World Art Utopia

Privacy & Cookie Policy

Last updated: July 26, 2026

This Privacy & Cookie Policy explains how World Art Utopia collects, uses, stores and shares information when you visit worldartutopia.com, subscribe, comment, interact with artwork or contact us.

Who we are

World Art Utopia is an independent art publication operated by Vidar Egnér in Stockholm, Sweden.

For privacy questions, requests or concerns, contact us at streetartutopia@gmail.com.

Information we collect

The information collected depends on how you use the site.

Information collected automatically

When you visit the site, our hosting, security and measurement services may receive technical information such as your IP address, browser and device type, operating system, language preference, referring page, pages viewed, approximate location derived from your IP address, timestamps and interactions with the site.

Search terms entered on the site are included in the requested page address and may therefore appear in ordinary server and measurement logs. Please do not enter sensitive personal information into the search box.

We use technical information to deliver the site, protect it against abuse, understand how it is used, improve performance and troubleshoot problems.

Comments

If you leave a standard or artwork-specific comment, we collect the information entered in the form. This may include your name, email address, optional website, comment and any optional image, video or reference link. We also collect your IP address and browser user-agent information for security, rate limiting and spam detection.

Your name, comment, optional website and any media link you submit may be displayed publicly. Public information may be indexed by search engines or copied by other visitors and services. Your email address is not displayed publicly.

Comments and their associated metadata may remain published until they are removed by us or following a valid request.

Comments are checked by Akismet, an anti-spam service operated by Automattic. Akismet processes information necessary to identify spam and abusive submissions. Read the Akismet Privacy Policy.

An anonymized value created from your email address may be sent to Gravatar to determine whether you have a profile image. If your comment is approved, that image may appear publicly beside your comment. Gravatar is operated by Automattic and covered by the Automattic Privacy Policy.

If a comment contains a supported external media link, a preview may be requested from the external provider. That provider may receive ordinary technical request information such as your IP address and browser information.

Newsletter and comment subscriptions

If you subscribe to new stories or comment notifications, your email address, subscription status and choices are processed through WordPress.com and Jetpack, services operated by Automattic.

We use this information only to deliver and manage the emails you requested. You can unsubscribe using the link in any subscription email. Automattic’s handling of subscriber information is described in its Privacy Notice for Visitors to Users’ Sites.

Contact, submissions and removal requests

If you email us, submit artwork, request a correction or removal, or contact us through a social platform, we receive the information you choose to provide. This may include your name, email address, social-media username, photographs, artwork information, credits and the content of your message.

We use this information to respond, evaluate submissions, verify credits, handle permissions, resolve disputes and publish material where appropriate.

Messages sent to our Gmail address are also processed by Google as our email-service provider under the Google Privacy Policy.

Required information

Fields marked as required are necessary to provide the requested feature. For example, an email address is required to submit a comment or receive a newsletter subscription. If you do not provide a required field, we may be unable to process the submission or provide that feature.

Other fields, such as a commenter’s website, are optional. We do not generally require visitors to provide personal information by law.

Loves, Likes, Favorites and reactions

World Art Utopia includes features that let visitors Love artwork, Like comments, react to stories and save Favorites.

When you Love artwork or Like a comment, a first-party cookie named uto_like_id may be stored in your browser. It contains a randomly generated identifier used to recognize that browser and prevent duplicate voting. It normally expires after one year.

The site stores salted, pseudonymous voting identifiers rather than the raw cookie value. Short-lived salted IP hashes may also be used for rate limiting and abuse prevention. These measures do not tell us your name or email address.

Ordinary reaction duplicate-protection records are normally removed after approximately 45 days. Pseudonymous artwork and comment Love records are normally removed after approximately 400 days. Aggregate Love, Like and reaction totals may remain after the associated pseudonymous records have been deleted.

Browser-local Favorites

Favorites are normally stored only in your browser using local storage. No account, name or email address is required.

The locally stored information may include artwork and story identifiers, URLs, titles, image details and the time an item was saved. Your Favorites remain in that browser until you remove them, clear the collection or clear the browser’s stored site data.

Art Swipe and My Art Map

Art Swipe stores your recent sessions, Pass and Love totals, and saved artworks locally in your browser. Saved information may include the artwork’s title, image, story link and verified artwork location.

My Art Map uses those saved artwork locations to place works on a map. It does not request or store your device’s current location.

Art Swipe information remains in your browser until you clear it or clear the browser’s stored site data.

Site preferences and interface testing

Your light or dark color preference may be stored locally so the site remembers your choice.

A locally stored interface-test assignment may also be used to keep the same presentation during an editorial layout test. A short session value may be used to prevent the same on-page prompt from appearing repeatedly during one browser session.

If you use artwork-specific comments, the display name you entered may be remembered locally in your browser for convenience. The site does not intentionally retain your comment email address in this browser storage.

These preferences remain until you clear them, clear the site’s stored browser data or, for session-only values, close the browser session.

Shared Favorites collections

If you actively create a shareable Favorites link, the site sends a compact list of selected artwork identifiers to the server. It stores the verified artwork identifiers, creation and expiry times, and a protected hash of the collection token.

The collection record does not include your name, email address, raw share token or raw IP address.

Anyone who has the unique link can view the collection, so you should treat the link as shareable rather than private. Shared collection records expire automatically after 12 months. Opening a collection does not extend its expiry date.

Opening a shared collection may still generate ordinary hosting, security and site-statistics request data.

Cookies and local storage

Cookies are small files stored by your browser. Local storage and session storage are similar browser features used to remember information on your device.

World Art Utopia uses first-party storage to:

  • operate requested features;
  • remember privacy and display choices;
  • prevent duplicate voting and abuse;
  • retain browser-local Favorites;
  • retain Art Swipe choices and saved artwork;
  • remember a commenter display name;
  • keep an interface-test assignment consistent; and
  • prevent repeated prompts during the same session.

WordPress.com, Jetpack and related Automattic services may use additional cookies or similar technologies for hosting, security, comments, subscriptions and statistics. Current information about these technologies is available in the Automattic Cookie Policy.

Where consent is legally required for optional storage or processing, it should be controlled through the consent or privacy controls displayed on the site. You can also delete or block cookies, local storage and session storage through your browser settings.

Blocking functional storage may prevent Favorites, Art Swipe, theme preferences, Loves or other features from working as expected.

Analytics and site measurement

World Art Utopia uses Jetpack Stats to understand how visitors find and use the site. Jetpack Stats may process:

  • post and page views;
  • video plays;
  • outbound link clicks;
  • referring URLs and search terms;
  • country, region and city;
  • visiting and referring URLs;
  • IP address and browser user agent;
  • browser language; and
  • event timestamps.

The site owner receives aggregated reports and cannot use Jetpack Stats to see which specific visitor viewed a page. Automattic states that the underlying Jetpack Stats logs containing visitor-level technical information are retained for 28 days.

We use aggregate measurement to improve performance, navigation, editorial decisions and the visitor experience. More information is available in the Jetpack Stats documentation and Automattic’s visitor privacy notice.

At the date shown above, World Art Utopia does not display third-party advertising and does not run Google Analytics or Google Tag Manager on its public pages. If this changes, we will update this policy and the site’s consent controls before activating non-essential advertising or analytics storage where consent is required.

Maps

Some pages display artwork locations using map tiles supplied by OpenFreeMap. When a map loads, your browser connects to OpenFreeMap and sends ordinary technical request information such as your IP address, browser information, referring page and timestamp.

OpenFreeMap states that it does not use cookies or store IP addresses in its regular logs, although temporary IP logging may be enabled for up to 30 days during a security incident. Read the OpenFreeMap Privacy Policy.

The locations displayed on these maps describe artworks and stories. World Art Utopia does not use the map to request your device’s current location.

Images, fonts and external services

World Art Utopia is hosted on WordPress.com. Images may be delivered through the WordPress.com image network, fonts through WordPress.com services and avatars through Gravatar. These services receive ordinary technical request information needed to deliver the requested files.

Articles may contain links to artists’ websites, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Google Maps, Street Art Utopia and other publications. Information is normally sent to a linked site when you choose to open the link.

A Facebook sharing link sends the page you selected to Facebook when you activate it. Native sharing and copying functions are handled by your browser or operating system.

Articles may also contain embedded material from external services. Embedded content can behave as if you visited the external website directly. The provider may collect data, use cookies, track interaction with the embedded material or associate it with an account if you are logged in to that service.

External sites have their own privacy practices, and World Art Utopia does not control them.

Why we process information

Depending on the feature and circumstances, we rely on one or more of the following legal grounds:

  • Consent: for newsletter subscriptions and optional analytics, advertising or storage where consent is required.
  • Legitimate interests: to operate and improve an independent art publication, deliver and secure the site, prevent spam, fraud and duplicate voting, maintain aggregate engagement counts, understand general site performance, respond to correspondence and protect legal rights.
  • Providing a requested service: where processing is necessary to provide a feature you requested, such as submitting a comment, creating a shared Favorites link or delivering a requested subscription.
  • Legal obligations: where information must be retained or disclosed to comply with applicable law.
  • Legal claims: where processing is necessary to establish, exercise or defend legal rights.

Where processing is based on consent, you may withdraw that consent at any time. Withdrawal does not affect processing that was lawful before consent was withdrawn.

Who receives information

Information may be processed by service providers that help us host, secure, measure and operate the site. These currently include:

  • Automattic and its WordPress.com, Jetpack, Akismet, Gravatar, image-delivery and font services;
  • Google when you communicate with our Gmail address;
  • OpenFreeMap when a map is displayed; and
  • external content, social or media providers when you open their links or load their embedded material.

We may also disclose information when required by law, in response to a valid legal request, to protect the rights or safety of visitors or the site, or in connection with a transfer of the publication or its assets.

We do not publish your comment email address and do not sell lists of visitor names or email addresses.

International processing

Some service providers operate internationally and may process information outside Sweden or the European Economic Area, including in the United States.

Where required, international processing is handled using an applicable adequacy decision, participation in an approved data-transfer framework, standard contractual clauses or another recognized legal safeguard.

More information about the safeguards used by Automattic and Google is available in their privacy documentation:

How long information is retained

We retain information only for as long as reasonably necessary for its purpose, subject to security, technical and legal requirements.

  • Automattic states that ordinary WordPress.com visitor server logs are generally retained for approximately 30 days.
  • Jetpack Stats visitor-level logs are retained for 28 days. Aggregate statistics may remain longer.
  • Published comments and their metadata may remain until the comment is removed.
  • Newsletter information is retained until you unsubscribe or the subscription is otherwise removed.
  • Favorites, Art Swipe information, display preferences and remembered commenter names stored locally remain until you remove them or clear your browser data.
  • Session-only prompt information is removed when the applicable browser session ends.
  • Shared Favorites collections expire after 12 months.
  • Ordinary pseudonymous reaction records are normally retained for approximately 45 days.
  • Pseudonymous artwork and comment Love identifiers are normally retained for no more than approximately 400 days. Aggregate totals may remain.
  • Short-lived abuse-prevention and rate-limit records normally expire within minutes or hours.
  • Spam-detection information is retained according to the applicable provider’s practices.
  • Correspondence and submission records are retained as long as needed to answer the request, document permissions, resolve disputes or meet legal obligations.

Your privacy rights

Because World Art Utopia is operated in Sweden, GDPR rights may apply to our processing regardless of where an individual visitor lives.

Subject to the conditions and exceptions in applicable law, you may have the right to:

  • receive information about how your personal data is processed;
  • request access to personal data about you;
  • request correction or deletion;
  • request restriction of processing;
  • receive certain information in a portable format;
  • object to processing based on legitimate interests;
  • object at any time to direct marketing; and
  • withdraw consent.

To make a request, email streetartutopia@gmail.com. We may need to verify that the request relates to you before providing, changing or deleting information. We normally respond to valid GDPR requests within one month, although the period may be extended where permitted for a complex request.

These rights are not absolute. Information may sometimes need to be retained for legal obligations, security, freedom of expression, the establishment or defence of legal claims, or other lawful reasons.

You may also lodge a complaint with the Swedish Authority for Privacy Protection, Integritetsskyddsmyndigheten (IMY), or with another competent supervisory authority.

Automated decision-making

World Art Utopia does not use visitor information to make decisions based solely on automated processing that produce legal or similarly significant effects.

The site may use aggregate rankings, engagement counts or interface tests to organize and improve content. These functions do not make legally significant decisions about visitors.

Children’s privacy

World Art Utopia is a general-audience art publication and is not directed specifically at children under 13.

We do not knowingly request personal information from children who are not legally able to provide it. Technical visit information may still be processed when anyone accesses the site.

If you believe that a child has submitted personal information inappropriately, please contact us so we can review and, where appropriate, remove it.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy when the site, its services or applicable requirements change. The date at the top shows when the policy was most recently updated.

If we intend to use previously collected information for a materially different purpose, we will provide appropriate information before that new processing begins. Material changes may also be highlighted on the site where appropriate.

Contact

World Art Utopia
Operated by Vidar Egnér
Stockholm, Sweden
Email: streetartutopia@gmail.com