Short version: we collect almost nothing.
Balansebarn is a website you read. The only thing we ever store about you is an email address, and only if you give it to us yourself. Here is the full overview, in plain language.
If you just read
We use no tracking cookies. To see how many people read what, we use Plausible, an EU-based analytics tool that sets no cookies, doesn't store your IP address and only shows totals. If you'd rather not be counted at all, you can switch it off at /ikke-tell-meg. The site runs on Vercel, which keeps ordinary, short-lived server logs to keep the service up. If you choose larger text in the reading tool, that choice is remembered locally on your device and sent nowhere.
If you bookmark or read articles without an account
The bookmarks live in cookies on your device, in the browser or in the app (bb_saved for bookmarked articles, bb_read for which articles you have opened, so we can suggest things you have not read yet, with a lifetime of one year). They never leave your device unless you later log in and choose to bring the lists with you.
If you create an account and log in
Then we store your email address, the name you choose to display, your bookmarks, which articles you have opened (so we can suggest things you have not read) and how many minutes of focused reading you have had per day (for the hourglass in the reading tool), the quotes you save, your course progress and notes, and your Balanseby list with Supabase, hosted in Stockholm (EU). You log in with a one-time link or a code sent by email; we never store passwords. Your browser, or the app, receives the necessary login cookies to keep you logged in; they are not used for tracking. The legal basis for the processing is the agreement with you: you ask for an account, we provide it.
If you comment
Comments are public and are shown with the name you have chosen. We store the comment, the name and the time with Supabase (EU). You can delete your own comments yourself, at any time, with the delete button next to the comment. If you delete your account, your comments are deleted, name and content alike. Where someone has replied to one, an empty “This comment has been deleted.” stays behind so their replies still make sense. If you report a comment, we store the comment concerned, your reason and the fact that you reported it. Only the editor sees the report. If you hide someone's comments, that is stored on your account, together with the name they show.
If you send feedback
Giving feedback requires no account. We store what you write, which page you sent it from and the time with Supabase (EU), and notify the editor by email. The email address is optional: it is stored only if you fill it in yourself, and is used only to reply to you. If you are logged in, the feedback is linked to your account. Feedback is never published; it goes straight to the editor.
If you sign up for Balansebrevet, the newsletter
Then we store your email address with Supabase (EU), and the signup is confirmed with a link by email before it takes effect. The same link logs you in, so signing up also gives you an account you can manage storage and subscription from. After confirmation, the address is shared with Resend, the service that sends the actual newsletter. The legal basis is your consent, and it can be withdrawn at any time: an unsubscribe link in every issue, one click. The address is used only for Balansebrevet; it is not sold, not shared and not used for advertising.
If you use Balanseby
Balanseby, the town for children and parents, works without an account at balanseby.no. There, whatever a child ticks off or gives a heart stays on the device until a parent signs in. In the app, a parent can let the child in (see below). The app also works without an account, and then everything stays on the device. About the child we store only what you choose: a symbol and a year of birth, and a first name only if the parent adds one on the profile page. It sits on the child's profile on the parent's account with Supabase (EU), together with what the child has ticked off and given a heart. Visits to the town are counted with Plausible, the same way as the rest of the site, and there's no other tracking. The parent sees, changes and removes the profiles on the profile page. Devices connected with a family code before children had profiles of their own still save to the parent's account, as the profile «Familien»; no new codes are made. In the app, «Logg ut av denne enheten» under Mer disconnects such a device. Delete the account and the profiles, the lists and the code go with it. The weather in town is looked up from roughly where your connection is, rounded to about ten kilometres, and sent to the Norwegian Meteorological Institute (MET Norway). The place is never stored.
The Balanseby app
Balanseby is also an app for iPhone, iPad and Android. It has no ads, no purchases and no tracking of you across other apps or websites. To get in, the child types a parent's email address, and the parent gets a code by email to type into the app. Only then is the profile made, along with an account on balansebarn.no if the parent doesn't have one yet. The request, with the email address and the code, is cleared away after a day, and the code is never stored in readable form. The device gets a key to the profile, which we don't keep in readable form either. A grown-up signs in with their own email in the same way. Light or dark stays on the device. On a child's profile, links that lead out of the app, «Gi innspill» (feedback), switching profile and logging out only open once a grown-up has typed in the grown-up code («voksenkoden»), four digits that belong to the parent's account. Unlike the login code, we do keep this one in readable form, because the parent can see and change it on the profile page and have it emailed to them from the app. Alongside it we store only how many wrong attempts have just been made and when it was last emailed. Delete the account and the code goes too. A parent can switch the question off for links out, child by child, and that choice sits on the child's profile. Without an account, the app asks a small sum instead, and nothing about that is stored. If you send feedback from the app, we keep the text and anything you choose to say about who you are, and no email address. New cards and fixes are downloaded from our own storage with Supabase (EU). The tool that fetches them has every statistic switched off, so nothing about the device is passed on. To make the town better, the app keeps an anonymous count of how it's used. When it's installed, it makes up a random installation number that isn't linked to the account, the email address or the device. With that number we count which places and cards get opened, for how long, and which of the app's first steps are completed. If you search the town, what you type is never sent, only how many results it found. The figures are stored with Supabase (EU), shared with no third party, and the raw data is deleted after 13 months. If you'd rather not be counted, switch it off under Mer, «Del anonym bruksstatistikk». One more thing: once a profile has been in use for a while, the app lets our server know, once, and we send the parent a single email asking for a rating on the App Store or Google Play. All we keep from that is the date the email went out.
The Balansebarn app
Balansebarn is also an app for iPhone, iPad and Android. It shows the same pages as the website, so everything above applies in the same way: you can read without an account, and if you log in, the same things are stored as on the web. In the app you log in with a code sent by email. Your choices of light or dark and of language stay on the device. The app has no ads and no tracking, and visits are counted with Plausible just as on the website.
Notifications in the Balansebarn app
Notifications stay off until you turn them on in the app. If you do, we store your device's notification token from Apple (iPhone) or Google (Android), the topics you chose, the app's language and when the device was last used, with Supabase (EU). If you're signed in on your phone, this is linked to your account. The token is used only to send the notifications you chose, and they go through Apple's notification service or Google's Firebase Cloud Messaging, which receives the token and the text of the notification. It's all deleted when you turn every topic off, when Apple or Google tells us the token no longer works, or when you delete your account. When the editors send a notification, we keep its text, its topic and how many people got it, not who they were.
Data processors
Vercel (hosting), Supabase (database and login, EU/Stockholm), Resend (email delivery) and Plausible (visitor numbers, EU) process data on our behalf, governed by data processing agreements. We have no other recipients apart from MET Norway, covered under Balanseby.
Your rights
If you have an account, you can delete it yourself at the bottom of the profile page. That deletes the account along with your bookmarks, quotes, comments, course progress and notes, Balanseby list and newsletter signup. You can also at any time ask to access, correct or delete your data. Send an email to oyvind@balansebarn.no, and we will sort it out, no fuss. You can also complain to the Norwegian Data Protection Authority (Datatilsynet), but we hope you tell us first.
When this changes
If the site gains new features that affect privacy, we update this page and datestamp the change. Last updated 10 October 2026.