Privacy Policy
What we collect, why, and how to ask us to delete it.
This policy explains what personal information The Food Gene collects when you use this website, why, and what you can ask us to do about it. It covers this website only.
Who we are
This website is run by The Food Gene, based in the United Kingdom, which decides how the information described here is used.
Contact: The Food Gene — hello@thefoodgene.com
To ask about anything in this policy, email hello@thefoodgene.com.
Reading the site
You can read every page without an account, and there is no advertising. Reading the site sets no cookies; the Cookie Policy lists the few things that can be stored on your device, and when.
Like every website, the server that hosts this one receives your IP address and your browser's details with each request, because that is how a page is delivered. Our web host may keep them in its server logs for security and to fix faults. We do not use them to identify you or build a profile of you.
Recipes you save
When you press Save on a recipe, its title and address are stored in your own browser, on that device only. They are never sent to us, so we cannot see them, and they do not move between your devices. Clearing your browser's data for this site removes them.
The newsletter
If you sign up for The Food Gene Journal, we store:
- your email address;
- the wording of the consent box you ticked, and the date and time you ticked it;
- the IP address your sign-up came from;
- which form you used, and whether and when you confirmed, unsubscribed or were passed to our newsletter service.
The consent wording, time and IP address are our record that you asked for the newsletter. We also use the IP address to limit how many sign-ups can come from one connection in an hour, which stops the form being used to send unwanted email to other people.
Signing up takes two steps. First we email you a link to confirm that the address is yours. Nothing more is sent, and your address goes nowhere else, unless you follow that link within 72 hours. When you confirm, your email address, and nothing else, is passed to MailerLite, the service that sends the newsletter for us. MailerLite handles it only on our instructions, as our data processor.
MailerLite also records whether each newsletter email is opened and which of its links are clicked, so we can see what readers find useful. Unsubscribing stops this along with the emails.
Every email has an unsubscribe link. Following it ends your subscription straight away, and we tell MailerLite to stop sending to you.
We rely on your consent to send the newsletter, and you can withdraw it at any time by unsubscribing. We keep the consent record, and use your IP address to limit sign-ups, because we have a legitimate interest in showing that we have your consent and in stopping the form being misused.
If you email us
If you write to us, we keep your email address and your message so that we can reply and follow up. We delete them when they are no longer needed, and do not add you to the newsletter unless you sign up yourself.
Videos
A video shows a still picture until you press Play, and nothing is loaded from YouTube or Vimeo before then. When you press Play, the video loads from YouTube's privacy-enhanced address (youtube-nocookie.com), or from Vimeo with its "do not track" setting, and that service receives your IP address and browser details as any website does. Its own privacy policy applies to the player.
Social media
Our follow and share buttons are plain links. Nothing is loaded from Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, TikTok or any other network until you click one. If you follow a link to one of these sites, its own privacy policy applies.
Visitor statistics
We do not use any visitor statistics or analytics service.
Who we share it with
We do not sell your information or share it for advertising. The only other organisations that handle it are:
- MailerLite, which receives your email address once you confirm a newsletter sign-up, and sends the newsletter;
- Hostinger, our web host, which runs the server the site and its database are on, and sends the site's emails, such as the confirmation email;
- a visitor statistics service, only if one is named above.
Where your information is stored
Our service providers may store or handle information outside the United Kingdom. Where they do, they protect it with the safeguards that UK data protection law requires.
How long we keep it
- Sign-ups that are never confirmed are deleted after 30 days. Nothing is ever sent to them except the one confirmation email.
- While you are subscribed, we keep your newsletter record.
- After you unsubscribe, we keep only your email address and the date you left, so that we never email you again. The rest of your record, including the IP address, is deleted after 12 months.
- Emails you send us are deleted when they are no longer needed.
You can ask us to delete your record sooner at any time by emailing hello@thefoodgene.com.
Your rights
Under UK and EU data protection law you can ask us for a copy of the personal information we hold about you, and ask us to correct it, delete it, or stop or limit using it. To make a request, email hello@thefoodgene.com. We will reply within one month.
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk) in the UK, or to the data protection authority where you live in the EU. We would be grateful for the chance to put it right first.
Changes to this policy
When the site changes what it collects, this page changes too. The date at the top shows when it was last updated.