Privacy Policy
How beachsidereader.com handles your data, what we collect, and your rights.
Who we are
beachsidereader.com is the home of The Beachside Reader, a free, ad-free, evidence-based health journal published by Tim Bunce. For privacy questions reach editor@beachsidereader.com.
What we collect
Information you give us
Information collected automatically
Our web server logs standard request data: IP address, browser user-agent, the page you requested, and the page that referred you. These logs are kept for up to 90 days and used only for security monitoring and aggregate traffic analysis. For traffic measurement we use Google Analytics 4, configured with Google Consent Mode: by default it runs cookieless and sets no analytics cookies until you choose Accept on our cookie banner. If you Decline (or ignore the banner), Google Analytics stays cookieless — anonymous, aggregated counts only, with no cross-site identifiers. We do not use Facebook Pixel or other behavioural-advertising tracking, and we never use your data for advertising. You can opt out globally with the Google Analytics Opt-out Add-on, or change your choice any time by clearing this site's cookies.
Cookies
This site sets a small "preference" cookie that remembers your light or dark reading mode. Only if you click Accept on the cookie banner, Google Analytics also sets its measurement cookies (_ga) to count visits; if you Decline, no analytics cookies are set. We set no third-party advertising cookies. The third-party services we link to (Amazon.ca, Google Maps, Facebook, Instagram) set their own cookies on their own domains; we have no access to those.
Affiliate tracking on outbound Amazon links
When you click an Amazon product card on this site, the link includes our Amazon Associates tracking tag. This tag is sent to Amazon (not to us), and Amazon uses it to credit any purchase you make in the next 24 hours back to our account. See our Affiliate Disclosure for full details.
Your rights under PIPEDA
Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act gives you the right to: access the personal information we hold about you, request corrections, and request deletion. Email editor@beachsidereader.com (Reader-related data) with the subject line "PIPEDA request" and we will respond within 30 days.
Your account & connected health data
The Reader is free to read with no account. If we offer optional sign-in and connect-your-tracker features, this section governs them. They are entirely opt-in — you can use every article and calculator without ever signing in.
If you sign in
When you choose to sign in with a provider (such as Google, Apple, Microsoft, GitHub, Facebook, or Discord), we receive and store only your name, email address, profile photo, and the provider’s account identifier. We use this solely to recognise you across visits and to save your preferences, reading history, and calculator results to your account. We never receive or store your password — authentication happens on the provider’s side.
If you connect a fitness tracker or health app
You may optionally connect a wearable or health service (for example Strava, Oura, Withings, Fitbit, Garmin, or others) so the Reader’s calculators can use your real numbers instead of asking you to type them in. If you do, we store only the specific metrics you approve at the consent screen — such as steps, workouts, heart-rate, or sleep summaries — on our own server, tied to your account. We request the minimum scope needed for the tool you’re using, and we show you exactly what will be read before you approve it.
What we do with it — and what we never do
- Used only for your own tools: connected data powers your calculators and your private “your numbers” dashboard. That is the only purpose.
- Never sold, rented, traded, or shared. We do not share account or health data with advertisers, data brokers, or any third party for their own use. There is no behavioural advertising or analytics applied to it.
- Stays on our server. Account and health data live on our own infrastructure. If we ever use a wearable-aggregation service to connect devices, it acts only as a conduit to deliver the data you approved to us, is named here, and is bound to use it only for that purpose — never for its own marketing.
- You stay in control: you can disconnect any provider and delete all stored account and health data at any time, in one step. Disconnecting revokes our access token with the provider and erases what we held.
Health and fitness information is sensitive, and we treat it that way: least-data-needed, on our own server, for your tools only, deletable on demand, and never a product we sell.
Data we do NOT collect
We do not collect: payment information (we don't take payments online), health information, demographic data, location data beyond IP-based country, or any data from minors under 13 (this site is not directed at children).
Data retention & security
Contact-form submissions are retained for as long as needed to respond, then for up to one year afterward for follow-up purposes. Server logs: 90 days. Email correspondence: per our standard email retention. We use industry-standard HTTPS encryption for all data in transit. We will never sell, rent, or trade your personal information.
Changes to this policy
If we materially change this policy, we will update the "Last updated" date above and post a brief note on the homepage for 30 days.
Contact us about privacy
For privacy questions related to The Beachside Reader (articles, content): editor@beachsidereader.com (Tim Bunce — E