Privacy Policy: How We Handle Your Data

What We Collect

PeppersHub is built to be a price comparison and educational directory. You never need to create a full user account to browse, but because of the nature of the research materials we track, we do require strict age verification. We collect standard, anonymized usage data to keep the site running smoothly, and we only collect personal information when you explicitly provide it—specifically when passing our age gate, applying as a retailer, signing up for our newsletter, or contacting us.

Age Gate and Disclaimer Agreement

Access to PeppersHub is strictly limited to adults 21 and older. Before you can enter the site, you must pass our age gate and agree to our legal disclaimer. During this mandatory step, we collect your date of birth to verify your age, along with your email address. We store this information to maintain a legally binding record that you verified your age and consented to our terms of use before accessing any content. We do not sell this information or use this specific age-gate email collection for marketing; it exists purely for legal compliance, accountability, and liability protection.

Retailer Applications and Store Suggestions

If you submit a store for review through our Join Us form, we keep what you type: the store name, website, and your contact info (name and email), plus any notes you provide about shipping, inventory, or Certificates of Analysis. We use this strictly to evaluate the store and reply to your application. We never sell this information. To protect our forms from spam and abuse, we store a one-way cryptographic hash of your IP address. We don't store your actual IP address alongside your submission, just the hash. We also use short-lived, auto-deleting request counters to prevent our servers from being overwhelmed.

Newsletter Signups

If you drop your email in our footer to get updates, we store that email address, the signup date, and a network hash. We use this exclusively to send you the price alerts and product updates you actually asked for. We never sell it, rent it, or share it with third parties. If you want out, just let us know through the contact form, and we will wipe your email from our active list immediately.

Contact Form Messages

When you send us a message, your note is routed securely via Cloudflare directly into our team's Gmail inbox. We store your message, the date, and the reply email you provide so we can actually write you back. Please note that by submitting a contact form, your email address will automatically be added to our marketing and newsletter lists to keep you updated. Just like our other forms, we log a hashed version of your network address to block abusive bots, but we never sell or share your contact details.

Data Retention and Backups

If you submit a Join Us form or agree to our Age Gate, we keep those records on file indefinitely unless you ask us to delete them. When you request a deletion, we remove your data from our live, active database immediately. However, to ensure site stability, our database is backed up nightly to private cloud storage. We intentionally do not overwrite or selectively prune these offsite historical backups. This means a securely stored copy of your submission will remain in past archives, but it will be completely removed from the live site and any future backups.

To request deletion or a copy of what we hold about you, ask through the contact form.

Cookies and Google Analytics

We use a minimal amount of essential cookies just to keep the site functioning (like remembering your layout preferences or that you have already passed the age gate). We do not use targeted advertising cookies, and we do not sell your browsing data. We do use Google Analytics to see how the site is performing overall—like which pages are popular and general country-level demographics. Google sets its own cookies and sees your IP address, but we only look at the big-picture, aggregated trends. We never combine analytics tracking with the personal info you submit to us. If you prefer not to be tracked, you can easily block this using your browser's standard tracking protection or Google's opt-out add-on.

Affiliate Links and Third-Party Sites

In compliance with FTC guidelines, please note that when you click an outbound affiliate link on PeppersHub, you are leaving our site. That third-party retailer will likely use their own cookies to track that we sent you, which is how they know to pay us a commission. A commission is not guaranteed. Once you click away, you are subject to that retailer's privacy policy, not ours. We are not responsible for how external vendors collect, use, or protect your data.