Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy — Orchid Lantern

Last updated: July 7, 2026

Who we are

This site is operated at https://orchidlantern.com/ (“Orchid Lantern,” “we,” “us,” or “our”). For privacy-related questions, requests, or concerns, you can reach us through the Contact page on this site.

What personal data we collect and why we collect it

We collect the following categories of information from visitors and registered users:

Account information. If you register for an account (for example, to bookmark novels, track reading progress, leave comments, or save preferences), we collect your username, email address, password (stored in encrypted/hashed form), and any profile information you choose to provide.

Comments. When you leave a comment, we collect the content of the comment along with your name, email address, and IP address, and a browser user agent string, to help detect spam. An anonymized string created from your email address (a hash) may be shared with the Gravatar service to check if you are using it; the Gravatar service privacy policy is available at https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture (if any) is visible to the public in the context of your comment.

Technical and usage data. We automatically collect certain data when you visit the site, including IP address, browser type, device type, pages viewed, referring URL, and timestamps, through server logs and analytics tools.

Cookies. See the “Cookies” section below.

We collect this data to operate the site (account login, bookmarks, comment functionality), to maintain security and prevent spam or abuse, to understand how the site is used so we can improve it, and to support advertising as described below. Where required by law, we rely on your consent (for example, cookie consent) or on our legitimate interest in operating and improving the site.

Comments

When visitors leave comments on the site, we collect the data shown in the comments form, plus the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.

Media

If registered users upload images or other media files to the site (for example, a profile picture), they should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included, as visitors to the site can download and extract any location data from images on the site.

Contact forms

If this site includes a contact form, submissions (name, email address, and message content) are retained for as long as needed to respond to and resolve the inquiry, and are not used for marketing purposes without your separate consent.

Cookies

If you leave a comment, you may opt in to saving your name, email address, and website in cookies for your convenience so you don’t have to fill in your details again the next time you comment. These cookies last for one year.

If you have an account and log in, we set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser. When you log in, we also set up several cookies to save your login information and screen display choices. Login cookies last two days, and screen options cookies last a year. If you select “Remember Me,” your login persists for two weeks. If you log out, the login cookies are removed.

If you edit or publish content (for registered contributors/translators), an additional cookie is saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.

This site also uses cookies from advertising and analytics providers (see “Who we share your data with” below), which may be used to serve relevant ads and measure site performance. Where required, we present a cookie consent notice allowing you to accept or reject non-essential cookies.

Analytics

We use Google Analytics (and/or Google Site Kit) to understand how visitors use the site — pages visited, time on site, device/browser type, and general geographic location. Google’s privacy policy is available at https://policies.google.com/privacy. You can opt out of Google Analytics tracking using the browser add-on available at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

Who we share your data with

We share limited data with the following categories of third parties:

Hosting provider — to store and serve the site.
Analytics providers (e.g., Google Analytics/Site Kit) — to measure site usage, as described above.
Advertising providers (e.g., Google AdSense) — to serve ads on the site. These providers may use cookies and device identifiers to personalize ads based on your visits to this and other sites. You can learn more and adjust ad personalization settings at https://adssettings.google.com/. Google’s advertising privacy practices are described at https://policies.google.com/technologies/ads.
Gravatar (Automattic) — if you leave a comment, as described above.

We do not sell your personal data. We do not share personal data with third parties except as described here or where required by law.

How long we retain your data

Comments and their metadata are retained indefinitely so we can recognize and approve follow-up comments automatically, rather than holding them in a moderation queue.
Account data for registered users is retained for as long as the account is active. Users can request deletion of their account and associated personal data at any time.
Analytics data is retained according to the retention settings of our analytics provider (typically 14–26 months for Google Analytics).
Server/log data is retained for a limited period (typically up to 90 days) for security and troubleshooting purposes.

What rights you have over your data

If you have an account on this site, or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.

Depending on your location, you may have additional rights under applicable law (such as the GDPR for EU/UK residents or the CCPA/CPRA for California residents), including the right to access, correct, delete, or restrict processing of your personal data, and the right to object to certain processing, including for advertising purposes. To exercise any of these rights, contact us through the Contact page.

Where your data is sent

Visitor comments and account data may be checked through an automated spam detection service and may be transferred outside your country of residence, including to the United States, where our hosting and service providers operate. Where personal data is transferred internationally, we rely on the safeguards provided by our service providers (such as standard contractual clauses) to protect that data to a standard consistent with applicable data protection law.

How we protect your data

We use industry-standard measures to protect personal data, including encrypted password storage, HTTPS encryption for data in transit, and restricted access to administrative systems. No method of transmission or storage is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

What data breach procedures we have in place

In the event of a data breach affecting personal data, we will take reasonable steps to investigate, contain, and remediate the issue, and will notify affected users and relevant authorities where required by applicable law.

What third parties we receive data from

We may receive limited data from third-party services we use, such as spam-detection services (e.g., data confirming whether a comment is likely spam) and advertising partners (e.g., aggregate, non-identifying performance data about ads shown on this site).

Automated decision-making

We do not use your personal data for automated decision-making or profiling that produces legal or similarly significant effects on you. Advertising partners may use automated systems to select ads shown to you based on general interest categories; this does not constitute a legal or similarly significant decision.