Policy

Privacy Policy

What CupCura collects, what it does not, and how to control it. Written in plain language rather than boilerplate.

Last updated 22 August 2026

CupCura is an independent editorial publication about coffee, tea, and botanical beverages. This policy explains exactly what happens to data when you visit cupcura.com.

The short version

Reading CupCura requires no account and we run no mailing list. We do not sell or rent visitor data to anyone, ever.

Three third parties are involved in a visit. Google Analytics measures how the site is used and receives nothing until you consent. Google AdSense serves the advertising that pays for the site, and serves non-personalised ads without advertising cookies until you consent. Supabase stores the optional account described below, and receives nothing at all unless you choose to create one.

What we collect

Analytics data

We use Google Analytics 4 (measurement ID G-B39X2YRJBW) to understand which guides people find useful and where the site is slow. When you consent, Google Analytics may collect:

Data typeExamplePurpose
Pages viewed/beverage/beverage-yemen-mochaIdentify which guides are read
Approximate locationCountry and city levelUnderstand our readership
Device and browserMobile Safari on iOSFix layout and performance problems
Referral sourceA search engine or a linkUnderstand how people find us
Outbound link clicksA click on a gear recommendationMeasure whether recommendations are useful

IP anonymisation is enabled, so your full IP address is not stored by Google Analytics.

Consent and cookies

CupCura uses Google Consent Mode v2, and what happens before you choose depends on where you are:

Where you areBefore you choose
UK, EU, EEA and SwitzerlandAnalytics and advertising run in cookieless mode. No _ga cookie is written and no identifier is stored for you. Nothing changes until you press Accept.
Everywhere elseAnalytics and advertising are active by default, as permitted in those jurisdictions. Declining switches them off and clears the signals.

Pressing Decline applies everywhere, regardless of region. You can change your mind at any time by clearing site data for cupcura.com, which brings the banner back.

Storage itemTypeLifetimeSet when
cupcura-consent-v1Browser localStorageUntil you clear itAlways, to remember your choice
_gaCookie2 yearsOnly after you accept
_ga_B39X2YRJBWCookie2 yearsOnly after you accept
_clckCookie (Microsoft Clarity)1 yearOnly after you accept
_clskCookie (Microsoft Clarity)1 dayOnly after you accept

The cupcura-consent-v1 entry stores nothing but the word "granted" or "denied". It is not an identifier and is never transmitted.

What we deliberately do not collect

  • No newsletter or marketing email list
  • No account required to read anything on the site. An optional account exists for ratings, reviews and saved drinks — see Accounts below for exactly what it stores
  • No contact form submissions stored on a server. The contact route opens your own email client; your message goes directly to us and passes through no CupCura system.
  • No fingerprinting and no cross-site tracking
  • No sale or sharing of personal information as defined by the CCPA/CPRA

Microsoft Clarity

CupCura uses Microsoft Clarity to understand how pages are actually used — where readers scroll to, what they click, and where a layout is confusing them. Microsoft acts as our data processor for this.

Clarity is materially more invasive than page counting, and it is worth saying so plainly rather than listing it as another analytics tool. It records a reconstruction of your session: pointer movement, clicks, scrolling and the pages you moved between. It does not record keystrokes in form fields, and text you type is masked before it leaves your browser.

It runs only after you accept. Nowhere in the UK, EU, EEA or Switzerland does it run before that, and pressing Decline stops it loading anywhere in the world. That is the same rule the consent banner states, applied to the same stored choice.

Microsoft's own account of what Clarity collects and how long it keeps it is at privacy.microsoft.com.

Accounts

Everything on CupCura is free to read with no account. An optional account exists for readers who want to rate drinks, write reviews, post a photo, keep a shelf, or sync saved drinks across devices. Creating one is the only way any personal data reaches a CupCura system.

Accounts are handled by Supabase (supabase.com), acting as our data processor on infrastructure in the Asia Pacific (Tokyo) region. If you create one, Supabase stores:

DataWhyKept until
Your email addressIdentifies the account and allows a password resetYou delete the account
A hashed passwordSigns you in. We never see, store, or transmit the password itselfYou delete the account
Your ratings and reviewsShown on the drink pages you contributed them toYou delete them, or the account
Photos you uploadShown alongside your reviewYou delete them, or the account
Your shelf and saved drinksSync the lists across your devicesYou delete them, or the account
Sign-in timestamps and IPSecurity: detecting unauthorised access to your account90 days

Ratings, reviews and photos are published on the site under whatever display name you choose. Everything else is visible only to you when signed in.

Deleting your account removes the email address, the password hash and the private lists immediately, and anonymises or removes published reviews at your choice. Ask from the account page, or email info@cupcura.com from the address on the account.

If you never create an account, none of the above applies and no CupCura system holds anything about you.

Advertising

CupCura displays advertising through Google AdSense (publisher ID ca-pub-3162839445320098). The AdSense script loads on every page.

Advertising is governed by the same consent banner that controls analytics, through Google Consent Mode v2:

Your choiceWhat Google may do
If you decline, and by default in the UK/EU/EEA/SwitzerlandServes non-personalised ads only. No advertising cookies are written and no advertising identifier is stored for you. Ads are selected from general page context, not from anything about you.
If you acceptMay set advertising cookies and use them to personalise ads and measure their performance.

Google and its partners may set the following once you accept advertising consent. These are Google's cookies, not ours, and are governed by Google's own privacy policy:

CookieSet byTypical purpose
__gads, __gpiGoogleAd selection, frequency capping, and measurement
IDE, test_cookieDoubleClickAd delivery and effectiveness measurement

You can control ad personalisation directly at Google Ad Settings, independently of any choice made on this site. Declining on our banner does not remove ads — it removes the personalisation and the cookies behind it.

Affiliate links

Some equipment and bean recommendations are affiliate links. These are ordinary outbound links; the retailer, not CupCura, receives your visit and handles any purchase under its own privacy policy. See our Affiliate Disclosure for the full commercial picture.

Changing your mind

To withdraw consent, clear your browser's site data for cupcura.com. The consent banner will appear again on your next visit and you can decline. Declining does not reduce access to any content on the site.

Your rights

If you are in the UK, EU, or EEA, the GDPR gives you the right to access, correct, erase, restrict, or object to processing of your personal data, and to lodge a complaint with your national supervisory authority. If you are a California resident, the CCPA/CPRA gives you the right to know, delete, correct, and opt out of sale or sharing.

If you have never created an account, CupCura itself holds no record of you and such a request resolves to Google Analytics and Google AdSense data. Google is the processor for both; you can also install Google's own opt-out browser add-on to block analytics collection across all sites.

If you do have an account, we hold the data listed under Accounts above, and can export, correct or erase all of it on request.

To exercise any right, email info@cupcura.com. We aim to respond within 30 days.

Data transfers and retention

Google Analytics and AdSense data is processed by Google on infrastructure that may sit outside your country, under Google's own contractual safeguards. Our GA4 property uses a 14-month retention window, after which event-level data is deleted automatically.

Account data is processed by Supabase in the Asia Pacific (Tokyo) region. For readers in the UK, EU or EEA this is a transfer outside your jurisdiction, made under the Standard Contractual Clauses in Supabase's data processing agreement. It is retained until you delete the account.

Children

CupCura is written for adults and covers caffeine dosage and botanical safety. It is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect data from them.

Contact

Questions about this policy: info@cupcura.com

Reach the editorial team

Corrections, privacy requests, image licensing, and security disclosures all go to the same address.

info@cupcura.com