Privacy Policy

Last updated: June 2026

The short version: Lantern does not log your search queries. It does not track you. It does not profile you. It does not sell your data. There is no data to sell.

Who we are

Lantern is operated by The Haunted Lighthouse Limited, a cybersecurity and data protection consultancy registered on the Isle of Man (Company No. 138512C). We are registered with the Information Commissioner's Office and hold Cyber Essentials certification.

Lantern is hosted on our own dedicated infrastructure in Nuremberg, Germany, within the European Economic Area. No third-party cloud provider has access to your queries or usage data.

What we do not collect

How search works

Lantern is powered by SearXNG, an open source metasearch engine. When you search, your query is forwarded to multiple upstream search engines simultaneously. SearXNG acts as an anonymising proxy -- upstream engines see requests from our server, not from you. Your IP address is never forwarded.

SearXNG is configured with query logging disabled. This is not a policy statement -- it is an architectural fact. There is no log file to subpoena.

Upstream engines

Lantern queries a selection of upstream engines including Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Brave, and Wikipedia. Each upstream engine has its own privacy policy governing how it handles requests from our server. Those requests carry no identifying information about you.

Server logs

Our web server (Caddy) maintains access logs for operational and security purposes. These logs record request paths, response codes, and timestamps. They do not contain search query content. Logs are retained for 30 days and then deleted.

Pro accounts

If you subscribe to Lantern Pro, we collect the minimum information necessary to process payment and manage your subscription. Payment is processed via PayPal. We do not store card details. Subscriber records are held on our Isle of Man infrastructure and are not shared with third parties.

Your rights

Under UK GDPR and the Isle of Man Data Protection Act 2018, you have rights including access, rectification, erasure, and objection. Given that we hold no query data linked to you, most of these rights are satisfied by design. For subscriber data enquiries, contact privacy@haunted.lighthouse.co.im.

Terms of use

Lantern's terms of use are governed by The Haunted Lighthouse Limited's standard terms, available at haunted.lighthouse.co.im/terms.

Contact

The Haunted Lighthouse Limited
Peel, Isle of Man
privacy@haunted.lighthouse.co.im