Privacy Policy

HomeIndependenceGuide.com ("we," "us," or "our") is committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you visit our website. Please read this policy carefully. If you disagree with its terms, please discontinue use of the site.

1. Information We Collect

Information you provide directly

We do not require you to create an account or provide personal information to use HomeIndependenceGuide.com. If you contact us via email, we collect the information you include in that message (such as your name and email address).

Information collected automatically

When you visit our site, certain information is collected automatically by our hosting provider (Cloudflare Pages) and any analytics tools we use. This may include:

• Your IP address (typically anonymised)
• Browser type and version
• Operating system
• Pages visited and time spent on each page
• Referring URL (the page you visited before ours)
• Date and time of your visit

This data is used in aggregate form to understand how visitors use the site and to improve our content. We do not use it to identify individual users.

AI Review Tool

When you use our AI-powered product review tool, the product name or search query you enter is sent to our server-side function, which forwards it to Anthropic's API to generate a review summary. We do not store the queries you submit or the results returned. Anthropic's use of data submitted through API calls is governed by Anthropic's Privacy Policy.

2. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect to:

• Operate and improve the website and its content
• Understand how visitors interact with our pages
• Respond to inquiries or feedback you send us
• Monitor for technical issues and security threats
• Comply with legal obligations

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to third parties for their marketing purposes.

3. Cookies & Tracking

Cookies are small text files stored on your device when you visit a website. HomeIndependenceGuide.com may use the following types of cookies:

Essential cookies

These are necessary for the website to function and cannot be disabled. They do not store personally identifiable information.

Analytics cookies

If we use analytics services (such as Cloudflare Web Analytics or similar privacy-focused tools), these may set cookies to help us understand aggregate visitor behaviour. We favour analytics tools that do not track individuals across sites and do not sell data to advertisers.

Third-party cookies

Links to Amazon and other affiliate partners may result in those services setting their own cookies on your device when you click through. We do not control third-party cookies. Please refer to the privacy policies of those services for details.

Most browsers allow you to refuse or delete cookies through their settings. Disabling cookies may affect some functionality of third-party services you navigate to from our site, but will not affect your ability to read content on HomeIndependenceGuide.com.

4. Third-Party Services

Our website uses the following third-party services, each with their own privacy policies:

• Cloudflare Pages — website hosting and edge network. Cloudflare Privacy Policy
• Anthropic — AI API used to power our product review tool. Anthropic Privacy Policy
• Amazon Associates — affiliate programme. Clicking our Amazon links may set Amazon cookies. Amazon Privacy Policy
• Google Fonts — we load fonts from Google's CDN. Google may collect limited data from font requests. Google Privacy Policy

5. Affiliate Links

HomeIndependenceGuide.com participates in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program and may participate in other affiliate programmes. When you click an affiliate link and make a purchase, we may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. See our full Affiliate Disclosure for details.

6. Data Retention

We retain automatically collected analytics data only as long as necessary for the purposes described in this policy, and in line with the data retention policies of our analytics provider. Email correspondence is retained for as long as necessary to respond to your inquiry and for a reasonable period thereafter.

7. Your Rights

Depending on your location, you may have certain rights regarding your personal information, including:

• The right to access personal information we hold about you
• The right to request correction of inaccurate information
• The right to request deletion of your information
• The right to opt out of certain data processing activities

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the details in Section 10. We will respond within 30 days.

If you are a resident of California, you may have additional rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). If you are a resident of the European Economic Area, you may have rights under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). We are committed to honouring these rights.

8. Children's Privacy

HomeIndependenceGuide.com is not directed at children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us and we will take steps to delete it.

9. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will revise the "Last updated" date at the top of the page. We encourage you to review this policy periodically. Continued use of the site after changes are posted constitutes your acceptance of the updated policy.

10. Contact Us