The Old Web Project is built on the belief that the web should be yours. We hold ourselves to that standard: no third-party tracking, no advertising networks, no analytics scripts, and no cookies for advertising. We collect as little as possible.

What we collect

• Visitor count. We keep a simple, anonymous tally of daily visitors. To avoid double-counting, we store a one-way hash of your IP address combined with the date — the original IP is never stored, and the hash can’t be reversed back to you. No cookies are used.
• Forms you submit. When you use the contact or “join the ring” forms, we store what you type (name, email, URL, message) so we can reply and review submissions. A hashed IP is kept briefly for spam and rate-limiting only.

What we don’t do

• We don’t use advertising or analytics trackers.
• We don’t sell, rent, or share your information.
• We don’t set cookies to follow you around the web.

The webring

Our webring links (prev / next / random) simply redirect you to another member’s site. When you follow one, you leave for an independent site we don’t control — its own privacy practices apply. The redirect itself sets no cookies and runs no analytics.

Email

If you contact us or join the ring, we use your email address only to reply to you and (for the ring) to send the one-time setup instructions. We don’t add you to any mailing list.

Hosting & external services

The site is hosted on standard web hosting, which keeps basic server logs for security and reliability. The Old Web Time Machine sends you to the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine; their privacy policy governs what happens there.

Your choices

Want a copy of what you’ve sent us, or want it deleted? Email contact@theoldwebproject.org and we’ll take care of it.