The short version
The reaction test runs entirely inside your browser. Every click, tap and key press you make in the test is timed on your device, your results are worked out there, and your test presses and reaction times are never sent anywhere, to us or to anyone else, because no server is involved in running the test at all. We could not show you your own results if you asked us to. The outside services on the site, both described below, are Google Analytics, which records page views and how the pages are used, and Cloudflare, which hosts the site.
What we do not collect
We do not collect your reaction times, your scores, the clicks, taps and key presses you make in the test, or any account details — there are no accounts and no sign-up. The site never asks for your name or email address; we only have them if you email us, as described under Email below. There is no contact form on this site, deliberately: a form would mean collecting data we have just told you we do not want. If you need to reach us, you email us directly.
Sound mode does not change any of this. The beep is generated on your device by your browser’s Web Audio API, no audio is recorded, and the site never asks for or uses your microphone.
What is stored in your browser
Your light or dark theme choice, your best averages, and two analytics cookies. The theme choice is kept in your browser’s local storage under the key theme so the site does not flash the wrong colors on your next visit. Your best average reaction time is kept there too, under the key mrtt-best-v1: one for each mode, visual and sound, each as a number of milliseconds and the date you set it. Neither of those ever leaves your device. The cookies are set by Google Analytics: _ga holds a random ID that tells one browser’s visits apart from another’s, and _ga_LL1RTKHMZL keeps track of the current visit. The analytics tag sends that ID to Google with each page view. Each cookie is set to last up to two years, though your browser may delete it sooner. Clearing your browser data removes all four, and blocking the analytics tag keeps the cookies from being set at all.
Your individual attempts are not stored; only the best average for each mode is kept. The F1 start test keeps its best time for the current page visit only, and nothing from it is stored, so leaving or reloading the page clears it.
Analytics
This site uses Google Analytics (measurement ID G-LL1RTKHMZL) to count page views and see which pages people find useful. When you visit a page, it records:
- the page address and the page title
- the page you came from
- your approximate location, to city level
- your device type
- your browser and operating system, with their versions
- your screen size and language
- how long you spend on the page
- how far down the page you scroll
- clicks on links to other sites, with the address of the link
- file downloads from links, with the file name and the link’s text (the FIA rules document linked from the F1 and averages pages, for example)
It never receives your reaction times, your averages or your best score, because those never leave your device. Its tracking of forms, site search and videos is switched off for this site. So is Google signals, which would connect your visits to a signed-in Google account, and so is its automatic detection of email addresses, phone numbers and postal addresses.
It links your visits together through the random ID in the _ga cookie described above. That makes the data pseudonymous rather than anonymous: it carries no name or email address, but it can tell that two visits came from the same browser. Google Analytics deletes this visit-level data after 2 months; the totals in its reports, such as how many people visited a page, are kept longer. Clearing your cookies starts a new ID. Google’s handling of the data is covered by its own privacy policy. You can block Google Analytics with any standard content blocker, or with Google’s opt-out browser add-on, and the test works the same without it.
Advertising
There are currently no ads on this site. If advertising is added later, this section will be updated to name the network, and any cookie notice the network requires will be shown. Ad networks typically set their own cookies; that is their processing, under their own policy, and it still would not give them your reaction times.
Hosting and logs
Cloudflare serves the site, as static files. Like every web host, it processes each request, including your IP address, your browser and the page you asked for, to deliver the page and to protect the site from attacks and abuse. Cloudflare’s network error reporting also asks your browser to report pages that fail to load to Cloudflare. We do not add to that, query it, or combine it with anything else. Cloudflare also inserts its Web Analytics script into the pages it serves, but this site’s Content-Security-Policy blocks it, so it never runs.
You can email us at hello@myreactiontimetest.com. Your message, with your email address and anything else you put in it, passes through Cloudflare Email Routing and arrives in a Gmail inbox, run by Google. We keep it only to read it and reply, we never add your address to a mailing list, and we delete your messages if you ask.
Children
The site is for all ages. It asks no one, of any age, for personal information, and it collects no one’s reaction times. Google Analytics, described above, records the same pseudonymous visit data for every visitor, children included. A school or a parent who would rather it did not can block it with a content blocker, and the test works the same without it.
Your rights, and why there is little to exercise them on
Rights of access, correction and deletion apply to personal data a site holds about you. Apart from the pseudonymous analytics data and any emails you send us, both described above, we hold none. The analytics data is not tied to a name or email address, so we cannot look it up by person; clearing your cookies starts a new ID, which breaks the link between your browser and its past visits. Emails are different: we can find yours, and we will delete them if you ask. Your best averages sit in your own browser, not with us, and clearing your browser data erases them. If you believe we hold anything else, email hello@myreactiontimetest.com and we will answer.
Changes
If this policy changes, the date at the top changes with it. Material changes — adding or changing analytics or advertising — will be described in the relevant section above rather than buried in a general notice.