A happy place. With care for your data.

Who is responsible?

Two Steps Ahead

Van Erik Turkesteen

Which data?

We store your display name, email address, password hash, account status and acceptance of our rules. We also store likes, points, badges, sharing activity, referral links, comments, stories, revisions, reports and moderation outcomes. Social sign-in stores the provider and its account identifier.

What is public?

Approved comments and stories appear with your display name. You may use a nickname. We do not publish your email or private feedback. Do not include addresses, phone numbers, medical details or other sensitive information about yourself or others. Public contributions can be copied by others.

Your activity calendar

While signed in with a verified, active account and accepted rules, we store one visit date per day and which articles you read, prepare to share or give a heart. We also use your contributions and points history for your personal calendar. This includes actions after your daily points limit. We do not store your IP address, visited URLs or individual visit times in this calendar. Your personal calendar can only be viewed through your own account; the administrator can access account and points history for administration. These calendar records are not sent to Google Analytics or AI services. These records are removed when your account is deleted.

Why do we use this?

Account details and contributions allow us to provide the community service you request. Moderation, fraud prevention and security support a safe, friendly community. We do not sell your data or use it for personalised advertising. The precise legal bases and balancing assessment will be finalised before public launch.

AI and other services

Google Gemini receives the text and display name for moderation and translation. Replies may include the parent comment, its author’s display name and article context. Cloudflare Workers AI receives a description containing story content to create an illustration. We do not send account passwords or email addresses as separate AI fields, but information you include in your text may be sent. The administrator can review doubtful and rejected contributions; you can request a human review through your account. Hosting and email services process data needed for their tasks. Signing in through Google, Apple or Microsoft exchanges account details with your chosen service. Final providers, locations, contracts and safeguards for processing outside the EEA must be confirmed before public launch.

Cookies and local storage

We use session and security cookies, plus an optional remember-me cookie for sign-in. Only after consent, the lichtpunt_visitor cookie counts reads and is set for 180 days; a derived visitor identifier is stored with the article and reading date. Language choice and whether you have seen the homepage invitation remain in local browser storage until you clear it. The necessary lichtpunt_consent cookie stores your choice for 180 days. Change or withdraw it through Cookie settings in the footer. Withdrawing removes the visitor cookie and stops future reading statistics; existing counts remain. If you are signed in, your reading points (one per article per day, up to five per day) are recorded as account activity regardless of this choice. The current website code contains no advertising trackers. Source and sharing links lead to other websites with their own privacy policies.

Google Analytics and visitor statistics

With your consent, we use Google Analytics 4 to understand how many people visit Jouw Lichtpuntje, which pages are popular and whether visitors return. These statistics help us improve the website. Google Analytics loads only on the homepage, after you choose to allow visitor statistics. Account pages, authentication, submitted stories and administration are excluded. Opening an article is measured using its public article number and category, without its title or text. Choosing necessary cookies only does not limit access to the website.

With your consent, Google processes usage data such as page visits, times of visits, browser and device information and cookie identifiers. Google Analytics uses the cookies _ga and _ga_…, which we configure to expire after 180 days without extending that period on each visit; browser restrictions may shorten it. Cookie duration is different from the retention period of data in Analytics. The retention setting for event-level data in the Google Analytics property must be confirmed before public launch; our intended setting is two months. Aggregated reports can remain available longer. We will not intentionally send account names, email addresses, comment texts or story submissions to Analytics, and will not enable advertising personalisation or Google Signals as part of this connection.

Google is an external service provider and receives the measurement data when Analytics is active and you consent. We do not sell these data. Google may process data outside the European Economic Area; the applicable agreements and transfer safeguards must be confirmed before activation. Your consent is the basis for these optional statistics. You can withdraw it at any time via Cookie settings in the footer; the page reloads to stop measurements and remove this connection’s Analytics cookies, but does not automatically delete data already received by Google. For an access or deletion request, contact us using the details above.

Google privacy policy · Google Analytics cookies

Retention and security

The current test version does not yet automatically expire accounts, contributions, moderation logs or backups. The administrator must establish specific retention periods and deletion procedures before public launch. Passwords are hashed and private data and moderation are protected by account permissions. Access should be restricted to authorised administrators. Server logs and backups may also contain personal data.

Optional profile photo

You may upload a real portrait of yourself. We remove image metadata and reduce its size. With your explicit agreement, Google Gemini receives the processed photo for safety and portrait review. AI does not identify you or verify that the picture depicts you. Unapproved uploads remain private; administrators can review doubtful cases. After approval, the photo is public with your contributions. You can remove it in your account. Rejected and replaced photo files are deleted; unreviewed uploads expire after 30 days. A short review record remains for handling questions and moderation.

Short moments and privacy

Short moments are private by default. With your explicit agreement, their text is sent to Google Gemini for review of respectful language, even when private. Private moments do not appear on public pages or in the regular moderation dashboard. We encrypt moment text and review reasons in our database. This is not end-to-end encryption: the service must decrypt them for your account and AI review. Only explicitly public, approved moments from active users appear on the website. Changing the text or visibility triggers another review and removes the old version from public view while review is pending. You can edit and delete moments in My moments. They are kept while you keep them in your account. Points and milestones record a day and action, not your private text.

Your rights

You can request access, a copy, correction or deletion. Where applicable, you can object, request restriction or portability, or withdraw consent. Deletion requests are reviewed personally; we explain if any data must be retained. You can complain to the Dutch Data Protection Authority. We normally respond to a privacy request within one month and explain any extension.

Voluntary contributions

If you support Lichtpuntjes, Mollie processes the payment. We store the amount, frequency, payment and subscription references, payment status and your monthly authorisation. If you are signed in, the contribution is linked to your account. For monthly contributions we send your account name and email to Mollie. We do not store bank account or card details. Contributions and amounts are not made public and are not sent to the AI moderation service. You can stop monthly support in My contributions, or contact us for help.

Mollie Privacy

Account protection and translation

New passwords are checked against known breaches using only the first five characters of a one-way hash, never your password. We store security event types and dates, without private texts or location data. Approved moments and comments are translated by Google Gemini. Private moments remain private, including their encrypted translations. Your original text is preserved.

Optional small images for moments

With separate, voluntary permission, Google Gemini receives your moment text to select a generic object or nature symbol and a sketch or photo style. Cloudflare Workers AI receives only that generic description, without your account name, email or original moment text. Recent style counts help vary the images; other private moment texts are not sent along. Images are AI-generated symbolic mood images. They are stored outside the public folder and can only be viewed by you while the moment is private. Only an approved, explicitly public moment from an active account can show its image publicly. Editing removes the previous image and starts review again; deleting the moment removes its image. Existing moments receive no image until you agree.

A quiet support invitation

For signed-in members, existing visit dates help us avoid asking for support too early. We remember when an invitation was shown or dismissed and when the support page was visited. Dismissing or visiting that page pauses invitations for 90 days. Active monthly supporters are excluded; after stopping there is at least a 60-day pause, and one-time support gives at least 180 days of rest. The automatic invitation popup appears at most once per account. For guests we count visit days only with the existing optional cookie permission, using an encrypted first-party preference cookie that contains a counter and pause dates, without a name, email, IP address or browsing history. Guest recognition works only within that browser. No support invitation data is sent to AI or advertising services.