Privacy Policy
Last updated: September 2026
What We Collect
RealOChem uses Google Analytics 4 to understand how visitors use the site — things like which pages are visited, how long sessions last, and what devices and browsers are used. Google Analytics sets cookies in your browser to identify unique visitors across sessions.
If you create an account, we store your email address and display name through Firebase Authentication solely for sign-in and to associate your saved problems with your account. We do not sell or share this data with third parties.
If you send feedback, we keep your message, the page you sent it from, your browser type, and your email address if you choose to give one, so we can reply.
Practice Statistics
Separately from Google Analytics, we keep a running tally of each visit: how many pages you viewed and which page you arrived on, whether you interacted with the page at all, how many problems you loaded, how many you got right, how many you got wrong, how many answers you revealed, roughly how long you were actively working, and which topics you practiced. We also note the website that linked you here — only its domain, such as google.com, and only when your browser shares it — and the source tag on a link we handed out (the utm_source part of the address). We use this to see which topics actually get used, where problems land as too hard or too easy, and how students find the site.
These counts are attached to a random ID that lives in a single browser tab and is erased when you close it. It does not follow you from one visit to the next, it is never shared with anyone or used for advertising, and it cannot be used to recognize you on another site. It is not linked to a name or email unless you are signed in, in which case your saved answer history records it (see below). The counts themselves are just numbers.
Your answers. On the practice pages, each answer you submit, and each time you reveal an answer, is also recorded as text: what you entered, what the accepted answer was, whether it matched, and which attempt it was on that problem. These records carry the same tab-only ID as the counts above and nothing else — no account, no email, no IP address. If you aren't signed in, nothing else ties them to you. If you are signed in, your answers are also saved to your account history. We keep them to study the mistakes students actually make (for example, what gets typed for an IUPAC name) so the site's feedback can be written from real errors rather than guesses. They may be summarized in aggregate, including in published education research. Please don't type personal information into an answer box. Pages that record answers say so in their footer. On the IUPAC naming page we also record, with the same tab-only ID, when the page offered to switch you between “Step by step” and “Name it yourself” and whether you took the offer.
On the IUPAC naming page, a wrong name is also sent to Google's Gemini service to write the hint you see. Only the name you typed and the accepted name are sent.
Unlike Google Analytics, these statistics are collected on every visit, whether or not you accept analytics cookies, and there is currently no way to opt out of them. They carry no advertising or cross-site identifier and no profile is built from them, and without them we would have no way to tell which parts of the site are working. A private or incognito window does not stop the counting; it only makes sure the tab's ID is gone when you close it.
We also keep plain site-wide totals: the number of visits, page views per page, a rounded browser-window height, right and wrong counts per problem and per topic, and counts of a few clicks (study-guide links, the Key Concepts panel, example decks). Nothing that identifies a browser or a person is stored alongside these.
If you are signed in, your saved answer history is stored under your account, and each entry records the tab session ID described above so that a single practice run holds together. That history is visible only to you and to us — never to other users.
Cookies
Google Analytics is the only thing that sets cookies for analytics. Every page also runs Google reCAPTCHA, which checks that requests come from a real browser so the problem banks can't be scraped; Google may set its own cookie for that, and it runs whether or not you accept analytics. When you first visit, a banner asks for your consent. If you decline, no analytics cookies are set and Google Analytics does not load. The practice statistics described above do not use cookies; they use short-lived browser storage that is cleared when the tab closes.
Your cookie preference is stored in your browser's localStorage (not on our servers) so we can remember your choice on future visits.
Global Privacy Control & Do Not Track
If your browser sends a Global Privacy Control (GPC) or Do Not Track (DNT) signal and you haven't already made a choice here, we treat it as a decline: analytics will not load and no consent banner will appear.
Your Choices
You can change your cookie preference at any time:
Clicking the button above clears your stored preference and shows the consent banner again so you can accept or decline.
If you have an account and want it deleted, along with your saved problems and answer history, email realochem@gmail.com and we will remove it.