Privacy Policy

Effective date: October 20, 2026

Welcome to https://velm.app/ (the "Site"). The Site is published by Velm ("Velm", "we", "us", "our"); Sam De Silva is its main author. We understand that privacy online matters to our readers. This Privacy Policy explains what information is collected when you visit the Site, how it is used, and the choices you have. By using the Site, you agree to this policy.

What is "personal information"?

"Personal information" means any information that identifies, or can reasonably be used to identify, contact or locate, a person: for example a name, email address, IP address or an online identifier stored in a cookie. Information that is collected anonymously, or aggregated so it no longer relates to an identifiable person, is not personal information.

What information do we collect?

Velm is a reading site. There are no user accounts, logins, comments, purchases or sign-up forms, so we do not ask you for your name, address, payment details or any other profile information. Information is collected only in the following ways:

When you email us. If you write to hello@velm.app, we receive your email address and whatever you include in your message.
Analytics, only with your consent. If you click "Accept" on our cookie notice, we use Google Analytics to understand how the Site is used: which pages are visited, how long visits last, the type of device and browser, the website that referred you, and your approximate location (city or country). Google Analytics uses cookies to do this. If you click "Decline", Google Analytics is not loaded.
Advertising. The Site shows, or may show, ads served by Google AdSense. Google and its partners may use cookies and similar technologies to show ads and to measure them. See "Advertising and Google AdSense" below.
Technical information needed to deliver the Site. Like every website, the Site's servers receive your IP address, browser type and the page requested when your browser loads a page. See "Service providers" below.
Settings stored on your device. The Site remembers your light/dark display choice and your cookie choice in your browser's local storage. This stays on your device and is not sent to us.

Advertising and Google AdSense

We use Google AdSense to show ads on the Site, which helps us keep our guides free.

Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this Site or other websites.
Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visits to this Site and/or other sites on the Internet.
You may opt out of personalised advertising by visiting Google's Ads Settings. You can also opt out of some third-party vendors' use of cookies for personalised advertising at www.aboutads.info/choices (or www.youronlinechoices.eu in Europe).
To learn how Google uses information from sites that use its services, see How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services.

Where the law requires it (for example in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland), ads are personalised only if you have given consent. If you do not consent, Google may still show non-personalised ads, which are based on the content of the page rather than on you.

How do we use information?

We use the information described above to:

reply to your emails and requests;
understand which guides are useful, so we can improve and add content (analytics, with consent);
show ads that fund the Site;
keep the Site secure, working and fast, and to prevent abuse.

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not use it to make decisions that have legal or similarly significant effects on you.

Service providers: who else receives information?

We use a small number of trusted providers to run the Site. They receive only what they need to provide their service:

Cloudflare hosts and delivers the Site and protects it from attacks. It processes IP addresses and request data to do so. See Cloudflare's Privacy Policy.
Google Analytics (only with your consent) measures how the Site is used. See Google's Privacy Policy.
Google AdSense serves and measures ads, as described above.
Google Fonts supplies the Site's typeface. To load it, your browser connects to Google's servers, which receive your IP address.

We may also disclose personal information if required to do so by law, a court order or a valid request from a law enforcement authority, or when reasonably necessary to protect the safety of our readers, the public or the Site.

How long do we keep information?

Emails are kept for as long as needed to deal with your message and any follow-up, and then deleted. Google Analytics data is kept for a limited period set in our Analytics account (Google allows a maximum of 14 months). Cookie lifetimes are listed in our Cookie Policy.

Cookies

Cookies are small files that a website, or a service it uses, stores in your browser. We explain which cookies and similar technologies are used on the Site, and how to control them, in our Cookie Policy. You can change your analytics choice at any time with the "Cookie settings" link at the bottom of every page.

Children's privacy

The Site is intended for readers aged 13 and over. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has sent us personal information, please contact us at hello@velm.app and we will delete it.

International readers

Velm is run from Sri Lanka, and our service providers may process information in other countries, including the United States. Where we or our providers transfer personal information across borders, we rely on the safeguards those providers offer, such as the standard contractual clauses used by Google and Cloudflare.

Your rights and choices

Depending on where you live (for example under the EU and UK GDPR, Brazil's LGPD or California privacy law), you may have the right to:

ask what personal information we hold about you and get a copy of it;
ask us to correct or delete it;
object to or restrict how we use it;
withdraw your consent at any time (use "Cookie settings" at the bottom of any page for analytics);
complain to your local data protection authority.

To exercise any of these rights, email hello@velm.app. We may need to confirm your identity before acting on a request. Because we hold very little personal information, analytics and advertising data is usually best managed directly through the cookie and ad settings described above.

How do we keep information secure?

The Site is served only over an encrypted (HTTPS) connection, and access to our email and service accounts is limited and protected. While we take commercially reasonable measures to protect information, no method of transmission or storage over the Internet is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

Links to other websites

Our articles link to other websites, such as veterinary and animal welfare organisations. When you click one of these links, you leave the Site. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of other sites, and we encourage you to read their privacy statements.

What happens if this Privacy Policy changes?

We may update this policy from time to time. We will post any changes on this page and update the effective date at the top. If we make a change that significantly affects how your personal information is used, we will make that clear on the Site before the change takes effect.

Contact us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, email us at hello@velm.app.