Privacy policy

Last updated: 2026-09-07

Who we are

Gentle Carat is a publisher operating at gentlecarat.com, part of Slate Mill Group. You can reach us at info@gentlecarat.com.

What we collect

If you use the contact form

We receive the name, email address, topic and message you type. That email is delivered to our inbox through Microsoft Graph and is used to reply to you and nothing else. We do not add contact-form addresses to a mailing list, because we do not run one.

The form also records the moment the page loaded and, briefly and in memory, the IP address of the request. Both exist purely to keep automated spam out; the timing value is discarded with the request and the IP counter clears itself within the hour.

If you just read the site

We use Google Analytics 4 to see which pages get read and which buy buttons get clicked. It sets cookies and collects the usual: approximate location from IP address, device and browser, pages viewed, referring site. We look at this in aggregate. We have not enabled any Google Analytics advertising or remarketing feature, and we do not attempt to identify individual readers.

Google’s own description of what it collects is at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites, and their browser opt-out add-on is at tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

If you click a buy button

Buy buttons pass through an address on this site and then redirect you to the retailer, usually Amazon. The retailer sets its own cookie so it can attribute a purchase to us if you buy something. We never see your order, your payment details, your address or your name — only an aggregate commission figure. Amazon’s privacy notice governs what happens once you are on their site. See our affiliate disclosure for how the commercial side works.

What we do not do

• We do not sell or rent data to anyone.
• We do not run advertising networks or retargeting pixels on this site.
• We do not have accounts, so there is nothing to log into and no password to lose.
• We do not knowingly collect information from children under 13.

Your choices

You can block or clear cookies in your browser at any time; the site works normally without them, apart from affiliate attribution. Most browsers also offer a global privacy control signal, which we honor by not enabling any advertising features in the first place.

If you are in the EU, UK or California and would like to know what we hold about you, or would like it deleted, email us. Realistically the answer will be “an email you sent us, which we have now deleted”, but ask and we will check.

Data retention

Contact-form emails are kept while a conversation is live and deleted once it is finished. Analytics data is retained on Google’s default schedule for the property.

Changes

If this policy changes materially we will update the date at the top and describe what changed rather than quietly swapping the text.