Last updated: August 26, 2026
Smoke Insider is written and run by one person — me, Gabriel Brangers. This page explains what information I actually collect through this site, why, and what you can do about it. I’ve tried to write it the same way I write everything else here: plainly, and without padding it out with boilerplate that doesn’t apply to a one-person site.
Comments
When you leave a comment, I collect what you type into the comment form, plus your IP address and browser user agent string, to help with spam detection. If you supply an email address, an anonymized hash of it may be sent to Gravatar to check whether you have a profile picture there. If you do, it shows up next to your approved comment. Gravatar’s privacy policy is at automattic.com/privacy.
Every comment is checked automatically by Akismet, a spam-filtering service also built by Automattic. That means the content of your comment and some technical details about your visit get shared with Akismet for that one purpose — catching spam, not tracking you.
If you comment, you can optionally save your name, email, and website in a cookie so you don’t have to retype them next time. That’s for your convenience, and it expires after about a year.
Newsletter
If you sign up for the newsletter, I collect your email address and hand it to Mailchimp, the service that actually sends the emails — I don’t ask for your name for this. You’ll get a confirmation email first; nothing goes out until you click that (double opt-in). You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in any newsletter email, or by emailing me directly. Mailchimp’s privacy policy covers how they handle that data on their end: mailchimp.com/legal/privacy.
Contact Form
The contact form on this site asks for your first name, last name, email, and whatever message you send. That comes to me directly so I can reply. I don’t use it for anything else, and I don’t add you to the newsletter unless you sign up for that separately.
Site Visits and Analytics
This site runs on Jetpack for basic traffic stats and some security features like login protection, and on Google Site Kit, which brings in Google Analytics and Google Search Console. Both see general visit data — things like page views, rough location (usually just city or region level), and what you searched to find the page — the way most website analytics tools do.
This site also runs Google AdSense to show ads and earn revenue. AdSense sets its own cookies and may use your browsing activity — here and elsewhere — to show more relevant ads. That’s Google’s system, not something I built or control directly. You can see and adjust what Google knows for ad purposes at adssettings.google.com, and Google’s own privacy policy covers how it handles that data: policies.google.com/privacy.
This site respects the “Global Privacy Control” and browser “Do Not Track” signals where technically possible — if your browser sends one, it’s treated the same as declining non-essential cookies through the banner.
For the full list of specific cookies this site and its services use, there’s a dedicated Cookie Policy. You can change your consent choices at any time using the “Manage Cookies” option in the banner, or by clicking the small icon that stays in the corner of the page after you’ve made a choice.
Affiliate Links
Some links in gear posts and reviews are affiliate links — routed through the retailer’s own affiliate program or a network like Mavely. If you click one and buy something, that retailer or network may set its own cookie to record that the sale came from this site, and I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. I don’t control what those third parties do with that data on their end — check the retailer’s own privacy policy for specifics. More on how I handle gear reviews generally is on how I test.
Media
Images on this site can carry embedded location data (EXIF GPS) if they were uploaded that way. Anyone can technically extract that data from an image file, so if that’s ever a concern for a photo you’ve sent me, say so and I’ll strip it before it goes up.
Who Has Access
I’m the only person with administrative access to this site. Comments are kept indefinitely so returning commenters get recognized automatically instead of landing in a moderation queue every time — that’s the only reason they’re not deleted after some fixed period.
Your Rights
If you’ve left a comment, signed up for the newsletter, or contacted me through the form, you can ask for a copy of the personal data I have connected to you, or ask me to delete it. Email gabriel@smokeinsider.com and I’ll handle it directly — this is a one-person site, so there’s no support queue, just me answering my own inbox.
Where Your Data Goes
Outside of what’s listed above, your data isn’t sold to anyone directly, though Google’s advertising system involves a form of data sharing by its nature — see the AdSense section above. To summarize where data can end up: comment data may pass through Akismet’s spam-detection service; newsletter signups go to Mailchimp; visit and search data goes to Google Analytics and Search Console; ad-related data goes to Google AdSense; the site itself is hosted through HostGator, with Cloudflare in front for performance and security, both of which see standard server and traffic logs as a normal part of running a website.
Children’s Privacy
This site isn’t directed at children under 13, and I don’t knowingly collect information from them.
Changes to This Policy
I’ll update this page whenever what the site actually collects changes — a new plugin, a new tool, anything that touches your data. The “Last updated” date at the top tells you how current it is.
Questions
Email gabriel@smokeinsider.com.