Privacy Policy

This privacy policy explains how Bean Growing (beangrowing.com) collects, uses, and protects your personal data when you visit our website. Bean Growing is run by Matt and Mariel, based in the United Kingdom.

By using this website you agree to this privacy policy. If you do not agree, please stop using the site.

1. Who We Are

Bean Growing is a gardening advice website covering houseplants, outdoor plants, and common plant problems. The site is operated by Matt (owner) and Mariel (writer), both based in the UK. You can contact us via our Contact page.

2. What Data We Collect

Data you provide directly

If you use our contact form (powered by WPForms), we collect your name, email address, and the content of your message. This data is used solely to respond to your enquiry and is not shared with third parties.

Data collected automatically

When you visit Bean Growing, we and our third-party partners automatically collect certain information including your IP address, browser type, device type, pages visited, time spent on pages, and referring website. This is collected via cookies and similar tracking technologies.

3. Cookies

We use cookies to operate the site and serve relevant advertising. You can control cookies through your browser settings or via our cookie consent tool (WPConsent). Disabling cookies may affect some site functionality.

We use the following types of cookies:

  • Essential cookies — required for the site to function correctly
  • Analytics cookies — used to understand how visitors use the site
  • Advertising cookies — used to serve relevant ads and measure ad performance
  • Functionality cookies — used to remember preferences and improve your experience

4. Third-Party Services We Use

We use the following third-party services which may collect data about you. Each has its own privacy policy which we link to below.

Ezoic (Advertising)

We use Ezoic to display advertisements on this site. Ezoic uses cookies and similar technologies to personalise ads based on your interests and to optimise ad placement. Ezoic acts as a data processor on our behalf and also processes data as an independent data controller in some circumstances. You can view Ezoic’s privacy policy and opt out of personalised advertising at g.ezoic.net/privacy/beangrowing.com.

Google Analytics (via MonsterInsights)

We use Google Analytics to understand how visitors use our site. This collects anonymised data including pages visited, time on site, and traffic sources. Google Analytics uses cookies. You can opt out using the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on. View Google’s privacy policy.

Google Search Console

We use Google Search Console to monitor how our site appears in Google search results. This tool provides us with aggregated data about search queries and page performance. No personal user data is shared with us through this service. View Google’s privacy policy.

Microsoft Bing Webmaster Tools

We use Bing Webmaster Tools to monitor how our site appears in Bing search results. This provides us with aggregated search performance data. No personal user data is shared with us through this service. View Microsoft’s privacy policy.

Site Kit by Google

We use Google Site Kit to connect Google services including Google Analytics and Google Search Console to our WordPress dashboard. This plugin facilitates the connection between our website and Google’s services but does not independently collect personal data beyond what those services collect directly. View Google’s privacy policy.

ShortPixel Image Optimizer

We use ShortPixel to compress and optimise images on our site. Images are sent to ShortPixel’s servers for processing and returned in a compressed format. ShortPixel does not collect visitor data. View ShortPixel’s privacy policy.

Breeze (Cloudways Cache)

We use Breeze, a caching plugin by Cloudways, to improve site speed. Breeze stores cached versions of pages but does not independently collect personal visitor data. View Cloudways’ privacy policy.

Object Cache Pro (Redis)

We use Object Cache Pro to improve site performance via Redis caching. This plugin operates on our server and does not collect or transmit personal visitor data.

WPForms Lite (Contact Form)

Our contact form is powered by WPForms Lite. When you submit a message, we collect your name, email address, and message content. This data is stored in our WordPress database and emailed to us. We use it only to respond to your enquiry and do not share it with third parties. View WPForms’ privacy policy.

WPConsent (Cookie Consent)

We use WPConsent to manage cookie consent on our site. This plugin records your cookie preferences to ensure we comply with applicable privacy laws. View WPConsent’s privacy policy.

Akismet Anti-Spam

We use Akismet to filter spam comments. If you leave a comment, Akismet may collect your name, email address, IP address, and comment content to determine whether it is spam. View Automattic’s privacy policy.

Yoast SEO

We use Yoast SEO to manage on-page SEO settings. Yoast does not independently collect visitor data. View Yoast’s privacy policy.

IndexNow

We use the IndexNow plugin to notify search engines including Bing when new content is published. This sends URLs from our site to search engine servers. No personal visitor data is transmitted. View Microsoft’s privacy policy.

Link Whisper

We use Link Whisper to manage internal links across our articles. This plugin operates within our WordPress dashboard and does not collect or transmit personal visitor data.

Molongui Authorship

We use Molongui Authorship to display author profiles on our articles. This plugin stores author information (name, bio, photo) within our WordPress database. No personal visitor data is collected by this plugin.

Cloudways Hosting

Our website is hosted on Cloudways servers. Cloudways may process server log data including IP addresses as part of normal hosting operations. View Cloudways’ privacy policy.

5. Your Rights

Under UK GDPR and applicable data protection law, you have the following rights:

  • Right to access — you can request a copy of any personal data we hold about you
  • Right to rectification — you can ask us to correct inaccurate data
  • Right to erasure — you can ask us to delete your personal data
  • Right to restrict processing — you can ask us to limit how we use your data
  • Right to object — you can object to us processing your data
  • Right to withdraw consent — you can withdraw consent for cookie use at any time via our cookie settings

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us via our Contact page. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) if you are unhappy with how we handle your data.

6. Data Retention

Contact form submissions are retained for as long as necessary to respond to your enquiry and are then deleted. Analytics data is retained according to the retention settings of each third-party service. We do not store personal data longer than necessary.

7. Children

Our site is not directed at children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children. If you believe a child has provided us with personal data, please contact us and we will delete it.

8. Links to Other Websites

Our articles may contain links to external websites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of those sites and encourage you to read their privacy policies.

9. Changes to This Policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time. The date at the top of this page shows when it was last updated. Continued use of the site after any changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

10. Contact Us

If you have any questions about this privacy policy or how we handle your data, please contact us via our Contact page.