Privacy Policy

The short version

Peak Lanka uses personal information to operate member accounts, publish community contributions, protect voting and discussion features, understand how the website is used, and support advertising if it is introduced.

• Your email address and Google account identifier are kept private.
• Your chosen display name, optional profile details, published Posts, and comments may be public.
• Individual voting identities are not displayed publicly.
• You can contact us about access, correction, or deletion of your information.

Information we collect

Account and sign-in information

When you create or access a public member account with Google, we receive a stable Google account identifier, your verified email address, and your Google profile name. We use this information to create and secure your Peak Lanka account. We do not receive your Google password.

Member profile information

You may add a public display name, district or location, and short introduction. Except for the display name, these profile fields are optional. Your account creation date and published Post count may also be shown as part of your community profile.

Posts, comments, and community activity

We store the Posts you submit, their categories and content settings, relevant source links, submission time, review status, and the account connected to the submission. Comments and replies may include the comment text, account or supplied author details, moderation status, IP address, and browser information used by WordPress for administration and spam protection.

Voting and anti-abuse information

For signed-in voting, Peak Lanka stores an irreversible site-specific hash derived from the member account. For anonymous voting, we place a random first-party voter identifier in your browser and store only a protected hash of that identifier with the vote. Temporary security counters use protected network identifiers rather than retaining raw IP addresses in their keys.

First-party view measurement

Peak Lanka records an aggregated daily view after an eligible public Post, Page, or Tool remains visible for a short period. The browser uses temporary session storage to avoid repeatedly counting the same item within one tab session. The aggregate does not store a member ID, raw IP address, full user-agent string, or persistent visitor identifier; temporary protected network counters are used only to limit abuse.

Contact forms, messages, and technical information

If you use a contact, feedback, or project-enquiry form, we receive the fields you submit, which may include your name, email address, contact number, subject, website URL, selected service, and message, feedback, or project details. Form entries may be stored in the WordPress database and sent to our administrative email. If you email us directly, we receive the information you include and the address used to contact us. Our website, hosting provider, security systems, and enabled third-party services may also process standard technical information such as IP address, requested URL, date and time, browser, device, referring page, and diagnostic or security events.

How we use information

• Create, authenticate, maintain, and protect member accounts.
• Review, publish, attribute, moderate, and manage Posts and comments.
• Record votes, calculate community rankings, and reduce duplicate or abusive activity.
• Operate, troubleshoot, secure, and improve Peak Lanka and its tools.
• Measure aggregated readership for public Posts, Pages, and Tools.
• Understand readership and website performance when analytics is enabled.
• Display and measure advertising when an advertising service is enabled.
• Respond to questions, privacy requests, reports, and legal obligations.
• Review service enquiries, discuss requested work, and prepare project estimates.

Where applicable law requires a legal basis, processing may rely on your consent, providing the service you request, our legitimate interests in operating and protecting the community, or compliance with legal obligations.

What becomes public

Published Posts and comments are public. They may show your display name and the public profile details you choose to provide. Search engines and other websites may index, quote, cache, or link to public contributions.

Public vote totals and rankings are visible, but Peak Lanka does not publicly identify who cast an individual vote. Your email address, login name, Google account identifier, authentication method, account status, and internal security information are not included in public profile details.

Cookies and Google services

Essential and community cookies

WordPress may use cookies required for sign-in, account security, administration, and saved comment preferences. Peak Lanka uses a one-year, HttpOnly, first-party cookie named “peak_lanka_voter” to distinguish an anonymous browser for voting. Qualified view measurement uses session storage, which is normally removed when the browser tab session ends, solely to avoid duplicate counting in that session. Blocking this storage may make view totals less accurate.

Sign in with Google

The account page loads Google Identity Services so Google can display and operate its sign-in button. Information handled by Google is subject to Google’s Privacy Policy.

Google Analytics

If enabled, Google Analytics may use first-party cookies and similar identifiers to help us understand visits, sessions, approximate location, browser and device information, referring pages, and interactions with Peak Lanka. We use these reports to understand readership and improve the website. We do not intentionally send your member name or email address to Google Analytics.

Google AdSense and advertising

If advertising is enabled, Google and other advertising partners may place or read cookies, use web beacons, process IP addresses or other identifiers, and collect information about visits and ad interactions to deliver, limit, secure, personalise where permitted, and measure advertisements. The ads you receive may depend on your consent, location, browser settings, Google account settings, and the advertising configuration used by Peak Lanka.

Learn more about how Google uses information from partner sites and manage advertising preferences through Google My Ad Center.

Consent and browser controls

Where required, Peak Lanka will request consent before enabling non-essential analytics or advertising storage. You may also reject or withdraw available choices, block or delete cookies through your browser, and use Google’s controls. Disabling some storage may affect sign-in, voting, preferences, analytics, or advertising behaviour.

Other services and external content

Peak Lanka may rely on hosting, security, analytics, advertising, authentication, email, and limited editorial technology providers to operate the website. These providers process information under their own terms or on our behalf, depending on the service.

If avatars are enabled, WordPress may send a privacy-protected version of a commenter’s email address to Gravatar to check for an avatar. Ranked Lists may offer privacy-enhanced YouTube videos that load only after you choose to play them. External links take you to websites whose privacy practices Peak Lanka does not control; the destination may receive ordinary connection information when you open it.

Sharing and retention

We may share information with service providers when needed to operate Peak Lanka, investigate abuse, comply with law, protect people or the website, or complete a business reorganisation. We do not publish or provide member email addresses or Google account identifiers to advertisers as public profile information.

Account and profile information is generally retained while the account remains active. Public Posts, comments, moderation records, vote records, and aggregated daily view totals may be retained to preserve community and readership history; view totals are removed if the associated content is permanently deleted. Contact and project-enquiry records may be retained as reasonably needed to respond, provide requested services, maintain business records, and resolve disputes. Security records and temporary rate-limit data are retained only as reasonably necessary for their purpose. Google services retain information according to their settings, agreements, and policies.

Information may be processed in Sri Lanka and in other countries where our service providers operate. Privacy protections and legal requirements can differ between countries.

Your choices and rights

You can update the editable parts of your public profile from your account page. Depending on applicable law, you may also ask to access, correct, export, restrict, object to, or delete personal information connected to you, or withdraw consent for processing based on consent.

Some requests may require identity verification. We may retain information where necessary for security, legal obligations, dispute resolution, or the integrity of public discussions. Removing an account does not necessarily remove copies of public content already cached or quoted by others.

Security and children

We use reasonable technical and organisational safeguards intended to protect information. No website or transmission method can guarantee absolute security, so please use care when deciding what to publish.

Peak Lanka is a general-audience community and is not designed specifically for children. If you believe a child has provided personal information inappropriately, please contact us so we can review the situation.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy when Peak Lanka’s features, service providers, or legal responsibilities change. The revision date at the top of this page shows when the published policy was last updated.