Privacy policy

Who runs this

How’s the Pour is operated by an individual based in Massachusetts, USA. For anything in this policy, write to hello@howsthepour.com.

The short version

• Reviews you publish are public. That is the point of the site.
• There is no advertising, no analytics and no tracking of any kind on this site. No Google Analytics, no pixels, no third-party scripts following you around.
• Your data is never sold or shared for marketing.
• Location, if you allow it, is used once to sort a list of nearby bars. It is not stored.

What is collected

When you create an account

You can sign in with a link sent to your email address, or with Google. Either way an email address is stored so the account can be identified. Signing in with Google also passes along the name and profile picture on your Google account.

Emails about your Pour Profile

Once you have rated a drink, we may email you when something good happens on your Pour Profile, such as your drink becoming the best find at a bar or your photo becoming its cover. That is at most 3 emails a week and never about anyone else. Every email has a one-tap unsubscribe, and the switch is in Edit profile. We do not track whether you open them; links in them carry a tag so we can count visits that came from an email, without knowing who made them.

Your profile

A username, and optionally a display name, a short bio and a profile picture. All of these are public, and you choose every one of them.

Reviews you write

The drink, the bar or shop, the price if you enter one, your scores, any tasting note, and any photo you attach. All public, shown with your username.

Location

When you search for a venue, the browser may ask permission to use your location. If you allow it, an approximate position is sent with that one search so nearby places are listed first, and is passed to Google for the same purpose. It is not written to the database and not kept after the search. Declining changes nothing except the ordering of results.

Technical information

The hosting provider keeps ordinary server logs (IP address, browser, page requested), which is how any website on the internet works. There is no additional analytics layer.

Cookies

One kind only: the cookie that keeps you signed in. There are no advertising, analytics or preference-tracking cookies, which is why this site has no cookie banner. There is nothing to consent to.

What is public

Your username, display name, profile picture, bio, reviews, photos and scores can be read by anyone, including people who are not signed in, and may be indexed by search engines. Your email address is never shown publicly.

Who else sees your data

These companies process data in order to run the site. None of them are paid to advertise to you.

Data may also be disclosed if the law requires it, or to deal with fraud, abuse or a threat to someone’s safety.

How long things are kept

Reviews and profiles stay until you remove them or ask for the account to be deleted. You can delete any individual review yourself at any time from the review page.

Deleting your account

There is no self-service delete button yet. This is a young site and that has not been built. Email hello@howsthepour.com from the address on your account and the account, its reviews and its photos will be removed. You can also ask for a copy of your data, or for something to be corrected.

Age

How’s the Pour is about alcoholic drinks and is not intended for anyone under 21 in the United States, or under the legal drinking age where you live. Accounts are not knowingly created for anyone younger, and any such account found will be removed.

Where data is held

On servers in the United States. If you use the site from elsewhere, your information is processed in the US.

Changes

If this policy changes in a way that matters, the date at the top changes and the change will be noted here.

Contact

hello@howsthepour.com, which reaches a person and not a ticket queue.