The Balkan Tension Index is a personal, non-commercial project. This notice explains what we store about you and why.
Browsing the index sets no cookies, and there are no analytics or advertising trackers. The sign-in and sign-up pages set one essential security cookie. The web server keeps standard access logs (IP address, time, page requested, browser) for security and troubleshooting, and deletes them after 14 days. We count visits from these logs: each IP address is converted into a country and an anonymous visitor number that changes every day, and the IP address itself is not kept in our public visit statistics. There is no tracking script and no cookie involved. The site's fonts are hosted on this server, not loaded from Google Fonts or any other third party, so no font request ever leaves this site.
We also keep a separate, admin-only security log of visitor IP addresses, how long they've been active, and which pages they requested (kept for up to 30 days), together with — looked up from public network-ownership registries (WHOIS/RDAP) and reverse DNS, not from you — which organisation, hosting provider or internet service the address belongs to (kept for up to 180 days). This is used to tell real traffic from organisations or individuals apart from automated scanning or attack attempts. It is kept separately from, and for longer than, the anonymous visit statistics above, which are unaffected and still never retain your IP. This log is visible only to site administrators and is never shared with anyone else.
We store your email address, a securely hashed password (never the password itself), your role, when you signed up and last signed in, and the alerts you set up, along with a record of which alerts were sent to you. A single session cookie keeps you signed in. It is essential for the service and used for nothing else.
We use your email address only to confirm your account, reset your password and send the alerts you asked for. We never sell or share it and never send marketing.
You can pause or remove alerts, change your password or delete your account at any time from your account page. Deleting your account removes your data immediately. Every alert email has a one-click unsubscribe link. For anything else, including a copy of your data, contact the operator at the address that sends your alerts.
Balkan Tension Index is built and run by Stavros Messinis. For data protection questions or requests, the contact is Stavros Messinis, [email protected].
The index is a heuristic built from open-source reporting. It indicates relative change in tension and is not a forecast of conflict.