Privacy Policy

Effective: May 6, 2026  · Last updated: May 6, 2026

Looking Forward To (lookingforwardto.com, short link lf.to) is a public, read-only catalog of upcoming releases. There are no accounts, no passwords, and no sign-in. This page explains the small amount of data that does pass through our servers and how we handle it.

The short version. We don't ask you to create an account. The events you follow, the personal countdowns you create on your own device, and your display preferences are stored locally in your browser — we never see them. The only data that reaches our servers is what you intentionally publish (a shared countdown or playlist) or what your browser sends to load the site (IP address, user agent, request URL).

1. Who we are

The Service is operated by Slowdown Digital LLC (“we”, “us”). You can reach us at [email protected].

2. What we don't collect

So this is clear up front: we do not collect any of the following from visitors of lookingforwardto.com or lf.to:

  • Names, email addresses, phone numbers, or passwords (there is no signup or login)
  • Payment information (there is no premium plan, subscription, or paywall)
  • Social account identifiers (no Google, Apple, Facebook, or other third-party sign-in)
  • Calendar contents (we do not connect to Google Calendar or any external calendar)
  • Push-notification tokens, contacts, photos, or location
  • The list of events you follow on your device, your personal countdowns, or your display preferences

3. What stays in your browser

The features that feel personal — following events, creating a private countdown, choosing a countdown format — are powered by your browser's localStorage. Nothing in this list is sent to our servers; it lives on the device you're using and is readable only by lookingforwardto.com on that device.

  • lft_follows — the IDs of events you've followed
  • lft_countdowns — countdowns you've created locally
  • lft_prefs — display preferences (countdown format, hidden categories, etc.)

You can wipe all of this at any time by clearing site data for lookingforwardto.com in your browser settings, or by using the Clear local data action in the My List page.

4. What reaches our servers

a) Standard request logs

Like every website, our servers and our CDN (Cloudflare) record the technical metadata your browser sends with each request: IP address, user agent, requested URL, referrer, timestamp, and HTTP status. We use this for security, abuse prevention, error monitoring, and capacity planning. Logs are retained for up to 30 days and then deleted.

b) “Follow” popularity signal

When you follow or unfollow a public event on a device, your browser tells our API to increment or decrement that event's public popularity counter. The request is anonymous: no identifier links one boost to another, and we do not store who pressed the button. We rate-limit these requests by IP.

c) Shared countdowns & shared playlists (opt-in)

If you choose to create a shareable link from the Create page or from your local list, you publish that item to our database so anyone with the link can view it. We store:

  • The title, description, target date, link, category, and image you provided
  • An 8-character random share ID (the /countdown/<id> or /p/<id> URL)
  • A hashed, truncated form of the IP address that created the item, used only for rate-limiting and abuse prevention; it cannot be reversed back to your IP
  • The creation timestamp

Shared items expire and are automatically deleted 365 days after creation. You can ask us to delete a shared item earlier by emailing the share link to [email protected].

d) Image uploads on shared countdowns (optional)

If you upload an image when creating a shared countdown, the file is stored on DigitalOcean Spaces (S3-compatible storage) and served through their CDN. The file is deleted along with the shared item when its 365-day TTL elapses.

e) Contacting us

If you email us, we keep your message and reply for as long as reasonably needed to address your request, then delete the thread.

5. Cookies

Looking Forward To does not set tracking cookies. The only cookies you may see are those Cloudflare places for security and bot mitigation (e.g. __cf_bm, cf_clearance) and any Plausible Analytics cookies — and Plausible is a cookie-less, privacy-first analytics product that stores no personal data. There is no advertising tracker on this site.

6. Analytics

We use Plausible Analytics, a privacy-focused, GDPR-compliant analytics tool that measures aggregate, anonymized traffic — page views, referrers, country, browser. It does not use cookies, does not collect personal data, and does not build a profile of any visitor. You can read their data policy at plausible.io/data-policy.

7. Service providers

The Service runs on infrastructure provided by the following companies. Each receives only the data necessary to operate that piece of the stack:

  • Cloudflare — DNS, CDN, DDoS protection, TLS termination
  • DigitalOcean — application hosting and image storage (Spaces)
  • MongoDB Atlas — database for shared countdowns, shared playlists, and the public events catalog
  • Plausible Analytics — anonymous traffic measurement
  • TMDB, IGDB, and similar public APIs — sources of upcoming-release metadata; we are not affiliated with them

8. Children

The Service is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect any data from them. If you believe a child has submitted personal information through one of our forms, contact us and we will delete it.

9. Your rights

Because we don't hold accounts, most data-subject requests have a one-step answer: clear your browser's site data for lookingforwardto.com and you're done. For shared countdowns, shared playlists, or contact emails, you can request deletion at any time by writing to [email protected]. EU/UK (GDPR) and California (CCPA/CPRA) residents have the same rights to access, correction, deletion, and portability under their local laws — same email applies.

10. Security

All traffic is served over HTTPS (HSTS preload). Server-to-server connections use TLS. IPs that touch the create-shared-item endpoint are stored only as truncated SHA-256 hashes. We don't store plaintext credentials anywhere because we don't have any.

11. Changes to this policy

If we materially change how we handle data we'll update the “Last updated” date at the top of this page and, when warranted, post a notice on the home page. Continued use of the Service after a change means you accept the revised policy.

12. Contact

Questions about this policy or about a specific shared item, please email [email protected].