The fine print
Privacy
Short version: we collect as little as we can. No cookies, no advertising trackers, no selling or sharing of your data. If you give us your email, it is used only to send what you asked for, and you can leave at any time.
What we collect, and when
| When | What | Why |
|---|---|---|
| You browse the site | Anonymous, cookieless page statistics: the page, the referring site, the browser and device type, and the country. No cookies are set, and you are not identified across sites or days. | To learn which pages are useful. |
| You use a tool, such as the table planner | Nothing. Seat names and heat choices stay in your browser and in the page address you choose to copy. Our page statistics are sent the address with that part removed, so we never receive them. | — |
| You sign up for a free card or the letter | Your email address, the page you signed up from, and which card you asked for. We confirm by email before sending anything else (double opt-in). | To send what you asked for. Legal basis: your consent. |
| You buy a product | Our checkout partner collects your payment details. We receive your name, email, what you bought and the order reference, never your card number. | To deliver the product and handle refunds. Legal basis: our contract with you. |
| You email us | Your message and address. | To reply. |
Who runs this site
Gentle Hearth is run by its owner, a Chinese-American parent who cooks Sichuan food at home. Write to us at our support address (published here before any sale or email sign-up opens; until then we collect nothing that would need it), or by post at a postal address published here before our first email is sent.
Who processes it for us
- Vercel hosts the site and provides the cookieless page statistics. Its servers briefly handle your IP address to serve pages.
- Kit (kit.com) stores email subscribers and sends our emails. If a sign-up fails partway, Kit may keep the address as an unconfirmed contact: it is never emailed, and we delete it when you ask. Kit's open and click tracking is switched off in our account, so our emails do not record whether you opened them or which links you clicked.
- Polar (polar.sh) is the merchant of record for digital products. Polar sells the product to you, handles payment, tax and invoicing, and has its own privacy policy for checkout.
We do not sell, rent or trade personal information. We do not use advertising pixels or social media trackers.
How long we keep it
Subscriber data is kept until you unsubscribe or ask us to delete it. Order records are kept as long as tax and accounting law requires. Page statistics are aggregated and never linked to you.
Your choices and rights
- Every email has an unsubscribe link, and it works immediately.
- You can ask to see, correct, export or delete what we hold about you by writing to our support address (published here before any sale or email sign-up opens; until then we collect nothing that would need it). We answer within 30 days.
- If you are in the EU, UK or California, you have these rights by law. You can also complain to your data-protection authority.
- Do Not Track: we do not track you across websites, so there is nothing for the signal to switch off.
Children
This site is for adults who cook. It is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect their information. If you think a child has signed up, write to us and we will delete it.
Changes
If this policy changes, we will update the date above. If the change is material, we will also tell subscribers by email before it takes effect.