Privacy

The short version: when someone votes, we store the option they chose, the time, and two one-way hashes (a salted hash of their IP and a rough device fingerprint) used only to catch repeat voting and abuse. We do not store names, raw IP addresses, email addresses, or any advertising or analytics trackers on voting pages. Ever.

What we store for a vote

Each vote record contains exactly four things:

• The option chosen — which choice was selected.
• A timestamp — when the vote was cast.
• A hashed IP address — your IP is combined with a secret salt that rotates daily and run through SHA-256. The raw IP is never written to disk. The hash lets us rate-limit and flag stuffing without ever storing who you are.
• A hashed device fingerprint — a one-way hash of coarse browser signals (user agent, language). Used only to reduce duplicate voting.

That is the entire vote record. There is no name, no account requirement, no email, no raw IP, and no cross-site identifier.

What we deliberately do not do

• No third-party analytics on voting pages. Creating, voting on, and viewing results loads no analytics scripts.
• No advertising trackers on voting pages, ever. People use OXPoll for confidential team and classroom decisions; putting ad trackers there would be a betrayal of that.
• We never sell or share poll data.

Poll creators

If you create a poll you receive a private admin link. If you choose to give an email address (optional) we use it only to send you that admin link and, if you ask, to notify you when your poll closes. Creating an account (optional, free) stores your saved polls under your login.

Deletion and retention

A poll creator can delete a poll and its votes at any time using the admin link, and we honour deletion requests immediately. Vote records for a poll are kept while the poll exists; delete the poll and they go with it. Hashed IP salts rotate daily, so older hashes cannot be correlated to new ones.

Your rights

We aim to comply with the GDPR and equivalent laws. Because we do not store raw identifiers, most vote data is not personally identifiable. If you believe a poll targets or exposes you, use the Report button on the poll or contact us and we will review and, where appropriate, remove it. Requests: [email protected].

Cookies

We set one small local flag in your browser to remember that you have voted in a given poll (so we can show you the results instead of the ballot). It is not an advertising or tracking cookie and is not shared with anyone.

This policy describes how the OXPoll product actually works. If we change what we store, we will change this page first.