Privacy Policy

🌱 1. Who we are

Urban Hydro Space (urbanhydrospace.com) is a small independent website about growing herbs and greens with hydroponics in apartments and other small homes, run by Sarah Whitfield. In this policy, “we”, “us” and “our” mean Sarah Whitfield and Urban Hydro Space, and “you” means anyone who visits the site, uses its tools, joins the newsletter or writes to us.

We decide how and why the personal information described here is used, which makes us its “controller” under data protection laws such as the UK and EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). For anything about your privacy, email sarah@urbanhydrospace.com or use the contact page.

This policy covers urbanhydrospace.com, its calculators, the grow planner and our emails. It does not cover other websites we link to, including Amazon.

📋 2. What we collect and why

We collect as little as we can. We never ask for sensitive information (such as health, religion or finances), we never buy data about you from anyone, and we make no automated decisions about you. The table sets out everything, why we need it and, for visitors in the UK, the EU, the EEA and Switzerland, the legal basis we rely on.

We may also keep or share information when the law requires it (for example a valid court order), or when it is needed to protect the rights, property or safety of our visitors, the public or us. If the site is ever sold or handed to someone else, the information would pass to the new owner under this policy, and we would say so on this page first.

🍪 3. Cookies and browser storage

Cookies are small files a website saves in your browser. We use as few as possible. Strictly necessary cookies are always on because the site cannot do what you asked without them; everything else waits for your choice.

Change your cookie settings

You can also reopen these settings from the “Cookie settings” link at the bottom of every page, and you can delete or block cookies in your browser’s settings at any time.

Browser storage used by the grow planner

The grow planner saves your plans, tasks, notes and photos in your browser’s own storage on your device, and keeps an offline copy of the app so it opens without a connection. That data stays on your device and is never sent to us unless you sign in (see section 9). Clearing your browser’s site data removes it, so download a backup from the planner’s Settings first.

Cookies on Amazon

When you follow one of our links to Amazon, Amazon may set its own cookies on Amazon’s website to record that you came from us, which is how we earn a commission. Those cookies belong to Amazon, are set on Amazon’s site under Amazon’s privacy notice, and our banner cannot switch them on or off. This site itself sets no advertising or marketing cookies.

📊 4. Google Analytics

We use Google Analytics, a service of Google LLC (and, for people in the UK and the EEA, Google Ireland Limited), to count visits and see which pages are read. It works through Google’s “consent mode”, which follows your choice in our cookie banner:

• In the UK, the EU, the EEA and Switzerland, analytics cookies stay off until you press Accept.
• Everywhere else, analytics cookies are on unless you press Reject or your browser sends a Global Privacy Control signal.
• While cookies are off, Google’s tag may still send Google basic signals without cookies, such as the fact that a page was viewed. These carry no identifier and cannot link one page view to another.
• If you reject after accepting, the site deletes the Google Analytics cookies from your browser straight away.

We use Google Analytics only for statistics. It is not linked to Google Ads or AdSense, advertising storage is switched off for every visitor, and we never try to identify you from it. Google Analytics 4 does not log or store IP addresses; Google uses them briefly to work out an approximate location. Google handles this data under its own terms; you can read how Google uses information from sites that use its services and the Google Privacy Policy.

To opt out, press Reject in the cookie settings, or install the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on.

📈 5. Our own site statistics

We also keep simple statistics of our own, on our own server: which pages are viewed, how far down a page people scroll, how long they stay, and which links are clicked, including links to Amazon. It sets no cookies, uses no browser storage, stores no IP address or browser details, and holds nothing that identifies you. A random code joins one page view to the clicks on that page and is then forgotten. The rows are deleted automatically after 400 days.

The same statistics count which grow planner screens are opened and which links are tapped there. A plan’s own address is recorded only as “a plan page”, and nothing about your plants, tasks, notes or photos is ever part of it. If you reject analytics in the cookie banner, or your browser sends a Global Privacy Control signal, these statistics are switched off for you too.

✉️ 6. Newsletter

If you sign up, we send at most one email a week with new guides, plus one welcome email. We keep what is listed in section 2 and use it only to send these emails. Every email has a one-click unsubscribe link, and you can also reply to any email and ask to be removed.

Our emails are sent from our own mailbox at Namecheap’s Private Email service. When someone signs up, we get a short alert in our own inbox, which is hosted by Google (Gmail). We do not use a marketing email company, and we never sell, rent or share the list.

💬 7. Contact form and email

Messages from the contact form are saved on our website and also delivered to our inbox (Gmail, run by Google), so we can reply. Emails you send to sarah@urbanhydrospace.com reach our mailbox at Namecheap’s Private Email service. We use your message only to answer you. If you tick the box to get the weekly guides as well, we add you to the newsletter; otherwise we do not.

🗨️ 8. Comments

If you leave a comment, we collect what you type into the comment form, plus your IP address and browser details to help catch spam. Your name and comment are shown publicly; your email address never is. Comments may be held for moderation and we remove spam and anything that breaks our terms.

Where a comment shows a profile picture, it comes from Gravatar, a service of Automattic Inc., which receives a scrambled code (a “hash”) made from the commenter’s email address to find the picture. See the Automattic Privacy Policy. You can ask us to edit or delete any comment you left.

🌿 9. Grow planner accounts

The grow planner at urbanhydrospace.com/grow-planner/ works without an account. Without one, your plans, tasks, notes and photos stay in your browser on your device and we never see them.

Signing in with Google

If you choose to sign in with Google, we create a free account on this site. Google shares your name, email address and Google account number with us; we keep your first name, your email and that account number (to recognize you next time), and we never see your Google password. The sign-in page loads Google’s sign-in script, so Google also receives the usual technical details from your browser and knows that you signed in to our planner, under the Google Privacy Policy. No other planner page loads anything from Google. When a new account is created, we get a short alert in our own inbox.

Your saved planner

While you are signed in, a copy of your planner (plans, tasks, notes and any plant photos you added) is saved to your account so you can open the same plants on another device. That copy is stored encrypted. Photos are resized on your device before saving, which also removes the location and camera details a phone adds to them. We use the copy only to show your planner back to you. We do not sell it, share it or use it for advertising, and signing in does not subscribe you to any emails.

Reminder emails

If you turn on “Email me the day’s tasks” in the planner’s Settings, we use your account email to send you one email on days a task is due, listing only your own tasks. We keep the time and time zone you chose so the email arrives when you want it. It carries no advertising, every email has a link to turn it off, and you can switch it off in Settings at any time.

Deleting your account

You can delete your account at any time from the planner: Settings, Your account, Delete my account. This removes your account and the saved copy from our site straight away. The copy in your own browser stays until you clear it. You can also email sarah@urbanhydrospace.com and we will delete it for you.

Google user data

Urban Hydro Space’s use and transfer of information received from Google APIs follows the Google API Services User Data Policy, including its Limited Use requirements. We ask Google only for basic sign-in information (your name, email address and account number), use it only to run your planner account, and never use it for advertising, sell it, or let people read it except where you ask us to, where security requires it, or where the law requires it.

🔗 10. Amazon links, images and prices

Urban Hydro Space is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program and in Amazon’s associate programs for Canada, the UK and Australia. Through Amazon OneLink, a visitor from one of those countries who follows a link may be sent to their own Amazon store. Clicking a link tells Amazon you came from us. Amazon then reports to us which products were bought and what we earned, never your name, address or anything else that identifies you.

Some pages show product pictures loaded straight from Amazon’s servers, so Amazon receives the technical details that come with any image request (your IP address, browser and the page it appears on). Prices are fetched by our own server from Amazon’s product data service and share nothing about you. See the Amazon Privacy Notice, or the notice of your own Amazon store.

🖼️ 11. Images served from WordPress.com

To make pages load faster, the photos and illustrations hosted on this site are delivered through Jetpack’s image CDN, a service run by Automattic Inc., the company behind WordPress.com. When your browser shows one of these images, it downloads it from Automattic’s servers (addresses such as i0.wp.com), so Automattic receives the technical details that come with any image request: your IP address, your browser type and the page the image appears on. We receive no information about you from this service. Product images from Amazon are still loaded from Amazon directly. See the Automattic Privacy Policy.

The fonts on this site are served from our own server, so reading a page sends nothing to a font service.

🤝 12. Who else handles data

We never sell or rent personal information. We use a small number of companies to run the site, and they handle data only to provide their service:

Amazon is not one of our service providers. When you follow a link, you deal with Amazon directly, and Amazon decides how it uses your information.

🌍 13. Data sent to other countries

Our readers live in many countries, and the companies above, like us, may store or reach your information from countries other than yours, including the United States. Where UK, EU, EEA or Swiss data leaves those places, it is protected by the safeguards the law recognizes, such as the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and its UK and Swiss extensions for certified companies, or the standard contractual clauses in each provider’s data processing terms. Email us for more detail on any of them.

⏳ 14. How long we keep data

We keep personal information only as long as its purpose needs, then delete it. The periods are in the table in section 2. In short: our own statistics 400 days; Google Analytics up to 14 months; newsletter details until you unsubscribe; contact messages as long as useful for answering you; planner accounts until you delete them. We may keep something longer only when the law requires it or to deal with a legal claim.

🔒 15. How we protect data

The whole site runs over an encrypted connection (HTTPS). Saved planner copies are encrypted before they are stored. Newsletter sign-ups keep only a one-way code made from your IP address, never the address itself. The site sits behind the host’s firewall and a sign-in protection tool, and only the site owner, and the services in section 12 that run it, can reach the stored data. No website can promise perfect security, but if a breach ever puts your information at risk, we will tell you and the authorities as the law requires.

⚖️ 16. Your rights

Wherever you live, you can ask us to:

• tell you whether we hold personal information about you, and give you a copy;
• correct anything that is wrong;
• delete it;
• give it to you in a common file format, so you can take it elsewhere;
• stop using it, or use it only in limited ways;
• withdraw any consent you gave (for example, unsubscribe or reject analytics). This does not affect what was done before.

Email sarah@urbanhydrospace.com with what you would like. It is free. To protect you, we may ask you to confirm the request from the email address we have on file. We answer within one month (45 days for requests under US state laws), and if a request is complex we may take longer, up to the time the law allows, and tell you why. You can also let someone else (an authorized agent) ask for you, with your signed permission.

You will never be treated differently for using these rights.

🗺️ 17. Extra details for your region

UK, EU, EEA and Switzerland

The legal bases we rely on are in the table in section 2. Where we rely on legitimate interests, you can object, and we will stop unless we have a strong reason the law accepts. Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time. You also have the right to complain to a data protection authority: in the UK the Information Commissioner’s Office; in the EU and EEA the authority in your country (list of authorities); in Switzerland the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner. We would welcome the chance to sort it out with you first.

United States (including California, Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia, Texas and other states with privacy laws)

In the last 12 months we have collected these categories of personal information: identifiers (such as name, email address and IP address), internet activity (such as pages viewed and links clicked) and approximate location worked out from an IP address. They come from you, from your browser, and from Google when you sign in with Google. We use them for the purposes in section 2 and disclose them only to the service providers in section 12.

We do not sell personal information, we do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising or targeted advertising, and we have not done so in the last 12 months. We do not collect or use sensitive personal information, and we do not knowingly sell or share information about anyone under 16. You have the right to know, access, correct and delete your personal information, and to opt out of any sale, sharing or targeted advertising (there is none, and we honor Global Privacy Control signals regardless). If we turn down a request, you can appeal by replying to our answer; if you are still unhappy, you can contact your state attorney general.

Canada

You can access and correct your personal information and withdraw consent, subject to legal limits. Our privacy contact is sarah@urbanhydrospace.com. If you are not satisfied with our answer, you can complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, or in Quebec to the Commission d’accès à l’information.

Australia and everywhere else

You have the same rights listed in section 16. In Australia you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner if we have not resolved your concern.

🛡️ 18. Global Privacy Control and Do Not Track

If your browser sends a Global Privacy Control (GPC) signal, we treat it as a rejection of analytics: Google Analytics cookies stay off and our own statistics skip you, without a banner. You can still turn analytics on in the cookie settings if you want to. There is no agreed standard for the older “Do Not Track” setting, so we do not respond to it, but GPC and the cookie banner give you the same control.

🧒 19. Children

Urban Hydro Space is written for adults and is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. Newsletter sign-ups and planner accounts are for people aged 13 or over, or older where the law of their country requires it (in some EU countries, 16). If you believe a child has given us personal information, email us and we will delete it.

🔄 20. Changes to this policy

When what we collect or how we use it changes, we update this page first and change the date at the top. If a change is significant, we will also say so on the site, and we will ask for your consent again where the law requires it. Earlier versions are available on request.