Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains what information Five Star Recipes (fivestarrecipes.com) collects when you browse the site, send us a message or leave a rating or comment, how that information is used, how long it is kept, and what choices you have. We collect only what we need to run the site, answer your messages, keep the site secure and show advertising that helps cover its costs.

If anything here is unclear, you can reach us through the Contact Us page.

1. Information We Collect

Depending on how you use the site, we may receive the following:

• Contact form: your name, email address and the message you write.
• Ratings and comments: your name and the text you submit with a rating or comment on a recipe. Comments may be displayed publicly on the recipe page, so please do not include personal details you would not want others to read.
• Server logs: our web server automatically records your IP address, browser type and the pages requested.
• Visit statistics: the page viewed and the referring page (the site you came from), recorded on our own server.
• Cookies: small files set by the site or by our service providers, described in section 4.

You can browse the recipes without creating an account, and we do not ask for payment details because the site sells nothing.

2. How We Use Information

• Contact form messages are used only to reply to you.
• Names and comments submitted with ratings are used to display your feedback on the recipe page and to help us improve recipes.
• Server logs are used for security and troubleshooting, for example to spot abusive traffic or find the cause of an error.
• Visit statistics show us which pages are read and where visitors come from, so we can see what is useful and what needs work.
• Cookies support the technical operation of the site, its security and the display of advertising.

We do not sell your contact details, and we do not use your email address for marketing unless you have asked us to.

3. Log Files and Visit Statistics

Like most websites, we use standard web server logs. They contain your IP address, browser type and the pages requested, and exist for security and troubleshooting.

We also keep first-party visit statistics on our own server: the page viewed and the referrer. Raw visit records are kept for 7 days. After that, only daily totals remain, which do not identify individual visitors.

4. Cookies, Advertising and Service Providers

Cookies are small text files stored on your device. We use them in the following ways.

Google AdSense

We display ads served by Google AdSense. Google and its advertising partners use cookies to serve ads, limit how often you see the same ad and measure ad performance. Personalized ads are shown only with your consent. You can manage ad personalization at https://adssettings.google.com. To learn how Google uses data from sites that use its services, see https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.

Consent for visitors in the EEA, UK and Switzerland

If you visit from the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, a Google consent message appears before personalized advertising cookies are used. You can accept, decline or adjust your choices there, and you can change your mind later by clearing your browser cookies so the message appears again. If you decline, you may still see ads, but they are not personalized using your browsing data.

Cloudflare

We use Cloudflare for content delivery and security. It helps pages load quickly and protects the site from malicious traffic, and it may set technical cookies for these purposes.

Social links

The site links to our Pinterest profile. When you follow that link you leave our site, and Pinterest's own privacy policy applies to what happens there.

Managing cookies in your browser

Most browsers let you block or delete cookies in their settings. Blocking all cookies may affect how some parts of the site work.

5. Data Retention

• Raw visit records: kept for 7 days, then reduced to daily totals.
• Server logs: kept only as long as needed for security and troubleshooting.
• Contact form messages: kept as long as needed to answer you and handle any follow-up, then deleted.
• Ratings and comments: kept for as long as the recipe page displays them, unless you ask us to remove yours.

6. Your Rights Under the GDPR (EEA, UK and Switzerland)

If you are in the EEA, the UK or Switzerland, you have the following rights regarding your personal data:

• The right to access – you can request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
• The right to rectification – you can ask us to correct information you believe is inaccurate.
• The right to erasure – you can ask us to delete your personal data, under certain conditions.
• The right to restrict processing – you can ask us to limit how we use your data.
• The right to object – you can object to our processing of your data.
• The right to data portability – you can ask us to transfer the data we hold to you or to another organization.
• The right to withdraw consent – where we rely on your consent, such as for personalized ads, you can withdraw it at any time.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority. To exercise any of these rights, contact us through the Contact Us page. We aim to respond within one month.

7. California Privacy Rights (CCPA/CPRA)

If you are a California resident, you have the right to:

• know what categories and specific pieces of personal information we have collected about you, and how they are used;
• request deletion of personal information we have collected from you, subject to legal exceptions;
• request correction of inaccurate personal information;
• opt out of the sale or sharing of your personal information, including its use for cross-context behavioral advertising;
• not be treated differently for exercising any of these rights.

We do not sell personal information in exchange for money. Advertising cookies from Google AdSense may count as "sharing" under California law; you can opt out through https://adssettings.google.com. To make a request, contact us through the Contact Us page. We may need to verify your identity before acting on it.

8. Children's Privacy

Five Star Recipes is intended for a general audience and is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has sent us personal information through the contact form or a comment, please let us know through the Contact Us page and we will delete it. We encourage parents and guardians to take an active part in their children's online activity.

9. Security

We take reasonable technical measures to protect the information we hold, including secure connections, security services from Cloudflare and short retention of raw visit records. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security. Please avoid sharing sensitive personal information in comments or in the contact form.

10. Links to Other Websites

Recipe pages and our social links may lead to other websites. We do not control their content or data practices, and this policy does not apply to them. We recommend reading the privacy policy of any site you visit.

11. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy when our practices or the services we use change. The "Last Updated" date at the top shows when it was last revised. We encourage you to review this page from time to time. Continued use of the site after an update means you accept the revised policy. See also our Terms of use.

12. Contact

For questions about this policy, or to make a request about your personal data, please use our Contact Us page. Learn more about the site in About Us.