Privacy Policy

Last updated: October 22, 2026

This policy explains what TheJokeDB (“we”, “us”) collects when you use this site and its API, why, and what you can do about it. The short version: there are no accounts, we keep as little as we can, what you save on this site stays on your device, and the only data that goes to anyone else is what the advertising described below needs, and only with your consent where the law requires it.

Who we are

TheJokeDB is operated by the operator of this site (LEGAL_OPERATOR is not set), address not set (LEGAL_ADDRESS). You can reach us at [email protected].

What we collect

Preferences you set

Family mode is stored in one small cookie (fam) for up to one year so the site remembers whether you turned it off. It holds only that setting, never an identifier. Your language is part of the page address, not a cookie. Your appearance choice (light, dark or system) and the jokes you save with the heart button are kept in your browser’s local storage and are not sent to us, except that the favourites page asks our API for the saved jokes by their public ids so it can show them.

Votes

When you vote on a joke we set a cookie (tjdb_voter) holding a random value so you can change or take back your vote. We store a one-way hash of that value with the vote, never the value itself, and we cannot link it to you. The cookie lasts one year.

Server logs

Our servers record each request: the page or API endpoint, the time, your IP address, your browser’s user agent, the referring page and a request id. We use these logs to keep the service running, to apply rate limits, to spot abuse and to see which pages are popular in aggregate. Logs are kept for no longer than 30 days.

Submissions

If you submit a joke we store the text, the optional name you give for credit, the language of the page you used, and the time. Your IP address is used at the moment of submission to limit how many jokes one connection can send per hour; it is not stored with the joke. The joke itself is kept as described in our Terms of Service.

What we do not collect

We do not run accounts, newsletters or analytics scripts of our own, and we do not use tracking cookies of our own.

Advertising and consent

To keep the site free we show advertisements. The ad network depends on the page: pages that show only clean and mild jokes may carry advertising from none at the moment; pages where you have chosen to see crude or explicit jokes carry advertising from none at the moment instead, never from the first network. Advertising partners may set cookies and collect data (such as your IP address, identifiers and the pages you visit) to show and measure ads, and some of them personalise ads based on it.

Where the law requires it (in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, among others), we ask for your consent through a consent banner before any advertising script that uses personal data is loaded, and you can change or withdraw your choice at any time through the “Privacy” or “Consent” link in the page footer or the banner’s own settings. Each partner’s own privacy policy explains what it collects and how to opt out of personalised advertising; Google’s is at policies.google.com/technologies/ads, and you can manage Google’s ad personalisation at adssettings.google.com. Advertising partners are independent controllers of the data they collect.

Other third parties

• Fonts and assets are served from our own servers; no font or asset request goes to a third party.
• Links to other websites are not covered by this policy.

Why we use this data

We process your preferences because you asked us to remember them. We process logs, votes and submission data because we have a legitimate interest in running a secure, working service and in reviewing what gets published. We show advertising on the basis of your consent where the law requires it, and on the basis of our legitimate interest in funding the site elsewhere. We do not sell data and we do not build profiles of our visitors.

Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to ask what personal data we hold about you, to have it corrected or deleted, to object to or restrict our processing, to receive a copy of it, and to withdraw consent at any time. Because we hold so little, most requests come down to deleting log lines or a submission. Write to [email protected] and we will answer within 30 days. You can also complain to your data protection authority.

You can clear the cookies and local storage described above at any time from your browser, and turn Family mode back on from the site itself.

Children

Family mode is on by default so the site can be used around children, but the site is not directed at children under 13 (or the age your country sets) and we do not knowingly collect personal data from them. Advertising on this site is not targeted at children. If you believe a child has submitted a joke with personal details in it, contact us and we will remove it.

International transfers

Advertising partners may process data outside your country, including in the United States, under the safeguards described in their own policies (such as the EU standard contractual clauses or the EU-US Data Privacy Framework).

Cookies

This section is our cookie policy. We set as few cookies as the site can work with, and none of them identify you.

The first group is strictly necessary for the features you use and needs no consent. Advertising cookies are set only after you accept them in the consent banner, and you can change your mind at any time from the “Cookie settings” link in the footer. You can also clear all of them from your browser.

Changes

If this policy changes we will update the date at the top. Significant changes will be announced on the home page for at least 30 days.