Privacy
Policy

At CoveredGeekly, we take your privacy seriously. This Privacy Policy explains what personal data we collect, why we collect it, how we use it, and what rights you have over it. By using our website, you agree to the practices described in this policy.

This policy applies to coveredgeekly.com and all associated sub-brands including HorrorGeekly and GamingGeekly, operated by CoveredGeekly Limited, a company registered in Scotland, United Kingdom.

01.Who We Are

CoveredGeekly Limited is the data controller responsible for your personal data. We are an independent digital entertainment media company based in Scotland, UK, founded in 2024.

02.Data We Collect

We collect data in several ways depending on how you interact with our site:

2.1 Data You Provide Directly

• Account Registration - when you create an account using your email address, we collect your email address, an auto-generated unique username, and a securely hashed password. You may change your username subject to a 6-month cooldown period. When a username is changed, the previous username and the date of the change are securely logged in your account record for GDPR audit trail and security purposes. Previous usernames are not displayed publicly and are only accessible to CoveredGeekly administrators.
• User Profile Information - you may optionally provide a biographical description (bio) and upload a custom profile photo. Profile photos are displayed publicly on your profile page and next to your comments and activity across the site. If you do not upload a custom photo, your profile picture is sourced from your Google or Facebook account (if you signed in via those services) or from Gravatar based on your email address. Uploaded profile photos are stored in our media library and are permanently deleted when you remove the photo or delete your account.
• Contact form submissions - your name, email address, and the content of your message when you use our contact form.
• Comments & Engagement - when you post a comment, we store your account display name, comment content, a timestamp, and your IP address for spam detection. We also store your reading history, saved (bookmarked) articles, liked posts, comment likes, and comment reactions associated with your account.
• Gamification & Activity Data - if you have a registered account, we store XP points, your current level, a log of your on-site activity (such as articles read, comments posted, quizzes completed, and trophies earned), streak data, challenge progress, and quiz scores. This data powers the gamification features on your profile page and the site leaderboard.
• Social Connections - if you follow or are followed by other users on CoveredGeekly, we store your follower and following lists. Follower and following counts are displayed publicly on your profile page. You can unfollow or remove followers at any time through your account settings.
• Notification Preferences - we store your preferences for which types of in-site notifications you wish to receive (such as likes, comments, new followers, and challenges). These are stored against your account and can be changed at any time in your notification settings.
• Privacy Preferences - you can control the visibility of certain profile data (such as your activity feed, XP stats, trophies, liked posts, and saved posts) through your Privacy Settings. These preferences are stored against your account.
• Newsletter sign-ups - if you subscribe to our newsletter, we collect your email address.

2.2 Data Collected Automatically

• Usage data - pages visited, time on site, referring URLs, and browser/device information, collected via analytics tools (see Section 6).
• IP address - collected automatically by our web server and analytics tools. IP addresses are also temporarily stored as part of our rate-limiting system to prevent abuse of our login, registration, password reset, and contact form endpoints. These temporary records are automatically deleted after 15 minutes and are not linked to your account or used for any other purpose.
• Page view counts - we record how many times each piece of content has been viewed using our own internal view-tracking system. When you visit a post, a pseudonymous visitor identifier (a random ID stored in a short-lived browser cookie - see Section 4) is used to count the view. This data is used to display a public view counter on content pages, to power our “Trending Today” feature, and to help us understand which content is most popular. Raw view event records are retained for up to 30 days, after which they are automatically deleted.
• Engagement events - when you interact with our content (e.g. voting on a Geekly Ranking, liking or bookmarking a post, completing a quiz or personality test, or sharing content), we log a timestamped event record. These records are used to power our internal analytics and are retained for up to 30 days.
• Cookies - small data files stored on your device (see Section 4).

2.3 Social Login Data (Google)

If you choose to register or sign in to CoveredGeekly using your Google account via OAuth 2.0, we receive the following information from Google: your name, email address, and a link to your Google profile picture. We store this data to create and authenticate your CoveredGeekly account, and use the profile picture as your default avatar.

We do not receive your password from Google, nor do we have access to your Google account or the ability to post on your behalf. Your use of this login method is also subject to Google's Privacy Policy.

2.4 Social Login Data (Facebook)

If you choose to register or sign in to CoveredGeekly using your Facebook account, we receive the following information from Facebook: your name, email address, and a link to your Facebook profile picture. We store this data to create and authenticate your CoveredGeekly account, and use the profile picture as your default avatar.

We do not receive your password from Facebook, nor do we have access to your Facebook account or the ability to post on your behalf. Your use of this login method is also subject to Meta's Privacy Policy.

2.5 Data from Third Parties

We may receive data from advertising partners, analytics providers, and social media platforms when you interact with our content on those platforms.

03.How We Use Your Data

We use the data we collect for the following purposes:

• To operate and improve our website and content
• To respond to enquiries submitted via our contact form
• To send newsletters to subscribers who have opted in
• To detect and prevent spam, fraud, and abuse (including temporary IP-based rate limiting)
• To serve relevant advertising to our readers
• To analyse how our content is used and improve the reader experience
• To operate our gamification and engagement features, including tracking XP, activity, streaks, challenges, and achievements associated with your account
• To power your public profile page, including your follower and following counts, subject to the privacy preferences you set in your account settings
• To send you in-site notifications about activity relevant to your account, based on your notification preferences
• To comply with our legal obligations

Our legal basis for processing personal data is one of the following, depending on the activity: legitimate interests (site operation, analytics, and security), consent (newsletter sign-ups, non-essential cookies), or contract performance (responding to enquiries and operating your account).

04.Cookies & Tracking

We use cookies and similar tracking technologies on our website. Cookies are small text files placed on your device that help us provide a better experience.

4.1 Essential Cookies

These are required for the website to function correctly. They cannot be disabled. They include session cookies, security tokens, and login state cookies (for registered users only).

4.2 Voting Identity Cookie

When you vote on a Geekly Ranking, we set a cookie called geekly_voter_id containing a server-signed anonymous identifier. This cookie is used to remember your votes within the same browser so that your selections persist across page loads and browser sessions. It is protected from access by page scripts, is not linked to your account, contains no personal information and expires after one year. This cookie is set even if you are not logged in.

4.3 Analytics Cookies

We use Google Analytics to understand how visitors use our site. These cookies collect anonymised data about page views, session duration, and traffic sources. You can opt out of Google Analytics tracking via the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on.

4.4 Advertising Cookies

Our advertising partners (including Mediavine) use cookies to serve interest-based advertisements. These cookies track your browsing behaviour across websites to show you relevant ads. See Section 5 for more detail.

4.5 Managing Cookies

You can control and delete cookies through your browser settings. Note that disabling certain cookies may affect the functionality of our website. For more information, visit aboutcookies.org.

05.Advertising

CoveredGeekly works with Mediavine to manage programmatic advertising on our website. Mediavine serves content and advertisements when you visit our site, which may use first and third-party cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to our website or other websites.

Mediavine and its advertising partners may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with advertisements. For specific information about Mediavine and its partners, please visit the Mediavine Privacy Policy.

To opt out of interest-based advertising:

• Network Advertising Initiative opt-out page
• Digital Advertising Alliance opt-out page
• Your Online Choices (UK/EU)

We may also publish sponsored content and brand partnership articles. These are always clearly labelled as sponsored or in partnership with the relevant brand.

Mediavine Programmatic Advertising (Ver 1.1)

The Website works with Mediavine to manage third-party interest-based advertising appearing on the Website. Mediavine serves content and advertisements when you visit the Website, which may use first and third-party cookies. A cookie is a small text file which is sent to your computer or mobile device (referred to in this policy as a “device”) by the web server so that a website can remember some information about your browsing activity on the Website.

First party cookies are created by the website that you are visiting. A third-party cookie is frequently used in behavioral advertising and analytics and is created by a domain other than the website you are visiting. Third-party cookies, tags, pixels, beacons and other similar technologies (collectively, “Tags”) may be placed on the Website to monitor interaction with advertising content and to target and optimize advertising. Each internet browser has functionality so that you can block both first and third-party cookies and clear your browser’s cache. The “help” feature of the menu bar on most browsers will tell you how to stop accepting new cookies, how to receive notification of new cookies, how to disable existing cookies and how to clear your browser’s cache. For more information about cookies and how to disable them, you can consult the information at All About Cookies.

Without cookies you may not be able to take full advantage of the Website content and features. Please note that rejecting cookies does not mean that you will no longer see ads when you visit our Site. In the event you opt-out, you will still see non-personalized advertisements on the Website.

The Website collects the following data using a cookie when serving personalized ads:

• IP Address
• Operating System type
• Operating System version
• Device Type
• Language of the website
• Web browser type
• Email (in hashed form)

Mediavine Partners (companies listed below with whom Mediavine shares data) may also use this data to link to other end user information the partner has independently collected to deliver targeted advertisements. Mediavine Partners may also separately collect data about end users from other sources, such as advertising IDs or pixels, and link that data to data collected from Mediavine publishers in order to provide interest-based advertising across your online experience, including devices, browsers and apps. This data includes usage data, cookie information, device information, information about interactions between users and advertisements and websites, geolocation data, traffic data, and information about a visitor’s referral source to a particular website. Mediavine Partners may also create unique IDs to create audience segments, which are used to provide targeted advertising.

If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices to opt-in or opt-out of this data collection, please visit National Advertising Initiative opt out page. You may also visit Digital Advertising Alliance website and Network Advertising Initiative website to learn more information about interest-based advertising. You may download the AppChoices app at Digital Advertising Alliance’s AppChoices app to opt out in connection with mobile apps, or use the platform controls on your mobile device to opt out.

For specific information about Mediavine Partners, the data each collects and their data collection and privacy policies, please visit Mediavine Partners.

06.Analytics

We use Google Analytics to collect anonymised data about how visitors use our website. This includes information such as pages visited, time spent on site, device type, and geographic location (at country level). This data is used solely to improve our content and user experience.

Google Analytics data is processed by Google LLC. For more information, see Google's Privacy Policy. IP anonymisation is enabled on our Google Analytics implementation.

We also operate our own internal view-tracking system to count page views on our content. This system uses a pseudonymous visitor identifier (stored in a short-lived browser cookie) rather than IP addresses. View event records are retained for up to 30 days and are used to display trending content and public view counters. No personal data is shared with third parties as part of this system.

07.Third-Party Services

Our website may include embedded content from or links to third-party services, including:

• YouTube / Vimeo - for embedded video content
• Twitter / X, Instagram, TikTok - for embedded social posts
• Gravatar (Automattic) - for comment profile pictures
• WordPress.com (Automattic) - our hosting platform
• GIPHY (GIPHY, Inc.) - our comment system allows users to search for and insert GIFs from GIPHY into their comments. When you use the GIF picker, your search queries are sent to GIPHY's API. GIPHY may collect data about your searches and usage in accordance with their Privacy Policy. GIF content inserted into comments is hosted by GIPHY and subject to their terms.
• Google LLC (Google OAuth 2.0) - if you use Google to sign in, your authentication is handled securely by Google. See Google's Privacy Policy.
• Meta Platforms (Facebook Login) - if you use Facebook to sign in, your authentication is handled securely by Meta. See Meta's Privacy Policy.

Embedded content from other websites behaves as if you had visited those websites directly. These third parties may collect data about you, use cookies, and track your interaction with their content. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of these services.

We do not sell your personal data to any third party.

08.Data Retention

We retain your personal data only for as long as necessary for the purposes described in this policy:

• Account & Profile Data - retained for as long as your account is active. If you request account deletion, your profile information, reading history, saved articles, XP data, activity log, trophy records, challenge progress, follower/following lists, notification preferences, and privacy preferences are permanently deleted.
• Comments - retained indefinitely to preserve the context of discussions, even if your account is deleted, unless you specifically request their removal.
• Contact form submissions - retained for up to 2 years for correspondence records, then deleted.
• Newsletter subscriptions - retained until you unsubscribe.
• Analytics data - retained in anonymised form per Google Analytics’ standard retention settings (14 months by default).
• Internal view and engagement event records - raw event records in our internal tracking system (page views, votes, likes, shares, etc.) are automatically deleted after 30 days.
• Rate-limiting records - IP-based rate limit counters for login, registration, password reset, contact form and ranking-vote endpoints are stored as temporary security data and are automatically deleted after 15 minutes.
• Voting identity cookie - the geekly_voter_id cookie expires after one year. The associated vote records stored on our server are retained for as long as the relevant Geekly Ranking exists.

09.Your Rights

Under UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, you have the following rights regarding your personal data:

• Right of access - you can request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
• Right to rectification - you can ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete data.
• Right to erasure - you can ask us to delete your personal data in certain circumstances.
• Right to restrict processing - you can ask us to limit how we use your data.
• Right to data portability - you can ask for your data in a machine-readable format.
• Right to object - you can object to processing based on legitimate interests.
• Right to withdraw consent - where processing is based on consent, you can withdraw it at any time.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at contact@coveredgeekly.com. We will respond within 30 days. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) if you believe your data has been handled improperly.

10.Children's Privacy

CoveredGeekly is not directed at children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has provided us with personal data, please contact us and we will delete it promptly.

11.Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technology, or legal requirements. When we make material changes, we will update the "Last updated" date at the top of this page. We encourage you to review this policy periodically.

12.Contact Us

If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or how we handle your personal data, please contact us: