Privacy Policy
Dieses Dokument wird nur auf Englisch und Koreanisch veröffentlicht. Es folgt die englische Fassung; der englische Text ist maßgeblich.
Version 1.0 — effective 4 November 2026
This Privacy Policy explains what personal data Pollreal collects, why, for how long, who receives it and what rights you have. It is also the Operator’s privacy policy (개인정보처리방침) under Article 30 of the Personal Information Protection Act of the Republic of Korea and is written for readers in every country the Service is available in.
This document is published in English and Korean. The English text is the authoritative version; the Korean text is a translation provided for convenience. If they differ, the English text prevails.
1. Who is responsible
Controller and operator: Dr.Seoul, a sole proprietorship registered in the Republic of Korea. Representative and privacy officer (개인정보 보호책임자): Kibum Park. Address: 39 Banpo-daero 39-gil, Unit 302 (Banpo-dong), Seocho-gu, Seoul 06579, Republic of Korea. Email for all privacy matters: hello@pollreal.com.
2. What we do not collect
We collect the minimum the Service needs. We do not ask for your name, postal address, email address (except a work email if you choose to verify yourself as a maker), identity documents, photographs or payment details. We do not collect face or fingerprint data: the passkey check happens on your device and only a cryptographic signature reaches us. We do not store passwords. We do not store your phone number — only a keyed one-way hash of it. We run no advertising, no advertising profiles, no third-party analytics and sell no data.
3. What we collect, why and for how long
| Data | When | Purpose | How it is stored and for how long |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mobile phone number and its country | When you request a sign-up or sign-in code | One account per person; sending the one-time code; checking that the number is a mobile line; rate limits | The number is sent to Google, which delivers the code, and to Twilio, which checks the line type (see section 5). We keep the number itself only until you confirm the code (at most 10 minutes; the sign-up step then stays open 30 more minutes without the number). Afterwards we keep only a keyed one-way hash (HMAC) of the number and its country code. The hash stays while the account exists and 30 days after you leave (to block immediate re-registration), then it is erased. |
| Birth year and gender (self-reported) | Sign-up | Grouping results by age group and gender; age check | With your account until you leave. Each vote you cast carries your age group and gender as they were at that moment; that copy stays in the anonymous vote record. |
| Passkey credential data | When you create a passkey | Signing in; signing every vote | Credential ID, public key, signature counter, authenticator model identifier (AAGUID), transport types, a backed-up flag, creation and last-use times. Deleted when you leave. No biometric data: your fingerprint or face is checked by your device and never sent to us. |
| Session token | Sign-in | Keeping you signed in | Cookie “vs_sid” for 30 days; the server keeps only a hash of the token. Deleted at sign-out, expiry or when you leave. |
| Sign-up step cookie | During the phone step | Carrying you through the sign-up steps | Cookie “vs_flow”, 30 minutes. |
| Device token | When you first open a poll | One vote per device per poll | Cookie “vs_dt” (about 13 months) and a copy in your browser’s local storage (“pollreal_dt”). On each vote only a keyed hash of the token bound to that poll is stored; those hashes are erased 30 days after the vote. |
| Device fingerprint signals | When you vote | One vote per device per poll; detecting manipulation | Your network address (IPv4 address or IPv6 /64), browser user agent, screen size and pixel ratio, time zone, browser languages, CPU count, device memory and touch points are combined into a keyed hash bound to that poll. The signals themselves are not stored. The hash is erased after 30 days. |
| Network information | Every sign-up and vote request | Refusing data centres, VPNs, Tor and relays; at most 10 votes per poll from one network | IP address, network number (ASN), network organisation and country as provided by Cloudflare for the request. We store only a keyed hash of the network bound to the poll (erased after 30 days) and, in the code-request log, a hash of the IP address. Refused attempts are stored as counts per poll and reason, without any member link. |
| Code-request log | Every request for an SMS code | Rate limits (3 codes per number and 5 per network address an hour; daily caps per site, country and network provider); cost control; abuse prevention | Hash of the number, hash of the IP address, country and network number, outcome, time. Erased after 30 days. |
| Votes | When you vote | Counting; the result and its “How these votes were cast” line; integrity | Poll, candidate, time, age group, gender, whether you joined within the last 24 hours, how you arrived (direct, share, embed, maker campaign, invite), a maker-claim reference and the device and network hashes (30 days). Linked to your account until you leave; afterwards kept indefinitely without any link to you, as an anonymous count. Your own votes are shown to you on My page and to nobody else. |
| Polls you create | When you publish a poll | Running the poll and its public result | Maker and product names, category, question, language, time. Linked to your account until you leave; the poll and its result remain public permanently. |
| Posts and comments | When you write on the board | The board | Text, the anonymous nickname you had when writing, time. Kept until you delete them or they are removed. After you leave they remain under that nickname without any link to you. |
| Reports you file | When you report content | Moderation; legal duties (temporary measures, removal of unlawful content) | Target, reason, your description, time, a reference to your account. Kept as a record of how the report was handled. |
| Maker verification | Only when you claim a product as its maker | Verifying that you work for the maker | Your work email address is sent to Resend to deliver the verification link (see section 5). We store the email domain, a keyed hash of the address, the claim status and times. The hash is erased and the claim revoked when you leave. |
| Invite attribution | When you arrive through an invite link or join through one | Measuring how the Service spreads; detecting clusters of fake accounts | Cookie “vs_inv” for 30 days; an “invited by” reference on your account; the inviter sees only a count. No reward is attached. The reference is removed when either of you leaves. |
| Share and embed attribution | When you arrive through a share link or an embedded widget | Counting which channel brought voters | Cookie “vs_src” for 24 hours, bound to one poll. A vote stores only the channel name. Share clicks, arrivals and embed loads are counted per poll and day without any personal data. |
| Bot check | Phone step of sign-up; creating a poll | Telling humans from automated programs | Cloudflare Turnstile runs in your browser, may set its own cookies and processes device and network signals under Cloudflare’s privacy policy. We receive only pass or fail. |
| Server logs | Every request | Security, error diagnosis, abuse prevention | Cloudflare keeps request logs (IP address, URL, user agent, time) under its own retention. We see aggregated analytics and error logs. |
| Account settings | Sign-up and use | Running your account | Interface language, anonymous nickname, invite code, an internal random user handle for passkeys. Erased when you leave. |
| Aggregate statistics | Daily | Measuring the Service | Counts only — sign-ups, votes, polls, shares, costs. No personal data. Kept indefinitely. |
4. Legal bases
For readers under the GDPR or the UK GDPR, and in the terms of Korean law, we rely on the following bases:
- Performance of our contract with you (GDPR Article 6(1)(b); Korean PIPA Article 15(1)4): account, sign-in, voting, polls, board, maker verification, invites.
- Our legitimate interests (GDPR Article 6(1)(f); PIPA Article 15(1)6): keeping votes honest and the Service secure — device tokens, fingerprint hashes, network checks, the code-request log, rate limits, rule-based anomaly review — and measuring how the Service spreads. These values are hashed, bound to one poll where possible and kept for short periods, so that the interference with your privacy stays minimal.
- Legal obligations (GDPR Article 6(1)(c); PIPA Article 15(1)2): handling reports, temporary measures and removal of unlawful content under Korean law, and responding to lawful requests from authorities.
- Consent (GDPR Article 6(1)(a); PIPA Article 15(1)1) where the law requires it. You give it at sign-up by ticking the box; you withdraw it by leaving the Service. We set no cookies that would need separate consent.
5. Who receives your data, and transfers abroad
We use the following service providers (processors). All of them are established in the United States, so your data leaves your country, and — for users in Korea — leaves Korea. Under Korean law this is an entrustment of processing and storage necessary to perform our contract with you, disclosed here under Article 28-8(1)3 of the PIPA; for users in the EU and the UK the transfers rest on the providers’ standard contractual clauses or an equivalent mechanism. You may refuse these transfers by not using the Service; the Service cannot be provided without them.
| Recipient | Country | When and how | Data | Purpose | Retention |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cloudflare, Inc. | United States (global network; requests are served at the location nearest to you) | Continuously, as you use the site | All request data (IP address, cookies, pages requested) and the database contents listed in section 3 | Hosting (Workers, D1 database), bot check (Turnstile), security, request logs | Database contents: the periods in section 3. Logs: under Cloudflare’s retention |
| Google LLC (Firebase Authentication / Identity Platform) | United States | When you request a code | Mobile phone number, interface language; a reCAPTCHA check on the sign-up page | Sending and checking the one-time code | The account record Google creates for the number is deleted as soon as the code is confirmed. Google keeps its own delivery and security records under its terms |
| Twilio Inc. | United States | When you request a code | Mobile phone number, country, interface language | Checking the line type (Lookup); sending the one-time code (Verify) when Google is not used | We keep the number only until the code is confirmed. Twilio keeps its own records under its terms |
| Resend, Inc. | United States | Only when you ask for maker verification | Work email address, product name | Delivering the verification email | Under Resend’s terms |
| Anthropic, PBC | United States | When an AI comparison card is generated | Maker name, product name, category — no personal data | Generating the AI comparison card | Under Anthropic’s API terms; no personal data is sent |
We disclose personal data to third parties only when the law requires it (for example a court order or a lawful request from a competent authority), to protect the rights and safety of members or the public, or — with prior notice to you — if the Service is transferred to another operator. We do not sell personal data and do not share it for advertising.
6. Children
The Service is not for children. We refuse sign-up below 13 years of age, and below 14 years for phone numbers from the Republic of Korea, based on the birth year given. If you believe a child has joined, tell us at hello@pollreal.com and we will erase the account.
7. Your rights
- Access: My page shows your profile data, passkeys, invites, maker claims, polls, votes and posts. For a full copy of your data, or for a machine-readable copy where the law gives you that right, write to us.
- Correction: your birth year and gender cannot be edited on the site; write to us and we will correct them.
- Erasure: leave the Service from My page (“Leave”). Section 8 describes exactly what is erased and what remains. You may also delete your own posts and comments at any time.
- Restriction and objection: you may object to processing based on our legitimate interests, and ask us to restrict processing, by writing to us. Note that the integrity measures in section 3 apply to every vote and cannot be switched off for one member.
- Withdrawal of consent: by leaving the Service.
- Complaints: in Korea you may contact the Personal Information Infringement Report Center (privacy.kisa.or.kr, 118), the Personal Information Dispute Mediation Committee (kopico.go.kr, 1833-6972), the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office (1301) or the National Police Agency (ecrm.police.go.kr, 182). In the EU or the UK you may complain to your data-protection authority.
Because we hold no name or email address for you, we may ask you to prove that you control the account — for example by acting from your signed-in account — before we answer a request. We answer within 10 days, or within the time the law that applies to you allows. Write to hello@pollreal.com.
8. What happens when you leave
- Erased at once: birth year, gender, nickname, country, language, invite code, passkey user handle, all passkeys, all sessions, the hash of your maker-verification email (your claims are revoked), and the “invited by” links in both directions.
- Kept 30 days, then erased: the hash of your phone number, so that the same number cannot open a new account during that time.
- Kept without any link to you: your votes (as anonymous counts with age group, gender, arrival channel and time), your polls and their results (public, without an author), your posts and comments (under their anonymous nickname, until deleted), and your reports (as handling records).
- Erased on their normal schedule: device and network hashes and the code-request log (30 days), expired sign-up steps and passkey challenges (minutes).
- Daily statistics already computed are not recalculated.
9. Security
- All traffic is encrypted in transit (HTTPS). Cookies are HttpOnly, Secure and SameSite; the site sends a strict Content Security Policy and checks the origin of every form and API request.
- Phone numbers, device values, email addresses and session tokens are stored only as keyed one-way hashes; the key is held outside the code and the database. No passwords exist. Device hashes are bound to one poll so that one poll’s voters cannot be linked to another’s.
- Access to production data is limited to the Operator through the hosting provider’s authenticated tools. We log administrative access as the hosting provider allows.
- If a breach affects your personal data, we will notify you and the competent authorities as the law requires.
10. Cookies and browser storage
| Name | Kind | Purpose | Lifetime |
|---|---|---|---|
| vs_sid | Cookie (HttpOnly) | Signed-in session | 30 days |
| vs_flow | Cookie (HttpOnly) | Sign-up steps after the phone number | 30 minutes |
| vs_dt | Cookie (HttpOnly) | Device token — one vote per device per poll | 400 days |
| pollreal_dt | Browser local storage | Copy of the device token (both are checked) | Until you clear site data |
| vs_src | Cookie (HttpOnly) | Which link brought you to a poll (share, embed, maker campaign) | 24 hours |
| vs_inv | Cookie (HttpOnly) | Invite attribution | 30 days |
| Cloudflare Turnstile | Third-party cookies and signals | Bot check on the phone step and poll creation | Under Cloudflare’s policy |
All of these are necessary for the Service to work as described. We use no analytics, advertising or social-media tracking cookies. Fonts are served from our own site; no third-party font service sees your visit.
11. Automated processing
The Service applies automatic rules to keep votes honest: one vote per member, one vote per device and per-network limits per poll, refusal of data-centre, VPN, Tor and relay networks, rate limits on codes, and a rule-based check that puts an “Under review” notice on a poll when a burst of one-sided votes from brand-new members is detected. These rules do not profile you and make no decision about you beyond accepting or refusing a particular attempt; the review itself is done by a person. No AI model is used to count votes, rank candidates, moderate content or decide about accounts (see the AI Notice). You may contact us if you believe a rule was applied to you wrongly.
12. Changes to this policy
We publish changes on this page with the new version number and effective date at least 7 days before they take effect, or at least 30 days before for changes that materially affect your rights. Earlier versions are available on request.
13. Contact
Dr.Seoul · Representative and privacy officer: Kibum Park · 39 Banpo-daero 39-gil, Unit 302 (Banpo-dong), Seocho-gu, Seoul 06579, Republic of Korea · hello@pollreal.com