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Privacy Policy

This policy explains what information Analysis of Fear collects when you visit analysisoffear.com, why we collect it, and the choices you have. It is effective September 13, 2026.

Who we are and how to contact us

Analysis of Fear is a US consumer publication that analyzes product categories and earns commission through the Amazon Associates Program. For any question about this policy, or about the personal information we hold about you, email support@analysisoffear.com.

What we collect

We run our own first-party analytics rather than relying only on a third party. When you visit, we record: the pages you visit, the referrer and any UTM parameters in the link that brought you, your approximate country (looked up from your IP address using a local DB-IP Lite database — we do not store the IP address itself), your device type, browser and operating system, how far you scroll and how long you’re engaged on a page, searches you run on the site, videos you play, shares, and clicks on links to retailers.

To tell repeat visits apart without identifying you, we generate a pseudonymous visitor ID: an HMAC hash of your IP address and browser user agent, salted with a value that rotates every day. Raw logs built from this data are kept for up to 395 days and then deleted. Aggregated statistics — totals and trends that don’t identify an individual visit — are kept longer.

If you sign up for our newsletter, we store the email address you give us. We have not sent any newsletter issues yet, and a confirmation (double opt-in) step is not wired up yet either — we plan to add one before the first send.

If you leave a comment, WordPress stores the name, email address and IP address you submit with it, and your comment’s avatar is pulled from Gravatar, a service operated by Automattic (automattic.com/privacy). If you email us, we keep that correspondence to respond to you and to act on any correction you send.

Cookies and similar technologies

  • aof_src — a first-party cookie, kept for 30 days, that records the source, medium and campaign that first brought you here. We use it to see which channels lead to retailer clicks.
  • aof-v — a flag stored in your browser’s local storage marking you as a returning visitor.
  • WordPress comment cookies — if you comment, standard WordPress cookies can store your name, email and website in your browser so you don’t have to retype them next time.
  • Analytics and advertising cookies — Google Analytics (GA4) and Google Ads are not active on this site today. If we turn them on, they will set cookies such as _ga, _ga_* and _gcl_*, and this policy will be updated first. See Google’s “How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services”: https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.

Third parties

Amazon. Analysis of Fear is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. When you click a link to Amazon, Amazon and other third parties may serve content and advertisements, collect information directly from you, and place or recognize cookies on your browser. Amazon’s use of that information is governed by Amazon’s Privacy Notice.

YouTube. Some articles embed YouTube videos using YouTube’s privacy-enhanced player at youtube-nocookie.com. The embed does not load, and no connection to YouTube is made, until you press play. The thumbnail image shown before you press play is loaded directly from YouTube’s own servers (i.ytimg.com).

Gravatar. See “What we collect” above.

Hosting. The site is hosted by Hostinger, which processes traffic data in its role as our hosting provider.

Analytics and advertising, if we enable them. Google Analytics and Google Ads are not active on this site today. If we turn them on, Google will process data as described in Google’s own terms, and we will update this policy before that happens.

How we use this information

We use the information above to measure readership and see which articles and channels work, to see in aggregate which retailer links are clicked, to send the newsletter to people who sign up for it, and to moderate comments and respond to correction requests. We do not sell personal information to anyone.

Your choices

  • Cookies. You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings. Blocking aof_src won’t stop you reading the site; it just means we can’t attribute your visit to a source.
  • Global Privacy Control. We honor Global Privacy Control. When your browser sends a GPC signal, we do not record your visit or your clicks.
  • Newsletter. Every issue we send will carry an unsubscribe link.
  • Access, correction and deletion. Email support@analysisoffear.com to ask what we hold about you, correct it, or have it deleted.
  • Interest-based ads. If we enable Google Ads, you can opt out of interest-based advertising at optout.aboutads.info.

California residents

Under California’s Online Privacy Protection Act, here are the categories of personal information we collect: identifiers (your email address, if you sign up for the newsletter or comment; a pseudonymous visitor ID), internet or network activity (pages visited, referrer, clicks, searches), approximate geolocation at the country level, and device and browser information. We share information with the third parties named above (Amazon, YouTube/Google, Gravatar, our host, and Google Analytics/Ads if enabled) as described in this policy. We do not sell personal information. We respond to Global Privacy Control and Do Not Track signals by not recording the visit, as described in “Your choices” above. We’ll note any material change to this policy on this page, with a new effective date, for at least 30 days.

Children’s privacy

This site is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as the site changes. We’ll note any material change on this page with a new effective date. This policy was last updated and became effective September 13, 2026.