Privacy Policy

This policy describes what plantsbythebook collects, why, and what it does 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 count visits with our own cookie-free counter, which stores no IP address and nothing that identifies you. The only personal information we ever hold is an email address you use to write to us.

Analytics: what the counter records

We run a first-party counter 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, without anything after a question mark in its address;
  • the referring domain only, for example “google.com”, never the full address 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;
  • a click on a link to Amazon, or on the tool button at the end of a guide, so we know which pages 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. Individual records are deleted after 180 days.

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.

We honour Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control. If your browser sends either signal, the page view is not counted at all. Both are checked on the server, so the choice is respected whether or not our script 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

  • Plant Finder, Start Here and Plant Recommender. The ZIP code or place name you enter is looked up in our own data, in your browser or on our own server. It is not passed to a mapping or location service, and we do not save it. It can appear in the page’s address, so it may be in the hosting company’s access log like any other request (see below).
  • System & Pod Finder. We record what is typed into its search box, which brand button is picked and which result button is clicked, with the time and nothing that identifies you. We use it to see which systems people look for and cannot find. Please do not type personal information into it.
  • Consumables Cost Calculator. We count that the calculator was opened and used. The numbers you enter are not recorded.
  • Site search. What you search for appears in the page’s address. We do not keep a record of it.

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. We have no such form, 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 and page addresses, for security and abuse handling, under its own retention schedule. That is separate from our counter and we do not mine it.

Email: only if you write to us

We have no newsletter and no accounts. An email address reaches us only when you write to the address on the contact page. We use it to answer you. Ask us to delete the correspondence and 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 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, a manufacturer or a source, you are on their site under their rules, and they may 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 what other sites do with your data.

Children

This site is written for adults making decisions about their gardens, 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, on the server.
  • Want something deleted, or want to know what we hold? Write to us through the contact page.

Changes

If our practices change, this page changes with them and the date at the top moves. See also our editorial and sourcing policy.