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Privacy policy

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This policy explains what information The Home Coffee Bar collects when you visit thehomecoffeebar.com, why we collect it, who we share it with and the choices you have. The short version: you can read the whole site without giving us anything, we don't sell your personal information, and if you join the newsletter you can leave with one click.

On this page

Who we are

The Home Coffee Bar (“we”, “us”, “our”) is an independent website about planning, setting up and styling a coffee bar at home. It is edited by Claire Bennett and written for readers in the United States. For visitors in the European Economic Area (EEA) and the United Kingdom, The Home Coffee Bar is the “controller” of the personal data described in this policy.

You can reach us at hello@thehomecoffeebar.com.

Information we collect

There are no user accounts, comments or checkout on this site, so we collect very little.

Information you give us

  • Newsletter sign-up. When you request a freebie or join the email list, you give us your email address and, if the form asks for it, your first name. We also receive the date you signed up, the form you used and whether you confirmed your subscription.
  • Emails you send us. If you write to us, we receive your email address, your name if you include it, and anything you put in the message, such as photos of your coffee bar.

Information collected automatically

  • Server and security logs. Our hosting and content delivery provider, Cloudflare, processes technical data whenever a browser requests a page: IP address, browser type and version, device type, operating system, the page requested, the referring page, and the date and time of the request. This is needed to deliver pages, keep the site fast and block attacks and abusive bots.
  • Privacy-friendly analytics. We may use Cloudflare Web Analytics to count page views and measure page speed. According to Cloudflare, it does not use cookies or local storage and does not fingerprint visitors by IP address or browser. We see only aggregated numbers, such as how many visits a page got, never a profile of you.
  • Newsletter engagement. Our email provider can tell us whether an email was delivered, opened or had a link clicked. Many email apps block this, and it is only used to keep the list healthy and to see which ideas readers like.

Information from third parties

Affiliate partners such as Amazon send us reports about clicks and qualifying purchases made through our links. These reports show which products sold and the commission earned. They do not tell us who you are, your name or your address.

We do not knowingly collect sensitive personal information, such as health, financial account or precise location data.

How we use information

We use the information described above to:

  • deliver the website and keep it secure, fast and working;
  • send the freebie you asked for and, if you subscribed, our newsletter with new ideas and printables;
  • reply to your emails and questions;
  • understand, in aggregate, which pages are useful so we can improve the site;
  • track affiliate commissions that keep the site running;
  • comply with the law, enforce our Terms of Use and protect our rights, our readers and the public.

We don't use your information for automated decisions that have legal or similarly significant effects on you.

If you are in the EEA or the UK, the GDPR and UK GDPR require us to tell you the legal basis for each use:

  • Consent for the newsletter and, once we start showing ads, for non-essential cookies. You can withdraw consent at any time; this doesn't affect anything done before you withdrew it.
  • Legitimate interests for running and securing the site, aggregated statistics, answering your emails and tracking affiliate commissions. We have balanced these interests against your rights and keep the data involved to a minimum.
  • Legal obligation where we have to keep or disclose information by law.

How we share information

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising. We share it only in these situations:

  • Service providers that process data for us under contract and only on our instructions:
  • Legal reasons. If we believe in good faith that disclosure is required by law, a court order or a valid government request, or is needed to protect someone's safety or to investigate fraud or security issues.
  • Business transfers. If the site is sold or transferred, reader information may go to the new owner, who must keep honoring this policy for the information it receives.
  • With your permission in any other case.

Some links on the site are affiliate links. The Home Coffee Bar is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. We also work with other retailers, linked through short /go/ addresses on this site that forward you to the retailer.

When you click an affiliate link, you leave our site. The retailer or affiliate network may set cookies on its own site to credit the sale to us. Those cookies are controlled by the retailer, not by us, and are covered by its privacy policy, for example the Amazon.com Privacy Notice, found in Amazon's help pages. Our /go/ links themselves set no cookies. Read more in our affiliate disclosure.

Cookies and similar technologies

Right now The Home Coffee Bar sets no advertising or tracking cookies of its own. Cloudflare may set a strictly necessary security cookie if its bot protection needs to check your browser. The Cookie Policy lists every cookie, what it does, how long it lasts and how to control cookies in your browser.

Our “Save to Pinterest” buttons are plain links. They load nothing from Pinterest until you click them. If we ever add Pinterest's own save button script or conversion tag, we'll update this policy and the Cookie Policy first.

When we start showing ads

The site shows no ads today. We plan to add display ads later through an ad management company such as Journey by Mediavine or Raptive. Before ads go live, we will update this policy and the Cookie Policy to name the company, and:

  • ad partners and their vendors will use cookies, pixels and similar technologies to show ads, limit how often you see the same ad, measure results and prevent fraud, and, where the law allows and you haven't opted out, to show ads based on your interests;
  • visitors in the EEA, the UK and other places that require it will see a consent tool and no non-essential cookies will be set until they agree;
  • US visitors will have a clear “Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information” or “Your Privacy Choices” link, and we will treat a Global Privacy Control signal as a valid opt-out (see below);
  • no ads will appear on this page, the Terms of Use, the Cookie Policy, the About page or the Contact page.

Your privacy rights

Privacy laws differ by where you live. Many of them (including the California Consumer Privacy Act as amended by the CPRA) only apply to businesses that pass size thresholds a small publisher like us may not meet. We still honor the requests below from any reader, wherever you live.

Rights for everyone

  • Access the personal information we hold about you and get a portable copy.
  • Correct information that is wrong.
  • Delete your information, unless we must keep it by law.
  • Unsubscribe from the newsletter at any time using the link at the bottom of every email.

US state residents

Residents of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Texas, Virginia and other states with consumer privacy laws may have the right to know what we collect, to access, correct and delete it, to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information and of targeted advertising, and to not be treated differently for using these rights. As described above, we do not sell or share personal information today. If you are refused, some states let you appeal: reply to our answer with “Appeal” in the subject line and we will review it within the time your state's law requires. You may also use an authorized agent; we may ask for proof that the agent acts for you.

California notice at collection. In the last 12 months we collected these categories of personal information: identifiers (email address, first name, IP address) and internet activity (pages viewed and technical log data), from you and your browser, for the purposes listed in How we use information. We did not sell or share any of it, and we don't use sensitive personal information. Retention is described in How long we keep information. California residents may also ask, under the “Shine the Light” law, whether we disclosed personal information to third parties for their direct marketing; we have not.

EEA and UK residents

In addition to the rights above, you can object to processing based on legitimate interests, ask us to restrict processing and withdraw consent at any time. You also have the right to complain to your local data protection authority, or in the UK to the Information Commissioner's Office. We'd appreciate the chance to help first, so please contact us.

How to make a request

Email hello@thehomecoffeebar.com with “Privacy request” in the subject line and tell us what you'd like. To protect you, we'll ask you to confirm the request from the email address it relates to. We will respond within 45 days for US requests and within one month for EEA and UK requests, and tell you if we need more time as the law allows. There is no charge.

Global Privacy Control and Do Not Track

Global Privacy Control (GPC) is a browser setting that tells websites you don't want your personal information sold or shared. Because we don't sell or share personal information, there is nothing to switch off today. Once ads launch, our site will read a GPC signal and treat it as a request to opt out of sale, sharing and targeted advertising for that browser, as required in states such as California, Colorado, Connecticut and others.

The older “Do Not Track” browser signal has no agreed standard, so we don't respond to it separately. We do honor GPC.

How long we keep information

  • Newsletter data: while you are subscribed. After you unsubscribe, we keep only your email address on a suppression list so you aren't emailed again, unless you ask us to delete it completely.
  • Emails you send us: as long as needed to answer you, and usually no longer than two years.
  • Server and security logs: kept by Cloudflare for a limited period under its own retention rules.
  • Analytics: aggregated statistics with no personal information, kept as long as useful.

Security

The site is served only over HTTPS, is a static site with no database of reader accounts, and uses reputable providers that protect data with encryption and access controls. No method of sending or storing data is perfectly secure, so we can't guarantee absolute security. If a data breach affecting you happens, we will notify you and the authorities as the law requires.

International transfers

We and our providers are based in, or process data in, the United States and other countries. If you visit from the EEA, the UK or Switzerland, your information will be transferred to the United States. Our providers protect these transfers with recognized safeguards, such as the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses, the UK International Data Transfer Addendum or the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework.

Children's privacy

The Home Coffee Bar is written for adults and is not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 (or under 16 in the EEA and UK). If you believe a child has given us personal information, email us and we will delete it.

Other websites

The site links to retailers, Pinterest and other websites. When you follow a link, the other site's privacy policy applies, not this one. We aren't responsible for how other sites handle your information.

Changes to this policy

We'll update this policy when the way we handle information changes, for example before ads or a shop go live. The “Last updated” date at the top shows when it last changed. If a change is significant, we'll also point it out on the site or in the newsletter.

Contact us

Questions about this policy or your information? Email hello@thehomecoffeebar.com. You can also read our Terms of Use and Cookie Policy.