Privacy policy

Last Updated: 7th April 2025

1. Introduction

Welcome to The Parenting Patch ("we," "us," "our"). We are committed to protecting the privacy of our visitors. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you visit our website, https://theparentingpatch.com (the "Website").

Please read this Privacy Policy carefully. By using the Website, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with the terms of this Privacy Policy, please do not access the Website.

2. Who We Are (Data Controller)

The Parenting Patch is the data controller responsible for your personal data collected through this Website.

3. Information We Collect

We may collect certain information about you when you visit our Website. This information includes:

Technical Data: This includes your Internet Protocol (IP) address (which may be anonymized by our analytics provider), browser type and version, operating system, device type, general geographic location, time zone setting, and referring website URLs. This data is collected by our hosting provider (Cloudflare) for operational purposes and by our analytics provider (Google Analytics).
Usage Data: This includes information about how you use our Website, such as the pages you visit, how long you stay on each page, the links you click, and your navigation path through the site. This is collected via Google Analytics.
Identifier Data: Google Analytics uses cookies to assign a unique identifier to your browser to distinguish between visitors and track sessions.
Affiliate Interaction Data: We note when you click on affiliate links (like those for Amazon Associates) to track referrals.

4. How We Collect Your Information

We collect information primarily in the following way:

Automatically: As you navigate the Website, technical data, usage data, identifier data, and affiliate link interaction data are collected automatically through our server logs (via Cloudflare), analytics scripts (Google Analytics), and the functionality of affiliate links.

5. How and Why We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect for the following purposes:

To Operate and Maintain Our Website: We use technical data logged by our hosting provider (Cloudflare) to ensure the Website functions correctly, remains secure, performs efficiently, and to troubleshoot technical problems.
To Analyse and Improve Our Website: We use technical data, usage data, and identifier data collected by Google Analytics to understand how visitors use our Website, identify popular content, analyse overall traffic patterns, and make improvements to the Website's content, layout, and user experience.
To Enable Affiliate Partnerships: We track clicks on affiliate links (like those to Amazon) to manage our affiliate relationships and potentially earn commissions if you make a purchase after clicking a link.

6. Lawful Basis for Processing Your Information (UK GDPR)

Under UK data protection law, we need a valid legal reason (lawful basis) to process your personal data. Our lawful bases are:

Legitimate Interests: We rely on our legitimate interests to process basic technical data necessary for operating, maintaining, and securing our Website (using Cloudflare logs). Our interest is in providing a functional and secure online presence.
Consent: We rely on your explicit consent to:
- Process technical, usage, and identifier data using Google Analytics for website analysis and improvement.
- Process data related to your interaction with affiliate links (like Amazon Associates) for tracking referrals.

You provide this consent through the cookie consent banner presented when you visit our Website. You have the right to withdraw your consent at any time (see Section 12).

7. Cookies and Similar Technologies

Our Website uses cookies and potentially other similar technologies (like pixels or local storage) to enhance your experience, operate the site, perform analytics, and manage affiliate links. Cookies are small text files stored on your device.

We categorize cookies as follows:

Strictly Necessary Cookies: These are essential for the Website to function properly or provide necessary security. Examples include cookies set by our hosting provider (Cloudflare) for security purposes or cookies set by our consent management tool to remember your privacy preferences. These cookies do not require your prior consent but are active for the site to work.
Performance / Analytics Cookies: These cookies help us understand how visitors interact with our Website. Google Analytics uses these cookies (`_ga`, `_gid`, etc.) to collect usage data and distinguish between users. These cookies are only used if you provide your consent.
Targeting / Affiliate Cookies & Tracking: These are related to our affiliate marketing activities. Clicking on an affiliate link (e.g., to Amazon) may lead to tracking cookies being set by that third-party partner to track referrals. Your prior consent allows this tracking pathway to be enabled. This tracking is only enabled if you provide your consent.

Managing Your Preferences: You can manage your consent for non-essential cookies (Analytics and Affiliate/Tracking) at any time through the cookie consent management tool available on our Website.

We do not sell your personal data. However, we may share your information with trusted third-party service providers and partners who help us operate our Website and conduct our business, including:

Hosting, CDN, and Security Providers: We use Cloudflare to host our Website and provide security and content delivery network services. Cloudflare processes technical data as part of these services.
Analytics Providers: We use Google Analytics to understand website traffic and usage. Google processes technical, usage, and identifier data on our behalf according to their own privacy policies and terms. We recommend enabling IP anonymization within Google Analytics.
Affiliate Program Partners: We participate in affiliate programs like Amazon Associates. When you click an affiliate link, you are directed to the partner's website (e.g., Amazon). That partner will then process your data according to their own privacy policy and may use cookies for tracking purposes.
Future Integrations: If we add features like social media sharing buttons (e.g., from Facebook, Pinterest) in the future, these third parties may also collect data or set cookies, subject to your consent where applicable.
Legal Requirements: We may disclose your information if required to do so by law or in response to valid requests by public authorities.

9. International Data Transfers

The third-party service providers we use (such as Google, Cloudflare, and Amazon) may store or process your personal data on servers located outside the United Kingdom (UK) and the European Economic Area (EEA), including in the United States.

When we or our service providers transfer your data outside the UK/EEA, we ensure appropriate safeguards are in place as required by UK data protection law to protect your information. These safeguards may include reliance on Adequacy Decisions or the use of Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) approved for transfers from the UK (such as the UK's International Data Transfer Agreement or Addendum).

10. Data Security

We implement reasonable technical and organisational security measures designed to protect the security of any personal information we process. This includes using HTTPS/SSL encryption for data transmitted to and from our Website and relying on the secure infrastructure of our hosting provider. However, please remember that no electronic transmission over the internet or information storage technology can be guaranteed to be 100% secure.

11. Data Retention

We will only keep your personal information for as long as it is necessary for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy, unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law (such as tax, accounting, or other legal requirements).

Operational logs (e.g., from Cloudflare) are typically retained for a limited period necessary for security and troubleshooting before being automatically deleted according to the provider's schedule.
Google Analytics data is retained for a period configured by us, after which it is automatically deleted. Aggregated data that cannot identify you may be kept longer.

When we have no ongoing legitimate business need to process your personal information, we will either delete or anonymize it, or, if this is not possible (for example, because your personal information has been stored in backup archives), then we will securely store your personal information and isolate it from any further processing until deletion is possible.

12. Your Data Protection Rights (UK GDPR)

Under UK data protection law, you have certain rights regarding your personal data. These include the right to:

Access: Request copies of your personal data.
Rectification: Request correction of inaccurate personal data or completion of incomplete data.
Erasure ('Right to be forgotten'): Request deletion of your personal data under certain conditions.
Restrict Processing: Request restriction of the processing of your personal data under certain conditions.
Object to Processing: Object to our processing of your personal data under certain conditions, particularly where we rely on legitimate interests.
Data Portability: Request transfer of the data that we have collected to another organization, or directly to you, under certain conditions (less likely applicable to automatically collected data on our site).
Withdraw Consent: Withdraw your consent at any time where we rely on consent to process your data (e.g., for Analytics, Affiliate tracking). You can typically do this via our cookie consent management tool or by contacting us. Withdrawing consent will not affect the lawfulness of processing before withdrawal.
Lodge a Complaint: Complain to the UK's supervisory authority for data protection issues, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), if you are unhappy with how we have used your data.

You can find more information and contact the ICO at their website: https://www.ico.org.uk/

To exercise any of your rights (other than managing cookie consent via the tool or complaining directly to the ICO), please contact us using the details provided in Section 16. Please note that we may need to verify your identity before responding to such requests, and certain limitations may apply to your ability to exercise these rights (particularly regarding automatically collected, aggregated, or anonymized data).

13. Children's Privacy

Our Website is not intended for or directed at children under the age of 18. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 18. If you are a parent or guardian and believe that your child has provided us with personal information, please contact us immediately using the details below. If we become aware that we have collected personal information from a child under 18 without verification of parental consent, we will take steps to remove that information from our servers.

14. Links to Other Websites

Our Website contains links to other websites, including affiliate links (e.g., to Amazon). We are not responsible for the content or privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of any other site that collects personally identifiable information. This Privacy Policy applies solely to information collected by this Website.

15. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The updated version will be indicated by an updated "Last Updated" date and the updated version will be effective as soon as it is accessible. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy frequently to be informed of how we are protecting your information.

16. How to Contact Us

If you have questions or comments about this Privacy Policy, or if you wish to exercise your data protection rights, please contact us at:

Email: [email protected]