Privacy, in plain language.
What this preview stores and what happens when you follow a shopping link.
Saved guides and products
Bookmark choices are stored in this browser using local storage. They are not synced to an account or another device. Remove an item with its bookmark button, or clear this site’s browser data to erase the list.
If browser storage is unavailable, bookmarks can work for the current visit but may not survive a page change or refresh.
Reading interests
To put the categories you read most first, this browser keeps a small tally of the categories of the guides, category pages and topic pages you open and of the things you save. The home page uses it to order its shelves and suggest a few more guides, and the guide and pick filters use it to order their categories.
The tally sits in local storage next to your bookmarks. It is not sent to Pickstead or anyone else and is not tied to an account. Clear it, or turn it off, here:
Search and site usage
Search runs in your browser and fetches only the pieces of the search index it needs from this site’s /ca/pagefind/ folder on demand, rather than one big catalogue. Search terms appear in the page address so you can bookmark or share a results page. A hosting service may process normal request logs that include the page address.
Pickstead keeps its own visitor statistics rather than using an advertising or analytics network. A small script served from stat.pickstead.com records the page you open, the page that referred you, the terms you search for on this site, your browser and screen size, roughly how long the page stayed open, and clicks on retailer links, and it sets one first-party cookie (pickstead_vid, one year) so repeat visits are counted once. Your IP address is used to estimate a country and city and to tell data-centre traffic from readers. These statistics are used only to see which guides are read and which links work; they are not sold, used for advertising or shared with advertisers. Blocking the script or the cookie does not affect the site.
This site does not collect email addresses, process payments, or install advertising analytics. Its content and assets are served as website files.
Retailer links
Following a product link takes you to a retailer’s website. The retailer’s privacy and cookie policies then apply. Future affiliate links may include referral information used to attribute a qualifying purchase.
Pickstead does not receive your payment information from a shopping link.
How long it is kept and where
Visit records from the statistics script, including the estimated location and the pickstead_vid identifier, are kept for 13 months and then deleted; only totals that cannot be traced back to a visitor are kept longer. Server request logs, and the records drawn from them, follow the same 13-month limit.
Pickstead’s website and statistics run on a server in the United States, so this information is stored and processed outside Canada and may be accessible to authorities there under United States law.
Your choices and requests
Statistics are collected on the basis of this notice. To opt out, block the stat.pickstead.com script or the pickstead_vid cookie in your browser; the site works the same without them.
You can ask what information about your visits Pickstead holds, ask for it to be corrected or deleted, or raise a privacy concern by writing to privacy@pickstead.com. The statistics are not tied to a name or account, so include your pickstead_vid cookie value to help find the records. If the answer does not resolve your concern, you can complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.
Photo and product sources
Product photography comes from the brands linked in the guides.