Privacy, in plain language.
What this site stores, what it counts only with your permission, and what happens when you follow a shopping link.
Who is responsible
Pickstead is published by Brian J. Rich, who is the controller of the personal data described on this page: 844 The Crescent, Colchester, Essex, CO4 9YQ, United Kingdom; telephone +44 7756 003176. For anything about your data or this notice, write to privacy@pickstead.com or to that postal address.
Saved guides and products
Bookmark choices are stored in this browser using local storage. They are not synced to an account or another device, and they are not sent to Pickstead. 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.
On this site the tally is kept only if you accept the banner at the bottom of the page, the same answer that covers the statistics below. Until then, or after you decline, nothing is recorded and pages keep their usual order.
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 /uk/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, and on this site they run only if you accept them. When you do, 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. If you decline, or have not answered yet, the script is not loaded and the cookie is not set, and the site works just the same.
This site does not collect email addresses, process payments, or install advertising analytics. Its content and assets are served as website files.
Why we may use it
The statistics script and its cookie, and the reading-interest tally, rely on your consent. You give it with the Accept button and can withdraw it at any time with the controls at the end of this page; withdrawing does not affect statistics collected while your consent was in place. Your answer is kept in this browser’s local storage so you are not asked on every page; that record exists only to respect your choice.
The web server also keeps ordinary request logs (IP address, page address, time and browser) whether or not you accept, because a website cannot be served or kept secure without them. For these we rely on our legitimate interests in running and protecting the site and in measuring its overall traffic, and you can object to this use at any time.
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. Withdrawing consent stops new records; to remove a pickstead_vid cookie already set in your browser, clear this site’s cookies.
Pickstead’s website and statistics run on a hosting server in the United States, so this information is stored outside the United Kingdom and processed by the hosting provider under its data processing terms.
Your rights
Under UK data protection law you have the right to:
- access the personal data Pickstead holds about you and receive a copy;
- have inaccurate data corrected;
- have your data erased;
- restrict how your data is used;
- object to processing based on our legitimate interests, the server logs included;
- receive the statistics collected with your consent in a structured, machine-readable format;
- withdraw your consent at any time, with the controls on this page or by writing to us.
To use any of these rights, write to privacy@pickstead.com. The statistics are not tied to a name or account, so please include your pickstead_vid cookie value (listed among pickstead.com’s cookies in your browser’s settings or developer tools) to help us find the records. We reply within one month and do not charge for a request.
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your data, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK’s data protection regulator, at ico.org.uk. We would appreciate the chance to put things right first.
Photo and product sources
Product photography comes from the brands linked in the guides.
Your choice on statistics and reading interests
You can change your answer here at any time. Accepting turns on the statistics script and the reading-interest tally in this browser. Declining stops both: the tally at once, the statistics script from the next page you open. The reading-interest controls above work either way.