Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

Goats Authority (the "Site," "we," "us," or "our") is operated by Element Insight Solutions LLC, the entity responsible for ("controller" of) the personal information described in this policy. This policy covers the website at goatsauthority.com and its subdomains. It does not cover third-party websites we link to, which have their own policies.

You can reach us about privacy at:

• Email: hello@goatsauthority.com
• Contact form: https://goatsauthority.com/contact/

2. Information we collect

2.1 Information you give us

• Contact form. When you use our contact form, we collect the name, email address, subject, and message you enter, so we can read and reply to your inquiry. To reduce spam, the form uses Cloudflare Turnstile (a privacy-focused "are you human?" check) and a temporary rate limit based on your IP address. All contact fields are optional in the sense that you choose whether to write to us at all.

We do not operate user accounts, a newsletter or email list, a store or checkout, surveys, comments, or file uploads, so we do not collect the information those features would involve.

2.2 Information collected automatically

Like most websites, we and our providers automatically receive certain technical information when you visit:

• Analytics data (Google Analytics). Your approximate location (derived from IP address), device and browser type, pages viewed, and on-page interactions such as clicks and time on page. This is used in aggregate to understand what content is useful.
• Advertising data (Google AdSense). Identifiers stored in cookies, your IP address, and browsing signals used to select and measure ads. See Section 6.
• Server and security logs (Cloudflare). Our host and content-delivery network receives your IP address, browser user-agent, and request details as a normal part of delivering the Site and protecting it from abuse.
• Product images (Amazon). Some articles show product images served directly from Amazon. When such an image loads, Amazon receives your IP address and the page you're viewing, whether or not you click. See Section 6.
• Local storage. We store two small values in your browser: your light/dark theme preference and your cookie-consent choice. These stay on your device and are not personal identifiers.

We do not intentionally collect precise geolocation, biometric, health, financial-account, government-ID, or other sensitive categories of information.

3. Cookies and similar technologies

Cookies are small files stored by your browser. We group them into three categories:

Your control. For visitors in the EEA and UK, analytics and advertising cookies are off until you accept them in our consent banner. Everywhere, you can review or change your choice at any time using the Your Privacy Choices link in the footer, and you can also block or delete cookies in your browser settings. Turning off non-essential cookies won't break the Site, but ads you see may be less relevant.

4. How we use information

• Run and improve the Site — deliver pages and understand, in aggregate, which content readers find useful.
• Reply to you — read and respond to messages you send through the contact form.
• Show ads — display advertising through Google AdSense to fund the free content (see Section 6).
• Security and abuse prevention — detect spam and protect the Site and its visitors.
• Legal compliance — comply with applicable law and respond to lawful requests.

5. Legal bases (EEA / UK)

If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland, we rely on these legal bases under the GDPR / UK GDPR:

• Consent — for analytics and advertising cookies. You may withdraw consent at any time via Your Privacy Choices; withdrawal doesn't affect processing that already happened.
• Legitimate interests — for keeping the Site secure and responding to inquiries you send us, balanced against your rights.
• Legal obligation — where the law requires us to retain or disclose information.

6. Advertising and your ad choices

We show ads through Google AdSense. Google and its ad partners may use cookies and your device/browsing signals to select ads, limit repetition, and measure performance. Depending on your choices and location, ads may be personalized (based on profiles about your interests) or non-personalized (based mainly on the page content and coarse location). Google's use of information is described in How Google uses information from sites that use its services.

We also participate in the Amazon Associates program. Product images and links point to Amazon; when they load or you click them, Amazon receives your IP address, the referring page, and (if you buy) attribution data. See our Disclosure.

Your ad choices:

• Your Privacy Choices — turn advertising cookies off on this Site.
• Global Privacy Control — we honor the GPC signal; browsers that send it are treated as opting out of ad personalization / "sharing."
• Google's My Ad Center — control personalization across Google.
• Industry tools — DAA, NAI, and EDAA (EU).

Opting out doesn't remove ads; it makes them non-personalized.

7. How we share information

We do not sell your personal information for money. We share information only in these ways:

• Google — as our analytics provider (Google Analytics) and advertising provider (AdSense). For advertising, Google acts as an independent business that also uses data for its own purposes.
• Cloudflare — as our hosting, content-delivery, security, and contact-form email provider, acting as a service provider on our behalf.
• Amazon — when product images load or affiliate links are clicked, as described in Section 6.
• Legal and safety — if required by law, legal process, or to protect the rights, safety, or property of the Site, our visitors, or the public.
• Business transfer — if the Site or Element Insight Solutions LLC is involved in a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, information may transfer to the successor, subject to this policy.

8. Selling / sharing and U.S. state privacy rights

Plain statement: We do not exchange your personal information for money. However, using cookie-based advertising can meet the broad legal definitions of a "sale" or "sharing" (also called "targeted advertising" or "cross-context behavioral advertising") under several U.S. state laws, because identifiers are made available to Google for ad purposes. We treat those interpretations seriously and give you a straightforward way to opt out.

How to opt out of "sale"/"sharing"/targeted advertising: use Your Privacy Choices (the "Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information" control) in the footer, and/or browse with Global Privacy Control enabled — we honor it automatically.

Depending on your state (for example California, Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia, Texas, Oregon, Montana, and others with comprehensive privacy laws), you may have the right to:

• Know or access the categories and specific pieces of personal information we hold about you;
• Correct inaccurate information;
• Delete your information;
• Obtain a portable copy;
• Opt out of "sale," "sharing," and targeted advertising; and
• Not receive discriminatory treatment for exercising these rights.

California's "Shine the Light" law (Civil Code §1798.83): we do not disclose personal information to third parties for their own direct-marketing purposes. To exercise any of these rights, see Section 10. Where your state provides an appeal, you may reply to our decision and we will reconsider.

9. EEA, UK, and Swiss rights

If you are in the EEA, UK, or Switzerland, you have the right to access, correct, delete, restrict, or object to our processing of your personal data, to data portability, and to withdraw consent. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local supervisory authority — in the UK, the ICO; in the EEA, your national authority (list here). We'd appreciate the chance to address your concern first.

10. How to exercise your rights

Submit any privacy request by emailing hello@goatsauthority.com or using our contact form. Please tell us what you'd like to do and enough detail for us to locate any information about you. Because we don't maintain accounts, we usually identify you only by the email address and messages you've sent us; we may ask you to confirm you control that email address to verify a request. You may use an authorized agent, in which case we may ask for proof of their authority. We respond within the timeframe your law requires (generally 30–45 days) and will tell you if we need more time.

11. Data retention

• Contact messages — we aim to delete contact-form emails within about 7 days after your inquiry is resolved, unless we need to keep a message longer to handle an ongoing matter or meet a legal obligation.
• Rate-limit data — the IP address used to limit form spam is held only momentarily in memory and is not stored.
• Analytics — retained by Google according to our Google Analytics data-retention setting; you can request deletion as above.
• Advertising — cookie lifetimes are set by Google; see Google's policies and your browser controls.
• Server/security logs — retained by Cloudflare for a short period per its standard practices.

12. Security

We keep the amount of personal information we handle small, serve the Site over encrypted HTTPS, and apply standard security headers and spam protections. No website can promise perfect security, and information you send over the internet is transmitted at your own risk, but we take reasonable measures to protect it and will notify you and any regulator as required if a breach affects your information.

13. International data transfers

We operate from the United States, and our providers (Google, Cloudflare, Amazon) may process data in the U.S. and other countries. If you are outside the U.S., your information will be transferred to and processed in the U.S. Where these providers move data out of the EEA, UK, or Switzerland, they offer transfer safeguards such as the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses in their data-processing terms, which we rely on.

14. Children's privacy

The Site is intended for a general, adult audience of goat owners and is not directed to children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 (or under 16 in the EEA/UK). If you believe a child has provided information, contact us and we will delete it.

15. Links to other websites

Our articles link to other websites (including Amazon and sources we cite). We don't control those sites, and this policy doesn't apply to them. Please review their privacy policies before providing information.

16. Changes to this policy

If we change our practices, we'll update this page and the "Last Updated" date above. For significant changes, we'll make the update prominent. Changes are not applied retroactively to reduce your rights without notice.

17. Contact us

Questions or requests about this policy or your information:

• Element Insight Solutions LLC
• Email: hello@goatsauthority.com
• Contact form: https://goatsauthority.com/contact/