Privacy

Who is responsible for your data

Aesthetary is run by Annie Vickrey, an individual based in Tirana, Albania. She decides what this site collects and why, and is responsible for the personal data described on this page (its "controller").

To ask about your data, correct it or have it deleted, email hello@aesthetary.com.

If responsibility for Aesthetary moves to a company, this page will say so before it happens and name the company.

What this site is

This site is a set of static files. The following are facts about the build rather than promises about intent.

• Learner accounts are free and optional. Every page works without one; an account keeps your learning work across devices. Anyone 18 or older can make one (see Learner accounts).
• No cookies. Our own code sets none, and neither does the page-view counter below.
• Hosting. The site is hosted by Vercel, which receives each request your browser makes for a page or file, as any host does.

What stays in your browser

Your browser's local storage can hold these things, and nothing else. Clearing this site's data removes them all.

1. A light-or-dark choice, only if you set one before 25 October 2026, when the site became dark only (aq-theme). The site no longer uses it.
2. A random reader id that keeps your verdict yours. It names a browser, never a person, and is created when an Aesthetic page first loads (aq-voter).
3. A second random value, the reader key, which proves to the database that a verdict came from this browser, so nobody else can change it (aq-voterkey). The database keeps only a scrambled copy (a hash) of it, and it is never shown anywhere.
4. The name you sign contributions with, only if you type one (aq-name).
5. The skills, Aesthetics, site patterns and resources you save to Favorites (aq-saved). An older list, aq-favs, is read once to move your saves across and kept in step for one release.
6. The Aesthetics you have commented on or added a reference to (aq-contrib).
7. Your checklist progress: which tasks you’ve ticked on a phase’s checklist, and when (aq-checklist). Signed out, it stays only in this browser. Signed in to a learner account, it is also kept with your account, so it follows you to your other devices.
8. Your worksheet answers: what you write in a task’s worksheet (aq-worksheets). Signed out, it stays in this browser, isn’t sent anywhere and doesn’t follow you to another device. Clearing this site’s data removes it, so copy or download anything you want to keep. Signed in, it is also kept with your account.
9. Only while you’re signed in: the ticks and worksheets this browser had from before, set aside until you add them to your account or sign out (aq-checklist:guest, aq-worksheets:guest), which account the ticks on screen belong to (aq-checklist:owner), and a note of what was last saved to your account (aq-learn:v1:…:sync).
10. The Recipes you save from Mix, with the Aesthetics, choices and Element references in each, kept only in this browser and never sent anywhere (aq-recipes).
11. What's on your Mix bench: the Aesthetics you've put on it, kept only in this browser so Mix remembers them between pages (aq-mix).
12. That you have closed the short "What is Aesthetary?" introduction, so it doesn't open again (aesthetary:orientation).
13. Whether you have collapsed the side menu, so it stays that way (aq-rail).
14. Only while you’re signed in: a copy of your projects, and any change to them not yet saved to your account, so nothing is lost if the connection drops (aq-learn:v1:…). Signing out removes it from this browser.
15. Only if you sign in to a learner account, your sign-in (aq-learn-session). It is kept in this storage, not in a cookie. Signing out removes it, and your account's copy of your work, from this browser; work from before you signed in that you didn't add to your account comes back.
16. Only if you opened a research link (aq-early), your answer to the note it shows: that you said no; that sign-up didn't go through and why; or, if you took part, a random key for this browser, your current visit, whether the Feedback button has already been highlighted for you, whether you have sent a note yet, and, once you stop, your participant code (see Research links).

Signing in also uses this tab's session storage, which the browser empties when the tab closes, for two short notes: which emailed link this tab is using, so a dropped connection can't spend it twice, and that you chose to keep this browser's work out of your account for now.

Learner accounts

A learner account is free, and anyone 18 or older can make one: type your email on Your account and open the link we send you. There is no password. Every lesson, checklist, worksheet and download on Aesthetary works without an account. An account keeps your progress, your worksheets and your projects, so they follow you to every device you sign in on.

• What we keep. Your email address. The checklist tasks you tick, and when (your own word; nothing checks it). What you write in their worksheets. Your projects: what you type about each one, which tasks you've marked done for it, and its picture if you add one. When you agreed to the Terms, which version, and that you confirmed you're 18 or older. Anything you saved with the earlier lessons stays in your account too.
• Learning events. An account can also hold a short record that a lesson or activity was started or finished, with no free text. No page records these today. Any that exist are deleted 12 months after they were recorded.
• Project pictures. Before a picture is uploaded, the page makes it at most 1280 × 720 pixels and saves it without the original file's details, such as where a photo was taken. It is private to your account: it has no public address, and no other learner can see it. Like the rest of your learning data, Aesthetary's administrator can access it to run the service.
• Signing in. When you ask for a link, we keep your email address and a scrambled copy of the link (never the link itself) so the link works once. Both are deleted 48 hours after the link expires, the next time anyone asks for a link. To stop the form being used to flood someone's inbox, we count requests per email address and per network (IP) address; those counts hold scrambled copies (hashes), not the addresses, and go after 48 hours. A log of link requests and what happened to them, also with hashes only, is kept for 90 days. To keep your account safe, the sign-in service also records your sign-ins, and the IP address and browser details of each signed-in session.
• Where, and who handles it. Your account, your work and your project pictures are kept by Supabase in the European Union, in Ireland (its eu-west-1 region), in a database of their own, apart from the one described under Where your data is kept. Sign-in emails are sent by Resend from the EU (Ireland), and Resend keeps its own record of each email it sends for a limited time. Like any website, Supabase, Resend and our host Vercel also keep short-lived technical logs.
• Who can see it. You. Aesthetary's administrator can access saved learning data to operate and support the service. We use aggregated learning activity to understand how lessons are being used. We do not routinely review individual answers. No teacher, school or employer can see your work.
• How long. Until you delete it (a project, a picture, a worksheet) or your account. Learning events go after 12 months, as above.
• Downloading and deleting. On Account settings you can download your work as one file (your projects with their pictures, your ticks and your worksheets), and delete your account. Deleting removes your account, your work, your progress, your project pictures and your Terms record from Aesthetary's active system straight away, along with the sign-in service's log of your sign-ins. Copies held elsewhere go later, on their own schedules: encrypted backups of the database and the pictures are deleted after 30 days; the short-lived technical logs kept by Supabase, Resend and Vercel; and Resend's record of the emails it sent you.
• What stays after you delete. One line, so a deleted account isn't brought back if a backup is ever restored: the account's id, when it was deleted, and a scrambled copy (a SHA-256 hash) of its email address, never the address itself. The line is kept in the database. It holds no name and nothing you wrote.
• Research. A learner account doesn't enroll you in First Impressionist research. If you also take part in that research in the same browser, it records which pages you visit and some actions, such as downloads, as it does anywhere on the site. It doesn't record what you write, and it isn't linked to your learner account.

Page views

We count visits to learn whether people find Aesthetary, which pages they read, and whether what we build gets used. Our host, Vercel, does the counting with Vercel Web Analytics. It uses no cookies, and we only ever see totals: how often a page was viewed, never a list of who viewed it.

For each page view, Vercel records the page's address (with some of its query parameters, such as a campaign tag), the site that sent you here if there was one, the time, your approximate location (country, and possibly region and city), your browser and operating system with their versions, and whether you're on a phone, tablet or computer. To tell visitors apart within a day, Vercel makes a scrambled code (a hash) from your browser's request and deletes it after 24 hours, so a visit tomorrow can't be linked to one today. Vercel says these records aren't tied to a person or to an IP address. Your request still reaches Vercel's servers with your IP address, as it would for any website; Vercel describes what its analytics collects.

We also count three moments, as totals: following a link into Prepare, the first stage of Learn; pressing a button that opens a workshop request email; and arriving from a link we tagged for a campaign, such as the QR code on a conference slide. Each carries a short label and nothing more: the page it happened on, the workshop format, or the campaign's name as written in the link. It also comes with the same details as a page view. Nothing you type is ever included. A tagged arrival is counted once per browser tab: the tab keeps a small note in its session storage, which the browser empties when the tab closes.

Some visits aren't counted at all, so the totals reflect real visitors: our test copies of the site (any address other than aesthetary.com), automated browsers, and people who work on Aesthetary.

For people who work on Aesthetary: opening any page with ?internal=1 stops counting in that browser, using one note in its local storage; ?internal=0 starts it again. Technically, every page loads our own analytics.js, which applies these rules, and then Vercel's /_vercel/insights/script.js.

Our own scripts

82 first-party JavaScript files exist and at most 15 run on any one page. The votes on every Aesthetic page talk to our database host (Supabase) to load and save verdicts. The Favorites page sends your reader id and reader key to the same database to read back your own verdicts. cultural-review.js sends an offer to review to the same database when you press Send, and reads nothing back. subscribe.js sends the address typed into a Get product updates form, and nothing else; while email updates are paused no page has that form, so no page loads it. research.js transmits nothing unless you open a research link, and then only what is described below. feedback.js loads the first time you press Feedback, and sends only a note you write, to the separate database described under Feedback. Every other script reads files from this same origin and transmits nothing.

Verdicts, comments and images

Forms send exactly what they show. A verdict, a comment, a specimen image with its caption, and the optional name beside them go to that database, with the reader id attached. Unsigned is a first-class choice.

New comments and image uploads are paused, and neither form is available. Comments and images submitted before the pause remain stored under the retention rules below. They are not currently displayed on Aesthetary's pages. However, approved submissions may still be accessible through public database or image-storage URLs, even though the pages no longer link to them. Submissions that were not approved remain private. You can request removal through Questions and requests.

• Verdicts are counted in public: anyone can see how many people loved, hated or questioned a page. Which browser cast which verdict is not public. Only your browser, with its reader key, can change your verdict or read it back.
• Comments are read before they appear. Until Annie approves one, only she can see it, and she may decide not to publish it. The reader id on a comment is never shown or readable by the public.
• Images go to a private folder that only Annie can open. An image becomes public only when she approves it; until then nobody else can see it, find it or list it. The reader id on an image is never shown or readable by the public.
• How long they are kept. Verdicts, comments, images, image verdicts and reader-key hashes have no automatic deletion: they are kept until you ask for them to be removed (see Questions and requests). A comment or image that isn't approved stays stored, unpublished, until you ask or Annie deletes it.

Product updates, if you sign up

Paused for now. No page has the form, so no new address can be sent. Addresses given before the pause are kept as described here.

The Get product updates form sends your email address, which form you used and the page it was on. Nothing else is attached, not even the reader id. The address is used only to send occasional news about Aesthetary. It can't be read back through the site, and it is kept until you ask to be taken off, by writing to hello@aesthetary.com.

Offers to review

The cultural review form sends what it shows: which reviews, your name, what you do, your expertise and why this review, and, only if you fill them in, your connection to the tradition and a link. If you say Annie may write to you, it also sends your email. Nothing else is attached: no reader id, and nothing is kept in your browser. Only Annie reads offers; none is published, and nobody can read them back from the site. An offer is deleted automatically 12 months after you send it, or sooner if you ask at hello@aesthetary.com. Sending one doesn't make you a reviewer; if you later review and agree to be credited, that is asked separately.

Feedback, if you send some

The Feedback button opens a small form, for anyone. Nothing is sent unless you write something and press Send. A note holds what you wrote, what you would change, if you chose to add that, the page you were on and, if you pointed at something, which part of the page, plus any image you chose to attach. No name or email is asked for, so a note on its own is anonymous. A screenshot can show anything that was on your screen, so the form asks you to check it before you send.

Notes don't go to the database above. They go to a separate one (also at Supabase) that Annie uses to collect feedback on the sites she builds, so it holds other sites' notes too. Notes from this site can be read only with a passcode used for this site's notes alone, which Annie holds, or through her own account with the database host. The passcode the other sites' review pages use does not open them. Every note from this site, with any image attached, is deleted automatically once it is 12 months old. If you want one removed sooner, write to hello@aesthetary.com with the page and roughly when you sent it.

If this browser is taking part in research (see below), the note is also linked to its participant record, so Annie can read it next to what you explored, and it is deleted with the rest of that record.

Research links (First Impressionists)

Aesthetary is being built in the open, and Annie studies how people use it. Taking part is voluntary and open to anyone 18 or over. Annie shares a research link in communities such as LinkedIn groups; before October 2026 she sent some people a personal early-access link. Whoever opens a research link sees a short note before anything else, with a link to this page so it can be read first. Nothing is recorded for research unless you tick I'm 18 or over and choose Explore + share my usage. If you choose Explore without sharing usage, or close the note, this browser remembers only that you said no, so it won't ask again, and you use the site like anyone else.

Technical requests are not research

Opening a research link makes one technical request before you choose: your browser sends the link's code (?i=…) to our database host to check whether the research is open, and gets a one-word answer back. Aesthetary stores nothing from that request and it creates no research record. The code, and any tag saying where the link was shared (src=…), are then taken out of the address bar. Like every request to any website, it carries technical metadata, such as your IP address, browser and the time, which our hosting providers, Vercel and Supabase, process and may log for a short time under their own terms. That processing is theirs, separate from Aesthetary's research, and Aesthetary doesn't use those logs for research. The page-view count described under Page views happens whether or not you take part.

What is recorded if you take part

Your browser is given a random key, and that key is the participant. Your research activity is associated with that random browser identifier, not with an account or your name, but it is not anonymous: everything recorded is linked to that key, to a participant code (such as FI-1042) and to this browser's random reader id, the same id attached to any verdicts or comments you post. On another device, or after clearing this site's data, you would be someone new. You don't need to give a name or email. From then on research.js records the pages you open, the words you type into search (once you stop typing), what you put on the Mix bench and when you copy a Mix link, which search result you pick, when you open the Build menu, the name of any outside site you follow a link to (the site only, not the page), what you download or save, your verdicts, and the feedback you send, each with the time, the site that linked you here and a rough screen width (narrow, medium or wide). Feedback you send while taking part is linked to your record, so Annie can read it next to what you explored; feedback may contain identifying information if you include it, and it is collected as you wrote it, and if you joined through the public link, screenshots can't be attached. Nothing records mouse movement, scrolling, anything you type outside search and feedback, or anything else about your device. The database also keeps when you agreed, which version of the note you saw, that you confirmed you're 18 or over, and the tag for where the link was shared, if it had one.

How long it is kept

• Your visits, pages, searches and clicks: each is deleted 12 months after it was recorded.
• Feedback you send, with any image: deleted 12 months after you sent it.
• Notes Annie writes about what you told her: deleted 12 months after the conversation.
• The rest of your record (participant code, when you agreed and to which version of the note, your age confirmation, which link and tag you came through, and any private label Annie added): deleted 12 months after your last recorded activity. Proof of your consent is kept exactly as long as the activity it covers.
• If you joined through a personal early-access link before October 2026, the note that you were one of Aesthetary's First Impressionists (participant code, since when, which link) stays, as promised when you joined; your consent details and any private label go after 12 months without activity. People who join through the public link get no lasting note, and taking part never makes you a Contributor or gives you a public profile.
• Any time you ask at hello@aesthetary.com with your participant code, Annie deletes all of it straight away.

Stopping

If this browser is taking part, a button just below lets you stop: one click, and nothing more from this browser is recorded. Stopping doesn't delete what was already recorded; it shows this browser's participant code, which you can send to hello@aesthetary.com to have everything deleted straight away. Annie can pause the research for everyone; while it is paused, nothing is recorded. Clearing this site's data also stops the recording, but it throws away the code.

Questions and requests

Write to hello@aesthetary.com to ask what Aesthetary holds about you, to have it corrected, or to have it deleted. Anyone can ask, whether or not you took part in research, and you don't have to give your name. Because almost nothing here is tied to a name, say enough for Annie to find it:

• A feedback note: the page and roughly when you sent it.
• A comment or image: the page, roughly when, and what it said or showed.
• A verdict: the page and roughly when. Verdicts carry no name, so if several were cast on that page around then, Annie may not be able to tell which was yours.
• Product updates or an offer to review: the email address or name you used.
• A research record: the participant code shown under Research links.
• A learner account: the email address you sign in with. You can also download or delete it yourself on Account settings.

Where your data is kept

What you send through this site (verdicts, comments, images, sign-ups, offers to review, research records and feedback notes) is stored in the United States, by Supabase, in its us-east-1 region. The site is hosted by Vercel, a company based in the United States. Email to hello@aesthetary.com is handled by Google Workspace.

Learner accounts are the exception. They are kept by Supabase in the European Union, in Ireland (eu-west-1), and their sign-in emails are sent by Resend from Ireland (see Learner accounts).

Companies that handle data for Aesthetary, and other sites

• Vercel hosts the site and counts page views (see Page views).
• Supabase runs the three databases described above: one for verdicts, comments, images, sign-ups, offers to review and research records, and one for feedback notes, both in the United States; and one for learner accounts, in Ireland.
• Resend sends learner accounts' sign-in emails from Ireland.
• Email. Mail to hello@aesthetary.com is handled by Google Workspace.
• Videos. Two Learn pages offer a video from YouTube. Nothing from YouTube or Google loads until you press play. Then the player loads from youtube-nocookie.com, YouTube's privacy-enhanced mode, and your browser contacts YouTube, under Google's terms.
• Outbound links to museums, publishers and journals are ordinary links. Following one takes you to their site under their terms.