Privacy Policy

Your privacy matters to us. This policy explains, in plain language, what information Life in Steps collects when you visit lifeinsteps.com, how we use it, who we share it with, and the choices you have.

Who we are

Life in Steps is an independent blog with practical guides on technology, hair care, how-to topics and home life. In this policy, "we", "us" and "our" refer to Life in Steps, and "you" refers to anyone who visits our website. If you have any questions, email us at hello@lifeinsteps.com.

Information we collect

Information you give us

We don't offer user accounts, and you can read everything on our site without telling us who you are. If you email us, we receive your email address, your name (if you include it) and whatever you write in your message.

If you subscribe to our newsletter, your email address (and any other details you enter in the sign-up form) is processed by our third-party email service provider so we can send you our emails. You can unsubscribe at any time using the link at the bottom of every email.

Information collected automatically

When you visit our site, some information is collected automatically by our hosting provider, analytics tools and advertising partners. This may include:

your IP address and approximate location (country or city level);
your browser type, device type, operating system and screen size;
the pages you view, how long you stay and the links you click;
the website or app that referred you to us (for example, Pinterest or a search engine);
cookie identifiers and similar online identifiers.

How we use your information

to run, maintain and secure the website;
to understand which articles are helpful so we can improve and update our content;
to show advertising that keeps the site free to read;
to reply to your messages and handle privacy requests;
to detect and prevent spam, fraud and abuse;
to comply with legal obligations.

We do not sell your email address or the contents of your messages to anyone.

Cookies and web beacons

Cookies are small text files stored on your device when you visit a website. Web beacons (also called pixels or tags) are tiny pieces of code that help websites and their partners count visits and measure how content and ads perform. We and our partners use them for three main purposes:

Essential cookies help the site work properly and remember your privacy choices.
Analytics cookies show us how visitors use the site, such as which pages are most popular.
Advertising cookies help deliver ads, limit how often you see the same ad, measure ad performance and, where permitted, show ads based on your interests.

Our own code doesn't set cookies: the cookies on our site come from Google's consent, advertising and analytics services and, occasionally, from our hosting provider's security checks. For a full list of these cookies, what they do, how long they last and how to control them, see our Cookie Policy.

You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings. Most browsers also let you block third-party cookies only. If you block all cookies, some features may not work as intended, and you will still see ads, but they will be less relevant to you.

Advertising and Google AdSense

We use Google AdSense to display ads on Life in Steps. Here is how it works:

Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this website or other websites.
Google's use of advertising cookies, such as the DoubleClick cookie, enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visits to this site and/or other sites on the Internet.
Other third-party vendors and ad networks working with Google may also use cookies and web beacons to serve and measure ads on our site.
Even when ads are not personalized, cookies may still be used for frequency capping, aggregated ad reporting and fighting fraud and abuse.

You can opt out of personalized advertising by visiting Google's My Ad Center. You can also opt out of some third-party vendors' use of cookies for personalized advertising at www.aboutads.info/choices. If you are in the European Union, you can manage your preferences at youronlinechoices.eu.

To learn more about how Google collects and uses data when you visit sites that use its services, see How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services.

Consent for visitors in the EEA, UK and Switzerland

If you visit from the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, we use a Google-certified consent management platform (CMP) to ask for your consent before we or our partners use cookies or personal data for personalized advertising and analytics. You can choose to accept, reject or customize these uses. You can change or withdraw your consent at any time through the privacy settings link provided by the consent tool, usually shown at the bottom of the page.

Your consent choices

We use Google Consent Mode v2. For visitors in the EEA, UK and Switzerland, the consent signals for ad storage, ad user data, ad personalization and analytics storage are set to "denied" by default and change only if you give consent. While consent is denied, Google's tags don't read or write advertising or analytics cookies. In other regions, these signals are set to "granted" by default, and you can opt out as described in this policy.

If the button isn't visible, the consent tool may not be available in your region or may be blocked by your browser or an ad blocker. You can delete the cookies for our site in your browser and reload the page to see the consent message again (where it applies), use your browser's cookie settings, or email us at hello@lifeinsteps.com.

Google Analytics

We use Google Analytics to understand how visitors find and use our site, for example which pages are viewed and for how long. Google Analytics uses cookies and collects information such as your device type, browser, approximate location and the pages you visit. It does not give us your name or email address. You can prevent Google Analytics from collecting data about your visits by installing the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on.

We may also use Cloudflare Web Analytics, a privacy-first, cookie-free analytics service that doesn't track individuals across sites.

Pinterest and social sharing

Many of our readers find us through Pinterest, and our pages include links that let you save or share articles on Pinterest and other social networks. These share buttons are plain links: no Pinterest, Facebook or other social media scripts load on our pages until you click one. If you click these, or if you are logged in to those services, they may collect information about your interaction under their own privacy policies. For Pinterest, see the Pinterest Privacy Policy. We don't control the data these platforms collect.

Log files

Like most websites, Life in Steps uses standard log files. Our hosting and content delivery provider automatically records information such as IP addresses, browser type, internet service provider, date and time stamps, referring and exit pages and the number of clicks. We use this information to keep the site secure, troubleshoot problems and understand overall traffic trends. It is not used to identify you personally.

Our site is hosted and delivered by Cloudflare, which acts as our hosting, content delivery and security provider. Cloudflare may process your IP address and request details to deliver and cache pages and to protect the site from attacks and bots. Learn more in the Cloudflare Privacy Policy. Our fonts are hosted on our own site, so loading a page doesn't send requests to font services such as Google Fonts.

Children's privacy

Our website is intended for a general adult audience and is not directed at children under 13. In line with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has sent us personal information, please contact us at hello@lifeinsteps.com and we will delete it promptly.

Your rights under the GDPR (EEA, UK and Switzerland)

If you are in the EEA, UK or Switzerland, we process your personal data on the basis of your consent (for advertising and analytics cookies), our legitimate interests (for keeping the site secure and running) and, where applicable, legal obligations. You have the right to:

access the personal data we hold about you;
ask us to correct inaccurate data;
ask us to delete your data;
restrict or object to certain processing;
receive your data in a portable format;
withdraw your consent at any time, without affecting earlier processing;
lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority.

Some of our service providers, including Google, may process data outside your country, including in the United States. They rely on safeguards such as the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses to protect it.

Your US state privacy rights (including California)

If you live in California or another US state with a consumer privacy law (such as Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut or Texas), you may have the right to:

know what personal information we collect, use and disclose;
request deletion or correction of your personal information;
opt out of the "sale" or "sharing" of your personal information, including for targeted (cross-context behavioral) advertising;
not be discriminated against for exercising these rights.

We do not sell personal information for money. However, allowing advertising partners to use cookies to show personalized ads may count as "selling" or "sharing" under laws such as the CCPA/CPRA. You can opt out with the button below, where it's available:

If the button isn't visible, the opt-out tool may not apply in your location, you may have already opted out in this browser, or it may be blocked by your browser or an ad blocker. You can also use the opt-out links in the advertising section above, or turn on the Global Privacy Control (GPC) signal in your browser: where required by law, we treat a GPC signal as a valid opt-out request. You can also email us at hello@lifeinsteps.com with the subject "Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information". We will respond within the time required by law and may need to verify requests other than opt-outs. For all your options, see Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information.

Data retention

We keep emails you send us for as long as needed to answer you and for up to two years afterward, unless you ask us to delete them sooner. If you subscribe to our newsletter, we keep your email address until you unsubscribe. Analytics data is kept for no longer than 14 months. Server logs are kept only as long as needed for security and troubleshooting. Our advertising and analytics partners retain data according to their own policies.

Data security

Our site is served over a secure HTTPS connection, and we use reputable service providers that protect the data they process. No method of transmitting or storing data online is 100% secure, but we take reasonable steps to protect your information.

Links to other websites

Our articles link to other websites, such as official health, food safety and tech support resources. We are not responsible for their content or privacy practices, so please review their privacy policies when you visit them.

Changes to this policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time, for example when we add new features or partners or when the law changes. We will post the updated version on this page and change the "Last updated" date at the top. If we make significant changes, we will make that clear on this page.

Contact us

If you have questions about this policy or want to exercise your privacy rights, email us at hello@lifeinsteps.com. Please include "Privacy request" in the subject line so we can find your message quickly.