Privacy Policy

2a. Information You Provide Directly

The Site does not currently require user registration or account creation. However, we may collect information you voluntarily provide through:

• Contact forms or emails: If you contact us via email or a contact form, we collect your name, email address, and the content of your message.
• Quiz interactions: The Water Filter Advisor quiz processes your answers locally in your browser to generate a recommendation. Quiz answers are not transmitted to or stored on our servers.
• Newsletter subscriptions (if offered): Your email address and any preferences you indicate.

2b. Information Collected Automatically

When you visit the Site, certain information is collected automatically through standard web technologies, including:

• Log data: Your IP address (truncated/anonymized), browser type and version, operating system, referring URL, pages visited, time spent on pages, and date/time of access.
• Device information: Device type (mobile/desktop/tablet), screen resolution, and general geographic location derived from IP address (city/region level — not precise GPS location).
• Usage data: Which sections of the Site you visit, which links you click (including affiliate links), and how you interact with interactive tools.
• Cookies and similar technologies: See Section 4 for full cookie details.

2c. Information We Do NOT Collect

We use the information we collect for the following purposes:

• Site operation and improvement: Analyzing how users interact with the Site to improve content quality, navigation, and user experience.
• Content personalization: Understanding which topics and sections are most relevant to our audience to prioritize content development.
• Responding to inquiries: Using your contact information to respond to questions, feedback, or correction requests you submit.
• Affiliate commission attribution: Tracking clicks on affiliate links to facilitate commission payments from affiliate partners for referred purchases.
• Security and fraud prevention: Monitoring for unusual access patterns, unauthorized scraping, or other misuse of the Site.
• Legal compliance: Complying with applicable laws, regulations, or valid legal requests.
• Email communications (if you subscribe): Sending newsletters, content updates, or promotional communications. You may unsubscribe at any time.

We do not use your information to make automated individual profiling decisions that have legal or significant effects on you. We do not use your information for targeted advertising on this Site (we are ad-free).

We use cookies and similar tracking technologies on the Site. A cookie is a small data file stored on your device. Cookies do not harm your device and cannot access other files on your computer.

Types of Cookies We Use

Managing Cookies

You can control and delete cookies through your browser settings. Most browsers allow you to:

• View which cookies are stored and delete them individually
• Block third-party cookies from setting
• Block all cookies (note: this may impact Site functionality)
• Receive a notification when a new cookie is set

For guidance on managing cookies in your specific browser, visit the browser developer's help documentation. You can also opt out of Google Analytics tracking (if used) at tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

Note that disabling cookies will not prevent us from seeing anonymized aggregate traffic data delivered via server-side analytics tools.

When you click an affiliate link on our Site and are redirected to a third-party retailer (such as SpringWell Water), the following occurs:

1. Your browser is redirected to the retailer's website with a unique referral parameter in the URL (e.g., ?aff=12345).
2. The retailer's website may place a tracking cookie on your device to identify that you arrived via our referral.
3. If you make a qualifying purchase within the affiliate cookie window, we receive a commission from the retailer — at no additional cost to you.
4. The retailer's privacy policy governs how your purchase data and the tracking cookie are handled.

We do not receive your personal information (name, address, payment details) from affiliate partners as part of the commission attribution process. We only receive aggregate commission reports indicating that a qualifying purchase was made.

Affiliate cookies from third-party partners are governed by those partners' respective privacy policies. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of any retailer before making a purchase.

The Site uses the following third-party services that may collect data about your visit:

We have no control over data collected by these third-party services. Their collection and processing of data are governed by their respective privacy policies, which we link above.

We may share information in the following limited circumstances:

• Service providers: We may share data with trusted service providers who assist us in operating the Site (e.g., hosting provider Vercel), subject to confidentiality agreements. These providers are not permitted to use your data for their own marketing purposes.
• Affiliate partners: Referral tracking identifiers are shared with affiliate partners as described in Section 5. We do not share your personal contact information with affiliate partners.
• Legal requirements: We may disclose information if required to do so by law, subpoena, court order, or governmental authority, or if we believe in good faith that such disclosure is necessary to protect our rights, protect your safety or the safety of others, or investigate fraud.
• Business transfers: If AustinWaterGuide is acquired by or merged with another company, your information may be transferred as part of that transaction. We will notify you of any such change via a notice on the Site.
• With your consent: We may share information for any other purpose with your explicit consent.

We retain different categories of data for different periods based on their purpose and legal requirements:

• Server access logs: Retained for up to 90 days for security and debugging purposes, then automatically deleted or anonymized.
• Analytics data: Aggregated, anonymized analytics data may be retained indefinitely as it cannot be linked to specific individuals.
• Contact/email inquiries: Retained for up to 3 years to maintain correspondence records, then deleted.
• Affiliate commission records: Retained for the duration required by our affiliate program agreements and applicable tax regulations (typically 7 years).
• Newsletter subscriber lists: Retained until you unsubscribe or request deletion.

After the applicable retention period, data is securely deleted or anonymized. You may request earlier deletion of your personal data as described in Section 10.

We implement industry-standard technical and organizational security measures to protect the information we collect, including:

• HTTPS/TLS encryption for all data transmitted between your browser and the Site
• Hosting on Vercel's enterprise-grade infrastructure with built-in security headers (X-Frame-Options, X-Content-Type-Options, XSS Protection)
• Access controls limiting who within our organization can access collected data
• Regular review of third-party service providers for security compliance

However, no method of transmission over the Internet or electronic storage is 100% secure. We cannot guarantee absolute security of information transmitted to or stored on the Site. In the event of a data breach involving personal information, we will notify affected users as required by applicable law.

You are responsible for maintaining the security of any communications you send to us, including the security of the device and email account you use.

Depending on your location and applicable law, you may have the following rights regarding your personal information:

• Right to Access: Request a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
• Right to Correction: Request correction of inaccurate personal information.
• Right to Deletion: Request deletion of your personal information, subject to legal retention requirements.
• Right to Opt-Out: Opt out of analytics data collection by using browser-based opt-out tools or disabling cookies.
• Right to Data Portability: Receive a machine-readable copy of your personal data (where technically feasible).
• Right to Withdraw Consent: Where processing is based on consent, withdraw that consent at any time.

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at [email protected] with the subject line "Privacy Rights Request." We will respond within 30 days. We may need to verify your identity before processing your request.

Note: Because we collect minimal personal data and do not require account registration, many of these rights may have limited practical applicability to your interactions with this Site.

The Site is not directed to children under the age of 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If we discover we have collected personal information from a child under 13, we will delete that information promptly.

If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child under 13 has provided personal information to us, please contact us immediately at [email protected].

Visitors between the ages of 13 and 17 should review this policy with a parent or guardian before using the Site.

If you are a California resident, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) provides you with specific rights regarding your personal information.

Categories of personal information collected in the past 12 months:

• Identifiers (IP address, anonymized) — for analytics and security
• Internet activity data (pages visited, clicks) — for site improvement
• Geolocation data (city/region derived from IP) — for analytics
• Contact information (email, name) — only if you contact us directly

We do not sell or share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising as defined under CCPA. Affiliate tracking cookies set by third parties when you click affiliate links may constitute "sharing" under certain CCPA interpretations — see Section 5 for details.

California residents may submit CCPA rights requests by emailing [email protected] with the subject line "CCPA Rights Request." We will not discriminate against you for exercising your CCPA rights.

If you are a Texas resident, the Texas Data Privacy and Security Act (TDPSA), effective July 1, 2024, provides you with certain rights regarding your personal data processed by businesses operating in or targeting Texas residents.

Under the TDPSA, you have the right to:

• Know whether we process your personal data
• Access your personal data
• Correct inaccurate personal data
• Delete personal data you have provided
• Obtain a portable copy of your personal data
• Opt out of the processing of personal data for targeted advertising, sale, or profiling

We do not engage in targeted advertising, sell personal data, or create consumer profiles for AustinWaterGuide's purposes. As such, many TDPSA opt-out rights have no practical application to this Site.

To submit a Texas privacy rights request, email [email protected] with the subject "TDPSA Rights Request." We will respond within 45 days as required by the Act.

We reserve the right to update this Privacy Policy at any time to reflect changes in our practices, technology, legal requirements, or for other reasons. When we make material changes, we will:

• Update the "Last Updated" date at the top of this page
• Post a notice on the Site's main page for a period of at least 30 days following material changes
• If you have subscribed to our newsletter, send a notification email about the change

Your continued use of the Site following any changes to this Privacy Policy constitutes your acceptance of the revised policy. We encourage you to review this page periodically.

If we make changes that materially reduce your privacy protections, we will provide prominent notice and, where required by law, seek your consent before implementing the change.

If you have questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact our privacy team:

We will make commercially reasonable efforts to respond to all privacy requests within 30 days (or within the period required by applicable law). We may request verification of your identity before processing deletion or access requests.