GadgetShowdown
Privacy Policy
This policy explains what information GadgetShowdown collects when you visit, how it’s used, who else may receive it, and the choices you have. It follows the policy GadgetShowdown publishes at gadgetshowdown.com/privacy/, where it’s also available in 11 other languages, and adds a summary of the site’s Cookie Notice. If the two ever differ, the version on gadgetshowdown.com applies.
Summary
- You can read everything on the site without an account. There are no logins and no public comments.
- We don’t use Google Analytics or any other analytics service.
- We use Google AdSense for advertising. Google and its partners may use cookies to show ads, including ads based on your visits to this and other websites. You can turn off personalized ads at any time: see Advertising.
- Links to Amazon are affiliate links. If you follow one, Amazon may use cookies to record that you came from us.
- If you email us, we use what you send to reply.
Who we are
Publisher: Stealth Launch, LLC, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Website: https://gadgetshowdown.com
Privacy email: contact@stealthlaunch.com, with the subject “GadgetShowdown privacy request”
We don’t publish a street address. Email is the way to reach us; see Support.
Information we collect
When you visit
- Server and security logs. Our hosting provider, and any content delivery network (CDN) in front of the site, record standard connection data: IP address, browser user agent, date and time, the page requested and the page you came from. These logs keep the site online, secure and fast, and help us fix errors.
- Cookies and local storage. The site remembers the language and color theme you choose. Google may set advertising cookies, and our host or CDN may set security cookies. The details are under Cookies and local storage.
When you contact us
If you email us, we receive your email address, your name if you include it, and whatever you write. We use it to reply, to fix errors you report and to keep a record of corrections and privacy requests.
What we don’t collect
- Accounts, passwords or payment details: there’s nothing to sign up for or buy on this site.
- Your precise location: the site never asks your browser for it.
- Sensitive information: please don’t email us health details or government ID numbers.
Advertising
GadgetShowdown uses Google AdSense, an advertising service from Google, and loads Google’s ad script on its pages.
- Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this website or other websites.
- Google’s use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visit to this site and/or other sites on the internet.
- Ads may also come from other ad networks and vendors that work with Google. They may use cookies too.
Your choices:
- Turn off personalized ads from Google in Google’s Ads Settings.
- Opt out of personalized ads from many other vendors at www.aboutads.info/choices, or at www.youronlinechoices.eu in Europe.
- Block or delete cookies in your browser settings.
In the European Economic Area, the UK and Switzerland, Google uses cookies for personalized ads only with your consent, collected through a consent message that Google certifies. Without that consent, Google shows only non-personalized or limited ads.
Google explains how it uses data from websites that show its ads in How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services. The Google Privacy Policy covers what Google collects.
Amazon affiliate links
GadgetShowdown is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. Our “Check price on Amazon” buttons, and product photos credited to Amazon, link to Amazon. If you follow one and buy something, we may earn a commission. Amazon may use cookies to record that you came from this site; that happens on Amazon’s website, under the Amazon Privacy Notice. Amazon’s reports show us which products were bought through our links, but not who bought them.
Cookies and local storage
GadgetShowdown’s Cookie Notice lists each one. In short:
- Strictly necessary: our host or CDN may set cookies for security checks and load balancing. The provider sets how long they last; they’re usually short-lived.
- Preferences: the
gs_localecookie (about one year) and thegs-localeandgs-themekeys in local storage (until you clear them) hold only the language or theme you picked, such asenorde. Session storage keeps a copy of the site’s menus and labels in that language until you close the tab. - Advertising: Google and partner ad vendors, through the Google AdSense script, to show ads, limit how often you see the same ad, measure ads and, where allowed, personalize them. Google sets how long they last; see How Google uses cookies.
- Affiliate: Amazon, on its own website after you follow a link, so a purchase can be credited to us.
We don’t use analytics cookies. If you block all cookies, some security checks may fail and the site won’t remember your language. This site doesn’t change how it works in response to Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control signals; use the choices under Advertising to opt out of personalized ads.
How we use information
- To run, secure and fix GadgetShowdown
- To answer your emails and correct errors you report
- To show ads and earn affiliate commissions, which pay for the site
- To comply with the law and protect the site, our readers and our rights
If your local law asks for a legal basis: we rely on our legitimate interest in running a public website, on your consent where the law requires it for advertising cookies, and on the need to answer a message you send us.
Sharing
We share information only with:
- Service providers: the hosting, CDN, DNS and email companies that run the site and our inboxes on our behalf
- Advertising and affiliate partners: Google and its ad partners, and Amazon, as described above
- Authorities or advisers, when the law requires it, to answer a lawful request, or to protect safety and the site
- A new owner, if Stealth Launch, LLC is merged, sold or reorganized; we would expect them to honor this policy or tell you what changes
We don’t sell your name or email address, and we don’t rent or share mailing lists.
U.S. state privacy rights
Some U.S. state laws, including California’s, treat advertising cookies used for cross-context behavioral advertising as a “sale” or “sharing” of personal information. To opt out of personalized ads on this site, use Google’s Ads Settings and the industry opt-out pages listed under Advertising, or block third-party cookies in your browser. This site doesn’t respond to Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control signals.
Depending on where you live, you may have the right to ask what personal information we hold about you, to correct or delete it, and to appeal if we refuse. Email contact@stealthlaunch.com with “GadgetShowdown privacy request” in the subject. We may need to verify your identity, and an authorized agent can make a request for you. We won’t treat you differently for using these rights.
Some data isn’t ours to hand over, such as logs mixed with other visitors’ data, or information that only Google or Amazon holds. In those cases we’ll tell you which company to ask.
Visitors outside the United States
GadgetShowdown is run from San Juan, Puerto Rico. If you visit from elsewhere, your information is processed in the United States and in any country where our host or CDN keeps logs. You can send the requests described above wherever you live.
How long we keep information
- Server and CDN logs: for the short period our providers keep them for security and troubleshooting, after which they’re deleted or aggregated
- Emails: as long as we need them to reply, and to keep a record of corrections and privacy requests
- Cookies: see Cookies and local storage
Security
The site is served over HTTPS. No method of sending or storing data is completely secure, so please don’t email us passwords or payment details.
Children
GadgetShowdown isn’t directed at children under 13, and we don’t knowingly collect personal information from them. If you think a child has sent us information, email us and we’ll delete what we hold.
Changes to this policy
When we change this policy, we update the date at the top of the page. If a change matters, for example a new advertising or analytics partner, we’ll also say what changed here.
Contact
Stealth Launch, LLC, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Email: contact@stealthlaunch.com
Web: https://gadgetshowdown.com
Related: GadgetShowdown · Support · Stealth Launch privacy