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Privacy

Cut & Smoke is a static website. As currently built:

  • It does not use advertising trackers.
  • It uses Google Analytics only if you allow it. Until you do, no analytics code loads.
  • It does not set cookies of its own. Your analytics choice is saved in your browser so you aren’t asked on every page.
  • It has no accounts, comments or sign-up forms, so it does not ask for personal information. If you email hello@cutandsmoke.com, your address and message are used only to reply.
  • Search runs in your browser against a file of published stories; searches are not sent anywhere.
  • Some stories have paid links to Amazon, Refined Traditions, 1st Class Humidors and Gotham Cigars. Nothing from any of them loads on this site, and they only hear from you if you click a link.
  • The footer shows badges from two directories, Startup Fame and DanielLaunches. The images load from their servers, so your browser sends them the usual details of a web request, such as your IP address and browser type. See the Startup Fame and DanielLaunches privacy policies.

The site is hosted by Vercel. Vercel’s privacy notice says it collects visitors’ IP addresses, the city and country derived from them, and system configuration information for sites it hosts. The notice gives no fixed retention period for this data; it says Vercel keeps information for the minimum period needed and then deletes or anonymizes it.

Analytics

If you select “Allow analytics”, Google Analytics 4 runs to show which pages get read, how people arrive at them and which paid links get clicked. It is provided by Google, which receives this usage data. Google’s analytics help says IP addresses are not logged or stored in Google Analytics 4. It sets two first-party cookies, _ga and _ga_<container-id>, which last two years by default. Advertising features are turned off. Google explains how it uses information from sites that use its services.

You can change your mind at any time with the “Analytics choices” link in the footer. Choosing “No thanks” stops analytics and removes those cookies from this site.

Cut & Smoke also uses Google Search Console to see how the site appears in Google Search. It adds no code or cookies to this site.

Paid links to Amazon, Refined Traditions, 1st Class Humidors and Gotham Cigars include a tag that identifies Cut & Smoke, so the retailer can credit a commission for qualifying purchases. Refined Traditions runs its program through GoAffPro. 1st Class Humidors and Gotham Cigars run their programs through Awin, so a click on one of their links goes through Awin’s site on the way to the store. If you click one of these links, you leave this site and the retailer’s own policy applies, including its use of cookies: see Amazon’s privacy notice, the Refined Traditions privacy policy, the 1st Class Humidors privacy page, the Gotham Cigars privacy policy or Awin’s privacy notice. See the affiliate disclosure for how these links work.

Changes

If a newsletter or any other service is added, this page will be updated before it goes live to say what is collected, by whom and why.