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Gramhir

Privacy policy

Last reviewed

In brief

There is no account to create on gramhir.net, and the usernames people check are not recorded by us. No tracking cookie comes from us. Ads pay for the site: an outside network serves them and may set cookies of its own, see Advertising below. The sections below explain the few places where data does pass through, and why.

Where visits come from is also counted, anonymously: a moment after a page opens, it reports the host that referred you (never a full address), the entry page, your country, plus a campaign label, if the link carries one, and the day’s total goes up. It leaves no cookie behind and keeps neither an ID nor an address. Browsers with DNT or GPC are skipped; totals expire at roughly three months. The counter also learns whether a visit is a repeat. After counting, the page records today’s day number inside the browser, and next time compares it with the new day, reporting a coarse gap (first, same day, following day, within the week, longer). The record names nobody, only the class is ever sent, and DNT or GPC browsers skip it. Clear the site data to erase it.

Kept on this device only

Your recent list holds the last 10 usernames you checked. Only your own browser stores that list, on this device; nothing in it is sent to us. The “Forget these” button beside the list wipes it. In a private window it disappears on closing. On top of that, a hidden anti-abuse check takes place with each search; after heavy use the page may hold a short-lived pass from a visible check. A small script, the service worker, keeps copies of this site’s pages so they still open offline; it never stores profiles you opened.

What happens during a lookup

Every search opens an address that carries the username, in the form /?u=name. As with any web address, our hosting network, Cloudflare, sees that request and may keep it in routine logs.

Next, the page asks our service for that profile. The service fetches it via a data supplier outside the site, which in turn gets it from Instagram. The supplier gets the username in a request sent by our server, never with your IP address, and may keep the username in its own logs. Public profile data may sit in our service’s memory for a short while, from a few minutes up to about an hour, so a repeat lookup does not fetch it again. It is never written to disk and is not linked to who asked.

For many photos and videos your browser goes to Instagram’s image servers itself, so they get your IP address, exactly as with any picture embedded from another site. Avatars, the round album covers and every saved file take a detour through our site.

Abuse protection

To keep the service usable for everyone, the site limits how many lookups one connection can make. It counts them under a one-way code derived from your IP address; the address itself is not stored. Every search also passes an invisible Cloudflare Turnstile check that asks nothing of you, and after heavy use the page may show a visible one; Cloudflare’s privacy policy governs how that check handles data. Our service counters record totals such as lookups and errors, never a username itself or your IP address.

Advertising

Ads fund gramhir.net. A third-party network chooses and serves them, under data rules it sets itself. You see no consent window first, in any country. While ads load, that network, and the firms buying through it, can leave cookie-type markers in your browser.

  • Opening in the background: clicking nearly anywhere (a touch of the search box included) can open a sponsor’s page in another tab, normally hidden behind this one.
  • Floating cards: small promos sit on top of the page and close with a cross.
  • Covering ads: search and article pages can show one that fills the window until dismissed.
  • Notification prompt: once you have searched, the browser can offer alerts from gramhir.net. Accepting lets ads arrive while the site is shut; the browser’s per-site settings undo it.
  • Paid placements: «See also» links, «Picked for this page» cards, a band fixed along the bottom edge and «Featured» chips all point to advertisers, not to the profile you looked up.
  • Downloads: pressing a download button may open one sponsor tab as well, at most once each minute; the saved file is not altered.
  • Seen by the network: the IP, the browser kind with its language, window size and this site’s name, used to pick ads, cap repeats, count views and clicks and catch fraud.
  • Blocker check: every search starts by testing whether the ad scripts load. If a blocker kills them, nothing is searched and a message requests that you permit ads; we count such cases only, with no name and no IP.

Searched usernames are not handed to the network on purpose, but the address of the results page carries the name as /?u=name, so whatever script runs there, ad scripts among them, gets to see it.

Services involved

  • Cloudflare: hosting, network delivery, the Turnstile check.
  • Data supplier: retrieves the public profiles our service asks for.
  • Instagram’s image servers: the source your browser loads most photos and clips from.
  • Ad network: serves what the Advertising part lists.

We sell no data and share nothing beyond what is described here. Should that change, the notice appears on this page first, under a new revision date.

Your requests

You can ask what data about you we hold, and request its correction or deletion. Usually nothing we hold identifies you, and we say so in a written reply. Write to contact@gramhir.net. You also have the right to complain to the data regulator of your own country.