Text on this page was drafted with AI tools; every figure is computed by code from the cited official source.
500metrics is built to collect as little about its readers as possible. You can read every page without an account, and the site sets no cookies, runs no advertising, runs three small scripts of its own (one counts page views, one fills the day's figures in the page header, and one, on pages with a chart, shows the date and values of the point you choose, or the name and figure of the bar or part you choose on any other chart, lets you choose a time range or zoom, and lets you save, copy or share a picture of the chart), and loads nothing from other companies' servers: our fonts, styles and images are served from 500metrics.com itself.
We decide how the personal data described here is used. Write to us about anything on this page; the address is on the contact page.
What happens when you visit a page
The site runs on Cloudflare, which delivers our pages. To send a page to your browser, Cloudflare necessarily receives your IP address and the request your browser makes (the address of the page, your browser's user agent and similar technical details). Cloudflare also uses this information to protect the site from attacks and abuse. Cloudflare processes it on our behalf under its own data processing terms; its privacy policy is at https://www.cloudflare.com/privacypolicy/.
Pages that show the day's figures in their header also run a second small script, apart from the one that counts page views. It asks this site for one file, /figures.json, which is the same for every visitor, and writes the figures it holds into the header. It sends nothing about you beyond the request your browser makes for any file of this site, sets no cookies and stores nothing on your device. It reads no cookie, file or storage on your device; it uses the page's own address only to tell which figure is the page you are on.
Pages with a chart run a third script, a file of this site's own, served like our stylesheet. It shows the date and the values of the point on a chart that you point at with a mouse, touch with a finger or reach with the arrow keys, and, on a chart that is not a dated line or column chart (ranked bars, a segment bar, a dial, a calendar, a small drawing), the name and the figures of the bar or part you point at. It also lets you choose a time range or zoom into a chart, and it writes the view you chose into the page's address after the # sign, so that a link you copy or share opens the same view; that part of the address stays on your device and is never sent to us. It reads the chart's numbers from the page itself, makes no request of its own other than for the second file described below, sets no cookies and stores nothing on your device. It reads no cookie, file or storage on your device, and it sends nothing about where you point. The buttons over a chart save a picture of it, copy the picture or the page's address, and open a menu of places to share the page. The picture is made on your device from the chart's own numbers, or, for a chart that is not a dated line or column chart, from the shapes and words the page draws, and nothing is uploaded by this page. The code that makes it, the two menus and the cards that show the name and figures of a bar, a part or a dial are a second file of this site's own, which your browser loads the first time you point at, touch or focus a chart that is not a dated line or column chart (ranked bars, a segment bar, a dial, a calendar, a small drawing), point at or use the camera or share button, or open a menu; it is a request for a file of this site, the same for every visitor, and nothing about you is sent beyond that request. If you choose Share, your device's own share sheet gets the picture, or the page's title and address, and the app you choose receives them. Copy puts the picture, the page's address or the credit line on your clipboard. The share links to X, Telegram, WhatsApp and Reddit carry only the page's title and address, and open only when you click one; this site makes no request to any of them before. The script sets no cookie, uses no storage and sends no beacon, and the only things it puts on your device are a picture you choose to save and what you choose to copy.
How we count visits
We keep our own counts of visits and page views, made from what your browser sends with every request. A small script counts each page view, sets no cookies and stores nothing on your device. It runs once the page has loaded and is shown, and it reads no cookie, file or storage on your device. It reads the page's path, the address of the page you came from without anything after "?", the three campaign tags, and one browser setting that says whether the browser is run by automation. A browser run by automation is not counted as a page view. Our code writes one line for every page a browser opens, for every request from a known search or AI crawler, and for about one in ten of the other requests. A line gives the kind of page requested, the response code and how long the response took; for a page a browser opens, and for search crawlers checked against their published addresses, it also gives the page's path. It can also contain the address of the page you came from, if your browser sends it, without anything after "?" (only the site's name for webmail and similar private services); the campaign tags of the link you clicked (utm_source, utm_medium and utm_campaign); your country; the kind of device (phone, tablet or computer); for crawlers, the crawler's category or name; and a visitor code.
The visitor code is a number of 16 bits made from your IP address, your browser's user agent, the site and the date. It changes every day and is made differently for each website, so it cannot link your visits from one day to the next or from one website to another. It lets us estimate how many different readers came in a day. If your browser sends Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control, we make no visitor code, and your page view still counts in the totals.
We never keep your IP address, the text of your browser's user agent, any cookie or anything read from your device. Your IP address and user agent are used only while your request is answered: to make the visitor code, to tell browsers from crawlers and to see the kind of device. Cloudflare deletes these lines after about three months, and we keep nothing from them after that.
Our counts are estimates, not counts of people: some programs pass for browsers, and the number of different readers in a day is worked out from the visitor codes, not counted.
We do not use cookies, local storage or pixels. Because the visitor code is made from your IP address and user agent, the same browser on the same network gets the same code for one day; the code changes every day, so nothing we keep can recognise you from one day to the next. We do not build profiles of readers, and we do not pass personal information to anyone for advertising or in exchange for money or anything else of value.
When you email us
If you write to our address, Cloudflare's email routing forwards your message to the mailbox where we read it. We use your address and message only to answer you and to deal with what you raised, for example to correct a number. We keep messages only as long as we need them for that purpose, and longer only where a message concerns a correction, a complaint or a legal matter that we must be able to show we handled. We never add your address to a mailing list.
People named in our data
At launch the site publishes data about U.S. public money, the headline economy figures U.S. agencies publish, and the policy rates of other central banks, which names no private individuals. If we later publish public filings that name people (for example, company officers), we will show only what the filing itself shows, link to the filing, and describe here how to ask us about it.
Legal bases
Where the UK or EU General Data Protection Regulation applies, we rely on our legitimate interests: to deliver and protect the site (Cloudflare's processing), to count visits so that we know which pages are read and how people find them, and to answer people who write to us. We have weighed these interests against your rights and kept the data to the minimum the site needs to work. For the visit counts that means the counting stores nothing on your device, keeps no IP address, uses a visitor code that changes every day, and its lines are deleted after about three months.
Your rights
Depending on where you live, you may have the right to ask what personal data we keep about you, to have it corrected or deleted, to object to our use of it, or to limit it. Write to us at the address on the contact page and we will answer within one month. We keep so little that in most cases the answer will be that, beyond your email to us, we keep nothing we can tie to you: our visit counts keep no IP address, name or account. If you are in the UK or the EU, you may also complain to your data protection authority (in the UK, the Information Commissioner's Office, https://ico.org.uk ).
If you live in California or another US state with a privacy law: we do not exchange personal information for money or anything else of value, and we do not use it for targeted advertising. There is no sale or sharing to opt out of. Browser signals such as Global Privacy Control and Do Not Track are respected: when your browser sends one, we make no visitor code for your visit.
Children
The site is not directed at children and we do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 13 (or under a higher age, up to 16, where the law of your country sets one). If you believe a child has written to us, tell us and we will delete the message.
Changes to this page
When we change how we handle personal data, we update this page and the date at the top before the change takes effect. If we ever add anything that collects more, such as email alerts, this page will describe it, and you will have to sign up to it yourself.