Privacy Policy

Who we are

Backyard Freedom Lab (backyardfreedomlab.com) is an independent editorial site run by an anonymous team of writers and researchers. We research and review self-reliance products — homesteading tools, emergency preparedness gear, and related items.

For privacy inquiries, contact us at hello@backyardfreedomlab.com. We aim to respond within five business days.

What we collect — and what we don't

Through this website, we collect exactly one piece of personal data: your email address, and only when you voluntarily subscribe to our newsletter. That's it. If you email us, we also process your message and sender address — solely to respond to you.

We do not collect your name, mailing address, phone number, or any other identifying information. We do not create user accounts. We do not use tracking cookies or advertising pixels. Our analytics (described below) are cookieless and fully aggregated — they cannot be used to identify you.

Why we collect your email — and the legal basis

We collect email addresses for one purpose: sending our newsletter, which contains original content and product recommendations relevant to self-reliance and backyard homesteading.

The legal basis for this processing is your freely given, specific, and informed consentunder GDPR Article 6(1)(a). Consent is obtained through a double opt-in process: after you submit your email address, we send you a confirmation email. Your subscription is only activated when you click the confirmation link. This ensures that only the email address owner can subscribe.

We do not use your email address for any purpose other than sending the newsletter you signed up for. We do not send unrelated marketing, share your address with advertisers, or sell it to third parties.

Analytics

We use Vercel Web Analytics to understand how our content is used. This system is cookieless: it sets no cookies and uses no persistent identifiers or cross-site tracking. Visitors are counted via an anonymized hash that expires within 24 hours. All data is anonymized and aggregated before we see it. We cannot identify individual visitors from the data we receive.

We self-host our fonts — no Google Fonts CDN or any other third-party font service is loaded when you visit this site.

Processors and international data transfers

We use two data processors, both based in the United States:

• Kit (formerly ConvertKit, Inc.) — email delivery platform. Your email address is stored and processed by Kit on our behalf to send newsletter emails and manage subscription preferences.
• Vercel Inc. — website hosting and cookieless analytics. Vercel processes the anonymized, aggregated data described in the analytics section above. Your email address is not sent to Vercel.

Because Kit and Vercel are based in the United States, your email address (in the case of Kit) and anonymized analytics data (in the case of Vercel) are transferred outside the European Economic Area. These transfers are safeguarded by data processing agreements that incorporate EU Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) under Commission Decision 2021/914 — Module 2 (Controller to Processor), which is the appropriate module for transfers from us (the data controller) to processors acting on our instructions. Where the processor additionally holds EU-US Data Privacy Framework certification, that framework provides a further transfer safeguard. We have assessed these transfers and determined that, in conjunction with the SCC protections described above, they provide an essentially equivalent level of protection. Formal data processing agreements will be in place with both processors before this site processes any subscriber data.

We do not transfer personal data to any other country or to any other processor.

How long we keep your data

We keep your email address for as long as you remain subscribed to the newsletter. Every email we send includes an unsubscribe link — clicking it removes your address from our list immediately.

If you request deletion of your data via email, we will process the request and delete your address within 30 days.

No profiling, no automated decisions

We do not profile our subscribers. We do not use your email address or any other data to make automated decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects. You will not be scored, ranked, or categorized based on your behavior.

Affiliate links

Outbound links under the /go/ path are affiliate redirect links. These links contain no personal data about you. We track only aggregated click counts to understand which content is useful to readers. Click data is not linked to your email address or any other identifier.

Your rights under GDPR

If you are in the European Economic Area (or the UK), you have the following rights regarding your personal data:

• Access — request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
• Rectification — ask us to correct inaccurate data.
• Erasure— ask us to delete your data (“right to be forgotten”).
• Restriction of processing — ask us to restrict processing of your data while a request is being handled.
• Data portability — receive your data in a structured, machine-readable format.
• Objection — object to processing of your data, including for direct marketing, at any time.
• Withdrawal of consent — unsubscribe at any time using the link in any newsletter email, or by contacting us directly. Withdrawal does not affect the lawfulness of processing before withdrawal.
• Complaint to a supervisory authority — you have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority (for example, your national DPA within the EEA).

To exercise any of these rights, email us at hello@backyardfreedomlab.com. We will respond within one month as required by GDPR Article 12.

Changes to this policy

If we make material changes to how we handle your data, we will update the “Last updated” date at the top of this page and, where appropriate, notify subscribers by email before the change takes effect.