What we collect
- Server logs. Like almost every website, our host records standard request data — your IP address, browser type (user agent), and the pages you visit. We use this to keep the site secure, debug problems, and understand roughly how the site is used. These logs rotate out over time.
- Analytics. We use two tools to see which pages actually help people. Vercel Analytics counts visits in aggregate and doesn’t use cookies. Google Analytics tells us more, and collects more — but only if you say yes first. When you first visit, a banner asks your permission before Google Analytics sets any cookie or receives anything about you. Say yes, and it receives your IP address and details about your device, browser, and the pages you visit; Google processes that data for us and turns your IP into a rough location. Say no, and none of that happens — the site works exactly the same either way. Google’s advertising features are switched off regardless — we don’t run ads, so there was no reason to keep collecting cross-device, demographic, and interest data. Your visits aren’t connected to a Google profile for advertising, and nothing here is used to follow you around the web. One thing no analytics tool ever sees: your readiness-plan pages. Those are excluded from analytics entirely, consent or not.
- Advertising. We don’t run display ads. There are no ad networks on this site, no ad cookies, and no third party deciding what you see next to our safety guidance. We’re supported by affiliate links instead — disclosed on the pages where they appear.
- Your low-bandwidth preference. If you turn on low-bandwidth mode, we save that choice in your browser’s local storage so the site remembers it next time. It never leaves your device.
- Search questions. We keep an anonymized log of the questions typed into our search — with no account, IP address, or identifier attached — to see which topics we should cover next.
- Your readiness plan, if you ask for one. Our free Household Readiness Plan asks a few questions about your household — things like how many people live with you, what weather hits your area, and whether anyone relies on medical equipment. Here’s the part we’re proud of: we don’t store those answers in any database. They’re sealed, encrypted, into your personal plan link, and only our server can read them — that’s how your plan page works. We email your plan link to you through Postmark, the service that delivers our email. Postmark only ever sees your email address and the sealed link — never your answers.
- Messages you send us. If you use our contact form, we get your message, your email address, and your name if you chose to give it. It arrives in our inbox as an ordinary email — delivered by Postmark, the service that sends it for us — and we also keep a copy in our site’s admin database, so a message isn’t lost if an email fails to arrive. We don’t attach your IP address or any other technical details to it.
- The cookie banner itself. CookieYes, the tool that shows the analytics-cookie banner, sees a rough location (from your IP) and your yes/no choice, so it can honor your answer on your next visit. That’s separate from — and runs before — anything Google Analytics collects.
- Anonymous click counts. When you click a retailer link, we record that the click happened — the type of event, which product, and which link — so we can tell which recommendations actually help. That’s all: no IP address, no browser details, nothing that identifies you.
What we don’t collect
- We don’t hand your email address or personal details to anyone for money. Our analytics provider only collects anything if you say yes to the cookie banner, and even then Google’s advertising features are switched off, so none of it feeds ad targeting or profile-building. Nobody can buy your email or your readiness-plan answers from us. Not for sale, ever.
- We don’t have user accounts. There’s no profile and no login. The one thing you can sign up for is our email newsletter — the signup form at the bottom of each page, or the checkbox when you request a plan — and unsubscribing takes one click. Tools, guides, and reviews all work without giving us anything.
- We don’t ask for medical records, diagnoses, or anything like them. The readiness plan quiz asks one broad question — whether someone at home uses medical equipment or refrigerated medicine — so your plan can account for backup power. It’s a checkbox, it’s optional, we never store it in a database, and we never share it with anyone. The one thing we keep is an anonymous monthly count of how many plans include it — just a number, nothing that ties it to anyone — so we know which guides to write next.
Third-party services we use
- Vercel hosts the site and processes the server logs described above.
- Vercel Analytics is one of our two analytics tools — the cookieless one. It counts pages in aggregate and doesn’t identify you.
- Google Analytics (from Google) is the other analytics tool — only if you say yes to the cookie banner first (see CookieYes below). When active, Google receives the pages you view, your device and browser details, and your IP address, and processes them for us. Its advertising features are off — no Google signals, no demographic and interest reporting, no ad personalization — and your readiness-plan pages never reach it. Google’s own privacy policy is at policies.google.com/privacy.
- CookieYes (cookieyes.com) runs the cookie-permission banner itself. It loads on every page except your readiness plan, which loads no outside scripts at all, since the plan’s web address is the key to your answers. Everywhere else it has to load before you make a choice, so it can ask you in the first place, and it keeps a record of what you chose (your rough location by IP, and yes/no per category) so it can honor your answer on your next visit and so we have a record that we asked. CookieYes’s own privacy policy is at cookieyes.com/privacy-policy.
- Neon hosts the Postgres database that stores our product and review content. It also keeps the messages people send us through our forms — your readiness plan answers never touch it.
- Kit (kit.com) runs our email list. If you sign up — through a form on the site or the checkbox when you request a plan — your email address is stored there so we can send you practical recommendations and, sometimes, offers we think are worth your time. Kit never sees your quiz answers or your plan. Unsubscribing takes one click in any email, and you can ask us to delete your address from Kit entirely.
- Postmark (postmarkapp.com) delivers our email — your readiness-plan link to you when you request a plan, and contact-form messages to our inbox. Your email address (and, for a message, what you wrote) passes through Postmark as an ordinary email, and it keeps its own temporary delivery record for a short while, the way any mail service does. It only ever sees your email address and the sealed plan link — never your quiz answers.
- Cloudflare (cloudflare.com) runs the spam check on our contact form, our newsletter signup, the email step of the Readiness Plan, and our partner submission form (the one manufacturers use to tell us about a product). On the newsletter signup and the plan’s email step it only loads once you start filling in the form. It looks at your browser and connection to work out whether you’re a person or a bot, which usually means you see nothing at all. It doesn’t see what you typed, and it isn’t used to build an advertising profile of you. Cloudflare also stores our product photos and forwards our email.
- Amazon and other retailers receive you when you click an affiliate link to buy something. Once you’re on their site, their privacy policy applies, not ours.
Cookies & local storage
When you first visit, a banner asks whether you’re okay with analytics cookies — before any get set, not after. Say yes, and Google Analytics sets a small set of cookies (one called _ga and a companion that starts with _ga_) so it can tell repeat visits apart; they can last up to about two years. Say no, or ignore the banner, and none of that happens. CookieYes, the tool that runs the banner itself, sets its own small cookie to remember your choice so it doesn’t ask you again every visit. No advertising network sets cookies here, because we don’t run display ads. Our other analytics tool (Vercel Analytics) doesn’t use cookies at all. We also keep your low-bandwidth preference in your browser’s local storage, if you turn that mode on.
Changed your mind? Look for the “Cookie Preferences” link in the footer of any page — it reopens the banner any time so you can update your choice.
Children’s privacy
This site is meant for adults planning for their households. It is not directed at children under 13, and we don’t knowingly collect personal information from them. If you believe a child has provided us information, email us and we’ll delete it.
Your rights
There’s very little data tied to you by name — no accounts, no stored quiz answers. If you joined our email list, the one thing we hold is your email address (at Kit). Unsubscribe anytime with the link in any email, or write to us and we’ll delete your address entirely. If you’ve written to us, your message sits in our inbox and in our admin database — ask and we’ll delete it from both. Our analytics data is aggregate: it isn’t tied to your name or an account, and you can change your analytics-cookie choice anytime with the “Cookie Preferences” link described above.
Depending on where you live, your state’s privacy law may give you rights to know what data is collected about you, have it deleted, or opt out of targeted advertising and data “sharing.” Where those rights apply to you, we honor them — use the contact form below and tell us what you need. We’ll handle it promptly either way; we don’t make you prove which state you’re in first.
Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time as the site grows or the tools we use change. When we do, we’ll change the date at the top. Please check back now and then so you know where things stand.
Contact
Questions about your data or this policy? Get in touch through our contact form.