Privacy policy

The short version

We do not ask you to create an account, we do not run a newsletter, and we do not sell anything directly. The only personal information we ever hold is what you type into the contact form, and the only tracking on this site is Google Analytics.

Who we are

Rinse & Rail is published by Fathom & Foundry and operates at rinseandrail.com. For any privacy question, write to info@rinseandrail.com.

What we collect

Contact form submissions. If you use the form on the contact page, we receive the name, email address and message you typed. That email goes to our inbox so we can reply. We keep it as long as the conversation is useful and no longer; we do not add it to a mailing list, because we do not have one.

The form also records the moment the page loaded and checks a hidden field that real readers never see. Both are anti-spam measures and neither identifies you.

Analytics. We use Google Analytics 4 to understand which pages are read and which buy links get clicked. This collects the usual: pages viewed, approximate location from IP address, device and browser type, and how you arrived. We do not use it to identify individuals, and we could not if we wanted to.

We also record a affiliate_click event when a buy button is used. It notes which merchant, which product and which page — not who you are. It exists because Amazon reports sales per tracking tag rather than per site, so this is the only way we can tell which guides are genuinely useful.

Server logs. Our host, Vercel, keeps standard request logs including IP addresses, for security and diagnostics. That is ordinary web hosting rather than a choice we made about you.

What we do not collect

• Accounts, passwords or profiles — there is nothing to sign up for.
• Payment information — we never handle a transaction; Amazon does.
• Newsletter subscriptions — we do not run one.
• Advertising or retargeting pixels from any ad network.

We do not sell, rent or share personal information with anyone. There is no market for it here and we would not participate in one if there were.

Cookies

Analytics cookies. Google Analytics sets cookies to distinguish one visit from another. They are governed by Google’s privacy policy.

Affiliate cookies. When you click a buy link, Amazon sets a cookie so a subsequent purchase is attributed to us. That cookie is Amazon’s: we do not set it, we cannot read it, and Amazon’s privacy notice governs it. How the commercial relationship works is set out on the affiliate disclosure page.

Turning them off. Every major browser lets you block or delete cookies, and blocking them will not stop this site working — there is no logged-in state to lose. Google publishes a browser opt-out add-on for Analytics specifically.

Third parties we rely on

• Vercel hosts the site and processes requests.
• Google Analytics provides the traffic measurement described above.
• Microsoft (Graph) delivers contact form messages to our inbox.
• Amazon receives you when you click a buy link, at which point their terms and privacy notice apply rather than ours.

Product images, where they appear, are served from Amazon’s own image CDN.

Children

This site is not directed at children and we do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 13. If you believe a child has sent us something through the contact form, write to us and we will delete it.

Your choices

Because we hold so little, most requests are simple. You can ask us what we hold about you, ask us to delete it, or ask us to correct it, by writing to info@rinseandrail.com. In practice the answer is usually “an email you sent us”, and deleting it takes a moment.

Depending on where you live you may have additional statutory rights — for example under the California Consumer Privacy Act or the UK and EU GDPR. We will honor any such request; use the same address.

Changes

If this policy changes, the date at the top of this page changes with it. We do not make changes retroactively and we do not have an archive of your data to apply them to.