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By Scott Benson —

Privacy Policy

Last updated: June 3, 2026

This Privacy Policy describes Our policies and procedures on the collection, use and disclosure of Your information when You use the Service and tells You about Your privacy rights and how the law protects You.

We use Your Personal Data to provide and improve the Service. By using the Service, You agree to the collection and use of information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

Interpretation and Definitions

Interpretation

The words whose initial letters are capitalized have meanings defined under the following conditions. The following definitions shall have the same meaning regardless of whether they appear in singular or in plural.

Definitions

For the purposes of this Privacy Policy:

  • Account means the newsletter membership record created when You subscribe to receive Our newsletter.
  • Company (referred to as either "the Company", "We", "Us" or "Our" in this Privacy Policy) refers to Contextual Guides.
  • Cookies are small files that are placed on Your computer, mobile device or any other device by a website, containing the details of Your browsing history on that website among its many uses.
  • Country refers to: California, United States
  • Device means any device that can access the Service such as a computer, a cell phone or a digital tablet.
  • Personal Data (or "Personal Information") is any information that relates to an identified or identifiable individual. We use "Personal Data" and "Personal Information" interchangeably unless a law uses a specific term.
  • Service refers to the Website.
  • Service Provider means any natural or legal person who processes the data on behalf of the Company. It refers to third-party companies or individuals employed by the Company to facilitate the Service, to provide the Service on behalf of the Company, to perform services related to the Service or to assist the Company in operating the Service.
  • Usage Data refers to data collected automatically, either generated by the use of the Service or from the Service infrastructure itself (for example, the duration of a page visit).
  • Website refers to Contextual Guides, accessible from www.contextualguides.com.
  • You means the individual accessing or using the Service, or the company, or other legal entity on behalf of which such individual is accessing or using the Service, as applicable.

Collecting and Using Your Personal Data

Types of Data Collected

Personal Data

While using Our Service, We may ask You to provide Us with certain personally identifiable information that can be used to contact or identify You. The Personal Data We collect is limited to:

  • Newsletter signup. If You subscribe to Our newsletter, We collect Your email address. No password is required — You sign in using a one-time magic link sent to that address. Signup uses double opt-in. Unsubscribing stops the newsletter while keeping Your account active; Your record is deleted when You delete Your account.
  • Contact form. If You message Us through the contact form, We collect the name, email address, subject, and message You provide so We can respond. These messages are delivered to Our inbox by Our email provider and are not stored in a database on the Website.

Usage Data

Usage Data is collected automatically when using the Service.

Usage Data may include information such as Your Device's Internet Protocol address (e.g. IP address), browser type, browser version, the pages of our Service that You visit, the time and date of Your visit, the time spent on those pages, and other diagnostic data. When You access the Service through a mobile device, this may include the type of device, its operating system, and the type of mobile browser You use.

This information is collected through Our hosting provider's first-party analytics and through standard server logs. We do not use analytics cookies, advertising cookies, or email open-tracking pixels.

The Likes Feature

When You like a guide, We store a salted, one-way hash derived from Your IP address for 24 hours. This lets Us stop the same connection from liking a guide repeatedly. We do not store the IP address itself, and the hash expires within a day.

Tracking Technologies and Cookies

We use only strictly necessary and security Cookies to operate the Service. We do not use analytics, advertising, or remarketing cookies, and We do not use web beacons or tracking pixels.

Cookies can be "Persistent" or "Session" Cookies. Persistent Cookies remain on Your device when You go offline, while Session Cookies are deleted as soon as You close Your web browser. You can instruct Your browser to refuse Cookies, but some parts of the Service may not function as a result.

The Cookies We use are:

  • Member session cookies (ghost-members-ssr, ghost-members-ssr.sig)

    Type: Server Cookies, set by Our hosting provider (Ghost)

    Purpose: Strictly necessary. Maintain Your session at newsletter signup/confirmation.

  • Security cookies (e.g. __cf_bm, cf_clearance)

    Type: Set by Our security/CDN provider (Cloudflare), including the bot check on the contact form

    Purpose: Strictly necessary. Distinguish humans from bots and protect the Service from automated abuse.

We also store a small number of preferences in Your browser's local storage on Your device only — for example Your chosen theme, text size, contrast, and reduced-motion settings, whether You have dismissed the signup prompt, and which guides You have liked. These values stay on Your device, are never sent to any server, and can be cleared through Your browser settings.

Use of Your Personal Data

The Company may use Personal Data for the following purposes:

  • To provide and maintain our Service, including to monitor the usage of our Service.
  • To deliver Our newsletter: to manage Your subscription and send You the newsletter You signed up for.
  • To respond to Your inquiries: to attend to and manage requests You send Us through the contact form.
  • To operate the likes feature and prevent abuse, as described above.
  • For security and abuse prevention: to keep the Service safe, including bot defense and fraud monitoring.
  • For business transfers: We may use Your Personal Data to evaluate or conduct a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of Our assets, in which Personal Data held by Us about our Service users is among the assets transferred.

We may share Your Personal Data in the following situations:

  • With Service Providers: We share Personal Data with the providers that operate the Service on Our behalf, namely: Ghost (hosting, member and email storage, newsletter, first-party analytics) and its email transport provider Mailgun (sends newsletter email); Cloudflare (CDN, DNS, security, and the contact-form bot check); and Resend (delivers contact-form messages to Our inbox).
  • For business transfers: We may share or transfer Your Personal Data in connection with, or during negotiations of, any merger, sale of Company assets, financing, or acquisition of all or a portion of Our business to another company.
  • With Your consent: We may disclose Your Personal Data for any other purpose with Your consent.

We do not sell Your Personal Data, and We do not share it for cross-context behavioral or targeted advertising.

Retention of Your Personal Data

The Company will retain Your Personal Data only for as long as is necessary for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy, and to comply with Our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce Our agreements and policies.

In practice:

  • Newsletter email address: retained until You delete Your account, at which point Your member record is deleted immediately, or until We delete it. Unsubscribing stops the newsletter but does not by itself delete Your record.
  • Contact-form messages: retained in Our inbox for as long as needed to handle Your inquiry; Our email provider keeps short-lived delivery logs.
  • Like hash: automatically expires 24 hours after it is created.
  • Server logs (IP addresses, access times): retained for a short period per Our hosting and security providers' policies, for security monitoring and troubleshooting.

We may retain Personal Data longer where necessary to comply with a legal obligation, to establish, exercise, or defend legal claims, or where copies persist temporarily in routine encrypted backups. When data is no longer needed, We securely delete or anonymize it.

Transfer of Your Personal Data

Your information, including Personal Data, is processed at the Company's operating locations and by the service providers described above. Our providers are based in the United States, which means Your information may be transferred to — and maintained on — computers located outside of Your state, province, or country, where data protection laws may differ from those in Your jurisdiction.

Where required by applicable law, We will ensure that international transfers of Your Personal Data are subject to appropriate safeguards, such as the standard contractual clauses or data processing agreements offered by Our providers. The Company will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that Your data is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

Delete Your Personal Data

You have the right to delete or request that We assist in deleting the Personal Data that We have collected about You.

The simplest way to do this for the newsletter is to delete Your account yourself: sign in with the magic link sent to Your email, open the preferences panel, and choose to delete Your account. Deletion takes effect immediately after a confirmation step and removes Your member record entirely. Unsubscribing — using the link in any newsletter email or from the preferences panel — stops the newsletter but keeps Your account. You may also ask Us to delete Your account, or to provide access to or correction of any Personal Data You have provided, through the contact form.

Please note that We may need to retain certain information where We have a legal obligation or lawful basis to do so.

Disclosure of Your Personal Data

Business Transactions

If the Company is involved in a merger, acquisition or asset sale, Your Personal Data may be transferred. We will provide notice before Your Personal Data is transferred and becomes subject to a different Privacy Policy.

Law enforcement

Under certain circumstances, the Company may be required to disclose Your Personal Data if required to do so by law or in response to valid requests by public authorities (e.g. a court or a government agency).

Other legal requirements

The Company may disclose Your Personal Data in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to:

  • Comply with a legal obligation
  • Protect and defend the rights or property of the Company
  • Prevent or investigate possible wrongdoing in connection with the Service
  • Protect the personal safety of Users of the Service or the public
  • Protect against legal liability

Security of Your Personal Data

The security of Your Personal Data is important to Us. We serve the Service over HTTPS, hold secrets as protected configuration rather than in source code, defend against bots and abuse, and store IP addresses for the likes feature only as a salted 24-hour hash. However, no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure. While We strive to use commercially reasonable means to protect Your Personal Data, We cannot guarantee its absolute security.

Children's Privacy

Our Service does not address anyone under the age of 16. We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 16. If You are a parent or guardian and You are aware that Your child has provided Us with Personal Data, please contact Us. If We become aware that We have collected Personal Data from anyone under the age of 16 without verification of parental consent, We take steps to remove that information from Our servers.

If We need to rely on consent as a legal basis for processing Your information and Your country requires consent from a parent, We may require Your parent's consent before We collect and use that information.

Links to Other Websites

Our Service may contain links to other websites that are not operated by Us. If You click on a third party link, You will be directed to that third party's site. We strongly advise You to review the Privacy Policy of every site You visit.

We have no control over and assume no responsibility for the content, privacy policies or practices of any third party sites or services.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update Our Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify You of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page and updating the "Last updated" date at the top of this Privacy Policy.

You are advised to review this Privacy Policy periodically for any changes. Changes to this Privacy Policy are effective when they are posted on this page.

Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, You can contact us: