What this site records
We measure openipc.org so we can tell whether its pages do their job. This page says exactly what that means. It is short because a long one is a promise nobody checks.
Counting visitors
A counter we run ourselves, on the same server that serves the site. Nothing goes to anyone else.
What the counter records
- The page you opened, and the site you came from if your browser sent one.
- Your country, and the language your browser asks for.
- Your browser and operating system, and the size of your screen.
- Clicks that leave the site: writing to us, joining the chat, opening a donation page, or following a link elsewhere.
- A tag in the address, such as
?ref=tg-ru, when we posted the link ourselves. It is counted once and then removed from the address. - Your answer to the one question on the home and get-started pages, if you give one, counted like a click. Your browser keeps a note that you answered or closed it, so you are not asked again; the note never leaves your browser.
What it never touches
- No cookie unless you use the OpenIPC Club: starting to sign in sets one that lasts ten minutes, and signing in sets a session cookie. No identifier of any kind. The counter keeps nothing in your browser.
- No individual visits. Only daily totals reach the disk, so there is no row anywhere that is you.
- No region or city. That needs a finer location database than we keep.
The one thing that sounds like tracking
To count one person reading three pages as one visit rather than three, the counter derives a short-lived key from your address and browser. It exists in memory for at most eight hours and is never written down. Your address is not stored by the counter at all.
The server log
The ordinary record every web server keeps.
Each request is written to a log with the address it came from, the page, and the result. We use it to find faults, to stop abuse, and to size the machine. It is deleted after 14 days.
The Open Wall
Cameras running OpenIPC can send a picture to the wall. This part is about the camera, not about you.
Published: the picture, and what the camera says about itself — chip, sensor, firmware, streamer, uptime and chip temperature.
Not published: the camera's MAC and IP addresses, both visible only to maintainers. The MAC decides two things: one camera may upload every 15 minutes, and a camera on the block list is refused. Each camera's page is named by a token that cannot be turned back into either address.
A nightly sweep removes pictures, and the descriptions that came with them, once they are 2 days old, so nothing stays beyond 3.
Kept: for each camera, the day it first sent a picture and, for every day since, whether its pictures had something in them and changed during the day — a few numbers a day, never a picture or an address. That is how the home page tells an established camera from a new one, and how the OpenIPC Club counts a linked camera's days.
OpenIPC Club: a member who links a camera is named on the camera's page only if they choose it for that camera, and appears on the leaderboard with their stars unless they opt out on their club page. The code that links a camera is cut out of its caption before anything is stored.
How long things are kept
| What | Where | How long |
|---|---|---|
| Counting totals | Our server | kept |
| The counter's short-lived key | Memory only | 8 hours |
| Server log, with addresses | Our server | 14 days |
| Open Wall pictures | Our server | up to 3 days |
| Open Wall camera details | Our server | up to 3 days |
| Open Wall camera history (days, no pictures) | Our server | kept |
| Notes in your browser: the question answered or closed, and whether you are signed in to the Club | Your browser only | until you clear it |
Ask us about any of this
There is no account to delete and no profile to export, because we do not build one — but if something here is unclear or looks wrong, we would rather hear it.