Privacy
We do not ask who you are. The questions ask about the detained person, including their status, because the way out depends on it. This page says exactly what is recorded anyway, and what is not.
What happens to your answers
The questions tool asks about one detained person. Your answers — where they are held, what has been filed, an A-number, anything you type into the free-text box — are kept in your own browser. The tool does not send them to us or to anyone else, unless you choose to make an account and save them.
One exception. We record a replay of how the tool is used, described below, and a replay shows which answer you picked at each question. It never shows anything you type: the free-text box, an email address and an A-number are hidden in your browser before the replay is sent.
That is enforced in the code, not just promised here. The analytics layer has a fixed list of things it is allowed to send, and no answer value is on it.
What we do record
We use PostHog, a product-analytics service, to see whether this site works. Their servers are in the United States. What reaches them:
- Which page you opened, and in which language.
- Which links and buttons were pressed — for example whether people press a release-options button, or which guide category they filter by.
- In the questions tool: which question number was shown, and whether it was answered or left. These counts carry the number only, not the answer.
- Whether someone answered their first or third question, reached the end, viewed the completed results, or opened release-path details. These events do not include the answers or which path was opened.
- The public page and language they came from, whether the link was about bond or general release options, and which version and placement of the button they used.
- Whether someone continued to the second set of questions, and whether they pressed the button to make an account.
- Ordinary technical information a browser sends: rough device type, browser, and the page address.
- A replay of your visit: what was on the screen, where you scrolled, and what you pressed — in the questions tool, that includes which answer you picked. Anything you type is hidden before it leaves your browser. Replays are deleted after 30 days.
Your IP address is discarded rather than stored. We do not record what you type, and we do not use advertising trackers. Nothing is sold or shared with advertisers.
Location
On these guide pages, an approximate location — roughly city-level, worked out from your internet connection — is recorded, so we can see which parts of the country this is reaching. It is not your exact position and it is not linked to your name.
In the questions tool, no location is recorded at all. That is deliberate. Answering questions about a detained person should not also file away where you were sitting when you did it.
We also keep a count, in our own database, of how far people get through the questions — the question number and whether it was answered or left. It carries no case identifier and nothing that could point back to a person.
Earlier versions of this site said “no trackers or ads”. The ads part is still true and always will be. The trackers part stopped being true when we added the analytics described above, so we removed the claim rather than leave it standing.
This page also used to say “we do not record your screen”, and that your answers were never recorded. Both stopped being true when we started recording replays, so both came out in the same change.
Cookies and browser storage
PostHog sets one cookie and keeps a small amount of data in your browser’s own storage. Both hold the same thing: a random identifier, so that a visit to this site and a visit to the questions tool count as one visit rather than two. It is not linked to your name and it is not used for advertising.
The questions tool keeps the original public entry context and completed measurement milestones on your device. It also keeps your answers in your browser’s storage, so you can close the page and come back. That copy never leaves the device. Clearing your browsing data removes all of it.
What the Exit button does, and does not do
Pressing Exit, or the Esc key, leaves this site immediately and replaces it with Google, so this page is not the previous page if someone presses back.
It does not clear your browser history, and it does not clear what your address bar suggests when someone starts typing. If you are using a device other people can open, that is worth knowing. Private or incognito browsing handles that; the Exit button does not.
If you make an account
Accounts are optional and are only offered at the end, once the tool has something worth keeping. If you make one, we store your email address, how you know the person, and their A-number if you gave one, along with your answers.
Saved cases are deleted after 90 days. Use an inbox only you can open.
Turning analytics off
Any browser setting or extension that blocks analytics will block ours, and everything on this site keeps working. If your browser sends a “do not track” or global privacy signal, we honour it.
This page changes when the code changes
If we start collecting something else, this page is updated in the same change, not afterwards.