Privacy Policy

This privacy policy explains what information OffGrid Filters collects from visitors to https://offgridfilters.com, how we use it, who we share it with, and how you can control your data. We take privacy seriously and collect only what is necessary to operate this site.

Effective date: February 8, 2026
Last updated: February 23, 2026

1. Who We Are

OffGrid Filters (https://offgridfilters.com) is a product review and buying-guide website focused on water filtration products. We are an independent editorial site that earns revenue through the Amazon Associates affiliate program. We are not affiliated with Amazon, Inc. or any product manufacturer we review.

For privacy-related inquiries, contact us through our About page.

2. Information We Collect

We collect two categories of information: data collected automatically when you visit the site, and data you voluntarily provide.

2.1 Automatically Collected Data (Analytics)

We use Vercel Web Analytics to understand how visitors use this site. Vercel Analytics is designed to be privacy-friendly: it does not use cookies, does not track you across sessions or sites, and does not collect or store personally identifiable information (PII).

The information Vercel Analytics collects includes:

Page URL: Which pages you visit on this site
Referrer URL: The page or search engine that linked you here (if available)
Browser and device type: Aggregated, non-identifying information (e.g., "Chrome on mobile")
Country: Derived from your IP address at the time of the request; the IP address itself is not stored
Timestamp: When the page was viewed

Vercel Analytics does not set cookies, does not collect your IP address in identifiable form, and does not build individual user profiles. All metrics are aggregated. For full details, see Vercel's Analytics Privacy Policy.

2.2 Information You Provide (Email Newsletter)

If you choose to subscribe to our email newsletter, we collect your email address. We use Buttondown as our email platform. When you subscribe, your email address is transmitted to and stored by Buttondown, LLC.

Buttondown may also collect:

Your IP address at the time of subscription (for spam prevention)
The page on which you subscribed (for list segmentation)
Open and click activity on emails we send you

We do not collect your name, mailing address, phone number, payment information, or any other personal data. For details on how Buttondown handles subscriber data, see Buttondown's Privacy Policy.

2.3 Information We Do Not Collect

We do not operate any user accounts, do not run comment sections, do not process payments, and do not operate contact forms that submit personal data to our servers. We do not knowingly collect any personal data beyond what is described above.

3. How We Use Your Information

We use the limited data we collect for the following purposes only:

Site analytics: Aggregated, anonymous Vercel Analytics data helps us understand which content is useful, which pages have technical problems, and where visitors come from. We use this to improve content quality and site performance. We never use analytics data to identify individual visitors.
Email newsletter: Your email address is used solely to send you the OffGrid Filters newsletter — product recommendations, new reviews, and buying guides. We do not use it for any other purpose.
No advertising targeting: We do not use any advertising networks, ad tracking pixels, or behavioral targeting systems. We do not build profiles of individual visitors for marketing purposes.

4. Amazon Associates Program and Affiliate Cookies

OffGrid Filters is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by linking to Amazon.com. This is the primary way we fund our research and content.

4.1 How Amazon Affiliate Links Work

When you click a product link on this site, you are directed to Amazon.com. Our affiliate tag (offgrid09a-20) is appended to the URL. This tag tells Amazon that you arrived via our site. If you purchase an eligible product on Amazon within the attribution window, we earn a commission at no additional cost to you.

4.2 Amazon Cookies

When you click an affiliate link on this site, Amazon places cookies on your device. These cookies are set by Amazon, not by us. We have no access to the data in these cookies and no control over how Amazon uses them.

Amazon's cookies serve the following primary functions:

Session cookie: Maintains your shopping cart and login state on Amazon.com
Affiliate attribution cookie: Records that you arrived via an affiliate link so that a qualifying commission can be credited to the referring site (us) if you complete a purchase. This cookie covers the standard Amazon Associates attribution window
Personalization cookies: Amazon may set additional cookies to personalize your Amazon shopping experience, including product recommendations based on browsing history
Advertising cookies: Amazon may use cookies to serve targeted advertising on and off Amazon.com

Important: Amazon's cookies remain active even if you do not complete a purchase immediately. If you add a product to your cart or purchase anything on Amazon during an active session after clicking our link, we may receive a commission on those purchases — even products we did not specifically link to. This is a standard feature of the Amazon Associates program.

Amazon's full data collection and cookie practices are governed by Amazon's Privacy Notice and Amazon's Cookie Notice. We strongly encourage you to review these policies.

4.3 Amazon Interest-Based Advertising

Amazon participates in interest-based advertising. You can opt out of Amazon's interest-based advertising through the Amazon Advertising Preferences page. You can also opt out of interest-based advertising from many companies through the Digital Advertising Alliance's opt-out portal or the Network Advertising Initiative opt-out page.

5. Third-Party Services

This site interacts with the following third-party services. Each is governed by its own privacy policy:

5.1 Amazon Associates (Amazon.com, Inc.)

What it does: Affiliate link tracking and commission attribution.
Data involved: Amazon cookies set on your device when you click our links; purchase and session data on Amazon.com.
Our access: We see only aggregate earnings reports. We do not see your name, order details, or any personal information.
Privacy policy: amazon.com/privacy

5.2 Vercel (Vercel, Inc.)

What it does: Website hosting and privacy-friendly analytics.
Data involved: Anonymous page view metrics. No cookies. No PII stored.
Our access: Aggregate traffic reports only (page views, referrers, browser types by country).
Privacy policy: vercel.com/legal/privacy-policy

5.3 Buttondown (Buttondown, LLC)

What it does: Email newsletter delivery for subscribers who opt in.
Data involved: Email address, subscription IP, email engagement metrics (opens, clicks).
Our access: Your email address and engagement data within our Buttondown account. We do not share or sell this data.
Privacy policy: buttondown.com/legal/privacy

6. Cookies

6.1 First-Party Cookies (Cookies We Set)

OffGrid Filters does not set any first-party cookies. We do not use cookies for session management, login, advertising, or analytics.

6.2 Third-Party Cookies

Third-party cookies may be set on your device by the following external services:

Amazon.com: Cookies are set when you click any affiliate link on this site. See Section 4.2 above for a full explanation of what Amazon's cookies do and how to manage them.
Vercel Analytics: Does not use cookies. Analytics are computed from server-side request data only.
Buttondown: May set a cookie to track link clicks within newsletter emails. This only affects you if you are an email subscriber and click links in our emails.

6.3 How to Control Cookies

You can control and delete cookies through your browser settings. Instructions for major browsers:

Chrome: Settings → Privacy and security → Cookies and other site data
Firefox: Settings → Privacy & Security → Cookies and Site Data
Safari: Preferences → Privacy → Manage Website Data
Edge: Settings → Cookies and site permissions → Cookies and site data

You can also block cookies from specific domains. To prevent Amazon from setting affiliate attribution cookies, block cookies from amazon.com and *.amazon.com. Note: blocking Amazon cookies will prevent affiliate attribution (we will not earn commission on your purchases) but will not prevent you from using Amazon.com — however, some Amazon features like shopping cart persistence and login may not work correctly.

7. Data Sharing

We do not sell, rent, lease, or trade personal information about our visitors or subscribers to any third party.

We share data only in the following limited circumstances:

Service providers: We share email addresses with Buttondown solely to deliver the newsletter service. Buttondown is contractually prohibited from using subscriber data for its own marketing or sharing it with third parties.
Legal requirements: We may disclose information if required to do so by law or in response to valid legal process (such as a court order or government request).
Business transfers: If this site is acquired or merged, visitor and subscriber data may be transferred as part of that transaction. We would notify subscribers via email before their data is transferred to a new owner subject to a different privacy policy.
Protection of rights: We may disclose information where we believe it is necessary to prevent fraud, protect our rights, or protect the safety of our users or others.

We never disclose personal data to advertisers, data brokers, or marketing platforms.

8. Email Newsletter

Our email newsletter is entirely opt-in. We will never add you to our list without your explicit consent.

What we send: New product reviews, best-of roundup updates, and buying guide articles. We send at most one email per week. We do not send promotional emails on behalf of third parties.

Unsubscribing: Every email we send includes an unsubscribe link in the footer. Clicking it immediately removes you from the list with no confirmation steps required. You can also email us directly to request removal.

CAN-SPAM compliance: Our emails comply with the CAN-SPAM Act. Every email includes: our site name and URL, a clear statement of the email's purpose, a functional unsubscribe mechanism, and no deceptive subject lines.

GDPR compliance: If you are in the European Union or European Economic Area, we collect your email address on the legal basis of consent (Article 6(1)(a) GDPR). You may withdraw consent at any time by unsubscribing. See Section 9 for your full rights under GDPR.

9. Your Rights and Choices

9.1 All Visitors

Opt out of Amazon cookies: Use browser cookie controls or Amazon's ad preferences (see Section 4.3)
Opt out of Vercel Analytics: Vercel Analytics respects the browser's Do Not Track (DNT) signal. Enabling DNT in your browser settings will prevent Vercel from recording your page views
Block all tracking: Browser extensions such as uBlock Origin, Privacy Badger, or DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials will block third-party cookies and trackers including Amazon's affiliate cookies

9.2 Email Subscribers

Unsubscribe: Click the unsubscribe link in any email, or contact us directly
Access your data: Contact us to receive a copy of the information we hold about you (your email address and subscription date)
Delete your data: Contact us or unsubscribe to have your email address removed from Buttondown

9.3 Rights Under GDPR (EU/EEA Residents)

If you are located in the European Union or European Economic Area, you have the following rights under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR):

Right of access (Article 15): Request a copy of personal data we hold about you
Right to rectification (Article 16): Request correction of inaccurate personal data
Right to erasure (Article 17): Request deletion of your personal data ("right to be forgotten")
Right to restriction (Article 18): Request that we limit how we use your data
Right to data portability (Article 20): Receive your data in a machine-readable format
Right to object (Article 21): Object to processing of your personal data
Right to withdraw consent: Withdraw consent at any time where processing is based on consent (e.g., unsubscribe from email)

To exercise any of these rights, contact us through our About page. We will respond within 30 days. If you believe your rights have been violated, you have the right to lodge a complaint with your national data protection authority.

9.4 Rights Under CCPA (California Residents)

If you are a California resident, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) grants you the following rights:

Right to know: Request disclosure of the categories and specific pieces of personal information we have collected about you
Right to delete: Request deletion of personal information we have collected about you
Right to opt out of sale: We do not sell personal information, so this right does not apply. We will not sell your personal information in the future without providing prior notice and an opportunity to opt out
Right to non-discrimination: We will not discriminate against you for exercising any CCPA rights

To submit a verifiable consumer request under CCPA, contact us through our About page. We will respond within 45 days of receiving your request.

10. Data Retention

Analytics data: Vercel Analytics retains aggregated, anonymous metrics for up to 90 days by default. No personally identifiable information is retained.
Email subscriber data: Your email address is retained by Buttondown for as long as you remain subscribed. Upon unsubscribing, Buttondown removes you from the active list. You may request complete deletion of your record at any time.
Amazon attribution data: Amazon's cookies expire according to Amazon's own schedule (typically 24 hours for session cookies; longer for persistent cookies). We have no control over Amazon's data retention.

11. Data Security

This website is served exclusively over HTTPS (TLS encryption), meaning all data transmitted between your browser and our site is encrypted in transit. We do not store personal data on our own servers — the only personal data associated with this site (email addresses) is stored by Buttondown using their security infrastructure.

We implement the following security measures:

HTTPS-only with HSTS headers enforced (Strict-Transport-Security)
Content Security Policy (CSP) headers to prevent cross-site scripting attacks
No user-submitted data stored by our application layer
Third-party service providers (Vercel, Buttondown) maintain their own security standards and compliance programs

No method of transmission over the internet is 100% secure. We cannot guarantee the absolute security of any information, but we implement industry-standard protections and use reputable third-party services with strong security records.

12. Children's Privacy

This website is not directed at children under the age of 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has provided us with personal information, please contact us and we will promptly delete it. If you are located in the European Union, "children" for the purposes of data protection means anyone under the age of 16 in jurisdictions where that is the applicable minimum age for consent.

13. Do Not Track Signals

Some browsers include a "Do Not Track" (DNT) feature that signals to websites that you do not want your online activity tracked. Vercel Analytics honors the DNT signal — if DNT is enabled in your browser, Vercel will not record your page views. We do not control Amazon's response to DNT signals. Amazon's response to DNT is governed by Amazon's own privacy policy.

14. Links to External Websites

This site contains links to external websites, primarily Amazon.com product listings. These external sites have their own privacy policies, and we have no control over their content or data practices. This privacy policy applies only to https://offgridfilters.com. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of any external sites you visit, particularly Amazon's, before sharing any personal information with them.

15. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time. When we make material changes, we will update the "Last updated" date at the top of this page. If we make changes that significantly affect how we handle personal data (particularly for email subscribers), we will notify subscribers by email at least 14 days before the changes take effect.

We encourage you to review this policy periodically. Your continued use of this site after changes are posted constitutes your acceptance of the revised policy.

16. Contact Us

If you have questions, concerns, or requests regarding this privacy policy or our data practices, please reach out through our About page. We take all privacy inquiries seriously and aim to respond within 5 business days.

For time-sensitive matters related to data deletion or GDPR/CCPA rights requests, please include "Privacy Request" in your message subject so we can prioritize your inquiry.