Effective date: October 5, 2026

This privacy policy explains how Texcovery Media (“Texcovery”, “we”, “us”) collects, uses, discloses and protects personal information when you read texcovery.com, leave a comment, contact us, subscribe to our newsletter or buy something from our shop. We have tried to write it in plain language and to be specific about the tools we actually use, because a privacy policy that could describe any website is not much use to anyone.

Texcovery is based in Toronto, Ontario. Our handling of personal information is governed primarily by Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA). We also apply the requirements of Québec’s Act respecting the protection of personal information in the private sector, as amended by Law 25, to readers in Québec, and we explain below how we treat readers in the European Union, the United Kingdom and the United States.

If anything here is unclear, write to our privacy officer at [email protected].

1. Who is responsible for your information

Texcovery Media is the organization responsible for personal information collected through texcovery.com. We have designated a privacy officer who is accountable for our compliance with this policy and with applicable privacy law. For the purposes of Québec law, the privacy officer is the person in charge of the protection of personal information.

Privacy Officer
Texcovery Media
Suite 704, 120 Adelaide Street West
Toronto, ON M5H 1T1, Canada
Email: [email protected]
Phone: +1 (416) 555-0147 (Monday to Friday, 9:00 to 17:00 ET)

2. The principles we follow

PIPEDA is built around ten fair information principles. Here is how each one shows up in practice at Texcovery:

• Accountability: a named privacy officer is responsible for this policy, and every staff member and contractor with access to personal information is bound by confidentiality obligations.
• Identifying purposes: we tell you why we are collecting information at or before the time we collect it, through this policy and through notices on our forms and checkout.
• Consent: we ask for your consent before collecting, using or disclosing your information, except where the law permits otherwise. Non-essential cookies are off until you opt in.
• Limiting collection: we collect only what we need. You can read every article on Texcovery without giving us your name or email address.
• Limiting use, disclosure and retention: we use your information only for the purposes we told you about, and we delete or anonymize it when we no longer need it (see section 10).
• Accuracy: we keep account and order information accurate enough for its purpose, and you can update it at any time.
• Safeguards: we protect personal information with security measures appropriate to its sensitivity (see section 11).
• Openness: this policy is publicly available and we answer questions about our practices.
• Individual access: you can ask to see the personal information we hold about you and have it corrected.
• Challenging compliance: you can complain to our privacy officer, and if you are not satisfied, to the relevant privacy regulator.

3. Information we collect and why

The table below summarizes what we collect in each situation. More detail follows in the sections after it.

When	What we collect	Why
Reading the site	IP address, browser and device details, pages requested, referring page, date and time (server and security logs). With your consent: analytics and advertising cookie identifiers.	Delivering pages, keeping the site secure, understanding which articles are read (with consent), showing ads (with consent)
Commenting	Name, email address, optional website, comment text, IP address, browser user agent	Publishing and moderating comments, preventing spam and abuse
Contact form or email	Name, email address, subject, message, and anything else you choose to include	Answering you, handling corrections, tips, pitches and requests
Newsletter	Email address, optional first name, date and source of your sign-up, confirmation record, opens and clicks	Sending the newsletter you asked for, proving consent under CASL, improving the newsletter
Shop orders	Name, billing and shipping address, email, phone number, items ordered, order total, taxes, payment status, order notes, how you arrived at the shop	Processing, shipping and supporting your order, tax and accounting records, preventing fraud
Customer accounts (optional)	Username, email, hashed password, saved addresses, order history	Letting you check out faster and view past orders

3.1 Comments

When you leave a comment, WordPress stores the name, email address and optional website you enter, along with your comment, the IP address it came from and your browser’s user agent string. The IP address and user agent help us detect spam and abusive behaviour. Your name, website and comment are public once approved; your email address and IP address are never published.

If you tick the box to save your details for next time, WordPress sets cookies in your browser so you do not have to retype them (see our cookie policy). If profile pictures are enabled on comments, an anonymized string created from your email address (a hash) may be sent to Gravatar, a service operated by Automattic Inc., to check whether you have a Gravatar image. Gravatar’s privacy policy applies to that service.

3.2 Contact form and email

Our contact form is built with Contact Form 7. Messages are delivered to our inbox by email; the plugin itself does not keep a copy of submissions in our website database. We use what you send only to deal with your enquiry. If you send us a story tip, we treat your identity as confidential and handle it according to our editorial policy.

3.3 Newsletter

We send our newsletter only to people who have given us express consent, as required by Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL). Sign-up uses a double opt-in: you enter your email, then confirm by clicking a link we send you. We keep a record of when and how you consented. Every newsletter identifies Texcovery Media, includes our mailing address and contains a one-click unsubscribe link. CASL gives senders up to 10 business days to process an unsubscribe request; in practice ours take effect immediately.

Buying from our shop does not sign you up for the newsletter. We may send emails about your order (confirmations, shipping notices and similar transactional messages), but we will not send you marketing emails unless you separately opt in.

Our newsletter platform records whether a message was opened and which links were clicked. We use this in aggregate to see which stories readers find useful. You can limit open tracking by turning off automatic image loading in your email client.

3.4 Shop orders and payments

Our shop runs on WooCommerce. When you place an order, we collect the information needed to fulfil it: your name, billing and shipping addresses, email address, phone number (which Canada Post may use to contact you about delivery), the products you bought, the amount paid, applicable GST/HST and any notes you add.

We never see or store your full card number. Payments are handled by third-party payment processors, currently Stripe and PayPal. Card details go directly from your browser to the processor over an encrypted connection. We receive confirmation that a payment succeeded, the last four digits of the card, the card type and expiry month and year, plus fraud-screening signals the processor provides. Each processor is responsible for its own handling of your payment information under its own privacy policy.

WooCommerce’s order attribution feature records how you arrived at the shop (for example, from a newsletter link or a search engine), your device type and the number of pages viewed in that session. This is stored with the order so we can understand which channels lead to sales. It does not identify you on other websites.

3.5 Cookies and consent management

We use CookieYes to manage cookie consent. When you first visit, a banner lets you accept all cookies, reject all non-essential cookies or choose by category: necessary, functional, analytics and advertising. Only strictly necessary cookies are set before you make a choice. You can change your mind at any time with the “Cookie settings” link in our footer. CookieYes records your choice, an anonymized consent ID and a timestamp so we can show that consent was given. The full list of cookies, with durations, is in our cookie policy.

Where your browser sends a Global Privacy Control (GPC) signal, we configure our consent tool to treat it as a refusal of advertising cookies.

3.6 Analytics

If you consent to analytics cookies, we use Google Analytics 4 to understand how readers use the site: which articles are read, how people arrive, roughly where they are (at city or region level) and which device types they use. Google Analytics 4 does not log or store IP addresses for accounts like ours. We have turned off Google signals and data sharing for advertising products in our Analytics settings, and we set data retention to 14 months. We do not try to identify individual readers from analytics data.

3.7 Advertising

Display ads on Texcovery may be served by Google and other ad networks. If you accept advertising cookies, these networks may use cookies and similar identifiers to measure ad performance, limit how often you see the same ad and, depending on their settings, show ads based on your interests. If you decline, you will still see ads, but they will not be personalized using cookies. We do not give advertisers your name, email address or order history.

3.8 Security logs (Wordfence)

We use Wordfence, a security plugin made by Defiant Inc., to protect the site from attacks. Wordfence inspects incoming requests and records information about traffic that looks suspicious or is blocked, as well as login attempts to our admin area. These logs can include IP addresses, browser user agents, the URLs requested, usernames entered on our login page and timestamps. Some of this data, such as IP addresses involved in attacks, may be sent to Defiant’s servers in the United States so the firewall can check against current threat intelligence.

We rely on our legitimate need to keep the site and your information secure as the basis for this processing, and the logs are used only for security purposes. Security logs are kept for 90 days unless they relate to an ongoing incident.

3.9 Server logs and hosting

Like every website, our servers automatically log basic technical information about each request: IP address, date and time, the page requested, the response code, the referring page and the browser user agent. These logs help us troubleshoot problems and defend against abuse. Server logs are kept for 30 days. Our website is hosted on servers located in Canada.

4. Information we do not collect

We do not knowingly collect sensitive information such as health information, government identification numbers or precise geolocation through the site. Please do not include sensitive information in comments or contact form messages. We do not buy personal information from data brokers, and we do not sell personal information.

5. How we use your information

We use personal information only for the purposes described in section 3, namely to:

• publish the site and keep it running and secure;
• publish and moderate comments;
• respond to your messages, correction requests and privacy requests;
• send the newsletter to subscribers;
• process, ship, support and, where needed, refund shop orders;
• keep accounting and tax records as required by Canadian law;
• understand readership in aggregate and improve the site (with your consent);
• show advertising, including personalized ads if you have consented;
• detect and prevent fraud, spam and security incidents; and
• comply with legal obligations and enforce our terms and conditions.

If we want to use your information for a new purpose, we will tell you and, where required, ask for your consent first.

6. Consent and how to withdraw it

Depending on the situation, your consent may be express (for example, ticking a box or clicking “Accept” in our cookie banner) or implied (for example, giving us your shipping address so we can ship your order). You can withdraw consent at any time, subject to legal or contractual restrictions and reasonable notice. Here is how:

• Cookies: click “Cookie settings” in the footer and change your choices.
• Newsletter: click “Unsubscribe” in any issue, or email [email protected].
• Comments: ask us to remove a comment you posted.
• Anything else: email our privacy officer.

Withdrawing consent may affect what we can do for you. For example, we cannot ship an order without a delivery address, and we must keep order records for tax purposes even if you close your account.

7. Who we share information with

We share personal information only with service providers who help us run Texcovery, and only what they need to do their job. These providers are contractually required to protect your information and to use it only on our instructions. They include:

• Web hosting and backups: our hosting provider, with servers in Canada.
• Payment processing: Stripe and PayPal.
• Shipping: Canada Post receives your name, delivery address and, where provided, phone number and email so it can deliver your parcel and send tracking updates. For US orders, customs information (including item descriptions and values) is shared with Canada Post and US customs authorities, and with a duties-processing partner where duties are prepaid.
• Newsletter delivery: our email newsletter platform.
• Analytics and advertising: Google and other ad networks, only if you consent to the relevant cookies.
• Consent management: CookieYes.
• Security: Defiant Inc. (Wordfence).
• Professional advisers: our accountant and lawyers, under a duty of confidentiality, when needed.

We may also disclose personal information where required or permitted by law, for example in response to a valid court order or to protect someone’s safety. If Texcovery Media is ever sold or merged, personal information may be transferred to the new owner as part of that transaction, subject to this policy.

We do not sell personal information, and we do not rent our newsletter list to anyone.

8. Storage and transfer outside Canada

Our website and its database are hosted in Canada. Some of our service providers, including our newsletter platform, payment processors, Google, Defiant (Wordfence) and CookieYes, process information in other countries, most often the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union. When your information is stored or processed outside Canada, it is subject to the laws of that country, and courts, law enforcement or national security authorities there may be able to access it.

We assess the privacy practices of each provider before we use it, and we require contractual protections comparable to those you would have in Canada. For readers in Québec, before personal information is communicated outside Québec we assess whether it will receive adequate protection, taking into account its sensitivity, the purpose of the transfer, the safeguards in place and the legal framework of the destination, as Québec law requires.

9. Readers in Québec

If you live in Québec, you have the following additional rights and protections:

• Any technology we use that can identify, locate or profile you, including analytics and advertising cookies, is turned off by default and only activated if you choose to enable it.
• You can ask how your personal information was collected, who within our organization has access to it, how long we keep it, and the contact details of the person in charge of protecting it (our privacy officer).
• You can ask us to communicate computerized personal information you provided to you, or to a person or body you choose, in a structured, commonly used technological format (data portability).
• You can ask us to stop disseminating your personal information or to de-index any hyperlink attached to your name that gives access to it, where the dissemination contravenes the law or a court order, or causes serious injury to your reputation or privacy, in the circumstances set out by law.
• If you are not satisfied with our response, you can file a complaint with the Commission d’accès à l’information du Québec.

We keep a register of confidentiality incidents and, where an incident presents a risk of serious injury, we notify the Commission and the affected individuals.

10. How long we keep information

Information	Retention period
Published comments	As long as the comment remains on the site. Spam and rejected comments are deleted within 30 days.
Contact form and email correspondence	24 months after the conversation ends, unless needed longer for a legal claim or a correction record
Newsletter subscriber data	Until you unsubscribe. We keep a minimal record of your consent and unsubscribe date for three years afterwards so we can demonstrate CASL compliance and make sure we don’t email you again.
Shop orders and invoices	Six years from the end of the tax year to which they relate, as required for Canadian tax records
Customer accounts	Until you ask us to delete the account, or after 36 months of inactivity. Order records are kept as described above.
Wordfence security logs	90 days
Server access logs	30 days
Google Analytics event data	14 months
Cookie consent records	12 months, matching the life of your consent
Records of privacy breaches	At least 24 months, as PIPEDA requires

When a retention period ends, we delete the information or anonymize it so that it can no longer identify you.

11. How we protect information

We use administrative, technical and physical safeguards appropriate to the sensitivity of the information, including:

• encryption of all traffic to and from texcovery.com using HTTPS;
• a web application firewall, malware scanning and login protection through Wordfence;
• two-factor authentication on all administrator accounts and limiting admin access to staff who need it;
• keeping WordPress, WooCommerce and plugins up to date;
• encrypted, access-controlled backups stored in Canada;
• never storing full payment card numbers on our systems; and
• confidentiality commitments from staff and contractors.

No system is perfectly secure. If a breach of security safeguards involving your personal information creates a real risk of significant harm, we will report it to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada and notify you as soon as feasible, as PIPEDA requires, and we will tell you what we are doing about it and what you can do to protect yourself.

12. Your rights

Wherever you live, you can ask us to:

• tell you whether we hold personal information about you, and give you access to it;
• explain how it has been used and to whom it has been disclosed;
• correct information that is inaccurate or incomplete;
• delete information we no longer have a legitimate reason to keep; and
• stop using your information for a purpose you previously consented to.

To make a request, email [email protected] from the address you used with us, or write to the privacy officer at our mailing address. We may need to verify your identity before releasing information. We acknowledge requests within five business days and respond within 30 days. If we need more time, we will tell you why and how long, as the law allows. Requests are free of charge in most cases. If we cannot give you access to some information, for example because it would reveal information about another person or a confidential news source, we will explain why.

13. Visitors outside Canada

European Union and United Kingdom

Texcovery is a Canadian publication aimed mainly at readers in Canada and North America, but we welcome readers everywhere. If the EU or UK General Data Protection Regulation applies to our processing of your information, our legal bases are: your consent (analytics and advertising cookies, newsletter); the performance of a contract (shop orders); our legal obligations (tax records); and our legitimate interests in running a secure, functioning publication (security logs, comment moderation, answering messages). You have the rights of access, rectification, erasure, restriction, portability and objection, and the right to withdraw consent at any time. You can also complain to your local data protection authority. The European Commission has recognized Canada as providing an adequate level of protection for personal information handled by organizations subject to PIPEDA.

United States

Some US states, including California, give residents rights over their personal information, such as the right to know, to delete, to correct and to opt out of the “sale” or “sharing” of personal information for cross-context behavioural advertising. We do not sell personal information for money. If you are a US resident and want to opt out of advertising cookies, reject the advertising category in our cookie banner or enable Global Privacy Control in your browser. You can also email [email protected] to exercise any of the rights described in this policy, and we will not treat you differently for doing so.

14. Children

Texcovery is a general-interest publication written for adults. It is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. Our shop is intended for customers aged 18 and over, or younger customers acting with a parent’s or guardian’s involvement. In Québec, personal information about a minor under 14 may only be collected with the consent of a parent or guardian. If you believe a child has given us personal information, contact our privacy officer and we will delete it.

15. Links to other sites

Our articles link to other websites, including sources, company pages and, in some buying guides, retailers. Those sites have their own privacy practices, and this policy does not cover them. Embedded content such as videos or social media posts may behave as though you visited the other site directly; where embeds set cookies, we block them until you consent to the relevant cookie category.

16. Changes to this policy

We update this policy when our practices or the law change. In June 2026, the federal government introduced Bill C-36, which would replace the privacy part of PIPEDA with a new law if passed. PIPEDA continues to apply in the meantime, and we will revise this policy if and when the new rules take effect. When we make a significant change, we will update the effective date at the top of this page and, if you subscribe to our newsletter or have a customer account, let you know by email.

17. Questions and complaints

If you have a question or concern about how we handle personal information, please contact our privacy officer first at [email protected]. We take complaints seriously, investigate each one and will tell you what we found and what we have done about it.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you can contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada. Readers in Québec can also contact the Commission d’accès à l’information du Québec.