Reader accounts and Public Vote

Guest voting is not sign-in

Entering an email address lets you submit an unverified guest vote. It does not prove who you are and does not give access to an existing account. We use a private browser cookie to recognize this guest session.

Verify your email with a one-time code to create or recover your reader account. Only matching guest votes held by this browser can be claimed. If your account already voted on a question, its existing answer is kept instead of counting both votes.

What is public

We display aggregate poll results, not a public list of voters, emails, or individual ballots. Voting unlocks results while a poll is open; after closing, everyone can see them. Results include unverified guests and are not a representative public survey.

What is stored

Account email identities, protected verification and session records, and ballot records support sign-in and voting. These records are private but are not anonymous. Email-code delivery uses Amazon SES; entering an email or requesting a code is not newsletter consent.

Verified-reader daily activity and guest-browser daily activity are measured separately, once per UTC day per identity. These are activity measures, not a count of unique people. Readers who do not create a guest session or sign in are not included in these reader activity measures.

Your profile

When you sign in, your profile keeps your sign-in email, the first name you choose, your places, topics, subjects and favorite stations, the stories you follow, and your newsletter choice with when you made it. Only you can see it, on your profile page. Joining the newsletter is a separate choice that needs a verified email; signing in is never newsletter consent. Following a story only shows alerts on this site.

Story submissions

When you send a story from Submit your story, we keep what you submitted with your reader account so you can see its status. Your sign-in email is kept with it only if you let our editors contact you, and your name only if you give it. Neither is ever published. The headline, details and source link you send are used to write a story and may be published, attributed to the organization you name. The submissions chat sends your messages to our AI desk to fill in the form.

Cookies and recovery

Reader sign-in sessions last up to seven days. Guest cookies last up to 30 days. Clearing a guest cookie or switching devices loses access to unclaimed guest votes; email entry alone cannot recover them. A verified account can be recovered by signing in with its email again.

Signing out revokes the current reader session. It does not erase your account or ballot history.

Daily activity records expire after 30 days from the start of their UTC day. Poll and ballot records expire 90 days after poll creation. Claim your guest votes before the guest session expires; claiming does not extend a poll's retention period.

Account and privacy help

Contact ashik@ashik.ai for account, correction, or data-deletion requests. Never send us your sign-in code.