Privacy Policy

Who runs VotePoll

VotePoll is a small, non-commercial side project run by a private individual in Denmark, who is responsible for the data described here.

Polls are not for personal data

What a poll's creator asks for: the Terms do not allow personal or sensitive data in polls, answers or comments, apart from a first name or nickname. VotePoll does not know who an anonymous participant is and does not try to find out.

What VotePoll itself processes: a small amount of technical data needed to run the service, listed below.

What we store and why

• Polls and responses — questions, options, pictures (resized, metadata removed), answers, comments and any name a participant chooses to give. Needed to run the polls. A participant’s name is shown with their answers to everyone who can see the results only if the poll’s creator turns on “Show who voted for what”; the site administrator can see every entered name. Comments are shown publicly only if the creator turns that on.
• Vote Trends (only polls whose creator turned it on) — how the vote counts changed over time: for each choice, when it gained or lost a vote. This history is aggregate only; it stores no name, account, browser id or IP address. It is deleted with the poll, and cleared when its votes are reset.
• Promotion links — VotePoll sometimes shares links (for example on social media or a poster) that contain a short campaign code (/go/… or ?ref=…) and lead to its public polls or to a selection of polls on VotePoll. If you arrive through such a link and answer one of the polls that campaign covers, VotePoll records that this response came from that campaign, and counts how often each link is opened per day. This is stored only as a link between the response and the campaign — no name, account, browser id or IP address — and only VotePoll's administrator sees the totals. No cookie or browser storage is used for it. The link is removed when the response is deleted, or when the administrator deletes the campaign (your response itself stays).
• Creator accounts (optional) — email address, optional display name and a hashed password. Needed to log in.
• Account activity — for logged-in accounts, VotePoll counts successful logins and actions such as creating or managing a poll, per account per day (how many, and the time of the latest), and works out usage figures such as how many polls an account has and how many responses they received. Only VotePoll's administrator sees these figures; they are used to run the service, look after accounts and improve VotePoll. No IP address, browser details or list of pages you viewed is stored with them, and nothing about how anyone voted. They are deleted with the account.
• Live Quiz — if you play a Live Quiz, the nickname you choose, your answers, how fast you answered and your score are stored by VotePoll's live-quiz service so the game can run and its host can see the results. Playing needs no account, email or cookie. While the game runs, a random reconnect key lets you return after a refresh; it is erased when the game ends. If you make a Live Quiz, its questions and pictures are stored with your account until you delete the quiz or the account.
• Browser id — a random id in the vp_device cookie, stored with your answers so a poll can stop repeat voting. It doesn't reveal who you are.
• IP addresses — used for rate limiting, to stop abuse. Kept in memory only, for at most 60 minutes, and not saved with your answers.
• Support emails — if you email us, we keep your message and email address to answer it.

Legal basis (GDPR art. 6(1)): providing the service you use (b), and our legitimate interest in keeping it secure and free from abuse (f). We don't use third-party analytics, advertising or tracking, and we never sell data — VotePoll currently uses no analytics service and no advertising.

Retention

• A poll without an account can stay open for at most 30 days. After it closes, it is kept for 14 days so you can add it to an account, and is then deleted.
• A poll with an account can stay open for at most 90 days (365 days with Premium). After it closes, it is kept for 30 days and is then deleted.
• A poll that VotePoll picks for its public polls page is kept after it closes until its owner or VotePoll deletes it.
• Live Quiz results (players' nicknames, answers and scores) are kept for the host for 14 days after the game (90 days if the host has Premium) and are then deleted. The host can delete them earlier; they are also deleted with the host's account.
• Deleted polls are erased for good after 14 days. You can restore a poll you deleted yourself during the first 7 days.
• Deleting your account removes your email and password immediately; you choose whether your polls are deleted too.
• Support emails are deleted automatically 14 days after the last message in the conversation, or earlier if you ask. Attachments are deleted 14 days after they arrive.
• Backup copies are deleted after 14 days (the three most recent are always kept), so deleted data can remain in a backup for a while. Backups are only used to restore the service.

Who else handles data

VotePoll runs on its operator's own server. Cloudflare provides the secure connection, protection against attacks and support email, so it processes IP addresses and request data, partly outside the EU under the EU's standard data-transfer safeguards. Nobody else receives your data, except authorities where the law requires it. See the Cookie Policy for cookies.

Your rights

You can ask to see, correct or delete your data, or object to how we use it, by emailing us. Because participants are anonymous, include the poll link and what you entered so we can find it. You can also complain to Datatilsynet (the Danish Data Protection Agency) at datatilsynet.dk.