Who we are
OwlSolarNews (owlsolarnews.com) is an independent news and information site covering solar, wind, EVs, and the broader clean energy transition. This policy explains what information we collect when you visit, how we use it, and — just as importantly — what we refuse to do with it.
The short version
We don’t sell, rent, or trade your personal information to anyone, for any reason. Not to advertisers, not to data brokers, not to “trusted partners.” If you give us your email, it’s because you want to hear from us — not because we’re building a list to hand off to someone else.
That’s a promise about our intentions and practices. It’s not a guarantee about the internet itself — we rely on hosting providers, data centers, and third-party services to run this site, the same as virtually every website does, and none of us can fully control what happens on their end. See “Data Security” below for what that means in practice.
Information we collect
When you browse the site:
We automatically collect some technical information — your IP address (used at the city/region level, not to pinpoint you precisely), browser type, device type, referring page, and which pages you visit. This comes through standard analytics tools (currently Google Site Kit) and helps us understand what content is actually useful to readers, not to build a profile to sell.
When you subscribe to our email list:
We collect your email address, and — only if you tell us — your interests (e.g., solar, wind, EVs, policy, or specific clean energy topics). We use this to send you things you actually asked for, not everything we publish.
When you use the Contact form:
We collect whatever you submit — typically your name, email, and message — solely to respond to you. This isn’t added to any marketing list unless you separately opt in.
When you comment (on posts where commenting is enabled):
We collect the information shown in the comment form, plus your IP address and browser “user agent” string, which helps with spam detection. If you opt in, we’ll save your name, email, and website in a cookie for one year, purely so you don’t have to retype them next time. An anonymized hash of your email may be checked against Gravatar to display a profile picture, if you use one — or, since we run our own local avatar system, a picture you’ve uploaded directly to your account here, which never leaves our server. After a comment is approved, your name and chosen picture are visible publicly alongside it.
Embedded content:
Articles on this site may include embedded content — most commonly YouTube videos (like an installation walkthrough or product demo) or embedded charts and data sources. Embedding works the same as if you’d visited that other site directly: the embedding service may collect data about you, set its own cookies, and track your interaction with that embedded content according to its own privacy policy, not ours.
If we ever add user accounts:
We don’t currently offer public account registration. If that changes, this policy will be updated accordingly, and standard account-related items (like an IP address included in a password-reset email) would apply.
How we use your information
We use the information above to:
- Send you email content that matches interests you’ve told us about — articles, roundups, or announcements, sorted by what you actually asked to hear about, not a blanket blast of everything
- Respond to messages sent through our Contact form
- Understand which content is working, in aggregate, anonymized form — not to track you individually
- Detect and filter spam in comments and form submissions
- Keep the site secure and functioning properly
What we never do — and what that actually means in practice
A lot of privacy policies say “we value your privacy” and then bury the opposite in the fine print. Here’s a direct comparison so there’s no ambiguity about where we stand:
| Common industry practice | What we do at OwlSolarNews |
|---|---|
| Selling or renting user data to advertisers and data brokers | We never sell, rent, or trade your personal information — period |
| One blanket consent checkbox covering everything at once | You choose the specific interests and content categories you actually want to hear about |
| Unsubscribe buried behind multiple steps or a guilt-trip screen | One click. No “are you sure?” maze. |
| Retaining your data indefinitely to build long-term ad-profiles | We retain data only as long as needed for the purpose you gave it to us — see retention periods below |
| Sharing data with vaguely defined “partners,” “affiliates,” or “third parties we work with” | Every third-party service we use is named explicitly in this policy, with its exact purpose stated |
| Using dark patterns to make data deletion requests difficult or slow | Email us and we act on it — no hoops |
Legal basis for processing
Where applicable data protection law requires us to identify a legal basis for handling your information, here’s ours:
- Consent — for email subscriptions and optional comment cookies, which you affirmatively opt into and can withdraw at any time
- Legitimate interest — for basic site analytics, spam detection, and security monitoring, weighed against your privacy interests
- Legal obligation — where we’re required by law to retain or disclose specific information
- Performance of a contract — not currently applicable, since we don’t offer paid accounts or subscriptions; this may apply if that changes in the future, and this policy would be updated accordingly
Cookies
We use a small number of cookies:
- Functionality cookies — remembering your preferences and, if you comment, your name/email/website for convenience (lasts one year)
- Performance/caching cookies — help pages load faster
- Third-party analytics cookies — from tools like Google Site Kit, used in aggregate, not to build an individual profile for sale
Third-party services we use
| Service | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Google Site Kit / Analytics | Understand site traffic patterns in aggregate |
| WPForms | Powers our Contact form, with built-in spam filtering |
| Google Workspace (Gmail) | Sends transactional emails (like form confirmations) |
| Pretty Links | Manages and shortens our affiliate links |
| Simple Local Avatars | Stores comment profile pictures on our own server, not a third party |
| [Email service, once chosen] | Sends our opt-in newsletter |
Each of these services has its own privacy policy governing how they handle data on their end; we encourage you to review theirs if you have specific concerns about a particular tool.
Affiliate disclosure
Some links on this site are affiliate links (including through the Amazon Associates Program and similar programs). If you click one and make a purchase, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. This never influences our actual coverage or opinions — see our full Disclosure page for details on how we handle this.
Data security
We take reasonable steps to protect the information we collect — but no method of transmission over the internet, and no method of electronic storage, is 100% secure. This includes systems we don’t directly control: our hosting provider’s infrastructure, data centers, and the third-party services listed above all carry their own inherent risks, including the possibility of a breach or leak on their end that’s outside anything we could prevent.
To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, this limitation extends to unauthorized access resulting from causes beyond our reasonable control — including outages, vulnerabilities, or security failures of our hosting provider or any third-party service we rely on to operate this site.
If a security incident affecting your data ever occurs, we’ll notify affected users as required by applicable law and take appropriate steps to address it. We just can’t promise a risk that doesn’t exist anywhere on the internet — what we can promise is that we’re not the ones creating it on purpose.
Your responsibility for your own security
The internet runs in both directions. We secure our side of this relationship as described above — but you’re responsible for securing yours: keeping your own devices, browsers, and email accounts protected, using strong and unique passwords, and staying alert to phishing attempts that impersonate us.
We will never ask you for your password, payment details, or sensitive account information via email. Any message claiming to be from OwlSolarNews that asks for this kind of information isn’t really from us — treat it as suspicious and don’t respond.
How long we retain your data
- Comments: kept indefinitely, so we can recognize and approve your future comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue
- Email list: kept until you unsubscribe or ask us to remove it
- Contact form messages: kept only as long as needed to address your inquiry
Your rights
Regardless of where you’re located, you can ask us to:
- Know what personal information we hold about you
- Correct anything that’s inaccurate
- Delete the personal data we hold about you (this doesn’t include data we’re legally required to keep)
- Opt out of any sale of your data — this is easy for us to honor, since we don’t sell your data in the first place
- Not be discriminated against for exercising any of these rights
If you’re in the EU or UK, you also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority if you believe we’ve mishandled your information.
Your choices and rights
- Unsubscribe from our email list anytime via the link in any email we send
- Update your interests for what kind of content you receive from us
- Request a copy of the personal data we hold about you
- Request deletion of your data — email us at contact@owlsolarnews.com and we’ll take care of it
Do Not Track signals
Some browsers offer a “Do Not Track” signal. There’s currently no unified industry standard for how sites should respond to these, so like most small independent sites, we don’t yet have automated systems that read and act on them. Since we don’t sell your data or run behavioral advertising, the practical impact of this is minimal — but we’re noting it here for transparency rather than pretending otherwise.
Children’s privacy
OwlSolarNews is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information without parental consent, contact us and we’ll remove it.
Data retention
We keep your information only as long as needed for the purposes described above — for example, your email stays on our list until you unsubscribe or ask us to remove it.
Governing law
This policy, and any dispute arising from it, is governed by the laws of the State of Texas, USA, without regard to conflict-of-law principles — except where applicable data protection law (such as the GDPR or CCPA) grants you rights that cannot be waived by this or any other agreement.
How this policy may change
If we materially change how we handle your data, we’ll update this page and note the revised date at the top. We won’t quietly loosen these commitments without telling you. Continued use of the site after a material change means you’ve had the chance to review it — but we’ll never bury a real change silently.
Contact us
Questions about this policy or your data? Reach us at contact@owlsolarnews.com.
This policy was written in plain language on purpose. We’d rather you actually understand it than skim past legal boilerplate.