Privacy Policy

Who are we?

Easy-Going Nerd (easygoingnerd.com) is a technology education and review website. This privacy policy explains what data we collect, why we collect it, and what we do with it.

What data do we collect?

Analytics Data

We use Google Analytics 4 to understand how people use our site - which pages are popular, how long people spend reading, and where visitors come from. This data is aggregated and anonymised. We don't track individual users across the web.

Newsletter signup

If you sign up for the Easy-Going Nerd newsletter, we collect your email address so we can send you the updates you asked for. Signup is double opt-in: we first email you a confirmation link, and you are only added to the list once you click it. Our lawful basis is your consent, which you can withdraw at any time using the unsubscribe link in every email. Newsletter email is sent through Amazon Web Services (Amazon SES), processed in the AWS Europe (Ireland) region.

Contact form

If you use the contact form, we collect the details you enter - your name, email address, reason for getting in touch and message - and use them only to read and reply to your message. Our lawful basis is our legitimate interest in answering enquiries. Messages are delivered to us by email, and the form is protected from spam by Cloudflare Turnstile.

Cookies and similar storage

We use the following cookies and browser storage. Only the Google Analytics cookies need your consent, and they are set only if you accept analytics in our cookie banner.

• _ga (cookie, Google Analytics 4, third party: Google) - distinguishes visitors so we can count how many people use the site. Set only with your consent; expires after 2 years.
• _ga_<ID> (cookie, Google Analytics 4, third party: Google) - keeps track of your current visit (session) for analytics. Set only with your consent; expires after 2 years.
• csg_consent_v1 (local storage in your browser, set by us, no third party) - remembers your cookie banner choice so we don't ask on every page. Strictly necessary; it stays until you change your choice or clear your browser's site data.
• r2-theme (local storage in your browser, set by us, no third party) - remembers whether you chose light or dark mode. Strictly necessary for the feature you asked for; it stays until you clear your browser's site data, and is only set if you use the theme switch.
• csg_compare_cta_v1 (local storage in your browser, set by us, no third party) - remembers that you closed the buy-button bar on our comparison pages on mobile. Strictly necessary; it stays until you clear your browser's site data, and is only set if you close the bar.
• r2-geo (session storage in your browser, set by us, no third party) - holds your two-letter country code, read from our host Cloudflare, so we show the right Amazon store's prices. Strictly necessary; deleted when you close the browser tab.
• Cloudflare Turnstile (third party: Cloudflare) - runs only on our contact form to check you are a person and not a spam bot. It reads technical signals such as your IP address and browser details, and Cloudflare may set its challenge cookies (such as cf_clearance) to record that the check was passed. Strictly necessary for spam protection; Cloudflare sets how long these last, as described in the Cloudflare Cookie Policy.

You can change your analytics choice at any time with the Cookie preferences link in the footer of every page, or delete cookies and site data in your browser settings.

Affiliate Links

Our affiliate links go to Amazon (amazon.co.uk) through the Amazon Associates programme, operated by Amazon EU S.à r.l. When you click one, Amazon may set cookies and record that you arrived via our link, under Amazon's own privacy notice. We receive only aggregated commission reports from Amazon - we never see your personal purchase details. Links to other retailers and product makers (such as 1Password, Bitwarden, NordVPN, Proton, Mullvad, Apple, Samsung, Synology, Ubiquiti and Aqara) are ordinary links: they carry no affiliate tracking and we pass no data to those companies.

What is our lawful basis for each purpose?

UK GDPR requires us to have a lawful basis for each thing we do with your personal data. Ours are:

• Analytics cookies (Google Analytics) - your consent, given through our cookie banner. Analytics cookies are not set unless you accept them, and you can withdraw consent at any time with the Cookie preferences link in the footer of every page, or by clearing cookies in your browser.
• Newsletter - your consent, given when you confirm your signup. You can withdraw it at any time with the unsubscribe link in every email.
• Hosting and security - our legitimate interests in delivering the site to you and keeping it available and secure. Our host, Cloudflare, processes technical data such as your IP address and browser details to serve pages, block abusive traffic and run Turnstile spam protection on our forms.
• Replying to contact-form messages - our legitimate interests in reading and answering the enquiries people send us. You can object to this at any time by emailing us.
• Theme preference - this setting only remembers your light or dark mode choice, is strictly necessary to provide the feature you asked for, and needs no consent.

How long do we keep your data?

We keep personal data only for as long as we need it for the purpose we collected it for:

• Analytics data (Google Analytics) - Google Analytics deletes user- and event-level data automatically after the retention period set on our property, which is at most 14 months, the longest the service allows. What we keep after that is aggregated reports that do not identify you.
• Newsletter subscribers - we keep your email address for as long as you stay subscribed. If you unsubscribe, or never confirm your signup, we keep only your address and its status so that we never email you again. You can ask us to delete it entirely at any time by emailing hello@easygoingnerd.com.
• Contact-form messages - we keep your message in our email inbox for as long as we need it to read and reply to your enquiry and deal with any follow-up, and then delete it. Messages that are spam are deleted without a reply.

What data do we not collect?

• We don't collect your email address or name unless you give them to us through the newsletter signup or the contact form
• We don't have user accounts, logins, or registration
• We don't sell data to third parties
• We don't show display advertising or use advertising cookies
• We don't use tracking pixels beyond Google Analytics

Which third-party services do we use?

We share personal data only with the following recipients, each for the purpose stated:

• Google Analytics 4 - Website analytics (Google Privacy Policy)
• Google Tag Manager - Tag management (Google Privacy Policy)
• Cloudflare - Hosting, CDN and Turnstile spam protection on our forms (Cloudflare Privacy Policy)
• Amazon Web Services (Amazon SES) - Sending our newsletter email (AWS Privacy Notice)
• Amazon Associates (Amazon EU S.à r.l.) - Affiliate programme for our links to amazon.co.uk (see the Amazon.co.uk Privacy Notice, linked at the foot of every Amazon page)

These are the only organisations that receive personal data through this site. We don't share your data with anyone else.

Is your data transferred outside the UK?

Some of the services above are run by companies based in the United States, so personal data may be transferred to, or accessed from, the US:

• Google (Google Analytics 4 and Google Tag Manager) - Google LLC, United States
• Cloudflare (hosting, CDN and Turnstile) - Cloudflare, Inc., United States, which serves pages from data centres worldwide
• Amazon Web Services (Amazon SES) - newsletter email is processed in the AWS Europe (Ireland) region, but Amazon Web Services, Inc. is a US company and may access it from the United States

We rely on these safeguards for those transfers:

• The UK-US data bridge and the EU-US Data Privacy Framework - Google, Cloudflare and Amazon Web Services are certified under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and its UK Extension, which the UK government recognises as giving adequate protection to personal data sent to certified US companies.
• Standard contractual clauses - each provider's data processing terms also include the UK International Data Transfer Addendum (IDTA addendum) to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses, which apply if a transfer falls outside the data bridge.

Amazon Associates is operated by Amazon EU S.à r.l. in Luxembourg, an EU country the UK recognises as giving adequate protection. You can ask us for more information about these safeguards by emailing hello@easygoingnerd.com.

Your right to object

You have the right to object, at any time, to our processing of your personal data where we rely on our legitimate interests - that is, the hosting and security processing described above and our handling of contact-form messages. If you object, we will stop unless we have compelling legitimate grounds that override your interests, rights and freedoms, or we need the data to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

You also have an absolute right to object to your data being used for direct marketing, including our newsletter. If you object, we will stop straight away - use the unsubscribe link in any email or email hello@easygoingnerd.com.

To object, email hello@easygoingnerd.com.

What are your other UK GDPR rights?

Under UK data protection law you also have the right to:

• Access - ask for a copy of the personal data we hold about you
• Rectification - ask us to correct data that is inaccurate or incomplete
• Erasure - ask us to delete your data
• Restriction - ask us to limit how we use your data, for example while we check its accuracy
• Portability - receive the data you gave us, which we process by consent, in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format, or have it sent to another organisation
• Withdraw consent - where we rely on your consent, withdraw it at any time: for analytics cookies, use the Cookie preferences link in the footer of every page; for the newsletter, use the unsubscribe link in any email. Withdrawing consent does not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before you withdrew it
• Complain - complain to the UK data protection regulator, the Information Commission (which replaced the Information Commissioner's Office on 30 September 2026): online at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint, by phone on 0303 123 1113, or by post to the Information Commission, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF

The personal data we may hold about you is your newsletter email address and any contact-form messages you have sent us. To exercise any of these rights, email hello@easygoingnerd.com. We will reply within one month.

How do you complain to us?

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your personal data, you can complain to us directly. Use our contact form and choose a data protection complaint as your reason for getting in touch, or email hello@easygoingnerd.com.

We will acknowledge your complaint within 30 days of receiving it, look into it without undue delay, and tell you the outcome. If we need more information from you to look into it, we will ask. You can also complain to the Information Commission at any time, as set out above - you do not have to complain to us first.

How will we notify you about changes?

We may update this policy from time to time. The "last updated" date at the top will change when we do.

How can you contact us?

If you have questions about this privacy policy, email hello@easygoingnerd.com or use our contact form.