Privacy Policy

Last updated: October 4, 2026

Who we are

The Happy Lentils (thehappylentils.com) is a food blog sharing vegetarian recipes. This policy explains what information is collected when you visit the site, how it is used, and what choices you have.

What information we collect

Comments. When you leave a comment, we collect the information shown in the comment form, along with your IP address and browser user agent string to help detect spam. An anonymized string created from your email address (a hash) may be sent to the Gravatar service to check whether you use it. Gravatar’s privacy policy is available at https://automattic.com/privacy/. After your comment is approved, your profile picture may be visible to the public alongside it. Comments may be checked by an automated spam detection service.

Email. If you contact us by email, we use your message and email address only to reply to you.

Technical data. Like most websites, our hosting provider may keep standard server logs (such as IP address, browser type, and pages requested) for security and performance.

Cookies and your consent

We use a consent banner (provided by the Complianz plugin) that lets you accept or deny cookies, or choose by category. Your choice is stored in a cookie on your device so we can remember it. The categories are:

  • Functional: needed for the site to work. These are always active.
  • Preferences: remember your settings and choices.
  • Statistics: help us understand how visitors use the site.
  • Marketing: used to show and measure advertising and to load social content.

Non-essential cookies and scripts (statistics and marketing) are intended to be set only after you give consent. You can change or withdraw your choice at any time using the “Manage consent” button on the site.

If you leave a comment, you can choose to save your name, email address, and website in cookies for your convenience, so you don’t have to fill them in again next time. These cookies last for one year.

Third-party services

Google Analytics. With your consent, we use Google Analytics to understand how visitors use the site (for example, which pages are most popular). It uses cookies, which typically last up to two years, and IP addresses are anonymized. You can opt out with Google’s browser add-on: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout

Google AdSense. We use Google AdSense to display ads. Google and its partners use cookies to show ads based on your previous visits to this and other websites. You can manage personalized advertising at https://adssettings.google.com and learn how Google uses data from partner sites at https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites. We may earn income when ads are shown or clicked. All recipes and opinions on this site are our own.

Affiliate links. We do not currently use affiliate links. If we ever do, we will clearly disclose them on the pages where they appear.

Google Fonts. The site may load fonts from Google’s servers, which means your IP address may be sent to Google.

Instagram and Pinterest. The site includes links, buttons, or widgets from Instagram and Pinterest. When these load, those companies may collect data about you according to their own policies: https://privacycenter.instagram.com/policy and https://policy.pinterest.com/en/privacy-policy

Embedded content. Pages may include embedded content (such as videos or images) from other websites. Embedded content behaves exactly as if you had visited the other website, and those sites may collect data, use cookies, and track your interaction with it.

How to manage cookies

Besides our consent banner, you can block or delete cookies in your browser settings. Blocking some cookies may affect how parts of the site work.

How long we keep your data

Comments and their metadata are kept indefinitely, so that follow-up comments can be recognized and approved automatically. Emails are kept only as long as needed to respond to you. Consent choices are kept for a limited period, typically up to a year. Analytics and advertising data are retained by the providers according to their own policies.

Your rights

Depending on where you live (for example, in the European Union or the United Kingdom), you may have the right to access the personal data we hold about you, correct it, ask us to delete it, restrict or object to its use, receive a copy of it, and withdraw consent at any time. You also have the right to complain to your local data protection authority.

If you are a California resident, you may have the right to know what personal information is collected, ask for its deletion, and opt out of the “sale” or “sharing” of personal information. Some advertising cookies may count as “sharing” under certain US state laws. You can decline them using the consent banner.

To make a request, email us at the address below. This does not cover data we are required to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.

Children

This website is not directed to children under 16, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from them. If you believe a child has provided us with personal data, please contact us and we will delete it.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The date at the top shows when it was last changed.

Contact

Questions or privacy requests: [email protected]