Privacy Policy

What This Site Records Itself

Our server keeps standard access logs. Those include your IP address, the page you asked for, and a timestamp. We use them to debug problems and to notice when something is broken. They rotate and delete automatically, and we don't hand them to anyone.

There are no visitor accounts and no newsletter. The one admin login on the site records an IP address and browser string, and that applies only to us signing in to edit spring records.

Other sites can embed our hot springs widget. When a site loads it, we log the address of the embedding page, the coordinates or city that was requested, and how many springs came back. That log holds no IP address and no browser string. If someone signs up as an embed partner, we store the email address they give us so we can reach them about the widget.

Google Analytics

Every page loads Google Analytics 4. It sets cookies named _ga and _ga_RVZ8PPNTJC in your browser and sends Google your IP address, the page you're on, where you came from, and your browser and device details. Google uses that to give us visit counts. You can opt out for every site at once with Google's Analytics opt-out add-on.

Mediavine and Advertising Cookies

Ads on this site are sold and served by Mediavine. Their script loads on every page from scripts.scriptwrapper.com, then pulls in the ad exchanges and demand partners bidding on the slot. Those companies see your IP address and the page you're on, and they set their own cookies and similar identifiers to work out which ad to show you and whether you have seen it before. Some of that data is used to personalise ads based on where else you've been.

Mediavine explains what it collects and who it shares it with in its privacy policy, and lists the partners it works with there. If you're in a region with a consent framework like GDPR or CPRA, Mediavine shows you the consent or opt-out prompt and honours what you choose. Anyone can turn off personalised advertising from the participating vendors at the DAA opt-out page or Your Online Choices in Europe.

Other Things Your Browser Loads

Some parts of a page come from other companies' servers, which means your browser contacts them directly and they can see your IP address and which page you were on:

• Google Fonts (fonts.googleapis.com, fonts.gstatic.com) for typefaces, on every page.
• OpenStreetMap for the maps. Spring pages embed a map frame from openstreetmap.org; city pages draw map tiles from tile.openstreetmap.org.
• unpkg.com, which serves the Leaflet mapping library on city pages.
• Google (news.google.com), which serves the small script for the "preferred source" button in the footer, on every page.
• Amazon (m.media-amazon.com), for product photos in the gear sections. Those images load even if you never click anything.
• Wikimedia (upload.wikimedia.org), for some spring photographs.

Affiliate Links

Lodging and gear links carry affiliate tags for Amazon Associates and Booking.com. Clicking one takes you to that company, which then sets its own cookies to credit us if you buy something. It costs you nothing extra. Those links are marked on the page where they appear.

Weather

Current conditions come from the National Weather Service. We fetch those on our server using the spring's coordinates and our own contact string. Nothing about you goes with the request.

Cookies, In Short

A Rails session cookie for basic security like CSRF protection. Google Analytics cookies. Advertising cookies from Mediavine and the partners it sells to. Your browser settings can block or clear any of them, and the site still works if you do.

Data Retention

Server logs are kept a short while for operations, then discarded. Embed request logs and partner email addresses stay until they're no longer useful. Google keeps its analytics data, and Mediavine and its ad partners keep their advertising data, under retention rules of their own that we don't control.

Questions

Write to hello@soakingsprings.com and ask.

Last updated: August 2026