Privacy Policy

Last updated: March 24, 2025

This privacy policy describes how we use and protect your information at https://www.thecandidcooks.com/ and outlines your privacy rights regarding how the law protects your personal data. By visiting our website, you agree to the collection and use of information in accordance with this privacy policy.

We may update this privacy policy from time to time, so we encourage you to periodically review this page for any changes. Changes are effective when they are posted on this page, at which time we will update the “Last updated” date at the top of this page. If you have any questions regarding this privacy policy, contact us by email at hello@thecandidcooks.com or by visiting this page on our website: https://www.thecandidcooks.com/contact/.

What Personal Data We Collect & Why We Collect It

User Profile

You may voluntarily set up a user profile on our website, which is managed by a third-party app called Grow. This allows you to favorite and save recipes to your account, and sign up for our email list. Setting up a user profile requires that you provide your email address and create a username and password. We will store your username, but your password will not be visible in our records. The Grow privacy policy is available here.

Comments

When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection through a third-party service. The Antispam Bee privacy policy is available here: https://pluginkollektiv.org/privacy-policy/.

For registered users, an anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.

If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.

Email Subscription 

If you voluntarily choose to subscribe to our email list, we will collect and store only your email address to be used for the purposes for which you provided it to us. You may opt out of such email communications at any time by clicking the “unsubscribe” button in the email, or by contacting us directly at hello@thecandidcooks.com or through our webpage.

Your email address may also be shared with the third-party provider we use in connection with our email subscription service. We currently use MailerLite to manage email subscription lists and deliver post notifications. The MailerLite privacy policy is located here: https://www.mailerlite.com/legal/privacy-policy.

Contact Forms

When visitors submit information through contact forms on our website we collect the data shown in the contact form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.

Cookies

If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.

Analytics

The Candid Cooks uses third-party services to analyze the use of our website. These third-party services use cookies to gather information about our website use in order to create reports. We use the following third-party services for analytics purposes and their privacy policies are linked below:

We partner with Microsoft Clarity and Microsoft Advertising to capture how you use and interact with our website through behavioral metrics, heatmaps, and session replay to improve and market our products/services. Website usage data is captured using first and third-party cookies and other tracking technologies to determine the popularity of products/services and online activity. Additionally, we use this information for site optimization, fraud/security purposes, and advertising. For more information about how Microsoft collects and uses your data, visit the Microsoft Privacy Statement.

Ad Networks

Third party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to The Candid Cooks website or other websites. Google’s use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visit to The Candid Cooks site and/or other sites on the Internet.

You may opt out of personalized advertising by visiting Ads Settings.

Mediavine Programmatic Advertising (Ver 1.1)

The Website works with Mediavine to manage third-party interest-based advertising appearing on the Website. Mediavine serves content and advertisements when you visit the Website, which may use first and third-party cookies. A cookie is a small text file which is sent to your computer or mobile device (referred to in this policy as a “device”) by the web server so that a website can remember some information about your browsing activity on the Website.

First party cookies are created by the website that you are visiting. A third-party cookie is frequently used in behavioral advertising and analytics and is created by a domain other than the website you are visiting. Third-party cookies, tags, pixels, beacons and other similar technologies (collectively, “Tags”) may be placed on the Website to monitor interaction with advertising content and to target and optimize advertising. Each internet browser has functionality so that you can block both first and third-party cookies and clear your browser’s cache. The “help” feature of the menu bar on most browsers will tell you how to stop accepting new cookies, how to receive notification of new cookies, how to disable existing cookies and how to clear your browser’s cache. For more information about cookies and how to disable them, you can consult the information at All About Cookies.

Without cookies you may not be able to take full advantage of the Website content and features. Please note that rejecting cookies does not mean that you will no longer see ads when you visit our Site. In the event you opt-out, you will still see non-personalized advertisements on the Website.

The Website collects the following data using a cookie when serving personalized ads:

  • IP Address
  • Operating System type
  • Operating System version
  • Device Type
  • Language of the website
  • Web browser type
  • Email (in hashed form)

Mediavine Partners (companies listed below with whom Mediavine shares data) may also use this data to link to other end user information the partner has independently collected to deliver targeted advertisements. Mediavine Partners may also separately collect data about end users from other sources, such as advertising IDs or pixels, and link that data to data collected from Mediavine publishers in order to provide interest-based advertising across your online experience, including devices, browsers and apps. This data includes usage data, cookie information, device information, information about interactions between users and advertisements and websites, geolocation data, traffic data, and information about a visitor’s referral source to a particular website. Mediavine Partners may also create unique IDs to create audience segments, which are used to provide targeted advertising.

If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices to opt-in or opt-out of this data collection, please visit National Advertising Initiative opt out page. You may also visit Digital Advertising Alliance website and Network Advertising Initiative website to learn more information about interest-based advertising. You may download the AppChoices app at Digital Advertising Alliance’s AppChoices app to opt out in connection with mobile apps, or use the platform controls on your mobile device to opt out.

For specific information about Mediavine Partners, the data each collects and their data collection and privacy policies, please visit Mediavine Partners.

Third-Party Links

We may occasionally include links to third-party products or services in our posts. These third-party sites are not operated by us and have separate and independent privacy policies. If you click on a third-party link you will be redirected to the third-party’s site, and we strongly advise you to review the privacy policy of every site you visit.

We have no control over and assume no responsibility for the content, privacy policies, or practices of any third-party sites or services. However, we welcome any feedback regarding these links as we value user experience and want to ensure that we are linking to quality content for our readers.

Controlling Your Information & Opting Out

If you have left comments on the site, subscribed to our email list, or provided feedback through our contact forms, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.

Additional Information

How We Protect Your Data

We are committed to ensuring that your personal information is secure. We have implemented a variety of security measures in order to prevent unauthorized access or disclosure and safeguard your personal information. We will never sell, distribute, or lease your personal information to third-party sites unless we are required by law to do so.

Children Under 13

The Candid Cooks website does not address anyone under the age of 13. We do not knowingly allow anyone under the age of 13 to provide us with personally identifiable information. If you are a parent or guardian and you are aware that your child has provided us with personal data, please contact us at hello@thecandidcooks.com. If you are under the age of 13, please do not provide us with any personal information. If we become aware that we have collected personal data from anyone under the age of 13 without verification of parental consent, we will take necessary action to remove that information from our servers.

Additional Third-Party Technology Services

The Candid Cooks uses the following third-party technology services, which are not operated by us and have separate and independent privacy policies. We strongly advise you to review the privacy policy of every site you visit. The third-party services we use, and their privacy policies, are outlined below: