Privacy policy | Rooted by Garden Hero

Effective date: [Effective date]

Who we are

This policy covers gardenhero.co and the Rooted blog at rooted.gardenhero.co (together, the "sites"), and the Rooted newsletter. The sites are run by [Legal entity name] ("Garden Hero," "we," "us"), based in Denver, Colorado. Questions go to hello@gardenhero.co.

What we collect

The only thing we ask you for is your email address, through the Rooted signup form. We store the email address you submit. We do not ask for your name, phone number, address, or payment details.

If you email us (for example, to nominate a garden), we keep your message and your address so we can reply.

Like any website, our hosting provider sees technical data when you visit, such as your IP address, browser type, and the pages requested. We use it to deliver and protect the sites.

How we use it

To send Rooted three mornings a week, and occasional Garden Hero news.
To show you the free fall and winter garden calendar after you sign up.
To reply to your emails.
To keep the sites working and secure, and to understand in aggregate which pages are read.
To see, per email, whether it was opened and which links were clicked, so we can tell which issues help.

Every email has an unsubscribe link. Use it and we stop. We do not sell your personal data, and we do not share it for advertising.

Cookies, analytics, and service providers

We use a small number of outside services to run the sites. We keep the list short on purpose.

Our email and signup-form provider. It hosts the signup form, sends Rooted, and runs the blog platform. It sets a visitor-ID cookie when you use the signup form or visit the blog, and records form events and where a visit came from (session attribution), on gardenhero.co and rooted.gardenhero.co, so it can deliver your signup and measure the newsletter. Our emails use a tracking pixel and tracked links so we can see, per message, whether it was opened and which links were clicked. Block remote images in your mail app to limit this.
Bot protection. The signup form is run by our form provider and uses Cloudflare Turnstile to tell people from bots.
Security cookie. Cloudflare may also set a security cookie called __cf_bm on our sites to tell people from automated traffic and keep the sites secure.
Form sizing script. The signup form loads a script from storage.googleapis.com (Google Cloud Storage), which the form provider uses to size the form on the page.
Browser storage. The sites save two preferences in your browser's local storage (rooted-motion for the Less motion button and rooted-bar-dismissed for the signup bar). They hold no personal data and are never sent to us.
Web analytics. We use Cloudflare Web Analytics, a privacy-focused tool that does not use cookies and does not track you across sites.
Hosting. Cloudflare hosts and secures gardenhero.co. The blog is hosted by our email and signup-form provider. Our fonts are served from our own site, not from a third party.

We do not run advertising pixels or ad-network trackers on the sites. Most browsers let you block or delete cookies in their settings; the signup form may not work if you block cookies or scripts from our form provider or Cloudflare.

Who we share it with

We share personal information only with the service providers above, so they can do the job we hired them for, and when the law requires it. We do not sell your personal data. If Garden Hero is ever sold or merged, your information may transfer to the new owner, who must honor this policy.

How long we keep it

We keep your email address while you are subscribed. After you unsubscribe we keep a minimal record so we do not email you again, and delete the rest within a reasonable time unless the law requires us to keep it longer. Emails you send us are kept as long as needed to deal with them.

Security

We use reputable providers and encrypted connections (HTTPS). No system is perfectly secure, so we cannot promise absolute protection. If a breach affects you, we will tell you as the law requires.

Children

The sites are written for adult gardeners and are not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect information from children under 13. School-garden content is for the adults who run those gardens. If you think a child has given us their email address, write to hello@gardenhero.co and we will delete it.

Your privacy rights

Depending on where you live, including under the Colorado Privacy Act and other US state privacy laws, and under the GDPR if you are in the European Economic Area or United Kingdom, you may have the right to:

Access the personal information we hold about you.
Correct information that is wrong.
Delete your information.
Restrict or object to processing, and receive a copy of your data in a portable format.
Opt out of the sale of personal data, targeted advertising, and profiling. We do none of these, so there is nothing to opt out of, but you can still ask.
Withdraw consent to emails at any time with the unsubscribe link.

To use any of these rights, email hello@gardenhero.co. We will respond within the time the law requires. We may need to confirm it is really you first. If we decline a request, you can appeal by replying to our answer, and you may also contact your state attorney general or, in the EEA or UK, your local data protection supervisory authority to complain.

If you are in the EEA or UK, we process your email address on the basis of your consent, and our legitimate interest in running and securing the sites. Your data is processed in the United States, using the safeguards our providers rely on, such as standard contractual clauses.

Links to other sites

The sites link to university extension offices, pantries, and other outside sites. We do not control them and are not responsible for their privacy practices. Read their policies.

Changes to this policy

When we change this policy we will update the effective date above. If a change is significant, we will tell subscribers by email.

Contact us

[Legal entity name]
Denver, Colorado
hello@gardenhero.co