Weird Science History

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Privacy policy

Effective October 28, 2026.

This policy explains what Weird Science History collects when you read the archive, play the games, subscribe to the dispatch, or buy the book, and how advertising works on the site. The site is published at weirdsciencehistory.com by the Curiosities Desk. The terms cover the rules for using the site.

The short version

  • Reading is free. There are no accounts.
  • We show ads through Google AdSense. Google and its partners may use cookies to choose and measure those ads.
  • We do not sell email addresses. We do not rent them, trade them, or give them to advertisers or data brokers.
  • If you subscribe, we keep that address so we can send the weekly dispatch, and for that purpose only.
  • If you buy the book, Stripe handles the card and we email you a download link.

Advertising

The site uses Google AdSense to show third-party advertisements. The AdSense script loads with every page, so ads can appear across the archive, including on story pages. Google decides which ads to show. We do not pick the individual ads, and an ad is not part of a story.

Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on a person’s prior visits to this website or other websites. Google’s use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads based on visits to this site and other sites on the internet. Those companies may also use web beacons and similar technologies to measure an ad and to limit how often it appears.

Ads can be personalized from browsing history. They can also be general ads that are not tied to that history. We are paid when ads are shown or clicked. That payment is not tied to a newsletter address, and signing up for the dispatch does not change which ads you see. We do not receive your name or email address from the ad system. We may see aggregated reports about how the ads perform.

You can opt out of personalized advertising, and read how Google uses this data, here:

Opting out of personalized ads does not remove ads from the site. You may still see ads that are not based on your browsing history. Browser settings that block third-party cookies will also limit what advertising cookies can do.

Email addresses

We do not sell email addresses. We do not rent them, trade them, append them to advertising audiences, or give them to other publications.

If you subscribe to the dispatch, we store the address you type, the date you subscribed, and which form you used, such as the home page or the foot of a story. We use that address to send the dispatch: about one email a week, with a new story. We keep the list ourselves.

To unsubscribe, or to correct an address, email [email protected] from the address you subscribed with. We will delete it from the list.

Their Own Guinea Pigs is a PDF sold for $4.99. Stripe processes the payment. We never see or store your card number. Stripe gives us the email address entered at checkout, and we store it with the order so we can send the download link. That message is delivered by Resend. The link works for 60 days. The order address is not added to the dispatch list unless you subscribe on your own. We do not sell it.

Games and what stays on your device

Fact or Myth and The Blank do not ask for your name or email. The first time you play, the browser saves a random identifier on your device. When you finish a round, we store that identifier with the result: which claims you judged, whether the call was right, your score, and, in The Blank, the guesses you typed. We do this so a later visit on the same browser can continue without an account. The identifier is not linked to an email address.

A fact-or-myth wager made on a story page is saved in that browser. Clearing this site’s data in your browser removes the identifier and those wagers from the device. Email us if you want the matching game record deleted from our server. We can do that when you send the identifier; without it, the record is not tied to a name we can look up.

Search runs in the browser. A search you submit can appear in the page address. We do not keep a separate search history.

Analytics and logs

The site can use Google Analytics to count which pages are read. When it is enabled, Analytics receives the page address, the page title, and general browser and device information. Google may estimate a coarse location from the IP address. We use those counts to see what is being read. We do not sell them. You can opt out with Google’s Analytics opt-out add-on.

The server may also record the page requested, the time, the browser type, and an IP address. We use that to operate the site and to limit abuse, including repeated attempts to subscribe or check out. We do not sell server logs.

Cookies and similar storage

  • Google advertising cookies, and similar tools, to serve and measure ads.
  • Google Analytics cookies, when analytics is enabled, to count visits.
  • Stripe cookies, if you open the book page or pay, so Stripe can take the payment. Stripe’s policy is at stripe.com/privacy.
  • Storage we set in your browser: the random game identifier, questions you have already seen, and story wagers.

Children

The archive is written for a general audience. It is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. If you believe a child has given us an email address, write to us and we will delete it.

How long we keep information

  • A newsletter address stays on the list until you ask us to delete it.
  • A book download link expires 60 days after purchase. We keep the order, including its email address, so we can help if the file does not arrive.
  • Game records stay so the games can remember a browser, until we no longer need them or you ask us to delete a record we can match.
  • Server logs last as long as they are needed to run and protect the site.

Who else processes information

A few companies process information because they provide a service to the site:

Those companies may process information in the United States and in other countries. We may also disclose information if the law requires it, or to protect the site and its readers. That is not a sale of the information.

Requests

You can email [email protected] to ask what personal information we hold about you, to correct it, or to delete it. Newsletter and order requests are easiest to match when you write from the address you used.

If you live in California, those requests include the right to know, delete, and correct personal information. We do not sell email addresses, and we do not share them for advertising. Personalized ads use cookies that California law may treat as a “share” of an online identifier. The opt-out for that sharing is Google Ads Settings, linked above. We will not cut off the archive, or change the price of the book, because you made a request.

If you are in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, you can ask for access, correction, deletion, or a copy of the personal information we hold, and you can object to how we use it or withdraw consent you previously gave. We rely on your consent when you give us an email address, on the contract when we deliver a book you paid for, and on our interest in running the archive, remembering game progress, and funding the site with advertising. You can also complain to your local data protection authority.

Changes

If this policy changes, the new version will be posted on this page and the date at the top will change.

Contact

Weird Science History
The Curiosities Desk
[email protected]