Privacy Policy

Welcome to What The Cryptid? — the internet's most unscientific paranormal news network. We take your privacy seriously, even if we don't take ourselves too seriously.

This policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, and what rights you have. It applies to all visitors to whatthecryptid.com.

Questions? Reach us at: contact@whatthecryptid.com

Information You Give Us

• Email address — when you sign up for our newsletter or updates
• Name — if you include it in a contact form submission
• Your message — when you reach out via our contact form
• Quiz responses — your answers to our quizzes and games, used only to generate your result

Information Collected Automatically

• IP address and approximate location (country/region level)
• Browser type, device type, and operating system
• Pages visited, time spent, and referring URL
• Cookies and similar tracking technologies (see Cookie section below)

How We Use Your Information

• To send you newsletters and content you've subscribed to
• To respond to your contact form enquiries
• To generate and display your quiz or game results
• To understand how visitors use the site and improve it
• To detect and prevent fraudulent or abusive activity
• To comply with applicable legal obligations

Legal Basis for Processing (GDPR)

If you are located in the European Economic Area (EEA) or United Kingdom, we process your data under the following legal bases:

• Consent — for email subscriptions and non-essential cookies
• Legitimate interests — for site analytics and security
• Contractual necessity — to respond to contact form submissions
• Legal obligation — where required by law

You may withdraw consent at any time without affecting the lawfulness of prior processing.

Cookies

We use cookies to make the site function and to understand how people use it:

• Essential cookies — required for the site to work (no consent needed)
• Analytics cookies — help us understand traffic and usage patterns
• Advertising cookies — used by Google AdSense to serve relevant ads (where active)
• Preference cookies — remember your quiz results or settings

Where required by law (EEA/UK visitors), we will ask for your consent before placing non-essential cookies. You can manage cookies at any time through your browser settings.

Third-Party Services

We use a small number of trusted third-party services to operate the site:

• MailerLite — to send newsletters and manage subscriber lists
• Google AdSense — to display advertisements (where active)
• Google Analytics — to collect anonymised usage data
• Bluehost — our hosting provider

These providers process data only as needed to deliver their services and are bound by their own privacy policies.

Amazon Associates: What The Cryptid? participates in the Amazon Associates programme. Some pages contain affiliate links to amazon.com.au. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Amazon may use cookies to track referrals.

Your Rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the following rights:

• Access — request a copy of the data we hold about you
• Correction — request we correct inaccurate data
• Deletion — request we delete your data ("right to be forgotten")
• Restriction — request we limit how we process your data
• Portability — request your data in a portable format (EEA/UK)
• Objection — object to processing based on legitimate interests (EEA/UK)
• Opt-out of sale — we don't sell data, but California residents (CCPA) may still submit this request
• Unsubscribe — every marketing email contains an unsubscribe link

To exercise any of these rights, email us at contact@whatthecryptid.com. We will respond within 30 days.

Data Retention

• Email subscribers — retained until you unsubscribe or request deletion
• Contact form submissions — retained for up to 12 months, then deleted
• Analytics data — retained in aggregated or anonymised form for up to 26 months
• Quiz data — session-based only; not stored beyond your visit unless you opt in

Children's Privacy

What The Cryptid? is intended for general audiences. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 13 (or 16 where required by law). If you believe a child has submitted personal information to us, please contact us and we will promptly delete it.

International Transfers

Our site is operated from Australia. If you are visiting from the EEA, UK, or elsewhere, your information may be transferred to and processed in countries with different data protection laws. Where required, we implement appropriate safeguards to protect your data during such transfers.

Security

We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect your personal information against unauthorised access, loss, or misuse. However, no method of internet transmission is 100% secure.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we'll update the "Last Updated" date at the top of this page. For significant changes, we'll notify email subscribers directly.

Contact & Complaints

For privacy-related questions or requests: contact@whatthecryptid.com

EEA/UK residents may lodge a complaint with their local data protection authority.

Australian residents may contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) at oaic.gov.au.