How AskThis handles data & consent
A plain-language explanation of what AskThis collects, how consent works, and the privacy guarantees in the data path.
This is the plain-language version of how AskThis handles data. For the binding detail, see the Privacy Policy and DPA — this page links to them and never restates policy.
What the widget collects
The widget records lightweight interaction events — a page view, a share, an “Ask AI” click, and (where enabled) the question asked. It attaches a country-only location and a hashed identifier. It does not collect names, emails, or any personal identifiers, and it never tracks people across sites with a durable ID.
It never breaks your page
The widget is self-contained and fails silently. Events are batched and sent in the background — there’s no per-click network call and no blocking of your page.
How consent works
AskThis uses a hybrid consent model:
- In the EU/EEA and UK, events are dropped when a visitor hasn’t consented — nothing is collected.
- Elsewhere, events may be collected but are gated from any data sale unless consent allows it.
Consent is applied at ingestion, at the edge — before data enters the pipeline. Browser signals like Global Privacy Control (GPC) are honored automatically.
Privacy guarantees in the data path
- No PII in analytics. Identifiers are hashed; raw personal data never enters the analytics warehouse.
- k-anonymity floor of 50. Any aggregated data offered to buyers is held above a minimum cohort size.
- Withdrawal propagates. If someone withdraws consent, a suppression list removes them from future processing.
- Erasure honored. Data-subject erasure requests are processed on a schedule.
Your controls
Publishers manage consent and their cookie banner (CMP) in the dashboard under Consent. Visitors and data subjects can exercise their rights via the routes in the Privacy Policy. Security questions? See the Trust & security page.