Privacy Policy

1. Information We Collect

When you create an account or use HonestyHive, we collect the following information:

Account & Profile Data

• Email address (required for account creation and notifications)
• Display name and username
• Profile bio and avatar image (stored via Cloudinary)

Content You Create

• Review posts (Buzzes), including text, images, embedded media, and product links
• Product ratings and community rating votes you submit on others' Buzzes

Usage & Technical Data

• IP address (hashed — used only for anti-fraud purposes; never stored in plain text)
• Browser type, device type, and operating system
• Pages visited, time on site, and click interactions (via Vercel Analytics)
• Session authentication tokens (stored in secure cookies)
• Affiliate link click events (product, timestamp, anonymised session ID) retained for commission reconciliation

2. How We Use Your Information

• Account creation and authentication — to create and secure your account via Supabase Auth.
• Platform features — to display your reviews, profile, and community rating activity.
• Trust Score calculation — community ratings on your Buzzes (Accuracy, Detail, Honesty, Helpfulness) feed into your Trust Score, which determines your feed visibility and affiliate revenue tier.
• Personalised feed — your reading history and engagement signals are used to rank the For You Discover feed.
• Newsletter digests — if you opt in, we send periodic email digests via Resend. You may unsubscribe at any time.
• Affiliate earnings — we track clicks on product links to calculate and process reviewer commissions via Stripe Connect.
• Fraud prevention — hashed IP addresses and behavioural signals are used to detect self-rating, fake reviews, and other abuse.
• Platform reliability — error events and stack traces are sent to Sentry to diagnose and fix bugs.
• Analytics — aggregate, anonymous traffic data is collected via Vercel Analytics to understand platform usage.

3. Third-Party Services

We share data with the following service providers only to the extent necessary to operate the platform:

4. Cookies

• Session cookies — set by Supabase Auth to maintain your login session. These are strictly necessary and cannot be disabled without breaking sign-in.
• Analytics cookies — Vercel Analytics uses first-party, cookieless measurement where possible. No persistent advertising cookies are set.
• No advertising cookies — we do not use third-party advertising networks or retargeting pixels.

5. Affiliate Disclosure

HonestyHive earns commissions through the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program and other affiliate programmes when readers click product links and make purchases. These commissions are shared with the reviewing author based on their Trust Score tier — higher-trust reviewers receive a larger share of the commission earned from their Buzzes.

Affiliate commissions do not influence review content, ratings, or Trust Scores. Reviewers are not paid to write positive reviews and are not informed of commission earnings before publishing.

6. Your Rights & Choices

• Access — you may request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
• Correction — you may update your display name, username, bio, and email directly in account settings.
• Deletion — you may delete your account at any time from account settings. This permanently removes your profile and all associated data from our systems.
• Export — you may request an export of your published Buzzes in JSON format by contacting us.
• Newsletter opt-out — every newsletter email includes an unsubscribe link. You may also opt out from notification settings.
• Data deletion requests — email privacy@honestyhive.com and we will process your request within 30 days.

7. Data Retention

• Account and profile data is retained until you request deletion.
• Published Buzzes are retained until the author deletes them or their account.
• Affiliate click-tracking data is retained for 24 months to support commission reconciliation and dispute resolution, then deleted.
• Anonymised, aggregated analytics data may be retained indefinitely.

8. Children's Privacy

HonestyHive is not intended for users under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe we have inadvertently collected such information, please contact privacy@honestyhive.com and we will delete it promptly.

9. California Residents (CCPA)

If you are a California resident, you have the following rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act:

• Right to Know — you may request disclosure of the categories and specific pieces of personal information we have collected about you.
• Right to Delete — you may request deletion of personal information we have collected, subject to certain exceptions.
• Right to Opt-Out of Sale — we do not sell your personal information to third parties.
• Right to Non-Discrimination — we will not discriminate against you for exercising any of these rights.

To exercise your rights, email privacy@honestyhive.com.

10. EU Residents (GDPR)

If you are located in the European Economic Area, we process your personal data under the following legal bases:

• Contract performance — processing necessary to provide the platform services you signed up for.
• Legitimate interests — fraud prevention, platform security, and analytics that do not override your rights.
• Consent — newsletter email communications (you may withdraw consent at any time).

Under GDPR you have the right to access, rectify, erase, and port your personal data, and to object to or restrict certain processing. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with your national supervisory authority.

For data protection enquiries, contact privacy@honestyhive.com.

11. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. For material changes, we will notify you by email at least 14 days before the change takes effect. Continued use of HonestyHive after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the revised policy.

12. Contact Us

Questions or requests regarding this Privacy Policy should be directed to: