Privacy Policy

Last updated: April 13, 2026

shortHorizn+ is a private URL shortener and analytics platform. This policy explains what data is collected when someone clicks a shortened link, and how that data is used.

What we collect on a link click

When you click a shortened link, the following information is collected and stored:

Data point How we get it Stored
Country Derived from your IP address via a local offline geolocation database. Only the country code is kept. Yes
Browser Parsed from your browser's User-Agent header (e.g. Chrome, Firefox, Safari). Yes
Device type Parsed from your User-Agent header (desktop, mobile, or tablet). Yes
Date and hour of click Recorded at the moment the redirect occurs. Yes
IP address Anonymised before any processing by zeroing the last octet (e.g. 1.2.3.4 → 1.2.3.0). Used only to resolve your country. Briefly cached in memory for up to 1 hour, then discarded. Never stored
Data points are not linked together. Each piece of information above is stored as an independent aggregate statistic. Your country, browser, device type, and other signals are never combined into a profile or tied to each other in storage. There is no visitor identifier, session ID, or fingerprint recorded.

IP address handling

Before your IP address is used for anything, the last segment is replaced with zero (e.g. 1.2.3.4 → 1.2.3.0). This anonymised address is then looked up against a local offline database (MaxMind GeoLite2) to determine the country you are visiting from. No data ever leaves our servers for this lookup.

The anonymised address is held briefly in a memory cache for up to one hour to avoid repeated lookups, and then automatically deleted. No IP address, full or anonymised, is ever written to disk or to the database.

Cookies and tracking

No cookies are set on visitors who click a shortened link. No advertising trackers, fingerprinting scripts, or cross-site tracking technologies are used.

How the data is used

All collected data is used exclusively to provide click analytics to the owner of the shortened URL (for example, to show them which countries, browsers, or devices their audience uses). It is not sold, shared with third parties, or used for advertising.

Data retention

Individual click records are stored temporarily and deleted automatically each night once they have been aggregated into daily summaries. They are never retained beyond approximately 24 hours.

Daily aggregate summaries (total clicks, countries, browsers, and device types per day) replace the raw records after aggregation. These summaries are retained for as long as the associated shortened URL exists on the platform.

Admin accounts

Users who log in to the shortHorizn+ dashboard authenticate via username/password or Google OAuth. In the case of Google OAuth, we receive your Google account email address and display name solely to create and identify your account. This data is stored in the platform database and is not shared externally.

Contact

If you have questions about this policy or the data we hold, please contact the platform operator directly.