You should be able to read a privacy policy without a lawyer. Here is what WoodsWalk does with information, in the plainest words we can manage.
What you hand over, and when
There is one place on this site where you give us anything: the contact form. It asks for your name, your email address and your message, and it hands all three to this site when you press the button.
What you write is used to deal with what you wrote, and for nothing else.
You are not added to a mailing list, because we do not run one. There are no reader accounts here and no login. Ask us to delete something you sent, and we will.
How visits are counted
Two counters run here. Both of them answer one question: how many people opened this page.
The first is Independent Analytics. It runs on this site’s own server, which means the count stays here and goes to no other company. It sets no cookie. What it writes down is the page you opened, the search or the link that brought you, and a rough idea of the country.
The second is Google Analytics. That one belongs to Google, it does set cookies in your browser, and what it gathers is held on Google’s side. It is the counter that shows us which gear links people follow, and from which page.
Neither of them knows your name, and we never try to work it out. If you would rather Google left you out of the count everywhere, Google publishes a browser add-on that opts you out.
Walkers reading from the UK or anywhere else in Europe get a small question box before Google Analytics runs. It starts only after Yes. The answer is remembered in your browser. To change it, use this button.
Why we bother counting at all
It decides what gets written next. A walking guide that hundreds of people read and finish is worth expanding. One that nobody opens is worth replacing. That is the only decision the numbers are used for.
Cookies
As explained above, Google Analytics uses cookies, which European readers receive only once they have agreed. WordPress, the software behind the site, sets a small number of its own so pages work as they should.
This site does not carry ads, so no cookie here is putting you into a category for an ad network to bid on.
Links to gear
WoodsWalk is in the Amazon Associates program. That is why articles about shoes, poles and other kit sometimes send you to Amazon. Amazon may set a cookie when you click one, and it is that cookie which credits a purchase to WoodsWalk.
You pay no more for it, and it has no effect on which gear we recommend. Once you are on Amazon, Amazon’s privacy notice applies and this one stops.
Your server records
Like every website, this one sits on a server, and that server keeps short records of requests: the address they came from, the page asked for, the time. Those records exist so pages get delivered and attacks get turned away. They are kept briefly and then overwritten.
Who else sees anything
- The company that hosts the site, through the server records above.
- Google, through Google Analytics.
- Amazon, but only if you follow one of the gear links.
We do not sell, rent or trade your information, and nobody outside that list receives it. Where the law requires us to hand something over, we will, and that is the only exception.
How long anything is kept
We keep messages only while they serve a purpose, then delete them, and we delete yours earlier if you ask. The site’s own database keeps its visit counts, and Google keeps the Analytics copy for however long its own rules allow. Server records go quickly.
Asking us to show, fix or delete it
Any of those three is yours to ask for, and the contact form is how the request reaches us.
Some of the companies named here are based in other countries, so information described on this page may be handled outside the one you are reading from.
About the writing
Some of what you read here is drafted with AI tools and then checked and edited before it goes up. That is a note about how the site is made rather than about your data, but you should know it.
Children
WoodsWalk is written for adults. We do not knowingly collect anything from anyone under 18.
When this page changes
If WoodsWalk begins to do anything new with your data, this page will be changed to cover it. Last updated 22 September 2026.