Privacy Policy

Tadpole Tales LLC (“we,” “us,” or “our”) runs Tadpole Picks at www.tadpolepicks.com: product picks, reviews, recall alerts, and guides for parents and grandparents. This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, and the choices you have. By using the site, you agree to the practices described here.

What we collect

Your email, if you give it to us. When you sign up for the Tadpole Post, our free email newsletter, we collect your email address and email you a link to confirm it. If you sign up with Google instead, Google shares your email address and name with us; we keep only the email address.

Account details, if you create an account. We collect your login credentials: either an email and password, or, if you sign in with Google, your Google account email.

Messages you send us. If you email us or use the support form, we keep what you send so we can reply.

Technical and usage information. Like most websites, we automatically collect some information when you visit: your IP address, browser and device type, the pages you view, and how you interact with them. We also record which ad, post, or link brought you here, if any, so we can tell which marketing is working.

We don’t sell anything directly on this site, so we never collect payment information.

How we use it

We use your email address to send the Tadpole Post: new Tadpole Picks and Reviews, guides, and a heads-up when a product we’ve covered is recalled. Every email has an unsubscribe link. We use account details to sign you in, and messages you send us to answer them.

We use technical and usage information to keep the site working, prevent spam and abuse, understand which content is useful, and measure our advertising.

Affiliate links

Some product links on Tadpole Picks are affiliate links. When you click one, the retailer (for example, Amazon) may set its own cookies to know the visit came from us, and we may earn a commission if you buy something. We don’t receive your name, address, or payment details from those retailers; their own privacy policies apply on their sites. See our disclosures for how affiliate links work here.

Giveaways

Every confirmed Tadpole Post subscriber is entered in our monthly giveaway. To run it, we give each subscriber a personal referral link and record who joined through whose link, so we can count bonus entries. On your private entries page, friends who joined through your link appear only as a masked address (like “j•••@gmail.com”). To prevent cheating, we store a one-way scrambled version of the IP address you signed up from, never the address itself. We use the winner’s shipping address only to send the prize. See the official rules.

Who we share it with

We do not sell your personal information. We share it only with the service providers that help us run the site: hosting and database, email delivery, spam protection, and the analytics and advertising tools described below. We only share what each provider needs to do its job.

We may also disclose information if required by law or to protect the rights and safety of our readers.

Cookies, analytics, and advertising

We use a small number of our own cookies to keep you signed in, remember an anonymous visitor ID across visits, and note which link or ad brought you here. We also use these third-party tools, which set their own cookies or similar technology:

• Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics to measure traffic and which pages people read.
• Microsoft Clarity to see how people use our pages through heatmaps and session recordings, so we can fix confusing layouts. Clarity masks text you type into forms.
• Meta (Facebook and Instagram) and AppLovin pixels to measure how our ads perform, for example whether someone who clicked an ad later signed up for the Tadpole Post. You can manage Meta ads through Meta’s ad preference settings.
• Cloudflare Turnstile on our signup forms to tell people from bots.

You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings. The site still works for reading, though signing in needs cookies.

Children's privacy

Tadpole Picks is written for adults: parents, grandparents, and gift-givers. It is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has given us their information, contact us and we will delete it promptly.

Your choices

You can unsubscribe from the Tadpole Post from any email. You can update your account from your account settings. To request a copy or deletion of the data we hold about you, email us at hello@tadpoletales.com. California residents may also ask what personal information we hold about them or ask us not to share it with advertising partners. Use the same email address with “Privacy Request” in the subject line and we’ll respond within 45 days.

Security

We use encrypted connections, private cloud storage, and role-based access controls to protect your data. No system is perfectly secure, but we take reasonable precautions and will notify you if a breach affects your personal information.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy occasionally. When we do, we’ll revise the date at the top and, for material changes, notify subscribers by email or post a notice on the site. Continuing to use Tadpole Picks after a change takes effect means you accept the updated policy.

Questions

If you have any questions about this policy or how we handle your data, reach us at hello@tadpoletales.com.