Privacy Policy

1. Information We Collect

The Measuring Cup is a recipe website. We keep things simple.

Automatically Collected Data

When you visit The Measuring Cup, we collect standard information that your browser sends to every website you visit:

• Page views — which recipes and pages you look at
• Device and browser info — screen size, browser type, operating system
• Referrer — how you found us (search engine, social media, direct link)
• General location — country and city derived from your IP address (not your precise location)

We use Google Analytics 4 (Measurement ID: G-JC24W5JRV7) for this. Google Analytics uses cookies to distinguish visitors. You can read Google's privacy policy at policies.google.com/privacy.

2. Email Newsletter & Lead Magnets

What We Collect When You Subscribe

When you voluntarily sign up for our newsletter or download a free lead magnet (such as our "5-Ingredient Summer Dinners" PDF), we collect your email address. You may also optionally provide your first name.

How We Use Your Email

• To send you our weekly recipe newsletter (one email per week)
• To deliver free lead magnet PDFs you've requested
• To send a brief welcome sequence introducing you to our content
• To occasionally ask for feedback about what recipes you'd like to see

Our Email Provider

We use Buttondown to manage our newsletter. Buttondown processes your email address on our behalf. Buttondown's privacy policy is available at buttondown.email/privacy.

Your Consent

Every signup form on our site includes a checkbox where you explicitly agree to receive emails from us. We only send emails to people who have opted in. Every email includes a clear unsubscribe link — click it and you're removed immediately, no questions asked.

3. What We Don't Collect

We do not:

• Require you to create an account
• Collect your phone number, physical address, or payment information
• Run advertisements or ad tracking
• Use any social media tracking pixels
• Sell, rent, or share your personal data with anyone

3. Cookies

We set one type of cookie: the Google Analytics cookie (_ga), which helps us count visitors and understand which recipes are popular. It contains a random identifier — not personal information.

You can disable cookies in your browser settings at any time. You can also install the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on to prevent GA4 from collecting data about your visits across all websites.

4. How We Use Your Data

We use analytics data to:

• Understand which recipes and content people find most useful
• Identify technical issues (broken pages, slow load times)
• Improve the site based on how people actually use it

That's it. We don't profile you, target you, or build advertising segments.

5. Data Retention

Google Analytics data is retained for 14 months. After that, it is automatically deleted. Server logs (maintained by our hosting provider, AWS) are retained for standard operational purposes and rotated automatically.

6. Third-Party Services

We use the following third-party services that may process visitor data:

• Google Analytics 4 — website analytics (Google LLC, USA)
• Amazon Web Services — website hosting and content delivery (Amazon Web Services, Inc., USA)
• Buttondown — email newsletter delivery and subscriber management (Buttondown, USA)

These providers have their own privacy policies and comply with applicable data protection laws.

7. Children's Privacy

The Measuring Cup does not knowingly collect information from children under 13. Our site is a general-audience recipe website and is not directed at children.

8. Your Rights (GDPR, CCPA, and Beyond)

Depending on where you live, you may have rights under laws like the GDPR (EU/UK), CCPA (California), and similar regulations. These may include:

• Right to access — You can request a copy of the personal data we hold about you
• Right to rectification — You can ask us to correct inaccurate data
• Right to erasure — You can ask us to delete your data ("right to be forgotten")
• Right to object — You can object to processing of your data
• Right to data portability — You can request your data in a portable format
• Right to withdraw consent — You can unsubscribe anytime via the link in every email

For newsletter subscribers: your data consists of your email address, subscription date, and signup source. To exercise any of these rights, email us at hello@themeasuringcup.com and we'll respond within 30 days.

For website visitors: because we don't collect personal identifiers (names, emails) through analytics, we have no way to associate analytics data with a specific person.

CCPA Notice: We do not sell personal information. We do not share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising. California residents may request disclosure of categories of personal information collected.

9. Legal Basis for Processing (GDPR)

For newsletter subscribers, our legal basis for processing your email address is consent (Article 6(1)(a) GDPR), which you provide by checking the consent checkbox on our signup forms. You can withdraw consent at any time by unsubscribing.

For website analytics, our legal basis is legitimate interest (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR) — understanding how visitors use our site helps us improve it, and the data is aggregated and anonymized.

10. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy if our data practices change. The "Last updated" date at the top will reflect when changes were made. Significant changes will be noted on the homepage.

11. Contact

Questions about this privacy policy? Reach out:

• Email: hello@themeasuringcup.com