comparisons: who you compared with, the relationship type (romantic, friends, partners) and when; for romantic comparisons between two people of the same gender, the classical convention each of you chose (this may reveal sexual orientation: we use it only to produce your reading and never show or sell it; we explain this when you send a romantic invite and when you choose the convention, and continuing means you agree). The comparison text isn't stored; it's recalculated from both people's birth details each time it's opened.
Interest in matching with new people (optional, only where available): the choice you make in Settings (no, friendship, or friendship and open to dating). The feature isn't open yet. For now we use it only to count how many people are interested by region and gender, to decide where to open first. Nobody can see your choice or contact you through it.
"Ask one thing": the category, the number you chose and the time slot. We don't keep what you typed; we keep a keyed one-way digest to spot the same question asked twice in a day (if you leave the question blank, the digest includes your number). These records are also used to count anonymously how many questions were asked in the last 7 days. In Washington, Nevada and Connecticut, we don't take a written question at all.
Care: if what you write suggests you may be struggling, we show support options right away. In more serious cases we pause readings for a while (up to 30 days; you can resume yourself after 7). In milder cases, for 30 days readings use gentler wording and we don't show you paid content or seasonal notes. This is remembered only in your own browser (a cookie); our servers don't store it, or the text. We count per day how many times support options were shown, without linking that to anyone.
"Sounds like you?" feedback: we only count which reading line, which day, and yes or no. We don't record who voted.
When you signed up and the date of your last visit (day only), so we can count how many people keep using the service and apply the inactive-account deletion rule. Where new users come from (such as a shared card, an intro page, a seasonal note, an invite link, a partner creator's compare link, a link we posted on a social platform, or a direct visit) is counted per day only and isn't linked to you.
Partner creator code: if you signed up through a partner creator's "compare with me" link, we note that creator's code on your profile so we can pay them their share (a percentage of what you spend here while their link is active). The creator can't see who you are, your comparison or what you bought; they only receive a total from us. If very few people signed up through a creator's link, that total could let the creator guess that someone bought something. Comparisons made through a creator's link are visible only to you.
If you are a partner creator: we keep your creator code, the display name shown on your "compare with me" page, your share rate, and which profile claimed the code and when, to show your link and pay your share.
Free report links we give out (for example, to partner creators to try the report): we keep a one-way hash of the link (not the link itself), our note on who it's for (for example, a creator's name), when it was made, whether it was cancelled, and which profile accepted it and when. Once accepted, the report belongs to the person who accepted it. Links don't expire; if you delete your account, the record is no longer linked to your profile.
Email (optional, only if you link one for login): we don't store your email address. We keep only a keyed one-way code to check logins. The address you type is used only to send that code, handed to our email provider, and not kept. Codes are stored only as digests and expire after 10 minutes.
Essential cookies: your session (1 year), your language (1 year), a record that stops the same feedback being counted twice (short codes for the lines and look-back years only; 1 year), a record of an email login in progress (a one-way code of the email address only; 15 minutes), which seasonal note you closed (just which one; 60 days), a care record (only if something you wrote was flagged as possibly distressed; up to 30 days), and a sign-up pause if the birthday entered was under 18 (30 days). Your browser's local storage also remembers which "Sounds like you?" and "Matches / Doesn't match" answers you gave on that device, so you don't vote twice. No advertising or cross-site tracking cookies.
A counting cookie: if you arrived through a link we posted on a social platform, we note which platform (for example, Threads). It's deleted once your sign-up has been counted for that day, kept for at most 7 days, and holds nothing that identifies you. If your browser sends Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control (GPC), we don't set it.
Our hosting provider tells us your country and first-level region (such as a US state or Canadian province) from your IP address so we can apply regional rules: if where you say you live and where your IP is differ, the stricter rules apply, and your IP country also pre-fills the residence field on the sign-up form. To prevent abuse, we turn your IP address into a keyed one-way code for rate-limit counters (see "How we protect it"); our tables don't store IP addresses themselves. Our hosting provider's system logs keep IP addresses for a short time for security and troubleshooting.

Why we use it

To calculate your chart and produce readings, comparisons and reports; to apply regional rules and the age limit; to keep you signed in; to prevent abuse and keep the service secure; and to count usage anonymously by day or by line so we can improve the content. Your date and city of birth are needed to calculate a chart, so without them we can't give readings. Time of birth, email and interest in matching are optional.

How we protect it

Birth details are encrypted (AES-256-GCM) and stored separately from sign-in details.
We don't keep the email address you use to log in, so we never email you except to send a code you asked for or to reply when you write to us.
To prevent abuse, we keep short-lived counters (for example, how many codes were tried for an email code today, how many times an account changed its birth details, or how many login emails one IP code requested in an hour) and delete them after two to three days.
No other user can see your birthday. Comparison pages show only nicknames and the comparison text (a comparison made through a partner creator's link shows the creator's name and is visible only to you). Your nickname is also shown to anyone who opens an invite, two-person invite or gift link you send.
Comparison text is calculated from both people's birth details, so by comparing it repeatedly someone could in principle infer some features of the other person's chart; that's why we limit how often birth details can be changed each day.
Whether the other person sees your card is your choice when you accept an invite. It is off by default.

What we don't do

We don't sell your personal information or use it for advertising.
We don't give your birth details to other users or third parties, other than our hosting and database providers, which store them encrypted on our behalf, and where the law requires.
The site has no advertising or cross-site tracking tools, and we don't let third parties collect information about your activity across sites through it. Because there is no such tracking, browser "Do Not Track" signals don't change anything else we do; they only stop the counting cookie described above.

How long we keep it

Your profile, birth details, invites and comparison results: until you delete them, or automatically after 2 years without a visit (based on your last visit date).
"Ask one thing" records: deleted automatically after 30 days.
Login codes expire after 10 minutes, and expired code records are deleted within two to three days; records of an email login in progress expire after 15 minutes; sign-in sessions are kept for at most a year.
Emails you send us: generally kept for no more than 2 years after we have handled your request.
Providers' system logs: deleted on the providers' schedules, generally within 30 days.
Anonymous counts aren't linked to anyone and are kept long term.

Your rights

You can re-enter your details (birth details up to 5 times a day) or delete everything in Settings at any time.
You can also email us to ask what information we hold about you, for a copy of it, or to correct it, delete it or stop using it. We will reply within 15 days (30 days for correction or deletion), free of charge, and tell you if we need longer. If we refuse a request, you can reply asking us to reconsider; we will answer within 60 days and tell you how to complain to your state attorney general or local regulator. To confirm it's you, we may ask you to act from within your account or to give us details to verify.
Either person in a comparison or two-person report can delete it or stop sharing at any time.
If you're not satisfied with our answer, you can complain to the data protection authority where you live.

Age

Lanternfair is for adults 18 and over. If the birthday entered shows someone under 18, we save nothing and pause sign-up on that device for 30 days.

Deleting your data

In Settings you can delete everything in one step. Your profile, birth details, linked email, invites you sent or accepted, comparisons and Ask records are removed from our database right away. Copies in our providers' backups are overwritten when those backups expire, generally within 30 days.

Service providers

We use hosting, database and email providers (Vercel, Supabase, Resend) to process data on our behalf; they may only process it on our instructions and not for any other purpose. The email provider receives the address you type only to deliver a login code. When you email us, the message is forwarded by Cloudflare and stored with our email provider, Google.

Where your data is stored

Our data is stored in the United States (the site and database in Oregon; the email service that sends login codes elsewhere in the US), and our providers may process some of it in other countries (for example, the site's global delivery network). Your information is therefore subject to the laws of the US and those other places, and their courts, law enforcement or national security authorities may be able to obtain it under those laws.

Regions

Available features differ by country and region. The service is not available in some places.

Changes

We will announce important changes to this notice on the site before they take effect, and update the date above. If a change would expand how we use information you have already given us, we will ask for your consent first.

Contact

Our privacy officer (the data protection officer under Singapore's law and similar laws) answers privacy questions and handles your requests: privacy@lanternfair.com.