Privacy
How this website uses your information
This notice explains what personal information may be collected when you use this website, why it is collected, how it is used, and the choices available to you.
Last updated
Who is responsible for this website
This website, available at www.pinchofmint.com, and the associated cooking and food media publication, Pinch of Mint, are operated by Tom Ray-Robertshaw. You can read more about Tom on the about page. This notice is written to the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.
For questions about privacy or how personal information is used, contact tjr.mint@gmail.com.
What information is collected, and how
Depending on how you use this website, the following may be collected:
- your name and email address, when you contact the website;
- your email address, when you subscribe using the “Get new recipes in your inbox” signup form on this website (referred to in this notice as the “mailing list”);
- any information you choose to include in a message or enquiry; and
- technical information relating to your use of the website, such as your IP address, device information, browser information and information about how the website is used, where this is collected through cookies, analytics or similar technologies.
Some technical information may be collected automatically by service providers used to operate, secure, improve and maintain the website. This information is collected directly, when you subscribe to the mailing list, submit a message through the contact form, or use the website where information is collected through cookies or similar technologies.
How information is used, and on what basis
Personal information may be used to:
- respond to enquiries and messages;
- send marketing communications, including newsletters, new recipes, cooking tips and updates, where you have chosen to subscribe;
- manage and maintain the mailing list;
- keep the website secure and functioning properly; and
- understand how the website is used, where appropriate consent has been given for analytics or similar technologies.
Personal information is not sold or rented.
Different types of personal information are processed on different lawful bases under the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018. For the mailing list and marketing communications, personal information is processed on the basis of consent — you choose whether to subscribe, and can withdraw that consent at any time. Information submitted through the contact form may be processed where necessary to respond to your enquiry or take steps at your request. Certain technical information may be processed where necessary to operate, secure and maintain the website, or where consent is required for non-essential cookies and similar technologies.
The mailing list
When you subscribe to the mailing list, your email address may be used for marketing communications, including newsletters, new recipes, cooking tips and updates from Pinch of Mint. Marketing communications are only sent where the appropriate consent or other lawful basis applies.
You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link included in every marketing email, or by contacting tjr.mint@gmail.com to request that your subscription be cancelled. If you withdraw your consent, marketing communications will stop as soon as reasonably possible.
What your browser stores
Separately from the mailing list and the forms above, this website keeps a handful of things in your browser's local storage, purely to make the site itself work. They stay on the device you are using, they are never sent to a server, and nobody but you can read them.
- Recipes you savepom.saved
- So the save button on a recipe still shows it as saved when you come back.
- Metric or imperialpom.units
- So you choose once rather than on every recipe.
- The number of servings you setpom.scale.<recipe>
- So a recipe scaled to 2 is still scaled to 2 when you reopen it.
- Ingredients you have ticked offpom.ticks.<recipe>
- So the list survives a locked screen or a reload halfway through cooking.
Cook mode is not in that list because it is not stored. While it is open it asks your browser to keep the screen awake, and that ends the moment you close it.
This website itself sets no cookies of its own. Any cookies you encounter here come from the third parties described below, not from Pinch of Mint directly. If non-essential cookies — such as analytics or advertising cookies — are introduced beyond what is already described on this page, appropriate consent will be requested before they are used, where required by law.
To remove what your browser stores, clear this site’s data in your browser settings. There is no copy held anywhere else, so nothing survives that and nothing needs to be requested from us.
The ads, and what they do
Every recipe here is free to read, and advertising is what pays for that. The ads come from Google AdSense and from no other network.
What Google’s ad code does
Google’s ad code runs in your browser on the pages of this site. It is told which page you are on, it sees your IP address, and it reads and writes cookies and similar storage on your device — in order to pick the ads, avoid showing you the same one all day, measure whether they were seen, and catch click fraud. Google decides for itself what it does with that; it is described in Google’s privacy policy and in how Google uses information from sites that use its services, not in this notice.
You are asked first
Ads can be personalised, meaning chosen using what Google already knows about you from elsewhere, or non-personalised, meaning chosen from the page you are reading and little else. Before any personalised advertising happens you are asked which you want, in a dialog Google provides, and you can say no and still read every word on this site. That dialog can be reopened later to change your answer, and you can switch personalised ads off for your whole Google account at My Ad Center.
What the ads are not
No ad on this page is a recommendation from Tom. Anything he does stand behind is said in his own words in the recipe or on the about page, and the shop links go to his own Amazon list.
Service providers
This website uses a number of service providers to operate its website, contact form and mailing list. These companies process information only as necessary to provide their services, and personal information is not sold to any of them.
- Vercel Inc. hosts the website and processes contact form submissions.
- Plus Five Five, Inc. (Resend) is used to deliver contact form and newsletter sign-up notifications.
- Google LLC (Gmail) is used to receive these notifications and enquiries, at tjr.mint@gmail.com.
- Wix.com Ltd. is used to hold the mailing list and send newsletters and other marketing communications.
- Google LLC (YouTube) is used to provide recipe videos on the website. YouTube videos only load when you choose to play them.
- Google LLC (Google AdSense) is used to display advertising on the website, and may set cookies on your device for that purpose. See "The ads, and what they do" below.
Some of these providers are based outside the UK, so personal information is sometimes processed or stored internationally. Where that happens, appropriate safeguards are used, as required by the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.
Links to other platforms
This website links to third-party platforms, including YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok. These platforms are operated independently from this website and have their own privacy policies, terms and conditions, and rules governing how personal information is collected and used when you visit or use their services. When you follow a link from this website to one of these platforms, your use of that platform is subject to its own privacy policy and terms. Personal information you give directly to these platforms is not governed by this notice.
How long information is kept
Personal information is kept only for as long as necessary for the purpose for which it was collected. Mailing-list information is retained while you remain subscribed; if you unsubscribe, your email address is no longer used to send marketing communications, although limited information may be retained to record your unsubscribe request and make sure you are not contacted again. Information submitted through the contact form may be retained for as long as necessary to deal with the enquiry and keep appropriate records. Technical information is retained in line with the policies and retention periods of the relevant service providers above.
What you can ask for
Under the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, you may have the right to:
- request access to the personal information held about you;
- request correction of inaccurate information;
- request deletion of your personal information, where appropriate;
- request restriction of certain processing;
- object to certain uses of your personal information;
- request data portability, where applicable; and
- withdraw consent, where processing is based on consent.
You also have an absolute right to object to the use of your personal information for direct marketing. To ask to view, correct or delete personal information, or to ask a question about how your information is used, contact tjr.mint@gmail.com.
If you have concerns about how your personal information has been handled, contact that same address in the first instance. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office, the UK’s independent supervisory authority for data protection.
Changes to this notice
This notice may be updated from time to time when the way personal information is collected or used changes. The date at the top of this page changes with it.
Last updated .