Privacy Policy

This policy explains what The Za Guy ("we", "us") collects when you visit www.thezaguy.com, why we collect it, who else receives it, and what you can do about it. We've written it to describe what this site actually does today — not a generic template of things we might do someday.

The short version

• We don't set advertising or tracking cookies.
• We don't run analytics or ad-tech scripts.
• We don't sell or rent your personal information. Ever.
• The only information you actively give us is your email address, and only if you choose to sign up for the newsletter.
• Clicking an affiliate link takes you to a third party who will do their own tracking. That's the main way data about you leaves this site.

Information we collect

1. Information you give us

Email address — if you submit the newsletter form. We use it to send you the newsletter and nothing else. We don't require your name, and we don't ask for any other personal details.

Email you send us — if you contact hello@thezaguy.com, we receive whatever you put in that message.

2. Information collected automatically

Like essentially every website, our hosting provider records technical information when your browser requests a page. This includes your IP address, browser type and version, device and operating system, the page you requested, the page that referred you, and the date and time. This is generated by the server and CDN, is used for security, abuse prevention, and diagnosing errors, and is retained by our host on a rolling short-term basis.

URL parameters. Links we post on social media carry utm_ parameters (for example ?utm_source=social) so we can tell which platform sent traffic. These describe the link, not you — they contain no personal identifiers.

3. What we do not collect

We do not collect financial information, account numbers, Social Security numbers, credit card details, credit scores, or any of the sensitive data the topics on this site discuss. We have no reason to and we never ask for it. If a page ever appears to ask you for information like that, it is not us — close it and email us.

Cookies and tracking

We set no cookies of our own. There is no analytics package, no advertising pixel, no session tracking, and no cross-site profiling on this site. Our fonts are served from our own domain rather than a third-party font CDN, so simply loading a page does not report your visit to anyone else.

Third parties you click through to will set their own cookies once you land on their site — see the next section.

Third parties who receive data

These are the only parties that data flows to:

Vercel — hosting and content delivery

Our site runs on Vercel. Every request necessarily passes through their infrastructure, so they process your IP address, request details, and server logs on our behalf as our hosting provider. See Vercel's privacy policy.

Affiliate partners and networks

This is the most important one to understand. When you click a link to a bank, card issuer, brokerage, or product, you leave our site. At that point the destination company and any affiliate network in between may record the click, set cookies, and track whether you go on to open an account or make a purchase — that is how we get credited. What they collect is governed by their privacy policies, not ours.

We pass a referral identifier and campaign tags so the partner knows the click came from us. We do not pass your email address or any personal information to them. We receive back only aggregate reporting — for example "12 approvals this month" — never the identity of who converted.

Read our advertising disclosure for how these relationships work commercially.

Email newsletter provider

When our newsletter is live, subscriber email addresses will be stored and sent through a third-party email service provider, which acts as a processor on our behalf. Every email will include a one-click unsubscribe link, as required by the CAN-SPAM Act. We will name the specific provider here once it is in place.

How we use AI

We use AI tools — currently Anthropic's Claude — to help draft and edit articles on this site. We're telling you because you deserve to know how the words you're reading were made. Specifically:

• AI assists with writing. A human edits and approves every article before it publishes. Nothing goes live unreviewed.
• No personal data is sent to AI systems. Your email address, IP address, and browsing behavior are never fed into an AI model. The AI only ever sees article briefs and our own editorial style guide.
• AI makes no decisions about you. There is no automated decision-making, profiling, scoring, or personalization on this site.
• AI-assisted writing can still contain errors. Financial offer terms change constantly. Always verify rates, bonuses, and eligibility on the provider's own website before acting.

How long we keep things

• Newsletter email addresses — until you unsubscribe or ask us to delete them, then removed promptly.
• Server and CDN logs — retained short-term by our host, on their standard rolling schedule.
• Emails you send us — kept as long as needed to handle your query.

Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access a copy of your personal information, correct it, delete it, restrict or object to how we use it, take it elsewhere in a portable format, and opt out of marketing. To exercise any of these, email hello@thezaguy.com. We won't charge you or treat you differently for asking.

If you are in California (CCPA/CPRA): you have the rights above plus the right to know what categories of information we collect and to opt out of "sale" or "sharing" of personal information. We do not sell or share your personal information as those terms are defined under California law, and we do not process it for cross-context behavioral advertising.

If you are in the EU or UK (GDPR): our lawful bases are your consent for the newsletter (withdrawable at any time) and our legitimate interests in keeping the site secure and working for server logs. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local supervisory authority. Note that our host operates globally, so data may be processed in the United States.

Children

This site is intended for adults and is not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has given us their information, email us and we will delete it.

Security

The site is served over HTTPS, and API credentials for the services we use are held as encrypted environment variables, never in our public code. That said, no method of transmission or storage is perfectly secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security. Please never send us account numbers, passwords, or other sensitive financial details — we will never ask for them.

Not financial advice

Everything on The Za Guy is general education and entertainment. It is not personalized financial, investment, tax, or legal advice, and reading it creates no advisor-client relationship. Offer terms change frequently; the provider's own site is always the authoritative source. Consider consulting a licensed professional before making financial decisions.

Changes to this policy

If we add analytics, change email providers, or otherwise change what we collect, we will update this page and move the "last updated" date above. Material changes affecting subscribers will be announced in the newsletter.

Contact

Questions, requests, or complaints: hello@thezaguy.com.