Privacy policy
This policy explains what information Retire in Europe with Claire collects when you visit EuropeWithClaire.com, ask for a free download or get our emails, why we collect it, who helps us handle it, and the choices you have. We collect as little as we can, and we do not sell it.
We don't sell any guide yet. When our first guide is on sale, this policy will also explain what we keep when you buy one.
Who we are
Retire in Europe with Claire is an independent publisher. You can reach us at [email protected]. This policy covers this website and the emails we send. It does not cover YouTube or the other websites we link to; they have their own privacy policies.
What we collect and why
1. When you ask for a free download
We keep:
- your email address;
- which free download you asked for;
- the exact words of the box you ticked, and when you ticked it;
- which video or short link brought you here, and your answer to “Which video brought you here?” if you chose one;
- the country your internet connection came from. We look up the country from your IP address (the number that identifies your internet connection), but we do not store the IP address. Our free downloads and emails are for U.S. residents only, so we accept a sign-up only from an internet connection in the United States; from anywhere else we store nothing;
- the date you first open the download link, which helps show that the address belongs to the person who asked for the free download;
- the dates you unsubscribe or sign up again, and how you did it.
Only your email address is required. We use this information to send you the free download you asked for, a short series of welcome emails about it, and the other emails you agreed to receive, to learn which of our videos are useful to viewers, and to keep a record of what you agreed to.
2. When we send you our welcome or follow-up emails
After you first open a free download, we send you a short series of welcome emails over the following days. For each series we keep:
- your email address, which series it is, and which free download it belongs to;
- which emails of the series we have sent you and when, when the next one is due, and, if an email could not be sent, how many times we tried;
- the reference number our email company gives each email, so that we can look into an email that did not arrive.
We do not record whether you open our emails or click the links in them.
3. When you use a short link or a QR code from a video
When you open a short link such as EuropeWithClaire.com/south, we record which link it was, which video it belongs to, whether it came from a QR code, the time, and the country of your connection. This record does not include your IP address or anything else that identifies you. It only tells us how many people each video sends to us.
4. Protection against misuse
To stop automated sign-ups, and to stop anyone from using our form to fill someone else's inbox, we count sign-up attempts from each internet connection and for each email address. For this we keep scrambled codes made from the IP address and from the email address, not the addresses themselves. The code from the connection is needed for 10 minutes and the code from the email address for 24 hours. After that, each one is deleted automatically the next time anyone uses our sign-up form.
5. Running the website
Like every website, ours receives your IP address and basic details of each visit, such as your type of browser and the time. Our hosting company uses them to show you the pages and to protect the site from attacks.
Cookies and tracking
Cookies are small files that a website saves in your browser. Our website does not set any cookies of its own, and it loads nothing from other companies: no ad trackers, no social media buttons and no outside fonts. Our hosting company, Cloudflare, may set small security cookies that help it tell people from automated programs and protect the site from attacks. They are not used for advertising.
Apart from our hosting company, which handles every visit as described above, we do not let advertising networks or any other companies collect information about what you do on our website over time or across other websites.
Our emails contain no hidden tracking images, and we do not track whether you open them or which links you click. We only note which emails of our welcome and follow-up series we have sent you, the date you first open a free download link and which download it was, the date you unsubscribe or sign up again.
Do Not Track: some browsers can send a “Do Not Track” signal, or a similar signal such as Global Privacy Control, to the websites you visit. Because we do not track you across websites, our website works the same way whether or not your browser sends one.
Who we share it with
We share your information with the companies that run our website and our email for us:
- Cloudflare (Cloudflare, Inc.): hosts the website, stores our records and files, protects the site from attacks, sends our welcome and follow-up emails on schedule, and passes on the messages you send to [email protected].
- Resend (Plus Five Five, Inc.): delivers our emails.
- Our email provider: keeps the messages you send to [email protected] and our replies, as any email inbox does.
Cloudflare and Resend may use your information only to provide these services to us; our contracts with them say so. We will also give out information when the law requires it, for example to answer a court order. If Retire in Europe with Claire is ever sold, the new owner would receive our records and would have to follow this policy.
We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it with anyone for advertising.
How long we keep it
- Your email address and sign-up record: until you unsubscribe or ask us to delete them.
- After you unsubscribe: we delete which video brought you here, which free download you asked for, your answer to the question and your country. We keep only your email address, the dates you signed up, first opened the download link and unsubscribed, and the record of what you agreed to and how you unsubscribed. This lets us respect your choice and show what you agreed to. Once 3 years have passed since you unsubscribed, we delete all of it automatically the next time anyone uses our sign-up form.
- Welcome and follow-up emails: the record of which emails of a series we sent you is deleted automatically 30 days after the series ends or stops. If you unsubscribe, it is deleted within minutes, before we send anything else.
- Short-link records: they do not identify anyone, and we keep them as statistics.
- Codes against misuse: deleted the next time anyone uses our sign-up form after the 10 minutes or 24 hours explained above.
- Backups: our hosting company keeps an automatic backup copy of our records for up to 30 days, so anything we delete from our records is gone for good within 30 days.
Your choices
- Stop our emails: every email from us has an unsubscribe link at the bottom. Click it, press the button, and we stop emailing you right away, including our welcome and follow-up emails. You can also write to us at [email protected]; we will take you off our list within 10 business days, usually much sooner. If you ask for a free download again later, we send it, but we do not put you back on our list; if you would like our emails again, just write to us.
- See, correct or delete your information: write to [email protected], if possible from the email address you signed up with, so that we can check the request comes from you. We reply within 30 days.
Your state's privacy laws
Some states, such as California, give their residents specific privacy rights. We give the same choices to everyone, wherever you live in the United States: you can ask what we hold about you and ask us to correct or delete it, as described above. We do not sell your personal information or share it for targeted advertising (ads chosen from what you do on other websites). If you live in Nevada, you can email [email protected] to ask us never to sell your information. We don't sell it, but we will record your request.
Children
This website is meant for adults. It is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect information from them. If you believe a child has given us an email address, write to us and we will delete it.
How we protect it
We keep only what we need. The website uses an encrypted connection (https), and the download and unsubscribe links in our emails contain codes that cannot be guessed. Links to the free download stop working after 7 days. No website can promise perfect security, but we take reasonable care of what we keep.
Changes to this policy
If we change this policy, we will post the new version on this page and change the effective date at the top. If we make an important change, we will also email our subscribers before it takes effect. We will not use information we already have in an important new way, such as for advertising, unless you agree to it first.
Contact
Questions about this policy or your information: [email protected].