Privacy Policy

Gurukol.com uses analytics (Google Analytics, Ahrefs Web Analytics) to understand traffic, Meta Pixel to measure and retarget visitors for our own Facebook and Instagram ads, and Google AdSense to serve ads on the site. The only personal information we ever directly ask for is whatever you choose to type into the contact form. This page names every outside service in use and what each one actually collects.

Information We Collect

Browsing the site collects the standard technical data any website receives when a browser requests a page: your IP address and basic request details, processed by our hosting provider, Cloudflare, as part of normal web server operation. It also loads the analytics and advertising scripts described below on every page. There's no account system.

The one place this site directly asks you for anything is the contact form. It has three fields: your message (required), and your name and email (both optional, only used if you want a reply). Nothing else is collected there. No hidden tracking fields.

Analytics & Advertising Services

Five outside services run on every page, each doing a different job. We don't sell any of this data ourselves. These platforms collect it directly, under their own privacy policies, not ours. Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Meta Pixel, and AdSense's ad-personalization features only start running after you give consent, either through the cookie banner shown on your first visit, or, if you're in the EEA, UK, or Switzerland, through Google's own certified consent message (regulated US states see a similar opt-out message); Ahrefs runs regardless, since it sets no cookies and collects no personal data by its own design (see below). Full detail on the consent flow itself is in our Cookie Policy.

Google Analytics (GA4). Measures traffic and how people use the site: pages viewed, general location, device and browser type. Sets first-party cookies (_ga, and a property-specific _ga_<id> cookie) to distinguish visitors and sessions. Governed by Google's own Privacy Policy.

Google Tag Manager. A delivery container Google Analytics runs through. It doesn't itself set cookies or collect data beyond what's needed to load the tags configured inside it.

Ahrefs Web Analytics. A second, independent traffic-analytics tool, used to cross-check the same general trends. It sets no cookies and doesn't collect or store any personally identifiable information, by its own design. See Ahrefs' own documentation for detail.

Meta Pixel. Lets us measure the effect of our own Facebook and Instagram ad campaigns and build retargeting audiences from site visitors for those campaigns. Sets a first-party cookie (_fbp) and sends Meta your page URL, referring page, browser/device details, and IP address on every page view. We haven't enabled Meta's "Advanced Matching" feature, so no name, email, or phone number is sent to Meta from this site. Governed by Meta's own Privacy Policy.

Google AdSense. Serves the ads shown on this site and, where you've consented, personalizes them based on your activity. Sets cookies (__gads, __gpi, test_cookie) and, for visitors in the EEA/UK/Switzerland, operates under the IAB Transparency & Consent Framework via Google's own certified consent message rather than our banner. Before any consent decision is made, ad delivery defaults to a non-personalized state. Governed by Google's own advertising privacy policy.

Separately, four meta tags on every page (Google Search Console, Google AdSense site verification, Meta Business, and Pinterest domain verification) prove we own gurukol.com to those platforms. They don't track visitors or set cookies. They're read once, by each platform's own verification check, not by your browser sending anything extra.

What Happens to a Contact Form Submission

When you submit the form, its contents are sent directly to a private issue tracker we use internally to manage incoming questions and corrections, visible only to the small team behind this site, not published anywhere public. We use it only to read and respond to what you sent; if you didn't leave an email, we have no way to reply and won't try to find one.

Google Fonts

This site loads two font families (Newsreader and Source Sans 3) directly from Google's font servers on every page. Per Google's own documentation, this sends your IP address to Google when your browser fetches the font files. We don't control what Google does with that data beyond what's described in Google's own privacy policy.

How We Use Information

Contact form submissions are used only to read and respond to what you sent. We don't build marketing lists from them, don't add you to any mailing list, and don't use anything you submit for any purpose beyond answering it. Analytics and Meta Pixel data is used in aggregate to understand traffic and to run and measure our own ad campaigns, not to identify you individually by name.

Sharing of Information

We don't sell, rent, or share contact form submissions. Analytics and advertising data described above is collected directly by Google, Meta, and Ahrefs under their own privacy policies, not routed through or resold by us.

Data Retention

Contact form submissions are kept as long as needed to resolve the question or issue you raised, then may be closed out but not necessarily deleted from our internal tracker. Standard server request logs are controlled by our hosting provider, Cloudflare, under its own retention policy, not ours. Analytics and advertising cookies follow the retention periods set by Google and Meta respectively (see their own privacy policies for specifics), not a schedule we control.

Your Rights

If you've submitted the contact form and want what you sent deleted, email us via the contact form and reference roughly when you sent it, and we'll remove it. For analytics and advertising cookies, we don't hold that data ourselves to delete on request: your browser's own cookie settings can clear _ga/_fbp at any time, and Google offers a browser opt-out for Analytics while Meta's own Ad Preferences page lets you control ad personalization directly.

Security

The connection between your browser and this site is encrypted (HTTPS) through our hosting provider. Contact form submissions are transmitted over that same encrypted connection.

Children's Privacy

This site is intended for general audiences, including parents researching topics on behalf of their children. We don't knowingly collect personal information from children through any channel other than the contact form, and we don't ask for or want any child's personal information there either.

Changes to This Policy

If what this site collects or does with it changes, this page will be updated first, with a new "Last updated" date, before that change goes live.

Contact

Questions about this policy can be sent through our contact form.