Privacy Policy

This policy describes what WaterByTheBook collects, why, and what we do not do. Last updated 12 October 2026.

The short version: the site sets no cookies, shows no ads and runs no advertising or analytics service from any other company. We measure traffic with our own cookie-free counter that stores no IP address and no per-visitor identifier. The only personal information we ever hold is an email address you deliberately give us, and we delete it whenever you ask.

Analytics: what the counter records

We run a first-party analytics beacon we wrote ourselves, because we would rather count our own readers than hand them to an advertising company. For each page view it records:

  • the page viewed;
  • the referring domain only — for example “google.com”, never the full URL you came from;
  • a campaign tag, if the link you followed carried one (a utm_ or ?src parameter);
  • a coarse device class: mobile, tablet or desktop;
  • clicks on outbound affiliate links, so we know which recommendations people find useful.

It does not use cookies, localStorage, or browser fingerprinting, and it creates no per-visitor identifier. There is no way for us to follow one person from page to page or from visit to visit, which is deliberate.

Your IP address is never stored. For one minute, a scrambled form of it is used to key a counter that stops the endpoint being flooded; then that expires. The address itself is not written to our database. Individual page-view records are deleted after 180 days.

We honour Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control. If your browser sends DNT: 1 or Sec-GPC: 1, the page view is not counted at all. Both are checked on the server, so the choice is respected whether or not our JavaScript runs.

Visits by automated crawlers are counted separately, by the crawler’s name. That is a count of software, not of people.

The tools: what you type into them

  • Water Watchdog. We record each report view with the ZIP code or water-system ID it was for, which utility you picked when a ZIP has more than one, and which links in the report you clicked, with the time and nothing that identifies you. The lookup runs on our own server against public EPA data; your ZIP is not sent to any other service.
  • Which Filter Fits. We record what is typed into its search box, searches that found nothing, which brand is picked and which filter family a search matched first, with the time and nothing that identifies you.
  • Filter Certification Registry. We record searches, the filters chosen and searches that found nothing.
  • The reverse osmosis and softener calculators. We count that a calculator was opened and used. We do not record the numbers you enter; they can appear in the page’s address, so they may be in the hosting company’s access log (see below).
  • Please do not type personal information into a search box.

What your browser fetches from other companies

Two things on each page do not come from our own server, and it would be wrong to leave them out:

  • Fonts, from Google Fonts. Your browser requests the typefaces from Google’s servers, which means Google receives your IP address for that request.
  • A small script from Hostinger, our hosting company. It belongs to an email-form feature the host installs, which we do not use (the pool list is our own), so it has nothing to do here, but your browser still downloads it.

Neither sets a cookie on this site.

Server logs

Being straight about the part we do not control: like every website, this one runs on a web host, and the hosting company’s web server keeps standard access logs that include IP addresses, for security and abuse handling, under its own retention schedule. That is separate from our analytics and we do not mine it, but it would be wrong to tell you no IP address touches any log anywhere.

Email: only if you ask for it

We do not have a newsletter you get signed up to by accident. An email address only reaches us if you deliberately submit one: to join the pool fill-water list on our pool pages, or to ask us something. For the pool list we store the address, which page you signed up on and when, and nothing else: no name and no IP address.

The pool list lives in our own database. No email service holds it.

Every note we send to the list carries a one-click unsubscribe link, which takes you off the list at once, without an “are you sure” step. You can also email waterbythebook@gmail.com and ask us to delete what we hold for you; we will, and we will confirm when it is done.

What we never do

  • We do not sell, rent or trade personal information. Not to data brokers, not to filter manufacturers, not to anyone.
  • We run no advertising network, no retargeting pixels and no social tracking widgets.
  • We do not build profiles of visitors, because we do not collect anything that would let us.

When you follow a link to a retailer or manufacturer, you are on their site under their rules, and they may well set cookies and track you in ways we do not. Some of those links are affiliate links — see the affiliate disclosure. We have no control over and take no responsibility for what other sites do with your data.

Children

This site is written for adults making decisions about their household water, and is not directed to children. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 13.

Your choices, in practice

  • Do not want to be counted? Turn on Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control in your browser. We check both, server-side.
  • Want off the pool list? Use the unsubscribe link in any note we send, or email us.
  • Want your data deleted, or want to know what we hold? Email us and ask.

Changes

If our practices change, this page changes with them and the date at the top moves. Questions: waterbythebook@gmail.com. See also our editorial policy and terms of use.