Privacy

Last updated 26 September 2026

halfbakedlab (halfbakedlab.com and its subdomains, such as cropped.halfbakedlab.com) is a personal hobby site run by Joel. It has no accounts, no ads and no tracking cookies, and uses only basic, cookie-free visitor counts. This page explains the little data that does get handled.

What your browser stores

The games save your progress in your browser's local storage, so a refresh doesn't lose it: today's guesses or result in cropped, layered and peel, and the game in progress in twelve. Peel also keeps your win streak there, and the dashboard remembers which Tube lines you pin and which bus routes you enter. This stays on your device, is never sent to us, and only exists so the game works as you'd expect. You can clear it at any time by clearing this site's data in your browser. We don't set any cookies.

Hosting

The site is hosted by Vercel. Like any web host, Vercel's servers receive your IP address and basic request details (such as the page requested, time and browser type) in order to deliver the site, and may keep short-term logs for security and reliability. We don't use these logs to identify or track you. See Vercel's privacy notice.

Analytics

The site uses Vercel Web Analytics to count visits, so I can see which games get played. It sets no cookies and stores nothing on your device. It records the page visited, the referring site, your country and general browser, operating system and device type. Visits are told apart using an anonymous value that resets every day, so you can't be followed from one day to the next. It doesn't follow you across other sites and isn't used for advertising. See Vercel's analytics privacy details.

Satellite imagery

The images in cropped are loaded straight from Esri's map servers, so Esri receives your IP address and the map areas requested, which is needed to send you the images. See Esri's privacy statement.

Map data

The maps in layered and map are loaded from OpenFreeMap's servers, so OpenFreeMap receives your IP address and the map areas requested. OpenFreeMap has no accounts or tracking. See OpenFreeMap's privacy policy.

Live map

The live map (halfbakedlab.com/map) shows Tube, Overground and Elizabeth line trains and London buses. This site's server fetches train data from Transport for London and bus locations from the Bus Open Data Service, so those services never see your IP address. Train positions are estimates worked out from arrival predictions. Closed sections of line, and road works and closures, also come from Transport for London and are fetched by this site's server in the same way. The base map and its place-name fonts come from OpenFreeMap, as described above.

Dashboard data

The dashboard (halfbakedlab.com/dashboard) shows weather and pollen forecasts from Open-Meteo, Tube line status, planned works and bus disruptions from Transport for London, transport strike headlines from BBC News, and what's playing on BBC Radio 6 Music. This site's server fetches all of it, not your browser, so those services never see your IP address. If you enter bus routes, the route numbers are sent to this site's server so it can look them up, and they are not stored there. Results are cached for about a minute. The forecast is for central London, wherever you are.

Everything else

Fonts and code are served from this site itself, not from third parties such as Google Fonts. There are no social media embeds and no advertising.

Legal basis

Where IP addresses count as personal data, they're processed because it's necessary to deliver the website you've asked for (legitimate interests under UK GDPR / EU GDPR, Article 6(1)(f)). The local storage used is strictly necessary for a feature you use, so no consent banner is needed.

Your rights

You have the right to ask what personal data is held about you, and to have it corrected or deleted. As the analytics are anonymous and we don't collect anything else ourselves, there is usually nothing to hand over, but you can get in touch at hello@halfbakedlab.com. If you're in the UK and unhappy with how your data is handled, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office; in the EU, contact your local data protection authority.

Credits

• Satellite imagery: Powered by Esri, with imagery providers credited on the map.
• Map data: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), via OpenFreeMap and OpenMapTiles.
• Map display: Leaflet (BSD 2-Clause licence) and MapLibre (BSD 3-Clause licence).
• Weather and pollen forecasts: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0), with pollen from the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS).
• Tube status and train arrivals: Powered by TfL Open Data.
• Track shapes on the live map: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), from Oliver O'Brien's tube data.
• Bus locations: Bus Open Data Service, Department for Transport, under the Open Government Licence.
• Typefaces: Inter by Rasmus Andersson, Press Start 2P by CodeMan38, and VT323 by Peter Hull (all SIL Open Font License 1.1).

Changes

If anything here changes, this page will be updated first.