Privacy Policy
Last updated: March 2026
What We Collect
ThumbCringe collects minimal data to operate the service and prevent abuse:
- Hashed IP addresses - Your IP address is cryptographically hashed with a daily-rotating salt before storage. We never store raw IP addresses. The hash is used for vote deduplication, rate limiting, and abuse prevention.
- Page view data - We track which pages are visited (with hashed IP for unique visitor counting). This data is aggregated and IP hashes are purged after 7 days.
- Uploaded images - If you upload a screenshot, it is stored on our servers. No personal metadata is extracted from uploads.
Why We Collect It
We process this data based on legitimate interest (GDPR Art. 6(1)(f)):
- Abuse prevention - Rate limiting, vote deduplication, and spam detection protect the service from manipulation.
- Analytics - Understanding site usage helps us improve the service.
Data Retention
| Data Type | Retention Period |
|---|---|
| Vote/report IP hashes | 30 days (then stripped, anonymous record kept) |
| Page view IP hashes | 7 days (then aggregated, raw records deleted) |
| Abuse event logs | 30 days |
| Rate limiting data | 1-24 hours (automatic expiry) |
Third-Party Services
We use the following services to operate ThumbCringe:
- Vercel (hosting) - USA, with DPA and Standard Contractual Clauses
- Turso (database) - EU region
- Upstash (rate limiting) - EU region
- Cloudflare (CAPTCHA, image storage) - Global, with DPA and SCCs. Turnstile CAPTCHA may set security cookies that are strictly necessary for the service.
Cookies
ThumbCringe uses only strictly necessary cookies. Cloudflare Turnstile may set security cookies to distinguish humans from bots. We do not use analytics cookies or tracking pixels.
Your Rights
Under GDPR, you have the right to:
- Access your personal data
- Request rectification or erasure
- Object to processing
- Data portability
- Lodge a complaint with the Swedish data protection authority (IMY - Integritetsskyddsmyndigheten, imy@imy.se)
Contact
For data-related requests, contact us at: privacy@thumbcringe.com
Content & Copyright
Thumbnails displayed on ThumbCringe are sourced from YouTube for the purpose of commentary and criticism. If you believe your content has been used without authorization, please contact us for removal.
ThumbCringe is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by YouTube or Google LLC. YouTube is a trademark of Google LLC.