Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how FitnessReviews.org ("we," "us" or "our") collects, uses and protects information when you visit fitnessreviews.org (the "site"), subscribe to our newsletter or contact us, and the choices and rights you have. We've built the site to collect as little personal information as possible.

The short version

• We don't sell your personal information or share it for targeted advertising, and we don't run ads.
• Regular visitors get no cookies from us, and our analytics store nothing on your device.
• Our analytics only keep daily totals. We never store your IP address for analytics, and if your browser sends Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control, your visit isn't counted at all.
• Apart from the technical data every website needs to run securely, we collect only what you choose to give us: your email address if you subscribe, and your name, email address and message if you contact us.
• Embedded YouTube, TikTok and Instagram videos don't load anything from those platforms until you press play.
• When you click through to a retailer such as Amazon, TikTok Shop or a brand's store, that retailer's privacy policy applies.

Information we collect and how we use it

Cookieless analytics

We run our own privacy-friendly, first-party analytics to understand which pages are useful. It uses no cookies, no local storage and no other identifier stored on your device, and it doesn't follow you to other websites.

When a page loads, your browser sends us the page's address, your screen width and, on the first page of a visit, the address of the site that sent you. We immediately turn that into daily totals: views per page, visits per referring website (for example, "google.com") and views per device type (mobile, tablet or desktop). We don't keep a record of individual visits.

To count how many different people visited on a given day, we combine your IP address and browser details with a secret random value (a "salt") and run them through a one-way hash. The salt is replaced every day and the old one is destroyed, along with that day's hashes, so they can never be linked to you or to your visits on other days. Your IP address is used only momentarily to create the hash and is never stored.

If your browser sends a Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control signal, we don't count your visit at all.

Affiliate link clicks

When you click a link to a retailer, we log the click so we can see which products, pages and links are useful. Each click record contains the product, the retailer, the page you clicked from, the referring website, your general device type, your approximate country (when our network provider supplies it), the time and the same kind of daily hash described above. It doesn't contain your IP address, your name or anything else that identifies you, and once the day's salt is destroyed, the hash can't be linked to anyone.

Newsletter

If you subscribe, we store your email address, where on the site you signed up (for example, the footer or an article), the dates you subscribed, confirmed and unsubscribed, a random code used in your confirmation and unsubscribe links, and a one-way keyed hash of your IP address, used only to spot abusive sign-ups. We send you an email asking you to confirm, and you're subscribed only after you click the link. Unconfirmed sign-ups are deleted after seven days.

You can unsubscribe at any time with the link in every email or by contacting us. When you unsubscribe, we delete your email address. We keep only a one-way keyed hash of it, so we can honor your unsubscribe if the address ever reaches us again. We never sell or rent email addresses.

Contact form

When you contact us, we collect your name, email address, the topic you chose and your message, along with your browser details and a one-way keyed hash of your IP address that helps us block spam. We use this information to reply and to handle your request, such as a correction, a product suggestion or a privacy request.

Please don't include sensitive information, such as details about your health, unless your message needs it. If you tell us about a health experience, such as a side effect from a product, we'll use it only to reply to you and to check our content, and we won't publish it without your permission.

Server logs

Like nearly all websites, the site is delivered by a hosting provider that automatically processes standard server logs, which include IP addresses, browser details, the pages requested and the time. These logs are used to deliver the site, keep it secure (for example, by detecting and blocking attacks) and fix technical problems. We don't use them for analytics or advertising.

Site editors

If you're a FitnessReviews.org editor with access to our private admin panel, we process your name, email address, password (stored only as a strong one-way hash), two-factor authentication settings, sign-in sessions and attempts (including IP address and browser details), and a log of the changes you make. We use this to give you access, keep the admin panel secure and maintain an accurate history of our content.

Cookies and similar technologies

We don't use advertising or analytics cookies, and we don't place third-party trackers or tracking pixels on the site. We use only what's needed to run the site or remember a choice you made:

• Theme preference. If you pick light or dark mode, your browser's local storage remembers it. It stays on your device and isn't sent to us.
• Compare list. Products you add to the comparison tool are remembered in your browser's local storage so the list survives a page reload. It stays on your device and isn't sent to us.
• Recent searches. Your last five searches in the site search are remembered in your browser's local storage so you can repeat them, and you can clear them from the search box. They stay on your device and aren't sent to us.
• Editor sessions. Signed-in editors get a secure session cookie on our admin subdomain. Regular visitors never receive it.
• Security. Our hosting and security providers may use a strictly necessary cookie or similar technology to protect the site from bots and abuse.

You can clear cookies and local storage at any time in your browser settings.

Embedded video reviews

Product pages feature video reviews hosted on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram. We use click-to-load players: until you press play, you see only a preview image served from our own site, and no content, scripts or cookies from those platforms are loaded.

When you press play, the video loads directly from the platform, which may set cookies and collect information such as your IP address, device details and viewing activity under its own terms:

• YouTube videos play in privacy-enhanced mode from youtube-nocookie.com. Once a video loads, Google's Privacy Policy applies.
• TikTok videos load TikTok's embedded player, and TikTok's Privacy Policy applies.
• Instagram videos load Instagram's embedded player, and the Instagram Privacy Policy applies.

Product images and fonts are served from our own site, so viewing a page doesn't send your information to image hosts or font services.

Affiliate links and retailer cookies

Many of our links to retailers are affiliate links, as explained in our Affiliate Disclosure. When you click one and visit a retailer such as Amazon, TikTok Shop or a brand's store, that retailer, and any affiliate network involved, may set cookies or use similar technologies to credit the sale to us and for its own purposes. Those cookies are covered by the retailer's privacy policy, not ours. See, for example, the Amazon.com Privacy Notice and TikTok's Privacy Policy.

Retailers and affiliate networks send us commission reports showing things like which products were ordered through our links and the commissions earned. These reports don't include your name, contact details or payment information.

How we share information

We don't sell, rent or trade your personal information. We share it only in these limited situations:

• Service providers. Companies that host the site, store our data, protect the site from abuse or deliver our emails process information on our behalf, under contracts that limit their use of it to providing those services.
• Legal reasons. We may disclose information if we believe in good faith that the law requires it, or to protect the rights, property or safety of FitnessReviews.org, our readers or others.
• Business transfers. If FitnessReviews.org is involved in a merger, acquisition or sale of assets, information may be transferred as part of that transaction, and it will remain covered by this policy unless you're told otherwise.
• With your consent. In any other situation, we'll share your personal information only with your permission.

How long we keep information

How we protect information

We use reasonable technical and organizational safeguards suited to the small amount of personal information we hold, including encryption in transit (HTTPS), one-way hashing of passwords, IP addresses and unsubscribed email addresses, two-factor authentication for editors and restricting access to our data to authorized editors. Collecting as little as possible is our most important safeguard. No website can guarantee perfect security, but if a breach affects your personal information, we'll notify you and the relevant authorities as the law requires.

Your privacy rights

Wherever you live, you can ask us to:

• access the personal information we hold about you and give you a copy
• correct information that's inaccurate
• delete your personal information
• stop sending you our newsletter, at any time

We'll honor these requests, subject to the limited exceptions the law allows. Much of what we collect, such as our analytics and click data, can't be linked to you, so we can't include it in a response.

U.S. state privacy rights

Residents of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia and a growing number of other states have rights under state privacy laws, including the California Consumer Privacy Act as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (CCPA). Depending on where you live, you may have the right to:

• know what personal information we collect and how we use and disclose it, and get a copy in a portable format
• correct inaccurate personal information
• delete your personal information
• opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information, targeted advertising and certain kinds of profiling
• limit the use of sensitive personal information

We won't discriminate against you for exercising any of these rights.

Notice for California residents. In the past 12 months, we have collected these categories of personal information:

• Identifiers: your name and email address, when you contact us or subscribe, and IP addresses in server logs processed by our hosting provider.
• Internet or other electronic network activity: the pages requested, as recorded in server logs. Our analytics and click data are de-identified.

We collect this information directly from you and automatically from your device, and we use it for the purposes described in this policy: running and securing the site, replying to you, sending the newsletter and measuring how the site performs. We disclose it only to service providers for those business purposes, and we keep it for the periods described above. We don't collect or use sensitive personal information to infer characteristics about you, and we keep analytics and click data in de-identified form and won't try to re-identify it.

Do Not Sell or Share. We don't sell personal information or share it for cross-context behavioral advertising, and we haven't in the past 12 months. We don't use personal information for targeted advertising, and we don't sell or share the personal information of consumers under 16.

Global Privacy Control. We honor Global Privacy Control (GPC) signals as a valid request to opt out of the sale and sharing of personal information and of targeted advertising. Because we don't do any of those things, the only visible difference is that a browser sending GPC isn't counted in our analytics.

Authorized agents and appeals. You can use an authorized agent to make a request for you. We may ask for proof of the agent's authority and ask you to confirm your identity with us directly. If we decline your request, you can appeal by replying to our decision or by contacting us with "Appeal" in your message, and we'll respond within the time the law requires. If you're not satisfied with the outcome, you can contact your state's attorney general.

Rights in the EEA, UK and Switzerland

If you're in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, data protection law gives you the right to access, correct or delete your personal data; to restrict how we process it or object to processing based on our legitimate interests; to receive your data in a portable format; and to withdraw your consent at any time, without affecting processing that took place before you withdrew it.

FitnessReviews.org is the controller of the personal data described in this policy. We rely on these legal bases:

We don't make decisions about you based solely on automated processing, and we don't build profiles of our visitors.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection authority, such as the one where you live or work. The European Data Protection Board keeps a list of EEA data protection authorities. In the UK, the authority is the Information Commissioner's Office, and in Switzerland, it's the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner. We'd appreciate the chance to address your concern first, so please consider contacting us.

How to make a request

Send your request through our contact page and choose or mention "Privacy request." Tell us what you'd like us to do and include the email address you used with us, so we can find your information. To protect your information, we'll verify the request, usually by confirming that you control that email address, and we won't ask for more information than we need.

We'll respond within the time the law requires: generally within one month under the GDPR and UK GDPR, and within 45 days under U.S. state privacy laws. If we need more time, as the law allows, we'll tell you. Requests are free unless they're clearly unfounded or excessive.

International transfers

Our service providers may process information outside your country. Where the law requires it, we rely on appropriate safeguards, such as the European Commission's standard contractual clauses.

Children's privacy

FitnessReviews.org is meant for adults. It isn't directed to children under 13, or under 16 where a higher age of digital consent applies, and we don't knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has given us personal information, please contact us and we'll delete it.

Third-party websites

Retailers, brands and video platforms we link to have their own privacy policies, which we encourage you to read.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. When we do, we'll change the "Last updated" date at the top of this page, and we'll flag significant changes on the site.

Contact us

Questions about this policy or your information? Reach us through our contact page.