Privacy
Last updated 5 October 2026
The short version
You can read everything on Brown Paper without an account. If you make one so you can suggest edits, we keep your name, your email address and the suggestions you send. We use them only to run suggestions, and they're deleted when you delete your account.
Reading the site
Reading doesn't need an account and doesn't create one. There are no ads, no analytics and no tracking cookies.
Your browser keeps a few things on your own device: whether you chose the light or dark theme, which episodes you've ticked as watched, a copy of the site so it works offline, and, if you sign in, a token that keeps you signed in. Your watched ticks never leave your device. Clearing your browser's data for this site removes them.
Brown Paper is hosted on Google's Firebase and uses fonts from Google Fonts, so Google receives your IP address and basic browser details when your browser loads a page, as any web host does. Google's privacy policy covers how it handles them. Links to YouTube and Wikipedia take you to sites with their own privacy policies.
Videos play in YouTube's privacy-enhanced player, which loads only when you tap a title to watch it. From then on YouTube, which is part of Google, receives what any video player needs, such as your IP address, and handles it under Google's privacy policy. To tick off a video you watched to the end, the site notes how far it played; that stays on your device with your other ticks.
All of this applies to graph paper, our Veritasium guide at /veritasium/, too. It has no accounts, and its ticks are also kept only on your device.
If you make an account
We keep:
- Your sign-in details: your email address, your name, and when you signed up and last signed in. If you sign in with Google, Google shares your name, email address and profile picture with us. If you use a password, Firebase stores it in a scrambled form that nobody can read back, including us.
- Your suggestions, linked to your account: what you suggested, which part of the page it's about, any note you added, your name, when you sent it, and whether it's been reviewed.
Admins see your name next to your suggestions so they can review them, and the site's owner can see account email addresses in the Firebase console. Other visitors see neither. When an admin applies one of your suggestions, the change goes into the guide without your name on it.
We email you only to confirm your address or reset your password. We don't sell your details, and we don't share them with anyone apart from Google, which runs the service that stores them.
If you're an admin, the corrections and reviews you make are saved with your account ID.
Deleting your account
Sign in, open your account with the button at the top right of the page, then tap Delete my account. That permanently deletes your sign-in details and every suggestion you've sent, whether or not it's been reviewed. Changes already made to the guide from your suggestions stay, because they're part of the guide.
If you can't sign in, email and we'll delete your account for you.
Questions and requests
To get a copy of what we keep about you, to correct it, or to ask anything about this page, email .
Children
Brown Paper isn't meant for children under 13. If you're under 13, please don't make an account.
Changes to this page
If we change what Brown Paper keeps or how it uses it, we'll update this page and the date at the top.