Using the site without an account

Everything you enter is saved in your browser on this device and nothing is sent to us. No account is needed, and nothing syncs to your other devices.

Last reviewed 2026-08-15. Every dated claim below links to its source.

What local only means

Everything you enter into Expat Intel, your profile, your favourites, your saved comparisons, and your display preferences, is written to your browser on the device you are using. It is not sent to us. There is no server side copy, which also means there is nothing for us to lose, leak, or hand over.

The complete list of what is stored, item by item, is on the privacy policy. It is the same list the "Clear My Data" button deletes.

What you give up without an account

Your saved work does not appear on your other devices. A profile built on a laptop is not on the phone.
Clearing your browsing data, or telling your browser to delete site data, deletes it. There is no copy anywhere else to restore from.
A new browser, a new browser profile, or a reinstall starts empty even on the same machine.
Private or incognito windows keep their storage only until you close the last window of that session, so work done there is gone when you close it.

None of that is a bug; local storage is per browser, per device, and per profile by design. See the MDN reference for Window.localStorage.

If your browser cannot do passkeys

Nothing breaks. The site is fully usable without an account, and local only mode is exactly what you already have. What you do not get is sync between devices, because the sync would be end to end encrypted with a key that only a passkey can hold. See the passkey topic for the list of browsers and situations where that happens.

Common questions

Do I need an account to use Expat Intel?

No. The whole site works without one. Everything you enter is saved in your browser on the device you are using and is never sent to us.

Why does my profile not appear on my other computer?

Because it was only ever saved in the browser on the first computer. Browser storage is per device, per browser, and per browser profile, and nothing is copied to a server.

I cleared my browser data and my saved work is gone. Can you restore it?

No. There is no server side copy to restore from. That is the same property that means we cannot read your data either.

Passkeys, sync, and recovery

Sources and verification

Platform behaviour changes, so every claim on this page that can expire is listed here with the page it came from and the date a human read it there. If a date looks old, trust the vendor page over this one and tell us.

Data written to localStorage is scoped to the origin in a single browser profile and persists only in that browser on that device; it is not shared with other browsers or devices.https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Window/localStorageVerified on 2026-08-15. Re-check every 365 days. Status: verified at primary source.What may change: Stable web platform behaviour. The volatile part is browser storage eviction policy, which several browsers tighten periodically for sites the user does not revisit.
In a private browsing session, web storage is kept in a separate temporary area and is discarded when the last private window of that session closes.https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Web_Storage_APIVerified on 2026-08-15. Re-check every 365 days. Status: verified at primary source.What may change: The general rule is stable; the exact lifetime of a private session differs between browsers and can change between releases.