Privacy Policy
We take your privacy very seriously so please read the following information carefully.
TheCityCook.com (The City Cook) is owned and operated by The City Cook, Inc., a New York corporation.
The City Cook is dedicated to the pleasures and challenges of urban home cooking. We provide recipes, guidance in buying the best ingredients, cookbook reviews, news about grocers and other food merchants, updates on food trends and innovations, podcasts with cooking and ingredient experts, and other information we believe can be helpful to you as you make dinner in your small city kitchens.
In striving to achieve our mission, we are inspired and motivated by having direct contact with our readers through our website, TheCityCook.com. In the course of having such contact, we may collect and use personal information about you. As such, our policy with respect to the information that we gather, use, and disclose through TheCityCook.com and other means, is set forth below.
Please note that this Privacy Policy is limited only to the information that we collect through this website or when we respond to an inquiry you initiate. This Privacy Policy DOES NOT apply to our off-line practices or policies, or electronic communications to us other than through TheCityCook.com.
The information we collect
In addition to the information offered on our website, The City Cook also periodically publishes a newsletter distributed at no cost. We do not accept advertising in this newsletter nor on the website, nor do we provide user or subscriber information to any third parties.
Should you wish to subscribe to our free newsletter, you must provide us with your name and email address. We may also request additional information about your interests and skill as an urban home cook. You may cancel your subscription to our free newsletter at any time by clicking on the "unsubscribe" link that is at the bottom of each newsletter issue.
We may also automatically collect non-personally identifiable information each time you visit TheCityCook.com, including, without limitation:
- Technical information, including the Internet protocol address used to connect your computer to the Internet, browser type and version, and device type and version.
- Usage data and information about your visit, including the full Uniform Resource Locators (URLs), clicks to, through and from TheCityCook.com (including date and time), page response times, download errors, and length of visits to certain pages.
- Information from cookies and similar technologies (see Cookie Policy below).
- General location information to identify where our audience views the website from.
Some of the information described above can be collected by us only if you enable them on your hardware or software. For example, it is your option (and under your control) to accept or delete cookies (see Cookie Policy below) to enable location information, and to control the information that your browser transmits.
Children’s privacy
Our services do not address anyone under the age of 13. We do not intend, and The City Cook is not designed, to collect personal information from children under the age of 13. If you are under 13 years old, you should not register for our newsletter or any other services or otherwise provide information on this website. Instead, you should ask your parent to do so for you. If you are a parent or guardian and you are aware that your children have provided us with personal data, please contact us. If we become aware that we have collected personal data from children without verification of parental consent, we take steps to remove that information from our servers.
Links to other sites
To help you find the best ingredients and other home cooking resources, The City Cook may create links allowing you to access third party sites. The City Cook has no control over and is not responsible for the content that appears on those sites and we do not endorse them. Please consult those sites' individual privacy policies in order to determine how they treat user information.
When you purchase an independently reviewed book, ingredient, cooking tool, or other items through our website and its links, we may earn an affiliate commission if you use an affiliate link. There is no extra cost to you if you use these links.
As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. As with any other affiliate links, there is no extra cost to you if you make an Amazon qualifying purchase.
It is important to note that we do not advertise, nor do we take any payments for the reviews or opinions offered on this website.
Our purposes for processing your personal data
The only way we use your personal data is to communicate with you either in response to an inquiry or through our newsletter, which has always been and will continue to be strictly “opt-in” (meaning you must give us your information to receive it).
How we collect your personal data
We collect your data directly from you when you:
- fill out a newsletter subscription form,
- fill out an inquiry form, or
- when you email us directly.
How we use your personal data
We primarily use your personal data to send you our newsletter if you subscribe to it, and to respond to an inquiry that you might initiate.
We may also be required to share information
- with our data processors and partners, including Animus Rex (our website partner), SendGrid (the email transmission service for our newsletter), Google Gmail (our business email provider), and Google Cloud Platform (our secure cloud hosting service), all of which are required to enable our website’s smooth operation as well as our business functions.
- with lawful third parties or authorities for the purpose of preventing fraud and spam activity or if personal information is requested as part of a lawful investigation.
We do not share your personal data with any other third party and do not sell information for advertising or promotional purposes and never have done so.
Retaining your personal data
We will retain your data for as long as we are obligated, under relevant legislation and regulation. Where no such rules apply, we will retain it for no longer than it is necessary for our lawful purposes, or until you notify us to delete your data.
Your individual privacy rights
You have the right to object to how we process your personal data. You also have the right to see what personal data we hold about you. You can ask us to correct inaccuracies, delete or restrict personal data, or ask for some of your personal data to be provided to someone else. These rights are explained in more detail below.
Requests to exercise your rights to your personal data can be made using the inquiry form on our contact page.
The European Union General Data Protection Regulation
In 2016 the European Union (EU) created new regulations to protect the data and privacy of all individuals within the EU. These regulations aim to give EU citizens and residents control over their personal data, including when it is exported outside the EU. This collection of rules and protocols is called the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, and is effective as of May 25, 2018.
If you are an EU citizen or resident, your rights include:
- You have the right to be provided with clear, transparent and easily understandable information about how we use your data and your rights. We have fulfilled this right by giving you this privacy notice.
- You have the right to withdraw and opt-out and may unsubscribe from our mailing list by contacting us with your request.
- You can ask us to change or complete any inaccurate or incomplete personal data held about you.
- You can ask us to delete your personal data where it is no longer necessary for us to use it, where you have withdrawn consent, or if we have no lawful basis for keeping it or otherwise using it. There are limited exceptions; for example, if we need to use the information to bring or defend a legal claim.
- You can ask us to provide you with some of the personal data that we hold about you in a commonly used, electronic format so it can be easily transferred. This is limited to the personal data you have provided to us with your consent. Please note that the only private data we control and process is the information you’ve given us, which is typically your name and email address – or a note if you’ve sent us an inquiry. We do not have, store, or track any other personal data.
If you are an EU citizen or resident and wish to exercise any of your rights above, please contact us with your request using the form on our contact page. Please note that we may ask you to verify your identity before responding to such requests.
Marketing
We do not use your personal data for marketing purposes. Should we choose to do so in the future, we will notify you and update this Privacy Notice. The City Cook does not advertise its service, nor do we use re-marketing services to advertise to you on any third party websites after you visited TheCityCook.com.
Transmission of information via the Internet
Although we strive to protect your and our information by using encryption (https) on TheCityCook.com, the transmission of information via the Internet is not completely secure. While we do our best to protect your data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our website and thus any transmission is AT YOUR OWN RISK. Once we have received your information, we use strict procedures and security features to prevent unauthorized access.
Cookie policy
A cookie is a file containing an identifier (a string of letters and numbers) that is sent by a web server to a web browser and is stored by the browser. The identifier is then sent back to the server each time the browser requests a page from the server. Cookies can be used by web servers to identify and track users as they navigate different pages on a website and identify users returning to a website.
The cookies we use on https://TheCityCook.com do not contain any information that personally identifies you and we do not manually or programmatically link cookie identifiers with the personal information stored in our system. The cookies we use track whether or not a user is logged in or not, and also for anonymous web traffic analysis.
The City Cook uses cookies to optimize site function, provide social media features and analyze our traffic. Some third-party social media sites may track your use of TheCityCook.com if you visit a page that contains their embedded content.
How can you control the use of cookies by The City Cook?
If you don't want us to use cookies when you use our website, you can adjust your Internet browser settings to not accept cookies. Your web browser's “help” function should tell you how to do this. Alternatively, to find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set and how to manage and delete them, visit this website: http://www.allaboutcookies.org.
If you continue to use our website without changing your settings, we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies served on TheCityCook.com. You can opt out of being served cookies by adjusting your settings. However, if you do not accept cookies, you may not be able to use some portions of our website.
We currently set the following cookies:
Google Analytics: We use Google Analytics – the web analytics service provided by Google LLC. Google Analytics cookies track activity on TheCityCook.com but do not collect personal information about you. Rather, usage information is stored in aggregate and we use it to see trends and patterns, so we can optimize your user experience.
You may disable scripts run by Google Analytics to the extent that your browser and associated programs provide such functionality. To opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics across all websites, visit: http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout. Google’s privacy and compliance policies are available at: https://privacy.google.com
Session ID: This is a temporary session cookie used to track whether traffic is logged in or out of our website. Session ID cookies do not collect personal information about you and are deleted when you close your browser.
Modifications to these policies
We may update our Privacy Policy from time to time. If we do so, we will notify you of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page and we will let you know via email prior to the change becoming effective. At the time of any change, we will update the “effective date” at the bottom of this privacy policy.
Contact us
If you have any questions about our Privacy Policy, please contact us by using the form on the contact page.
Last updated: October 6, 2020.