How The Mammoth Steppes handles information across
themammothsteppes.com and book.themammothsteppes.com.
Effective & Last Updated: November 2026
1. At a Glance
Reader-First Privacy
The Mammoth Steppes is an independent epic fantasy novel and living codex created by
Mo under the pseudonym Shadows of a Silver Sun. Every chapter, map, and character profile is
freely accessible without creating an account or submitting personal details.
🛡️ No Reader Accounts
You never need to sign up, log in, or share your name, email address, or phone number to read.
🚫 Zero Ad Trackers
We do not run third-party advertising networks, marketing pixels, or behavioural profiling cookies.
📖 Local Preferences
Your reading position, language choice, and theme mode stay in your own browser's local storage.
🔒 Never Sold or Shared
We do not sell, rent, or trade visitor information with data brokers or third parties.
2. On Your Device
Information Stored Locally in Your Browser
To make reading seamless across devices—from mobile phones to large living-room screens—the
website uses your browser's standard localStorage and a Progressive Web App (PWA) Service
Worker cache. These items remain on your device and are not transmitted to any marketing server:
Key / Storage Mechanism
Purpose
Retention
author_hub_theme / codex_reading_mode
Remembers your chosen visual atmosphere (Frost, Candlelight, or High Visibility mode).
Until you clear browser data
mammoth-steppes-last-read & chapter scroll keys
Remembers which chapter you last opened and your reading position so you can resume where you left off.
Until you clear browser data
mammoth-steppes-language
Saves your preferred language when using the chapter translation reader.
Until you clear browser data
chapterLikes & characterLikes
Remembers which chapters or character profiles you have already liked so the heart button stays highlighted.
Until you clear browser data
hubHeroUrl & Service Worker Cache (sw.js)
Caches page stylesheets, typography, and artwork so pages load quickly and chapters remain readable offline.
Updated automatically or when cleared
Manage Your Local PreferencesInspect or clear the reading preferences saved in this browser at any time.
3. Anonymous Counters
Page Visit Counts & Appreciation Buttons
To understand how many readers visit each page and which chapters resonate most, the website uses a
lightweight, privacy-preserving counter built on Google Firebase:
Anonymous Deduping ID: When a page loads, Firebase Anonymous Authentication
assigns your browser a random, non-personal identifier (UID) stored locally in your browser's
IndexedDB. This UID contains no name, email address, or personal profile.
Page Visit Counter: Your browser checks a Firestore document
(visitors/{uid}) containing only a list of page slugs visited by that random UID so
that refreshing a page does not artificially inflate the public visit counter
(counters/{pageId}).
Chapter & Character Likes: Clicking a "Like" button increments an aggregate
numerical counter in Cloud Firestore. It is not linked to any personal identity.
4. Infrastructure & External Services
How the Website Is Hosted & Delivered
Like all websites on the internet, delivering pages and illustrations to your screen requires trusted
infrastructure providers. When your browser requests a page, image, or font, standard technical network
data (such as your IP address and browser user-agent string) is processed by:
Google Firebase (Hosting, Cloud Storage, Cloud Firestore & Cloud Functions):
Hosts the website files, serves chapter HTML and artwork, stores anonymous visit/like counts, and
delivers cached chapter translations. Governed by the
Firebase Privacy & Security Policy.
Cloudflare: Provides DNS routing, SSL/TLS encryption, and network security for
themammothsteppes.com and its subdomains. Governed by the
Cloudflare Privacy Policy.
Google Fonts: Delivers the website's literary typefaces (Cinzel,
Lora, and Libre Bodoni). Governed by the
Google Fonts Privacy FAQ.
Google Cloud Translation API: When you select a non-English language in the
chapter reader, a Firebase Cloud Function retrieves or generates a translated version of the
chapter text. No personal reader data is sent with translation requests.
Voluntary Support Platforms (Ko-fi & PayPal)
All chapters of The Mammoth Steppes are free to read. If you choose to click a voluntary
support link to Ko-fi or PayPal, you will leave this website and
interact directly with those platforms under their respective privacy policies and terms. We do not
process or store your payment card details on this website.
Author & Administrative Subdomains
The administrative portals at dev.themammothsteppes.com and
builder.themammothsteppes.com use Google Sign-In strictly to verify the author's own
administrator account before permitting chapter or asset uploads. Any unauthorized account attempting
to sign in is immediately rejected, and no personal information from unauthorized sign-in attempts is
retained.
5. Your Rights & Contact
Correspondence, Data Rights & Updates
Email Correspondence
If you choose to contact the author directly via email at
author@themammothsteppes.com, your email address and
message contents are used solely to read and reply to your inquiry. They are never added to automated
marketing lists or shared with third parties.
Your Privacy Rights (UK GDPR, EU GDPR & Global Standards)
Because we do not collect personal accounts or behavioural profiles, most data associated with your
visits consists only of the local browser preferences on your device (which you can clear at any time
using the button above or your browser settings). If you have emailed the author and wish to have your
correspondence deleted, or if you have any questions regarding data protection rights under UK GDPR, EU
GDPR, or CCPA, please contact the author at the address below.
Children's Privacy
This website does not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 13 (or the
applicable age of digital consent in your jurisdiction).
Changes to This Policy
If new features are introduced to The Mammoth Steppes that change how data is handled, this
page will be updated with a revised effective date at the top.