This Privacy Policy explains what personal information Laurel Picks collects when you visit our site, how we use it, and the choices you have. We try to collect as little as possible — and never sell what we do collect.
Who we are
Laurel Picks is an independent editorial website publishing product reviews, comparisons, and buying guides. Throughout this policy, “Laurel Picks,” “we,” “us,” and “our” refer to the publisher of this website.
What personal data we collect and why
Contact form
When you send us a message through the contact form, we collect the name, email address, subject, and message text you provide. We use this information solely to reply to your message. Submissions are delivered to us by email and are not published on the site. We retain contact-form messages only as long as needed to respond, and remove them from our mailbox when the conversation is complete.
Cookies
Laurel Picks uses a small number of cookies for the site to function and for basic, anonymous traffic analytics. We do not use cookies to build advertising profiles, and we do not sell or share cookie-derived data with advertisers.
You can clear or block cookies at any time through your browser’s settings. Blocking cookies will not prevent you from reading the site, though some small conveniences (such as remembering which FAQ sections you opened) may no longer work between visits.
Embedded content from other websites
Articles on Laurel Picks may include embedded content — for example, product images served from retailer CDNs, YouTube videos, or social-media embeds. Embedded content from other websites behaves exactly as if you had visited the other website directly, which means those sites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content. Laurel Picks has no control over the privacy practices of those third-party sites, and we recommend reviewing their respective privacy policies.
Analytics
We use privacy-respecting analytics to understand which articles are read and how visitors navigate the site, so we can prioritize updates and improve the reading experience. We do not collect personally identifying information through analytics — we look at aggregate, anonymized metrics (page views, referrers, approximate country). We do not attempt to identify individual visitors.
Affiliate link tracking
Laurel Picks participates in affiliate programs — most notably the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. When you click an outbound affiliate link on our site, the destination retailer (for example, Amazon) may set cookies in your browser to attribute your subsequent purchase to our site and pay us a commission. Those cookies are set by the retailer, not by Laurel Picks, and are governed by the retailer’s own privacy policy. See our Affiliate Disclosure for full details on how this works.
Who we share your data with
We do not sell, rent, or trade personal data to third parties. We may share data only in the following limited circumstances:
- Service providers we use to operate the site (for example, our web host, email delivery provider, and analytics provider). These providers have access only to the minimum data required to deliver their service and are contractually prohibited from using it for other purposes.
- Legal or regulatory obligations. We may disclose data if required to do so by law, legal process, or a valid governmental request.
How long we retain your data
Contact-form messages are retained only as long as needed to respond, and then deleted. Analytics data is retained in aggregated, anonymized form and is not linked to an identifiable individual. Affiliate cookies are set by the destination retailer and have a lifespan set by that retailer (Amazon’s attribution cookie, for example, is typically 24 hours).
Your rights
Depending on where you live, you may have the right to request a copy of the personal data we hold about you, to correct it, to have it deleted, or to object to our processing of it. In practice, because we collect very little personal data, the most common such request is simply “please delete my contact-form message” — which we’re happy to do on request. To exercise any of these rights, contact us.
Children
Laurel Picks is a general-audience publication and is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 13. If you believe a child has sent us personal information through the contact form, please let us know and we will delete it.
Changes to this policy
We may update this policy as the site evolves — for example, when we add new analytics or affiliate partners. Material changes will be noted at the top of this page. Your continued use of Laurel Picks after an update constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.
Contact
Questions, concerns, or requests about this policy? Please send us a message.