1. Overview
Culture & Clay is an educational website about home kombucha brewing. It has no user accounts, no shopping cart, no newsletter and no advertising. That design decision removes most of the reasons a site would normally collect personal information about you, and this policy reflects that.
In short: we collect what you voluntarily send us through the contact form, plus a small amount of anonymous technical information that any web server records. We do not build profiles, we do not track you across other websites, and we do not sell anything to anyone.
2. Information we collect
2.1 Information you give us
The only place this site accepts personal information is the contact form. If you use it, we receive:
- the name you enter, so we can address our reply;
- your email address, so we can reply;
- the subject you select;
- the content of your message.
Providing these details is optional — you can email us instead. We do not require any other information, and we do not ask for your phone number, postal address, date of birth, payment details or government identification.
2.2 Information collected automatically
Like almost every website, the server that delivers these pages records basic technical information in standard access logs. This typically includes the page requested, the date and time, the referring page, a truncated or anonymised IP address, and the browser and operating system family. This information is used to keep the site working, to diagnose errors and to understand which pages are useful. It is not used to identify you.
2.3 Information we deliberately do not collect
To be explicit, this site does not collect or process:
- account credentials — there are no accounts;
- payment or financial information — nothing is sold;
- your postal address or telephone number;
- your date of birth or government identification;
- health, medical, biometric or genetic information;
- racial or ethnic origin, religious beliefs, political opinions, or trade-union membership;
- sexual orientation or sex life;
- precise geolocation data;
- your contacts, photos, calendar or files.
Please do not send sensitive information of this kind through the contact form. If you do, our practice is to delete it once we have read the message.
3. Calculator inputs stay in your browser
The recipe calculator, the pH & fermentation estimator and the carbonation calculator all run entirely inside your own browser using JavaScript. The values you type — batch volumes, temperatures, pH readings — are never transmitted to our servers, never logged, and never stored anywhere. Close the page and they are gone.
4. Cookies and local storage
This site sets no advertising cookies and no third-party tracking cookies. We do not use cookie-based analytics or cross-site identifiers.
If we use browser local storage at all, it is only to remember a preference on your own device — for example a filter or sort setting on a listing page. That data stays on your device, is not readable by us, and can be cleared at any time through your browser settings.
5. Analytics
If we use an analytics tool, we choose one that does not rely on cookies and does not build individual profiles — for example a privacy-focused, aggregate-only analytics service. Any such tool reports counts and trends, such as how many people visited a page in a given week, and not information about identifiable individuals. Aggregate analytics data is never combined with the contents of a contact message.
6. Third-party services
This site is written to work without third-party embeds. We do not embed social media widgets, video players, advertising networks, comment systems or tracking pixels, because each of those would introduce an outside party into your visit.
The site is served through a hosting provider, which necessarily processes standard server logs on our behalf as a data processor. If we ever add a service that changes this, this section will be updated before the change goes live and the "last updated" date above will change.
7. Legal basis for processing
Where the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) applies, we rely on the following legal bases.
| Purpose | Legal basis |
|---|---|
| Answering a message you send us | Consent (Article 6(1)(a)) and performance of a service you requested (Article 6(1)(b)) |
| Keeping the website working and secure | Legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f)) in operating a functioning, safe site |
| Aggregate analytics with no individual profiling | Legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f)) in understanding what is useful |
| Complying with a legal obligation | Legal obligation (Article 6(1)(c)) where one applies |
You can withdraw consent at any time by emailing us and asking us to delete your message. Withdrawal does not affect processing that already took place.
8. International transfers
Our hosting infrastructure may process data in a country other than yours. Where personal information is transferred internationally, we rely on appropriate safeguards such as standard contractual clauses, or on a transfer mechanism recognised as adequate by the relevant authority. Because the volume of personal data we hold is very small — limited to correspondence you initiate — the practical exposure is limited as well.
9. Data retention
| Data | Retention period | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Contact form message and email address | Up to 24 months after the conversation ends | So we can pick up a thread if you write again |
| Corrections correspondence | Up to 36 months | To show why a page was changed |
| Server access logs | Typically 30 to 90 days | Security and troubleshooting; then rotated |
| Aggregate analytics | Indefinite, but not identifiable | Trend comparison over time |
| Calculator inputs | Never stored | They never leave your browser |
10. How we protect your information
- The site is served over HTTPS, so data in transit is encrypted.
- We minimise collection in the first place, which is the most effective protection available.
- Access to correspondence is limited to the small number of people who answer it.
- We do not store personal information in a public or indexable location.
No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security. If a breach affecting your personal information were to occur, we would notify affected individuals and any relevant authority as required by applicable law.
11. Your rights
Depending on where you live, you may have some or all of the following rights over your personal information.
| Right | What it means |
|---|---|
| Access | Ask whether we hold information about you, and receive a copy. |
| Rectification | Ask us to correct information that is inaccurate or incomplete. |
| Erasure | Ask us to delete your information, where no overriding legal obligation applies. |
| Restriction | Ask us to pause processing while a concern is resolved. |
| Objection | Object to processing based on legitimate interests. |
| Portability | Receive information you gave us in a structured, commonly used format. |
| Withdraw consent | Withdraw consent for correspondence at any time. |
| Complain | Lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority. |
To exercise any of these, email [email protected] or use the contact form. We aim to respond within 30 days. We will not charge a fee for a reasonable request.
12. Notice for the EEA, UK and Switzerland
If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, you have the rights set out in section 11 and the right to lodge a complaint with your national supervisory authority. The data controller for this site is Culture & Clay, reachable at the privacy address above. Because we do not offer goods or services for sale, do not track behaviour across sites and do not process special-category data, we do not carry out large-scale monitoring and we have not appointed a statutory Data Protection Officer.
13. Notice for California residents
If you are a California resident, the following applies under the California Consumer Privacy Act as amended.
- Categories collected: identifiers (name, email address) and the content of a message you choose to send. No other category is collected.
- Sources: directly from you, through the contact form or by email.
- Purposes: to reply to your enquiry and to correct factual errors you report.
- Sale or sharing: we do not sell and have not sold personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioural advertising.
- Sensitive personal information: we do not collect it and do not use it to infer characteristics about you.
- Your rights: to know, to delete, to correct, to opt out of sale or sharing (which does not apply here), to limit the use of sensitive personal information (which we do not collect), and to be free from discrimination for exercising your rights.
14. Children's privacy
This site is written for adults of legal drinking age and is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 16. If you believe a child has sent us personal information, contact us and we will delete it promptly.
Separately, and for the sake of clarity: kombucha contains trace alcohol and caffeine and is not a suitable drink for children, regardless of any privacy consideration.
15. Do Not Track
We honour the spirit of Do Not Track signals by not tracking you in the first place. Because this site does not use cross-site tracking, there is no behavioural profile to opt out of.
16. Changes to this policy
If this policy changes, we will update the "last updated" date and the version number at the top of the page. For a material change — for example if we were ever to introduce accounts or a newsletter — we would describe the change clearly on this page before it takes effect. Continuing to use the site after an update means you accept the revised policy.
17. How to contact us
- General enquiries: [email protected]
- Privacy and data requests: [email protected]
- Corrections: [email protected]
- Contact form: pages/contact.html
- Response time: within 30 days for data requests; within 2 business days for general enquiries
Summary in one paragraph
We collect only what you type into the contact form, we use it only to reply, and we delete it within 24 months. The calculators run in your browser and store nothing. There are no accounts, no cookies for tracking, no advertising and no data sales. You can ask us what we hold and have it deleted at any time by emailing the privacy address above.