Privacy Policy

By using the Site, you agree to the practices described here. If you do not agree, please discontinue use of the Site. This policy is written for a general audience located primarily in the United States. If you access the Site from another region, please be aware that your information will be processed in the United States.

1. Information we collect

a. Information you provide to us

Zepe does not require you to create an account, and there is nothing on this Site to sign up for in order to read a guide. We only collect personal information you choose to give us, such as when you:

• contact us by email (for example, your name, email address, and the contents of your message);
• report an error, suggest a guide, or send feedback about something we have published; or
• submit a copyright or DMCA notice.

b. Information collected automatically

Like most websites, we and our service providers automatically collect certain technical information when you visit, which may include your IP address, approximate location derived from that IP address, browser type and language, device type, operating system, referring and exit pages, the pages you view, the links you click, and the date and time of your visit. This information is used to operate, secure, analyse and improve the Site, and is generally not used to identify you personally.

c. Cookies and similar technologies

We and our third-party partners use cookies, web beacons, pixels, local storage and similar technologies to run the Site, remember preferences, measure traffic, understand how the Site is used, and display advertising. See section 2 below and our Cookie Policy for details and your controls.

We do not intentionally collect Social Security numbers, financial account numbers, precise geolocation, or other sensitive personal information, and we do not ask you to provide it. There is no login, no shopping basket and no newsletter on this Site, so there is no profile for us to build.

2. Cookies and how to control them

Cookies are small text files stored on your device. We use:

• Essential and functional cookies that make the Site work and remember your preferences;
• Analytics cookies that help us understand how visitors use the Site (see section 4);
• Behavioural analytics cookies used by our session-analytics partner (see section 5); and
• Advertising cookies set by Google and other advertising partners (see section 3).

You can control cookies through your browser settings. Most browsers let you block or delete cookies and block third-party cookies specifically. Disabling some cookies may affect how the Site functions. You can also use the advertising and analytics opt-outs described in sections 3 to 5.

Consent banner. Where the law requires your consent before non-essential cookies are set, we show one. We use Google’s consent management platform, which is certified under the IAB Europe Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF) v2.2. If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, you will be asked to accept or reject advertising and analytics cookies before any of them are set, and you can review the individual purposes and vendors before deciding. If you are in a United States state with an applicable privacy law, you are shown that state’s notice and opt-out instead.

Changing your mind. Your choice is remembered, and you can change it at any time using the Privacy & cookie settings link in the footer of every page, which reopens the same dialog.

We also implement Google Consent Mode v2. Until you consent, advertising and analytics storage are set to denied for visitors in the regions above, so tags load without setting or reading advertising or analytics cookies, and ad requests are sent without advertising identifiers.

3. Advertising and Google AdSense

Zepe displays advertising through Google AdSense. That advertising is what keeps every guide on this Site free to read, with no subscription and no paywall. To serve these ads:

• Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this website or other websites.
• Google’s use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visit to this Site and/or other sites on the internet.
• Third-party vendors and ad networks may place and read cookies on your browser, or use web beacons or your IP address, to collect information as a result of ad serving on the Site. Some ads may be personalised based on your interests; others are non-personalised and based on the content of the page or your general location.

Google may also use an advertising cookie (historically referred to as the “DART cookie”) to serve ads to users based on their visits to this and other sites. This cookie does not store personally identifying information such as your name or email address.

Your advertising choices

• You may opt out of personalised advertising by Google at myadcenter.google.com (also reachable at adssettings.google.com).
• You can read how Google uses information from sites that use its services at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.
• You may opt out of personalised advertising from many participating third-party vendors through the Digital Advertising Alliance at optout.aboutads.info and youradchoices.com, or for mobile apps through AppChoices.

If we display ads from additional third-party networks, those networks may use their own cookies and technologies subject to their own privacy policies, and you may be able to opt out through the industry tools above.

4. Analytics and Google Analytics 4

We use Google Analytics 4, a web analytics service provided by Google, to understand how visitors find and use the Site so we can improve it. Knowing which guides people actually reach, and where they give up, is how we decide what to rewrite. GA4 uses cookies and similar identifiers to collect information such as pages viewed, session duration, traffic source, approximate city-level or region-level location, device and browser.

In GA4, IP addresses are anonymised and are not logged or stored by default, and Google processes this data on our behalf as our service provider. You can read how Google uses data at policies.google.com/privacy and policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.

You can opt out of Google Analytics across all websites by installing the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on at tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout. You can also manage analytics cookies through our cookie banner or your browser settings.

5. Session analytics and Microsoft Clarity

We partner with Microsoft Clarity and Microsoft Advertising to capture how you use and interact with our website through behavioural metrics, heatmaps and session replay, in order to improve the Site. Website usage data is captured using first-party and third-party cookies and other tracking technologies to determine the popularity of content and online activity.

Clarity records interactions such as mouse movements, clicks, scrolling and pages visited, and it automatically masks sensitive input fields. It is not intended to capture information such as passwords or payment details, and this Site has no fields that would collect either. We use this information for site optimisation, security and fraud prevention, and understanding our audience.

For more information about how Microsoft collects and uses your data, please see the Microsoft Privacy Statement. You can limit this collection by declining non-essential cookies through our cookie banner and by using your browser’s cookie and Global Privacy Control settings.

6. How we use information

We use the information described above to:

• operate, maintain and secure the Site;
• publish and improve our guides, including deciding which need correcting or rewriting;
• respond to your enquiries, corrections and copyright notices;
• measure and improve performance and the reading experience;
• display and measure advertising;
• detect, prevent and address fraud, abuse and technical problems; and
• comply with legal obligations.

7. How we share information

We do not sell your personal information for money. We share limited information with service providers and partners that help us operate the Site, each under its own privacy policy, including Google (AdSense advertising and Google Analytics), Microsoft (Clarity session analytics), and our website host and content delivery network.

We may also disclose information when required by law, to enforce our terms, or to protect the rights, safety and security of Zepe, our readers or the public, and in connection with a merger, acquisition or sale of assets, with notice as required.

Please note that using advertising and analytics cookies may be considered “sharing” of personal information for cross-context behavioural advertising under some United States state laws. See section 10.

8. Third-party links

Our guides link to third-party websites, principally Microsoft’s own documentation and support pages, which we cite as sources. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of those sites, and we encourage you to review their privacy policies. Our editorial standards explain why we cite primary sources and how we choose them.

9. Children’s privacy

The Site is intended for a general audience and is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. Our analytics tools are likewise not intended for use by minors. If you believe a child under 13 has provided us personal information, please contact us at contact@zepe.online and we will delete it. If you are under 13, please do not use the Site or provide any personal information.

10. Your California privacy rights

If you are a California resident, the California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended by the CPRA, gives you the right to:

• Know the categories and specific pieces of personal information we collect, the sources, the purposes, and the categories of third parties with whom we share it;
• Delete personal information we collected from you, subject to exceptions;
• Correct inaccurate personal information;
• Opt out of the sale or sharing of your personal information. We do not sell personal information for money, but our use of advertising and analytics cookies may qualify as “sharing” for cross-context behavioural advertising;
• Limit the use and disclosure of sensitive personal information. We do not use or disclose sensitive personal information for purposes that would trigger this right; and
• Not be discriminated against for exercising your rights.

To exercise the right to opt out of sharing for targeted advertising, decline advertising cookies in the consent dialog described in section 2, reachable at any time from the Privacy & cookie settings link in the footer, and use the advertising opt-outs in section 3. We honour Global Privacy Control signals: when we detect a GPC signal from your browser, we treat it as a request to opt out of sharing for that browser, and our session-analytics tool is not started at all in that case. To make any other request, contact us at contact@zepe.online. We may need to verify your identity before responding, and you may use an authorised agent where permitted by law.

11. Your choices and rights

Regardless of where you live, you may:

• adjust your browser and device cookie settings;
• use the Google and industry advertising opt-outs in section 3;
• install the Google Analytics opt-out add-on described in section 4;
• decline non-essential cookies in our consent banner where one is shown; and
• contact us to ask about the information we hold.

If you are in the United Kingdom or the European Economic Area, you also have rights of access, rectification, erasure, restriction, portability and objection under the UK and EU GDPR, and a right to complain to your local supervisory authority. We will respond consistent with applicable law.

12. Data security

We use reasonable administrative, technical and organisational measures, including HTTPS encryption and access controls, to protect information. However, no method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

13. Data retention

We keep personal information only as long as necessary for the purposes described in this policy or as required by law. Correspondence is kept for as long as needed to address your enquiry. Server logs are kept for a short operational window, ordinarily no longer than 30 days, and then discarded. Google Analytics and Microsoft Clarity data are retained according to those providers’ configurable retention settings.

14. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we make material changes, we will post the updated policy on this page and revise the date shown above. Your continued use of the Site after changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

15. Contact us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or our data practices, or to exercise your rights, contact us at: