Privacy Policy

The short version

I collect two things: anonymous analytics about how pages are used, and your email address if you choose to give it to me. I do not sell either one. Most pages show ads from Google AdSense, which uses cookies to choose them, and you can turn the personalized part off. There is no account for you to create.

Analytics

The site uses Google Analytics 4. It sets cookies in your browser and sends Google information about your visit: the pages you view, roughly where you are (from your IP address, which Google truncates), your device and browser, and the site or search that sent you here.

I also record a small number of custom events so I can tell which parts of the site are useful:

• ad_slot_view and ad_slot_click — when an advertising slot is seen or clicked
• affiliate_click — when a link to a retailer is clicked
• partner_click — when a link to a brand I recommend without being paid is clicked
• cta_click — when a link inside a call-to-action is clicked
• generate_lead — when an email signup goes through. It records which list and the state or province you picked, never the address itself
• social_prompt_shown and social_prompt_dismissed — when the follow card appears or is closed
• email_prompt_shown and email_prompt_dismissed — when the email signup box appears or is closed
• social_click — when a link to my YouTube, Instagram, Facebook or Pinterest is clicked, and where on the page it sat
• links_click — when a button on the links page is clicked
• share — when a share button at the end of a page is clicked, and which one (Facebook, Pinterest, email or copy link)
• video_start — when you choose to load an embedded video

Those events record which slot or button was involved, the destination URL and the page you were on. They do not record who you are. I use them to work out which recommendations are worth keeping, not to build a profile.

If you would rather not be counted, Google publishes a browser opt-out add-on, and most browsers and ad blockers will stop these scripts loading. Roughly a quarter of this site’s readers already block them, which is fine.

Cloudflare, which hosts the site, also counts visits with its own Web Analytics. It sets no cookies. It tells me which pages are viewed, how fast they load, and roughly which countries and sites visitors come from.

The email list

If you sign up, the form sends your email address, your first name if you fill that box in, which state or province you hunt if you tell me, and a short code for the page you signed up through, so I know what you asked for and can flag regulation changes where you actually hunt. The name and the state are optional and the list works without them. There is no phone number and no postal address.

The form also contains a hidden field that humans never see. Automated bots fill it in; anything submitted with it filled is discarded. It exists to reduce spam signups and nothing is kept from it.

Your details are stored on Cloudflare, in a database I control, on servers in the United States. I also keep a one-way scrambled fingerprint of your IP address — not the address itself, and it cannot be turned back into one. Its only job is to stop a script signing up thousands of fake addresses at once.

The list does not send anything yet. When it moves to a provider that sends it, that provider will hold your address as well, and this page will name it before the first email goes out. Every email will carry an unsubscribe link and it will work immediately. I do not sell, rent or trade the list.

When you contact me

The contact form sends your name, your email address, which topic you picked, your message, and — if you arrived by clicking the “see something wrong on this page” flag — the path of the page you were reading, so I know which page a correction is about. Nothing else.

The form is handled by Formspree, a form-processing service. Your message is delivered to my email and is also stored in my Formspree account, which means Formspree holds a copy. Their privacy policy is at formspree.io/legal/privacy-policy.

Like the signup form, it contains a hidden field that humans never see and bots fill in; anything submitted with it filled is discarded.

I use what you send to answer you and to fix the site. I do not add you to the email list because you wrote to me, and I do not sell or share it.

Comments

Most comments shown under articles are historical. They were posted on the old version of this site before 2023 and are republished as static text, with the name and date as originally submitted.

Some posts have an “Add your voice” form. It asks for your first name, last initial, what you want to say, your county if you want to give it, and sometimes a yes-or-no question such as whether you hunt in the state the post is about. It does not ask for an email address. What you send is stored on Cloudflare, in a database I control, along with the same one-way scrambled fingerprint of your IP address the email list keeps, for the same single purpose of stopping a script flooding the form.

Nothing you send appears on the site until I have read it and approved it. If I do, it is published under the post with your first name, last initial, county if you gave one, and the date, with any links removed. I may decline anything, and I do not edit what you wrote beyond removing links.

If you want your name or comment removed, old or new, ask and I will remove it.

Buying the ebook

Payment is handled by the payment provider shown at checkout. Card details are entered on their systems, not mine, and I never see or store them. I see the information a seller normally sees: that a purchase happened, and the email address it was tied to, so I can deliver the file and re-send it if you lose it.

Links to other sites

Many pages link to retailers, manufacturers and state wildlife agencies. Some of those are affiliate links, which are explained on the affiliate disclosure page. Once you follow a link off this site you are on somebody else’s property and their privacy policy applies, not this one. I have no control over what they collect.

Advertising

Most pages show ads served by Google AdSense. Pages built for one job carry no ads at all: the ebook and guided-hunt pages, the about, contact and email signup pages, this policy and the other legal pages, and three buying guides.

Google and the advertisers it works with use cookies to choose which ads you see, including ads based on your earlier visits to this site and to other sites. That is what “personalized ads” means, and it is how Google pays sites like this one. Google explains what it collects and why in How Google uses information from sites that use its services.

You can turn personalized ads off:

• for Google, at My Ad Center, where you can also see why a given ad was shown;
• for other advertising companies, at aboutads.info and networkadvertising.org.

With personalization off you still see ads, but they are chosen from the page you are reading rather than from your history. Blocking cookies or using an ad blocker also works; the site does not try to stop you.

If you visit from the European Economic Area, the UK or Switzerland, Google asks for your consent before personalized ads load, and you can refuse.

I do not see who you are, what you were shown or what you clicked. AdSense reports to me in totals: how many ads were shown on a page and what they earned.

Some rectangles marked “Advertise here” are my own placeholders, offering the space directly to companies in the hunting trade. They set no cookies.

Hosting and logs

The site is static and hosted on Cloudflare Pages. Like any web host, their servers keep standard request logs, which include IP addresses, for security and abuse prevention.

What I do not do

• I do not sell personal information. The one kind of sharing on this site is Google’s ad cookies, described under Advertising.
• I do not run retargeting pixels of my own, and I never upload email addresses or anything else about you to an advertising platform.
• I do not have user accounts, passwords or logins for readers.
• I do not knowingly collect anything from children. This site is aimed at adult hunters and is not directed at anyone under 13.

Your rights, and how to use them

Wherever you live, you can ask me to tell you what I hold about you, correct it, or delete it. If you are in the UK or EU you have those rights under the GDPR, including the right to object to processing and to complain to your data protection authority. If you are in California you have the rights under the CCPA and CPRA to know what is collected, to have it deleted, and to opt out of its sale or sharing. I do not sell personal information. California law counts personalized advertising cookies as “sharing”, so to opt out of that, turn off personalized ads at My Ad Center as described under Advertising, or ask me and I will tell you how.

In practice there are three things I am likely to hold: your email address, and the first name and state if you gave them, if you signed up; a comment, from before 2023 or through an “Add your voice” form; and a message you sent through the contact form, which sits in my email and in Formspree.

To make a request, use the contact page. Say what you want done. I will action email removals the same week. You do not need to explain why, and asking will not cost you anything.

Changes

If this policy changes, the date at the top changes with it. If a change is significant, such as an advertising network being added, I will say so on the page rather than quietly editing it. Google AdSense was added on October 3, 2026.