Privacy Policy
Last updated
This policy explains what information Upgel Bike Maintenance collects when you read our bike maintenance guides, why we collect it, who we share it with, and what you can do about it.
Upgel Bike Maintenance ("Upgel", "we", "us" or "our") operates the website at https://upgel.online (the "Site"), where we publish step-by-step bicycle repair and maintenance guides. We respect your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we use and share it, and the choices you have. By using the Site you agree to the practices described here. If you do not agree, please stop using the Site.
This Policy is written for a general audience located primarily in the United States. If you visit from another region, be aware that your information is processed in the United States.
1. Information we collect
a. Information you give us
There is no account system on this Site and nothing to sign up for in order to read a guide. We only collect personal information you actively choose to send us, which in practice means:
- When you email us — your name, your email address, and whatever you put in the message.
- When you send a correction, a suggestion, or a copyright or DMCA notice — the contact details and details of the claim you include.
b. Information collected automatically
Like effectively every website, our hosting provider automatically records certain technical information when a page is requested. This may include your IP address, approximate location derived from that IP address, browser type and language, device type, operating system, referring page, the pages you view, and the date and time of the request. This is used to operate, secure and improve the Site, and is generally not used to identify you personally.
c. What we deliberately do not collect
- We do not ask for or store payment details. Nothing on this Site is for sale.
- We do not collect government identifiers, financial account numbers, or precise geolocation.
- We do not knowingly collect special-category or sensitive personal information, and we do not ask you to provide it.
- We do not build advertising profiles ourselves, and we do not upload email addresses to advertising platforms.
2. Cookies and similar technologies
Cookies are small text files stored on your device. We use essential cookies that make the Site work and remember your preferences, and — depending on the services described in sections 4 and 5 — analytics and advertising cookies set by third parties.
You can control cookies through your browser settings; most browsers let you block or delete cookies and block third-party cookies. Disabling some cookies may affect how the Site works. Where the law requires it, we show a consent banner so you can accept or decline non-essential cookies before they are set, and you can change your choice at any time from the Cookie Policy page.
3. No client-side scripts
Worth stating plainly, because it is unusual: this Site ships no JavaScript to your browser. Every page is plain HTML and CSS. That means no client-side fingerprinting, no behavioural scripts and no third-party tags running in your browser beyond anything explicitly named in sections 4 and 5. It is a deliberate design choice and it is also a privacy property.
4. Advertising
Upgel Bike Maintenance displays advertising through Google AdSense, which is what pays for the hosting and keeps every guide on this site free to read.
- Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this website or to other websites.
- Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visit to this site and other sites on the internet.
- Third-party vendors and ad networks may place and read cookies in your browser, or use web beacons or your IP address, to collect information as a result of ad serving on this site.
- Some ads may be personalised based on inferred interests. Others are contextual, based only on the content of the page or your general location.
Google may also use an advertising cookie to serve ads based on your visits to this and other sites. That cookie does not store directly identifying information such as your name or email address.
Your advertising choices
- Opt out of personalised advertising from Google at My Ad Center.
- Read how Google uses information from sites that use its services at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.
- Opt out of personalised advertising from many other vendors through the Digital Advertising Alliance at optout.aboutads.info, or via YourAdChoices.
- In the EEA, UK and Switzerland, non-essential cookies are only set after you consent through our banner, and you can change that choice at any time.
5. Analytics
We use analytics to understand which guides people find useful and where they get stuck, so we can improve them. This is aggregate reporting — we are not trying to identify you individually.
Google Analytics 4
Google Analytics 4 uses cookies and similar identifiers to collect information such as pages viewed, session duration, traffic source, approximate city-level location, device and browser. In GA4, IP addresses are not logged or stored by default. Google processes this data as our service provider. You can opt out across all websites with the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on.
6. How we use information
We use the information described above to operate, maintain and secure the Site; to publish and improve our maintenance guides; to respond to your questions and to copyright notices; to understand which guides are useful; to detect and prevent fraud, abuse and technical problems; and to comply with our legal obligations.
We do not use your information to make automated decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects about you.
7. How we share information
We do not sell your personal information for money. We share limited information with the service providers that make the Site work, each under its own privacy policy:
| Who | Why | What they receive |
|---|---|---|
| Hosting and CDN provider | Serving the Site and protecting it from abuse | Server request logs, including IP address |
| Email provider | Receiving and replying to your messages | Only what you put in an email to us |
| Google (AdSense) | Serving advertising | Advertising cookie data and IP address |
| Analytics provider | Aggregate usage reporting | Page views, device and approximate location |
We may also disclose information where required by law, to enforce our Terms, or to protect the rights, safety and security of our readers, the public or ourselves, and in connection with a merger, acquisition or sale of assets, with notice where required.
8. Links to other sites
Our guides cite external sources — manufacturer documentation, standards bodies, and published research — and link to them so you can check our work. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of those sites, and following a link means that site's policies apply, not ours.
9. Children's privacy
The Site is intended for a general audience and is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. If you believe a child under 13 has sent us personal information, email us at contact@upgel.online and we will delete it. If you are under 13, please do not send us any personal information.
10. Your privacy rights
California residents (CCPA/CPRA)
If you are a California resident, you have the right to know what personal information we collect and why, to have it deleted, to have inaccurate information corrected, to opt out of any "sale" or "sharing" of personal information, to limit the use of sensitive personal information, and not to be discriminated against for exercising any of these rights.
We do not sell personal information for money. We honour Global Privacy Control (GPC) signals: when your browser sends one, we treat it as a request to opt out of sharing for that browser.
UK and EU residents (UK GDPR and EU GDPR)
If you are in the UK or the EEA, you have the right to access, correct, delete, restrict or object to our processing of your personal information, and the right to data portability. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with your national supervisory authority.
Our lawful bases are: legitimate interests, for operating and securing the Site and for responding to correspondence; consent, for any non-essential cookies; and legal obligation, where the law requires us to retain or disclose information.
Everyone
Wherever you live, you can adjust your browser and device cookie settings, unsubscribe from any email using the link in it, and contact us at contact@upgel.online to ask what information we hold about you. We will respond consistently with applicable law, and we may need to verify your identity before we do.
11. Security
We use reasonable administrative, technical and organisational measures to protect information, including HTTPS for every page and access controls on our systems. The Site's lack of accounts, payments and client-side scripts substantially reduces the amount of data there is to protect in the first place. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.
12. Data retention
We keep personal information only as long as we need it for the purposes in this Policy or as the law requires. Correspondence is kept for as long as needed to deal with your enquiry and a reasonable period afterwards for our records. Server logs are retained for a limited period for security and troubleshooting. Where a third-party provider holds data, it is retained according to that provider's configurable retention settings.
13. Changes to this Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we make material changes we will post the updated Policy on this page and revise the "Last updated" date at the top. Continuing to use the Site after changes take effect means you accept the updated Policy.
14. Contact us
Questions about this Policy or about our data practices, or want to exercise your rights? Email us at contact@upgel.online. You can also reach us through our contact page.