Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

The Bright Garden (thebrightgarden.com) is published by The Bright Garden, LLC, based in California, United States. In this policy, “we,” “us,” and “our” mean The Bright Garden, LLC, and “the Site” means thebrightgarden.com and its subdomains.

We are the data controller for the personal information described here. This policy explains what we collect, why, who we share it with, and the choices you have. It applies alongside our Terms and Conditions.

2. Information we collect

Information you give us

• Newsletter signup: your email address and, optionally, your first name and growing zone.
• Comments: the name, email address, and website you enter, plus your comment text.
• Contact messages: your name, email address, and whatever you write to us.
• Tool inputs: answers you type into our calculators and quizzes, such as plant types, container sizes, climate, or garden preferences.
• My Garden List: if you ask us to email you a link to your saved list, we store the email address and optional name you provide so we can send that link and restore your list later.
• Privacy requests: the name and email address you submit through the opt-out form, used to locate your records and process the request.

Information collected automatically

We do not ask for, and do not want, sensitive personal information such as government ID numbers, health records, or financial account details. Please do not send them to us.

3. How we use information

• To publish, operate, and improve the Site and its interactive tools.
• To respond to your questions and moderate comments.
• To send our newsletter and seasonal gardening updates, if you have subscribed.
• To understand which articles and tools are useful, so we can write more of what helps.
• To display advertising, including personalized advertising where permitted.
• To detect spam, abuse, and security problems.
• To comply with legal obligations, including advertising disclosure requirements.

We do not sell your personal information for money.

4. Legal bases (EU/UK)

If you are in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, we process personal information on these legal bases:

• Consent — for non-essential cookies, personalized advertising, and marketing emails. You may withdraw consent at any time.
• Legitimate interests — for security, spam prevention, and basic aggregate measurement of how the Site is used.
• Legal obligation — where we must retain or disclose information by law.

5. Cookies and similar technologies

Cookies are small text files stored on your device. We and our partners use cookies, local storage, and similar technologies for the following purposes:

• Functional — keeping the Site secure and working, and remembering your consent choices.
• Preferences — remembering settings such as light or dark mode and saved tool results.
• Statistics — measuring traffic and how pages perform.
• Marketing — serving, capping, and measuring ads, including personalized ads.

Consent is managed through a Google-certified consent management platform. A full, automatically maintained list of the individual cookies set on this Site — including who sets them, what they do, and how long they last — is published in our Opt-out Preferences page. To learn more generally about cookies and how to manage them in your browser, see allaboutcookies.org.

Manage your consent

You can change or withdraw your choices at any time using the controls below. Blocking cookies may break some features, such as saved tool results.

6. Advertising and Google AdSense

Google’s use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visit to our Site and/or other sites on the internet.

You may opt out of personalized advertising by visiting Google Ads Settings. Alternatively, you can opt out of a third-party vendor’s use of cookies for personalized advertising by visiting aboutads.info, the NAI opt-out page, or, in Europe, youronlinechoices.eu.

Where we use ad networks other than Google, those third-party vendors may also place cookies on your device and may collect device and usage information as described above. We do not control the cookies set by these vendors. For more on how Google collects and uses data from sites that use its services, see Google’s partner sites policy.

If you are in the EEA, the UK, or Switzerland, we ask for your consent before non-essential advertising cookies are set, in line with Google’s EU User Consent Policy. If you decline, you will still see ads, but they will be non-personalized.

Consent for advertising cookies is collected through Complianz, a consent management platform certified by Google. You can review or change your choices at any time in the Manage your consent section above.

7. Analytics

We use Google Analytics to understand how visitors find and use the Site. It sets cookies and reports aggregate statistics to us, such as page views, referral sources, and general geographic region. We use it to decide what to write next, not to identify individual readers.

You can prevent Google Analytics from collecting your data by declining statistics cookies on this Site, or by installing the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on. Google’s own explanation of how it handles this data is in its privacy notice.

8. Affiliate links

Some links on the Site are affiliate links, including links to Amazon through the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. When you click one, the retailer may set a cookie that tells them we referred you, so we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. We receive reports on referred sales, not on your personal shopping details. The retailer’s own privacy policy governs what happens after you leave our Site.

Our full Affiliate Disclosure explains which programs we participate in and how it affects what we recommend.

9. Email and newsletters

If you subscribe, we store your email address with our email service provider so we can send you gardening guides and updates. Our provider may record whether emails are opened and which links are clicked, which helps us send fewer, better emails.

We will not sell or rent your email address. Every email includes an unsubscribe link, and you can also email us to be removed. We may still send you essential replies to messages you send us.

10. Comments and submissions

When you leave a comment, the name and comment text you provide are displayed publicly. Your email address is not published. Comments and their metadata may be checked by an automated spam-detection service. Anonymized strings created from your email address (a hash) may be sent to an avatar service to see whether you use one.

11. When we share information

We share personal information only in these situations:

• Service providers that run parts of the Site for us, and only as needed to do their job. These currently include hosting and content delivery, Google Analytics for statistics, Google reCAPTCHA for spam prevention, Wordfence for security, Google Fonts, Google Maps and YouTube for embedded content, Complianz for consent management, and our email delivery provider. The current list, with the cookies each one sets, is maintained on our Opt-out Preferences page.
• Advertising partners, as described in the advertising section above.
• Legal reasons, if required by law, subpoena, or to protect the rights, safety, or property of our readers, the public, or us.
• Business transfer, if the Site or our company is sold or merged, in which case this policy will continue to apply to the information transferred until it is replaced.

12. How long we keep it

• Newsletter subscribers: until you unsubscribe, plus a short suppression record so we do not email you again by mistake.
• Comments: indefinitely, so conversation threads stay readable, unless you ask us to remove yours.
• Contact emails: up to 24 months after our last exchange.
• Analytics data: according to the retention setting of the analytics service, typically 14 months or less.
• Server logs: typically 30 to 90 days, for security and troubleshooting.

13. Security

We use HTTPS across the Site, keep our software updated, restrict administrative access, and choose reputable service providers. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security, but we will notify affected users and regulators where the law requires it after a breach.

14. Children’s privacy

The Site is intended for a general audience and is not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13, and we do not knowingly allow personalized advertising to be served to them. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, email hello@thebrightgarden.com and we will delete it promptly.

15. Your privacy rights

Wherever you live, you can ask us to:

• Tell you what personal information we hold about you.
• Correct information that is wrong.
• Delete your information, subject to any legal obligation to keep it.
• Stop sending you marketing email.
• Provide a copy of information you gave us, in a portable format.

Email hello@thebrightgarden.com with the subject line “Privacy Request.” We will respond within 30 days, or within 45 days for California requests, and we may need to verify your identity first. Exercising these rights will never cost you anything or change the service you receive.

16. California residents

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act as amended by the CPRA, California residents have the right to know what personal information is collected, used, and disclosed; to delete personal information; to correct inaccurate information; to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information; and not to be discriminated against for exercising these rights.

We do not sell personal information for money. However, the use of advertising cookies by third parties may be considered “sharing” for cross-context behavioral advertising under California law. To opt out, use the consent controls in the Manage your consent section above, submit a request through our Opt-out Preferences page, opt out through Google Ads Settings and aboutads.info, or enable a Global Privacy Control signal in your browser, which our consent platform honors automatically.

Under California’s “Shine the Light” law, you may request information about disclosures to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. We do not make such disclosures.

17. EU, EEA, and UK residents

If you are in the EEA or the UK, you have the right to access, rectify, erase, restrict, and port your personal data, to object to processing based on legitimate interests, and to withdraw consent at any time without affecting processing already carried out. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with your national data protection authority, or with the Information Commissioner’s Office in the UK.

18. International transfers

We are based in the United States, and our hosting and service providers are primarily located there. If you access the Site from outside the United States, your information will be transferred to and processed in the United States, where privacy laws may differ from those in your country. Where required, we rely on appropriate safeguards such as the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses with our providers.

19. Do Not Track

Browsers can send a “Do Not Track” signal, but there is no agreed industry standard for responding to it, so the Site does not currently respond to DNT signals. We do honor Global Privacy Control signals where technically supported, as described in the California section.

20. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as the Site, our partners, or the law change. The “Last updated” date at the top shows the current version. If we make a significant change to how we use your information, we will say so clearly on this page and, where appropriate, by email.

21. Contact us

For any privacy question or request, email hello@thebrightgarden.com. We read everything.