Privacy Policy
This policy explains what information is collected when you use The Wheeler Atlas at thewheeleratlas.com (the “Site”), operated by The Wheeler Atlas, LLC, a North Carolina limited liability company (“we”, “us”). The Site is a free educational map. There are no accounts, no sign-up and no forms that ask for personal information. Purchases from the Atlas Shop are handled by our print partner (section 6).
1. Information we collect
You don't give us any personal information
You can use the whole Site without telling us who you are. If you email us, we receive your email address and whatever you write, and use them only to reply.
Settings stored on your device
The atlas stores two small settings in your browser's local storage to remember whether you collapsed the side panels. They never leave your device, are not used for tracking, and can be cleared in your browser settings at any time.
Information our service providers process
- Hosting. The Site is hosted on Cloudflare Pages by Cloudflare, Inc. Like any web host, Cloudflare processes your IP address, browser type and the pages you request in order to deliver the Site and protect it from abuse. See Cloudflare's Privacy Policy.
- Fonts. All typefaces are served from this Site. Your browser does not contact Google Fonts or any other font service.
- Analytics. Analytics is not currently enabled. Cloudflare Web Analytics is not turned on, so no analytics beacon loads and we do not count visits. If we turn it on, we will disclose that here, and update the date above, before it is switched on.
- Share links. When you use “Share this map”, the link holds only the year, map mode, position and zoom you are looking at. It contains nothing about you, and the part of the address that holds the view is not sent to our servers.
- Error reports. “Report an error” opens an email in your own email app. If you send it, we receive your email address, your message and the map details it lists, and use them only to check the report and reply. If you give us a name or handle for credit, it may appear in our public corrections log; your email address never does.
2. Advertising and cookies
Ads are not shown on the Site yet. We plan to keep the Site free by showing ads served by Google AdSense. This section describes how that will work. When ads are switched on, we will update this policy and the date above.
- Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this Site or other websites.
- Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visits to this Site and/or other sites on the Internet.
- You may opt out of personalised advertising by visiting Google Ads Settings. You can also opt out of some third-party vendors' use of cookies for personalised advertising at aboutads.info.
- To learn how Google uses information from sites that use its services, see How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services.
Consent. Visitors in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland will be asked for consent before advertising cookies are set, through a Google-certified consent management platform. You will be able to change your choice at any time through a “Privacy settings” link at the bottom of the Site.
| Cookie or storage | Set by | Purpose | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
hha-dock, hha-nav (local storage) | This Site | Remember whether the panels are collapsed | Functional, never shared |
Advertising cookies (for example __gads, __gpi, IDE) | Deliver and measure ads, limit how often you see an ad, and, where you allow it, personalise ads | Advertising (only once ads are on; consent where required) | |
| Consent choice | Consent platform | Remember your consent choice | Strictly necessary (only once ads are on) |
3. Your privacy rights
Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct or delete personal information, to object to or restrict its processing, and to withdraw consent. Because we hold almost no personal information ourselves, most requests are best directed to Google or Cloudflare. We will help where we can: write to [email protected].
U.S. state privacy laws (including California). We do not sell personal information for money. Once ads are on, personalised advertising may count as “sharing” or “targeted advertising” under some state laws. You will be able to opt out through a “Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information” link, and we will honour Global Privacy Control signals.
EEA, UK and Switzerland. Where the GDPR applies, our legal bases are legitimate interests (serving and securing the Site) and consent (advertising cookies). You may complain to your local data protection authority.
4. Children
The Site is a general-audience educational resource. It is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. Orders from the Atlas Shop are for adults; anyone under 18 needs a parent or guardian to order.
5. Links to other sites
The atlas links to Wikipedia and to source repositories. Those sites have their own privacy policies.
6. The Atlas Shop
Merchandise in the Atlas Shop is sold by The Wheeler Atlas, LLC and made, shipped and supported by our print partner, Fourthwall, Inc. When you buy something, you enter your name, email, shipping address and payment details on Fourthwall’s checkout, not on this Site. Fourthwall and its payment processors handle that information to take payment, collect any sales tax and deliver your order, as described in Fourthwall’s Privacy Policy. We receive the order details (your name, shipping address, email and what you bought) and use them only to support your order, answer questions about it and keep the business records the law requires. We do not sell or rent this information. Fourthwall’s checkout site uses its own cookies, described in its privacy policy.
Until the shop opens, the “Notify me” buttons open your own email app with a message to us. We use your email address only to tell you when that item is available.
7. Security and retention
We do not run our own database of visitor information. Emails sent to us are kept only as long as needed to respond, and no longer than 12 months. Order records are kept as long as tax and accounting rules require, usually up to seven years.
8. Changes
We may update this policy, for example when advertising is switched on. The date at the top will change, and significant changes will be noted on the Site.
9. Contact
The Wheeler Atlas, LLC · [email protected]