Privacy Policy

Last updated: August 31, 2026

This policy explains what lowcountry.one, operated by Lowcountry One, actually collects and what we do
with it — in plain language, because you’re more likely to read it that way.

What we collect

• Account information. If you create an account: your name, email address,
  and a hashed password. That’s it — we don’t ask for more.
• Saves and hearts. When you heart a restaurant, listing, product, or
  creator, we record the save along with a random anonymous visitor identifier (and your account
  ID if you’re signed in) so your saves follow you and so we can tell a business “41 people saved
  your listing this month” — in aggregate, never identifying you.
• Bookings and inquiries. If you book a creator collab or send an inquiry
  (wedding quote, event submission, creator application), we store what you submit: business or
  personal name, contact details, and the message or brief itself.
• Deal messages. Messages sent inside a collab deal are stored so both
  parties and our support can see the history.
• Approximate location. Our hosting network (Cloudflare) tells us roughly
  where a visitor is (city level) so features like “near you” and the weather chip work. We do
  not track precise GPS location.
• A phone number, only if you type one in. Some features can send a text
  message. A number is stored only when you give it for that purpose, and only for that purpose.
• Push notification permission. If you allow browser notifications, your
  browser gives us an address it created for your device, along with the keys needed to encrypt a
  message to it. That address identifies a browser, not a person: it carries no name, no email
  and no phone number, and it stops working the moment you revoke the permission.
• Server logs. Standard web logs — IP address, pages requested, timestamps —
  kept for security and debugging.

What we deliberately don’t touch

• Card numbers. Payments run through Stripe. Your card details go directly
  to Stripe and never pass through or rest on our servers.
• Selling your data. We don’t sell or rent personal information. Interest
  data shown to businesses is aggregate counts only.

Cookies and local storage

We use browser localStorage to keep your saves, fitting-room items, and similar preferences
on your device, and standard WordPress cookies to keep you signed in. We use Cloudflare cookies
for security. We do not run third-party advertising trackers. We do measure how the site is
used, both with our own counters and with Microsoft Clarity — see below.

Third parties that process data for us

• Stripe — payment processing.
• Amazon Web Services (SES) — sends our transactional email (booking
  notifications, receipts, replies).
• Cloudflare — hosting network, security, and the coarse location signal.
• Google (Gemini) — questions you type into the “Ask Lowcountry” concierge
  are processed by Google’s AI service to generate the answer. Don’t put sensitive personal
  information into the concierge; it’s for finding shrimp and grits, not for secrets.
• Microsoft Clarity — records anonymised sessions (pages viewed, clicks,
  scrolling and mouse movement) so we can see where the site is confusing or broken. It does not
  collect your name or email, recordings are deleted after 90 days, and we do not use it for
  advertising. You can opt out of Clarity across all sites at
  clarity.microsoft.com.

What we measure ourselves

We count page views on our own server, grouped by the kind of page, the town it covers, how
you arrived (search, social, an AI assistant, a link, or directly), and rough device type and
country. We never store your IP address — where we need to know whether two visits in a day came
from the same place, we use a one-way scrambled value that is thrown away within days. We also
record anonymous interactions like which filters you use and which listings you click through
to, tied to the same random device id that stores your saves. None of it is sold, and what a
listed business sees about their own listing is a count, never a person.

Messages we send to you

There are three ways this site can reach you, and each is turned off until you turn it on.

• Email goes to the address on your account, for things you asked for —
  a booking, a receipt, a reply, an alert you set up. Every non-essential email carries an
  unsubscribe link. Messages about something you bought are not marketing and continue.
• Push notifications arrive only after you grant your browser’s permission
  prompt. You can withdraw it at any time in your browser’s site settings, and that alone stops
  them — you do not need to ask us.
• Text messages go only to a number you have given for that purpose. Replying
  STOP to any message ends them, and the opt-out is recorded once for the whole
  site rather than per feature, so stopping one kind stops the rest. Message and data rates set by
  your carrier may apply. Agreeing to texts is never a condition of buying anything.

Your privacy rights

These rights are offered to everyone who uses the site, rather than only to residents of the
states and countries whose laws require them.

• See what we hold about you, and get a copy of it.
• Correct it if it is wrong.
• Have it deleted. We keep only what the law obliges us to keep, such as
  records of payments, and delete the rest.
• Object to a use of it, or ask us to restrict one.
• Opt out of it being sold or shared for advertising. There is nothing to opt
  out of here, because we do not sell or share personal information for advertising and never
  have — but the right stands and asking costs you nothing.

To use any of them, email [email protected] from
the address on the account. We reply within 30 days, and will say so if a request will take
longer. Using any of these rights never costs you access to the site or a worse price.

If you think we have handled your information badly, tell us first and we will try to put it
right. You can also complain to your state’s attorney general, or to your data protection
authority if you are in the UK or the EU.

How long we keep things

Account data lasts while the account exists. Deal records (bookings, messages, ratings) are
kept while relevant for support, tax, and dispute purposes. Logs rotate on a short schedule.
Anonymous save events are kept for trend analysis.

Your choices

You can use almost the whole site without an account. You can clear device-local saves by
clearing your browser storage. To delete your account and associated personal data, email
[email protected] from the account’s email address and we’ll take care of it. We’ll
retain what the law requires us to keep (for example, records of payments) and nothing more.

Children

The site is a regional magazine and marketplace for adults; it isn’t directed to children
under 13 and we don’t knowingly collect their information.

Changes and contact

If this policy changes materially, we’ll flag it on the site and update the date above.
Questions or requests: [email protected].