ReefDen

Privacy policy

Effective May 10, 2026.

ReefDen (https://reefden.com) is operated as a personal publication. This policy explains what we collect, why, and your rights over your data. We collect the minimum needed to run the site, and we don't sell or rent personal information to anyone.

How we're funded: ReefDen participates in affiliate marketing programs (Amazon Associates and other reef-industry retailers). When you click an outbound retailer link on this site and make a qualifying purchase, we may earn a commission. See our affiliate disclosure for full details and the affiliate-tracking section below for the data implications.

What we collect

  • Newsletter signups. If you subscribe to our newsletter, we collect your email address. Storage and delivery is handled by Resend on our behalf. You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in any newsletter email.
  • Affiliate click logs. When you click an affiliate link (any URL beginning with /recommends/), we record the destination, referring page, your user-agent string, and a timestamp. We do not log your IP address with these clicks. This is used to understand which recommendations are useful and to reconcile commission reports from retailers.
  • Server logs. Like every web server, our hosting provider (Vercel) records request metadata including IP address and user-agent for short-term operational and security purposes. We do not analyze these logs at the individual level.
  • Google Analytics (GA4). We use Google Analytics 4 to understand which pages are useful and where visitors come from. GA4 sets first-party cookies (named _ga and_ga_*) and reports aggregate metrics like pageviews, sessions, traffic sources, and approximate geolocation (city-level) back to us. We do not link analytics data to any individual identifier. Google may use its own collected data per its privacy policy. To opt out, you can install the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on or use any cookie/privacy blocker.

What we do not collect

  • We do not currently use third-party advertising trackers.
  • We do not set marketing or behavioral cookies for advertising retargeting. GA4 cookies are analytics-only.
  • We do not require accounts or logins to read content.

Affiliate-link tracking (third-party cookies)

When you click an outbound retailer link (any URL beginning with /recommends/), you are redirected to the retailer's site with a referral identifier appended to the URL (for example, Amazon's tag=parameter). The retailer's site may then set its own cookies on its domain to track the referral and attribute any resulting purchase back to ReefDen. These cookies and the data they collect are governed entirely by the retailer's privacy policy, not ours.

Specifically, by clicking an outbound affiliate link you may be subject to tracking by Amazon (Amazon Associates), Bulk Reef Supply (via Impact Radius), ORA Farm, The Biota Group, Seahorse Savvy, and other partner retailers. You can usually clear attribution by deleting cookies for the destination domain between clicking and purchasing.

ReefDen itself receives aggregate, anonymized commission reportsfrom these programs — not individual purchase data that identifies you. We see "X clicks on link Y produced Z dollars in commission this month," not "visitor A bought item B."

How long we keep data

  • Newsletter subscribers are retained until you unsubscribe.
  • Affiliate click logs are retained for up to 24 months for commission reconciliation, then deleted or anonymized.
  • Server logs are retained per Vercel's default policy (currently ~30 days).

Your rights

You can request access to, correction of, or deletion of any personal data we hold about you by emailing hello@reefden.com. Newsletter unsubscribe is one click — use the link at the bottom of any email.

If you are in the EU, UK, or California, you have specific rights under GDPR, UK GDPR, and the CCPA respectively, including the right to know what personal data we process, to request a copy, to have it corrected or deleted, and (where applicable) to data portability. Contact the email above to exercise any of these rights.

Children

ReefDen is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect data from them. If you believe we have, please contact us and we will delete the data.

Changes

If we make material changes to this policy, we'll update the effective date at the top and, where appropriate, post a notice on the homepage. The latest version always lives at this URL.

Contact

Questions about privacy? hello@reefden.com.