Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Reptile Grove (https://reptilegrove.com) handles information, based on how the Site is configured and operated today. It was last updated and takes effect on October 6, 2026. It should be read with the Terms of Use and the Disclosure. We have tried to describe what actually happens and not to promise more than we can verify, and where a fact is unknown we say so.

Who We Are, Scope and Effective Date

Reptile Grove is a standalone informational blog about keeping pet reptiles. It is operated by its owners and operators (“we,” “us” and “our”). This policy does not name a legal entity, an individual or a postal address, because that information has not been supplied or published for the Site, and we will update this policy if that changes. This policy applies to the Site at reptilegrove.com, to the contact form on it and to email you send to the address listed in it. It does not apply to other websites, including those our articles link to, or to the independent practices of the infrastructure providers that deliver the Site, which are described below. The Site is a static website built from published pages. It has no user accounts, comments, newsletter, public submission features, shop or payment functions. The Site is intended for a general audience in the United States.

Information We Collect and How

We collect very little information, and it comes from the following sources.

Information you provide. You can give us information through the contact form on the Contact page or by emailing hello@reptilegrove.com. If you contact us, we receive your email address, any name you give or that appears on your email, your message and anything else you choose to include, such as links or attachments. We do not ask for sensitive personal information and we ask you not to send it.

Information processed automatically. The contact form is protected by Cloudflare Turnstile, a spam-protection check that may process technical request data to tell people from automated traffic. When you visit the Site, your browser also requests pages and files from servers. The hosting and network providers that deliver the Site (see below) may process standard technical request data, such as IP address, browser and device type, requested pages, referring page, date and time, and security signals, in order to deliver pages and protect the service from abuse. We have not configured analytics, and we do not operate our own visitor database. Server-side request logs may be kept by the hosting provider, and we do not know the details of what is logged or for how long.

Information received from others. We do not purchase, combine or receive personal information about readers from data brokers, advertisers or social networks. We may receive personal information about you only if you send it to us, or if someone else includes it in a message to us.

Cookies and local storage. The Site itself does not set cookies. The light and dark theme toggle saves your color-scheme choice in your browser’s local storage on your device. That setting is read by your browser to display the Site as you chose, and it is not sent to us. Cloudflare Turnstile may use its own cookies or similar technologies, and Cloudflare may also set its own security cookies for the Site. We have not verified whether it does so or which ones, and those are controlled by Cloudflare.

Legal Bases for Processing

The Site is directed at readers in the United States, and we do not target the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or other regions that require a specific legal basis for processing. We do not rely on your consent for any processing we control, because we do not run our own cookies, analytics or marketing that would require it, and we have no contract with Site readers beyond the Terms of Use. The spam-protection check on the contact form is a security measure and not a marketing or analytics tool. Where a law that applies to you requires a legal basis, the limited processing described here is carried out for our legitimate interests in operating, securing and improving a free informational website, in answering messages and correcting errors, and in complying with the law and protecting our rights. By limiting what we collect, we try to keep that processing proportionate and not to override your interests, and you can raise a concern or object using the contact details below.

How We Use Information

We use information for these purposes:

To read and respond to messages, where we are able to, including questions about articles.
To evaluate and make corrections when readers report errors or send sources.
To understand which topics, species and equipment readers would like covered, in a general way.
To deliver the Site, to keep it secure, to filter spam and automated traffic, and to detect, investigate and prevent abuse, fraud, malicious traffic and violations of the Terms of Use.
To comply with legal obligations, respond to lawful requests and protect our rights, safety and property and those of others.

We do not use email addresses or messages to send marketing, newsletters or promotional messages, and we do not add anyone to a mailing list. We do not use personal information to build advertising profiles, to make automated decisions about you or to sell to others. We may use a message, with identifying details removed, to improve an article, but we will not publish your name or message as a testimonial without asking you first.

Advertising, Analytics and Tracking

The Site currently uses no advertising networks, no affiliate tracking, no analytics tools, no social media pixels or embedded social plug-ins that we have configured, and no behavioral advertising. We do not run retargeting, we do not build advertising profiles of readers, and we do not buy or sell advertising data. The Site has no affiliate links, and so no affiliate cookies are set by it. This statement describes what we have set up, and it does not control the independent practices of infrastructure providers or of external websites that you reach through links. If we add analytics, advertising, affiliate links or similar tools, we will update this policy before or at the time the change takes effect, and we will also update the Disclosure.

We do not sell your personal information for money, and we do not share it with third parties for cross-context behavioral advertising. We do not rent or trade email addresses. We may share or disclose information in the limited cases below:

Service providers. Infrastructure, email and publishing providers process information on our behalf or on their own systems in order to deliver the Site and handle messages, as described in the next section.
Legal reasons. We may disclose information if we believe in good faith that it is required by law, regulation, subpoena, court order or other legal process, or that it is reasonably necessary to protect the rights, property, safety or security of the Site, its operators, readers, animals or the public, or to investigate suspected unlawful activity or violations of our Terms.
Business changes. If the Site is transferred, sold or reorganized, information we hold, such as messages, may be transferred to the new operator, who would be expected to handle it consistently with this policy or give notice of a change.
With your direction. We may share information if you ask us to or if you give permission.

Because the Site publishes no reader content, we do not make your messages public.

Service Providers and Third Parties

The following services play a role in operating the Site.

Cloudflare. Provides domain name management (DNS), hosting and delivery of the Site, HTTPS encryption of connections, the Turnstile spam-protection check on the contact form and email routing for the Site’s address. Cloudflare may process technical request data and may set its own security cookies, and it operates under its own privacy practices.
MTC publishing service. The Site is built as a static site with Astro and published through the MTC publishing service onto Cloudflare. That service is used to prepare and deploy pages, and it is not a feature that readers interact with. We have not verified whether it receives visitor data.
GitHub. Hosts the Site’s source repository. It is used by the operators, is not reader-facing, and we do not intentionally send visitor information to it.
Email routing and mailbox providers. Messages sent to hello@reptilegrove.com are meant to be received through Cloudflare email routing and forwarded to a private destination that we do not name. The inbox, routing and forwarding were reported ready at setup, but end-to-end delivery on the live site has not been tested yet. Your message and its details would pass through those providers’ systems, and we have not identified every provider that may store it.

We have not verified any separate written data-processing agreements with these providers beyond their standard terms, and their handling of information is governed by their own policies. We do not make claims about their security or privacy practices.

Your Choices and Rights

We do not operate a database of reader personal information, and the personal information we are likely to hold is limited to messages you send us. Subject to the laws that apply to you, you may ask us to tell you whether we hold information from you, to give you a copy, to correct it or to delete it, and you may ask us to stop using it for a purpose you object to. To make a request, use the contact form or email hello@reptilegrove.com from the address you used to write to us, and describe your request. End-to-end delivery of the contact form and email on the live site has not been tested yet, so we cannot confirm that a request will be delivered and we cannot promise a response time. Because we may be unable to identify you from a general visit to the Site, we may only be able to locate information associated with a message you sent. To protect you and others, we may ask for reasonable information to confirm that a request really comes from you, and we may decline requests we cannot verify. We may also decline or limit a request where the law allows, for example if it would reveal another person’s information, if we are required to keep the information, or if the request is manifestly unfounded or excessive. We will not discriminate against you for making a privacy request. You can also use browser and device controls. You can clear the theme setting by clearing your browser’s site data or local storage for reptilegrove.com, and the Site will still work, using its default appearance. You can block or delete cookies through your browser settings, which may affect security or spam-protection features provided by Cloudflare, including the contact form check. You can use a private browsing mode or a privacy-protecting network tool to limit technical request data, though a provider may still receive some information to deliver the Site. Because we have no advertising or analytics, there is nothing for you to opt out of on the Site itself, and we do not respond to browser signals such as Do Not Track differently, since we do not track you across sites. Requests about data that infrastructure providers hold, such as request logs, may need to be made to those providers under their own policies.

Security

The Site is delivered over HTTPS through Cloudflare, which encrypts connections between your browser and the Site. The contact form uses Cloudflare Turnstile to help filter automated abuse. We rely on our providers’ security measures and we try to limit what we collect, because information we do not collect cannot be exposed. We have not commissioned a security audit or certification of the Site, and we do not claim that any particular security standard is met. No method of transmission over the internet or of electronic storage is completely secure, and email in particular is often not encrypted end to end. We cannot guarantee the absolute security of any information, and you send us information at your own risk. Please do not send passwords, financial information, health information about yourself or other sensitive personal information through the form or by email. If we learn of a security incident that affects personal information and that the law requires us to report, we will follow those requirements.

Retention

We do not currently have fixed retention periods, and we have not verified how long our providers keep logs or email. We keep messages we receive for as long as we reasonably need them to answer your message, to track and make corrections, to understand reader interests, to meet legal obligations, to resolve disputes and to protect the Site, and we may delete them sooner or later at our discretion. We do not keep a separate database of reader information. The theme setting stays in your browser until you or your browser clears it, and we do not hold a copy. Technical logs, if any, are retained by the hosting provider according to its own practices, which we do not control. If you ask us to delete your messages, we will try to do so, unless we need to keep them for a legal reason or the information is held by a provider outside our control, such as in a backup.

Children’s Privacy

The Site is written for adults and general audiences and is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13, and the Site has no accounts or features that are designed to collect it. If a parent or guardian believes that a child has sent us personal information, please use the contact form or email hello@reptilegrove.com, and we will try to review the message and delete the information where appropriate. Because end-to-end delivery has not been tested, we cannot guarantee that we will receive such a request, and if we learn that we hold a child’s personal information, we will delete it. Parents and guardians should supervise children’s use of the internet and any contact with reptiles, which carries health and safety risks described in the Terms of Use.

Where Information Is Processed

We do not know the exact locations of the servers and data centers used by our providers. Cloudflare operates a global network, so technical request data and any information passing through the Site may be processed in the United States and in other countries, including outside your own state or country, often close to where a reader connects. Messages you send may be processed or stored wherever the email providers operate, which we have not yet fully identified. The Site is intended for readers in the United States. We have not put specific cross-border transfer mechanisms in place and do not claim that any are in place, and by using the Site or contacting us you understand that your information may be handled in these locations, which may have different data-protection laws from those where you live.

Links to Other Websites

Articles may link to outside websites such as research publishers, veterinary organizations, government agencies, manufacturers and retailers. Those websites are operated by others and may collect information through cookies, analytics, advertising or other tools. We do not control them and we are not responsible for their privacy practices or content. This policy does not apply once you leave the Site, and we encourage you to read the privacy policy of any site that you visit. The Terms of Use explain more about third-party links and products.

California Privacy Information

The Site is intended for a general audience in the United States, and California residents may visit it. We have not identified the operator’s legal form or size, so we do not claim that the California Consumer Privacy Act or similar California laws apply to us, or that they do not. If they apply, the following describes our practices. In the preceding twelve months, the only categories of personal information we expect to have received are identifiers and contact details, such as an email address, the content of messages that you send us, and technical request data that our hosting providers may process. We use that information only for the purposes described above. We do not sell personal information for money and we do not share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising, and we do not knowingly sell or share personal information of children under 16. We do not use or disclose sensitive personal information to infer characteristics about you. If the law applies, you may have the right to know, to access, to correct and to delete personal information, to opt out of sale or sharing and to be free from discrimination for exercising your rights. To make a request, follow the steps in the section on your choices and rights, and note the limits on delivery of messages. You may use an authorized agent to make a request on your behalf, and we may ask for proof of their authority and may verify your identity. California law may also allow California residents to request information about the disclosure of personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes, and we do not make such disclosures.

Other State Privacy Rights, Including Nevada

Several other U.S. states have privacy laws that may give residents rights such as access, correction, deletion and opt-out of certain processing. We have not determined that any of them apply to the Site, because the operator’s identity and size are unknown and the Site collects little personal information, and we do not claim that they apply or do not apply. Where such a law does apply to us, you can use the request process in the section on your choices and rights, and where the law gives you a right to appeal a decision, you may reply to our response, subject to the same limits on message delivery. Nevada law gives residents the right to opt out of the sale of certain covered information. We do not sell covered information as Nevada law defines it, and so there is nothing to opt out of, but you may contact us if you have a question. We do not target residents of other countries, and we do not claim to meet requirements that only apply to them.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy when the Site, its providers or the law change. If we add analytics, advertising, affiliate links, accounts, comments, a newsletter or any other feature that changes how information is handled, we will update this policy before or at the time the change takes effect. The date at the top of this page shows when it was last updated. Because we do not collect contact information from readers for this purpose, we do not send individual notices of changes, and we post the revised policy on this page. Where the law requires a specific form of notice, we will follow that requirement. Your continued use of the Site after a change means that you accept the updated policy to the extent the law allows.

Contact, Complaints and Email Availability

For questions about this policy, to make a privacy request or to raise a concern or complaint, use the contact form on the Contact page or email hello@reptilegrove.com. The form is enabled and protected by Cloudflare Turnstile, and the mail routing for this address was completed through Cloudflare and reported ready at setup. End-to-end delivery on the live site has not been tested yet, so we cannot confirm that your message will be delivered or read, and we do not promise any response time. Please do not rely on the form or email for urgent matters, and please do not include sensitive personal information. We have not published a postal address for the Site. If you are not satisfied with how we handle a concern, you may also have the right to contact a government authority that oversees privacy or consumer protection where you live, such as your state attorney general. We will update this section when live delivery has been tested.