Privacy
Privacy policy
LightSchemes is a lighting library. You can read all of it without an account, without giving us anything, and without telling us who you are. This page says what happens anyway — the analytics that runs on every page, the data an account creates, and what you can do about either.
Last updated: 2026-08-14
Who is responsible for your data
The operator of lightschemes.com, who runs lightschemes.com.
Under the UK and EU General Data Protection Regulation, that is the data controller for this site. Write about anything on this page to — both reach the same place, and the form works without JavaScript.
What we collect
If you only read the site
You do not have to give us anything, and we do not ask. What still happens:
- Analytics. Every page loads Yandex Metrica, which records the page you opened, the page you came from, your device, browser and screen size, your approximate location derived from your IP address, and what you do on the page. Metrica's Session Replay feature records individual visits — mouse movement, scrolling, clicks and page content — so a visit can be watched back afterwards. The full account is in the cookie policy, including how to switch it off.
- Essential cookies. A session cookie and a security token, described in the cookie policy.
- Server logs. Our web server records requests in the ordinary way: IP address, time, the URL requested, the response, the browser's user-agent string. They exist to keep the site up and to investigate abuse. 30 days
If you make an account
Accounts are optional and unlock nothing in the library. They exist so you can keep your own things.
- Account details — your name, email address, and a hashed password. We never see the password itself.
- Profile, if you fill it in — a short bio, headline, location, website, the gear you own, and an avatar image. All of it is optional and you can clear any of it.
- Your library — favourites, collections, and private notes you write against a setup.
- What you have explored — when you change the lights on a setup or move a lab through its named settings, we record which setup and which settings, so a learning path can show you where you got to. It is a record of what you did to the light, not of what you read: opening a page stores nothing.
- Email — account emails only: verifying your address, resetting a password. There is no marketing list on this site. If one ever exists you will have to ask to join it.
Your avatar image, if you upload one, is stored as a publicly reachable file. Anyone with the link can open it. Do not upload something you would not put on a public profile.
If you write to us
The support form stores your name, email address, the category, subject and message you wrote, the page you were on when you opened the form, and — if you were logged in — your account. That is how we answer you. 6 months
We do not use anything you send through support for anything other than replying to it.
If you write to us on Telegram. Our Telegram bot reaches the same inbox as the form above. If you use it, we receive your Telegram user id and chat id, the display name you have set, your username if you have one, and the text of your message. We answer you in the same chat. We do not get your phone number, your contacts, or anything from any other conversation you have on Telegram.
If you use the bot's buttons, we remember for half an hour which setup you were last shown, so that a follow-up question makes sense. It is keyed to your chat and holds no message text, and it expires by itself.
If you would rather not involve Telegram at all, the support form reaches exactly the same place. It is not a fallback — it is the same inbox, answered by the same person.
Why we process it, and on what legal basis
| What | Why | Legal basis |
|---|---|---|
| Session and security cookies | To make the site work and to protect forms from cross-site abuse | Necessary for the service you asked for — legitimate interests, Art. 6(1)(f) |
| Server logs | Keeping the site available, diagnosing faults, investigating abuse | Legitimate interests, Art. 6(1)(f) |
| Analytics and session recording (Yandex Metrica) | Understanding which lighting setups are read, where the site confuses people, and what to fix or write next | Legitimate interests, Art. 6(1)(f). You can object at any time and stop it — see Your choices |
| Your account and profile | Providing the account you asked for | Performance of a contract, Art. 6(1)(b) |
| Favourites, collections, notes, and which learning-path steps you have explored | Providing the features you used them for | Performance of a contract, Art. 6(1)(b) |
| Account emails (verification, password reset) | Operating the account securely | Performance of a contract, Art. 6(1)(b) |
| Support messages | Answering you | Legitimate interests, Art. 6(1)(f) |
Who else sees it
Yandex. The analytics described above is provided by Yandex Metrica. Yandex receives the visit data and the session recordings directly — they go to Yandex's servers, not through ours. We hold a data processing agreement with Yandex under which we are the controller and Yandex is the processor.
Telegram, if you use the bot. Your message reaches us through Telegram, and our answer goes back through it. Telegram is not working for us and is not our processor: Telegram's own privacy policy makes Telegram the controller of your Telegram data, and says of bots like ours that they “are completely independent from us.” What Telegram itself does with your account and your messages is governed by Telegram's privacy policy, not by this one. If you never open the bot, none of this applies to you.
Our hosting provider, who runs the server the site sits on and therefore holds the database and the logs.
Nobody else. We do not sell data, we do not share it with advertisers, we run no advertising on this site, and we have no analytics beyond the one named above.
One thing worth saying plainly, because it is not obvious: the Yandex Metrica tag performs an identifier sync with Google's advertising cookie-matching service, which sets a short-lived cookie on doubleclick.net. That behaviour is part of the tag and cannot be switched off separately. We get nothing from it and use nothing from it. It is listed in the cookie policy.
Data going outside the UK and EEA
Yandex is outside the United Kingdom and the European Economic Area. Yandex's own privacy policy states that Russia — where its infrastructure operates — “is a jurisdiction outside the European Economic Area, which has not been recognized by the European Commission as providing an adequate level of personal data protection.”
There is no adequacy decision covering it. Our agreement with Yandex incorporates the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses, which is the safeguard the law provides for this situation. The agreement is published at yandex.ru/legal/metrica_agreement.
We are telling you this rather than hiding it in a subclause, because it is the single most important fact on this page for anyone who cares where their data ends up. If it is not acceptable to you, the cookie policy shows you how to stop it in about a minute, and the site works exactly the same afterwards.
If you use the Telegram bot. Telegram is outside the United Kingdom and the European Economic Area. Its own privacy policy names its companies in the British Virgin Islands and in Dubai, and there is no European Commission adequacy decision covering either. It also says that if you signed up for Telegram from the UK or the EEA, your Telegram data is stored in data centres in the Netherlands — that part is Telegram's own arrangement, and it is worth knowing.
We hold no data processing agreement and no Standard Contractual Clauses with Telegram. None is offered for bots, and we would rather tell you that than name a protection we do not have. So when our reply travels back to you through Telegram, it leaves the UK and EEA without one of the legal safeguards that covers the analytics described above.
What we can offer instead is the choice, and we would rather you had it before you type than after: the support form reaches the same inbox with no messenger in the middle. Use the bot if it suits you; use the form if this does not.
The server this site runs on is in Russia.
How long we keep things
| What | Kept for |
|---|---|
| Analytics and session recordings | Held by Yandex under their own retention rules; we do not control the period. |
| Server logs | 30 days |
| Account, profile, favourites, collections, notes, explored steps | Until you delete your account. Deleting the account deletes them. |
| Support messages | 6 months |
| Cookies | Each has its own lifetime, listed in the cookie policy. |
Yandex's own retention policy is at yandex.com/legal/confidential.
Your choices
Stop the analytics. The quickest route is Yandex's own opt-out add-on, or blocking third-party cookies in your browser. Both are set out step by step in the cookie policy. You do not need to ask us and you do not need an account.
Object to it instead. Because we rely on legitimate interests for the analytics, you have the right to object to that processing under Art. 21. Write to , and say so.
Use the form instead of the bot. Everything the Telegram bot can do, the support form does without Telegram. You lose nothing by choosing it.
Your rights
If the UK or EU GDPR applies to you, you have the right to:
- See what we hold about you.
- Correct anything that is wrong — most of it you can edit yourself in your profile.
- Delete it. You can delete your account yourself, which removes your profile, favourites, collections, notes and explored steps. Ask us and we will delete the rest.
- Restrict or object to processing based on legitimate interests, including the analytics.
- Take your data with you in a portable form.
- Complain to a data protection authority. Under Art. 77 you can complain to the supervisory authority in the country where you live, where you work, or where you think something went wrong — it does not have to be ours, and you do not have to come to us first.
Write to . We will answer within one month, and we will not charge you for it.
Automated decisions
There are none. Nothing on this site profiles you, scores you, or makes a decision about you automatically. The lighting recommendations the tools produce are calculated from the setup you describe, not from anything we know about you.
Changes
If we change what we collect or who receives it, we will tell you: the cookie notice reappears and says what changed. We are not going to ask you to keep checking this page.
Contact
.