What’s counted, and why

• The pages you open, how long they’re on screen, and how far down a journal entry you read: to know what’s worth writing more of.
• Which parts of a page are visible and how long you actively use them. Active time pauses when the tab is hidden or after a minute without interaction. Clicks, scrolls and keyboard interactions are counted, but no typed text, individual keys, form values, screenshots or recordings are collected.
• The songs you play, how long you listen, where you skip or jump, and which streaming service you choose: to know which music reaches people.
• Links you follow off the site: only the site’s name, like instagram.com.
• What you do in the 3D room (the objects you open, playing the little figure) and how it loaded and ran: load times, frame rate, graphics quality and the graphics chip’s maker (never its model), to keep the room smooth on every device.
• Whether a sign-in or newsletter form went through, and which home links led to a streaming service or social profile (never your email or what you typed in a form).
• Page speed and errors (their message only), to fix what’s slow or broken.
• Basic automation signals, such as a browser reporting automation or an unusually fast stream of events, to keep obvious automated activity out of audience reports. These are estimates, not proof of who is using the site.

Along with these go the page’s address, the site that sent you here (its name only), campaign tags in the link you followed (utm_…), your browser’s language and time zone, your screen’s size and pixel density, whether the site was opened from your home screen, whether it’s a touch screen, your connection type (like 4g) and the version of the site you had. From your connection the server works out your country, region and city, and from what your browser says about itself your browser, system and kind of device.

Visit records are kept for 13 months, then deleted.

What’s never kept

• Your IP address. It’s used for a moment to find your rough location, then dropped.
• The full description your browser sends of itself (its user agent).
• Anything for advertising, and anything from a third-party tracker: none run here.
• The page you came from: only its site’s name is sent, never the page or its link.

Knowing a return visit

In the EU, the EEA, the UK and Switzerland, when your country can’t be told, or when your browser sends Global Privacy Control or Do Not Track, nothing is stored on your device for analytics. Your visits are recognised only within a single day, by a one-way code made from a random key for that day, your IP address and your browser. Each day’s key is deleted two days later. These codes are not reused to identify return visits across days.

Everywhere else, a random number is kept on your device (abe-vid, below) so a return visit counts as the same visitor. It says nothing about who you are.

Your email

Signing in sends a six-digit code. Joining the release list sends an email link; your subscription starts only when you press Confirm on the site. That also signs you in so you can open the fan library. Release emails are optional, and you can unsubscribe in Account at any time. Unsubscribing closes subscriber-only access but keeps your account and public profile. Visits you make signed in are linked to your account, so I can tell how many listeners come back.

Official-release downloads ask you to confirm that you follow Abe on Instagram or TikTok. This is your own declaration: the site does not access those accounts, read their follower lists or verify a follow from a link click. YouTube support is optional.

On your device

abe_session Cookie

Keeps you signed in after you verify a sign-in code or explicitly confirm your subscription. Gone when you sign out.

abe-vid Local storage

A random number, so a return visit counts as the same visitor. Only where described above, and deleted when you switch analytics off.

abe-analytics Local storage

Your choice below, once you switch analytics off.

abe-player-volume Local storage

The player’s volume.

abe-layout-v3 Local storage

Which panels you keep open, and how wide.

abe-post:… Session storage

A note you’re still writing in the listening room, until you post it or close the tab.

abe-public-… Cache storage

The offline page and the site’s icons, so it can still open without a connection.

Your choice

Switch analytics off and this browser sends nothing more, and its visitor number is deleted. The choice stays in this browser.

Questions and your rights

To see, correct or delete anything kept about you, or with any question, write to hello@abeinternet.com. What’s tied to your email or account can be found and removed; visit records carry no name, so switching analytics off is how to stop them.

Songs you open on YouTube or Spotify play in their own players, under their own privacy policies (YouTube’s in its privacy-enhanced mode); opening one loads that service’s player script into the page.