Effective Date

July 14, 2026

Last Updated

July 14, 2026

The Gourmet Geek respects your privacy and is committed to protecting the personal information you share with us.

This Privacy Policy explains how The Gourmet Geek, operated by Windward Vistas (“The Gourmet Geek,” “Windward Vistas,” “we,” “us,” or “our”), collects, uses, stores, and shares information when you visit https://www.thegourmetgeek.com, purchase a product, subscribe to an email list, submit a form, interact with our content, or otherwise use our website and services.

By using this website, you acknowledge the practices described in this Privacy Policy.

1. Who We Are

The Gourmet Geek publishes recipes, cooking information, digital cookbooks, meal-planning resources, educational content, product recommendations, and related food and lifestyle content.

Website: https://www.thegourmetgeek.com Business Name: Windward Vistas Mailing Address: 369 Westpark Road, Lehigh Acres, Florida 33936 Privacy Contact Email: support@thegourmetgeek.com

2. Information We Collect

The information we collect depends on how you interact with the website.

Information You Provide

You may voluntarily provide information such as:

• Your name
• Email address
• Billing address
• Mailing address
• Telephone number
• Account username and password
• Order and purchase information
• Comments, reviews, questions, or messages
• Newsletter and marketing preferences
• Information submitted through contact forms, surveys, contests, or promotions
• Any other information you choose to provide

Payment Information

When you purchase a product, payment information is processed by our third-party payment processors.

The Gourmet Geek generally does not receive or store your complete credit or debit card number. Payment processors may collect your payment-card details, billing information, transaction information, and other information necessary to complete the transaction and prevent fraud.

Information Collected Automatically

When you visit the website, certain information may be collected automatically, including:

• Internet Protocol address
• Browser type and version
• Device type and operating system
• Referring website
• Pages viewed
• Links clicked
• Date and time of visits
• Approximate geographic location
• Shopping-cart activity
• Interaction with emails or advertisements
• Cookie identifiers and similar technical information

This information may be collected through cookies, pixels, server logs, analytics tools, and similar technologies.

3. How We Use Information

We may use personal information to:

• Operate, maintain, and improve the website
• Process and deliver orders
• Provide access to digital cookbooks, recipes, downloads, memberships, or other purchased content
• Create and manage customer accounts
• Send order confirmations, receipts, download links, and service notices
• Respond to questions and customer-service requests
• Send newsletters, recipes, promotions, and marketing communications when permitted
• Personalize content and product recommendations
• Analyze website traffic and user behavior
• Measure the effectiveness of advertising and marketing campaigns
• Prevent fraud, abuse, security incidents, and unauthorized transactions
• Maintain business and tax records
• Enforce our terms, policies, and agreements
• Comply with legal obligations
• Protect the rights, safety, and property of The Gourmet Geek, Windward Vistas, our customers, and others

4. Legal Bases for Processing

Where applicable, including for visitors in the European Economic Area or United Kingdom, we process personal information under one or more of the following legal bases.

Contract

We may process information when it is necessary to fulfill an order, provide a purchased product, manage an account, or otherwise perform a contract with you.

Consent

We may rely on your consent for activities such as sending certain marketing communications or placing nonessential cookies. You may withdraw your consent at any time.

Legitimate Interests

We may process information when reasonably necessary to operate and improve our business, understand how the website is used, prevent fraud, protect our systems, and communicate with customers, provided those interests do not override your privacy rights.

Legal Obligations

We may process information when required to comply with tax, accounting, consumer-protection, law-enforcement, or other legal requirements.

5. Orders and WooCommerce

Our online store may use WooCommerce and related WordPress technologies.

When you place an order, we may collect and retain information including your name, email address, billing address, shipping address, telephone number, purchased products, order amount, payment status, and transaction history.

We use this information to:

• Process payments and orders
• Deliver digital or physical products
• Send transactional communications
• Provide refunds and customer support
• Prevent fraudulent transactions
• Maintain legally required accounting and tax records

WooCommerce, WordPress plugins, hosting providers, payment providers, and other service providers may process information as necessary to provide these functions.

6. Email Marketing

You may choose to subscribe to receive recipes, newsletters, announcements, promotional offers, cookbook updates, and other communications.

We may use an email-service provider, such as MailerLite or another provider, to store subscriber information and deliver emails.

Email-service providers may collect information such as:

• Your email address and name
• Subscription date and source
• Emails delivered, opened, or clicked
• Device and browser information
• Approximate location based on your Internet Protocol address
• Unsubscribe and preference information

You can unsubscribe from marketing emails at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link included in the email.

Unsubscribing from marketing emails will not prevent us from sending transactional messages related to your purchases, account, downloads, or customer-service requests.

7. Cookies and Similar Technologies

Cookies are small files placed on your device that help websites function, remember preferences, analyze usage, and support advertising.

We may use the following categories of cookies.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

These cookies are required for functions such as shopping carts, checkout, account login, website security, fraud prevention, and remembering privacy choices.

Functional Cookies

These cookies remember preferences and help provide enhanced website features.

Analytics Cookies

These cookies help us understand how visitors find and use the website, which pages are popular, and how the website can be improved.

Advertising and Marketing Cookies

These cookies may be used to measure advertising results, limit repeated advertisements, create audiences, or show advertising based on interests or website activity.

Where required by law, we will request consent before placing nonessential cookies.

You can manage cookies through our cookie-consent tool, where available, or through your browser settings. Blocking some cookies may affect the operation of the website.

8. Analytics

We may use analytics services such as Google Analytics or similar tools to understand website traffic and usage.

Analytics providers may collect information about your device, browser, approximate location, referral source, pages viewed, actions taken, and time spent on the website.

This information may be aggregated or associated with cookies and other identifiers.

You may be able to limit analytics tracking through our cookie settings, your browser settings, or opt-out tools provided by the applicable analytics provider.

9. Advertising

We may work with advertising platforms, social-media platforms, and marketing providers to:

• Promote The Gourmet Geek and its products
• Measure advertising performance
• Understand whether advertisements result in visits or purchases
• Create custom or similar audiences
• Display advertisements that may be relevant to visitors

These providers may use cookies, pixels, device identifiers, and similar technologies to collect information about interactions with our website and advertisements.

Depending on the technology used and the laws applicable to you, some advertising-related disclosures may be considered “sharing,” “targeted advertising,” or a “sale” of personal information even when no money is exchanged for the information.

Where required, you may opt out through our cookie-preference tool or a “Your Privacy Choices” or similar link on the website.

10. Affiliate Links

Some pages may contain affiliate links.

When you click an affiliate link, the affiliate network or merchant may use cookies or similar technologies to recognize that you were referred by The Gourmet Geek. If you make a qualifying purchase, we may receive a commission at no additional cost to you.

Affiliate merchants and networks process information according to their own privacy policies. The Gourmet Geek does not control their privacy practices.

11. Comments, Reviews, and Public Content

When you leave a comment, recipe review, rating, testimonial, or other public submission, the information you provide may be visible to other visitors.

This may include your display name, profile image, rating, comment, or other information you choose to publish.

Please do not include sensitive or confidential personal information in public comments or reviews.

We may use spam-detection and moderation services to review submitted content.

12. Information Sharing

We may share personal information with service providers that help us operate the website and business, including:

• Website hosting providers
• WordPress and WooCommerce service providers
• Payment processors
• Email-marketing providers
• Cloud-storage and database providers
• Analytics companies
• Advertising and social-media platforms
• Customer-support providers
• Fraud-prevention and security services
• Accountants, attorneys, insurers, and professional advisers
• Shipping or fulfillment providers, when physical products are offered

These providers may access information only as reasonably necessary to perform services on our behalf, subject to their agreements and privacy practices.

We may also disclose information:

• When required by law, court order, subpoena, or legal process
• To investigate fraud, abuse, security threats, or violations of our policies
• To protect our rights, users, property, or safety
• In connection with a merger, acquisition, financing, reorganization, bankruptcy, or sale of all or part of the business
• With your direction or consent

13. Selling or Sharing Personal Information

The Gourmet Geek and Windward Vistas do not sell personal information for money.

However, the use of certain analytics, affiliate, advertising, or social-media technologies may be legally defined in some jurisdictions as the “sale,” “sharing,” or use of personal information for targeted advertising.

Where applicable, you may opt out of these activities by using the website’s cookie-preference tool or privacy-request link.

We do not knowingly sell or share the personal information of individuals under 16 years of age.

14. Data Retention

We retain information for as long as reasonably necessary to:

• Provide products and services
• Maintain customer and transaction records
• Meet accounting, tax, and legal obligations
• Resolve disputes
• Prevent fraud and abuse
• Enforce agreements
• Maintain website security

Retention periods vary according to the type of information and the reason it was collected.

For example, order and payment records may be retained for the period required by tax and accounting laws. Marketing information may be retained until you unsubscribe or request deletion, subject to records needed to document that request.

15. Data Security

We use reasonable administrative, technical, and organizational safeguards designed to protect personal information.

These may include secure connections, access controls, software updates, backups, security monitoring, payment-tokenization systems, and limitations on access to personal information.

No website, database, or transmission method is completely secure. We therefore cannot guarantee absolute security.

16. Your Privacy Rights

Depending on where you live, you may have rights concerning your personal information, including the right to:

• Request access to personal information we hold about you
• Request correction of inaccurate information
• Request deletion of certain personal information
• Request a portable copy of certain information
• Restrict or object to certain processing
• Withdraw consent
• Opt out of marketing communications
• Opt out of targeted advertising
• Opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information
• Appeal a decision concerning a privacy request
• Receive equal service and pricing without unlawful discrimination for exercising privacy rights

These rights may be subject to exceptions and verification requirements.

To submit a privacy request, contact us at:

Email: support@thegourmetgeek.com

Please include enough information for us to understand and verify your request. We may request additional information to confirm your identity.

You may use an authorized agent where permitted by law. We may require proof that the agent is authorized to act on your behalf.

17. California Privacy Rights

California residents may have rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act.

Subject to applicability, limitations, and exceptions, these may include the right to:

• Know the categories and specific pieces of personal information collected
• Know the sources and purposes of collection
• Know the categories of third parties receiving information
• Request deletion
• Request correction
• Receive a portable copy of certain information
• Opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information
• Limit certain uses of sensitive personal information
• Be free from unlawful discrimination for exercising privacy rights

The categories of personal information we may collect include:

• Identifiers
• Customer-record information
• Commercial and transaction information
• Internet or electronic-network activity
• Approximate geolocation information
• Inferences regarding interests or preferences
• Communications and user-submitted content

We collect these categories for the business and commercial purposes described in this Privacy Policy.

We may disclose these categories to service providers, contractors, analytics providers, advertising providers, payment processors, and other parties described in this policy.

18. Other U.S. State Privacy Rights

Residents of certain other U.S. states may have similar rights, including rights to access, correct, delete, or obtain a copy of personal information and to opt out of targeted advertising, certain profiling, or the sale of personal information.

To exercise an applicable right, contact us at support@thegourmetgeek.com.

Where applicable, instructions for appealing a decision will be included in our response.

19. European Economic Area and United Kingdom Rights

Individuals located in the European Economic Area or United Kingdom may have rights under applicable data-protection law, including the right to:

• Access personal information
• Correct inaccurate or incomplete information
• Request erasure
• Restrict processing
• Object to processing
• Receive certain information in a portable format
• Withdraw consent
• Lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority

Personal information may be transferred to and processed in the United States or other countries whose data-protection laws may differ from those in your country.

Where legally required, appropriate safeguards will be used for international transfers.

20. Children’s Privacy

The website and its products are intended for a general audience and are not directed to children under 13 years of age.

We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has provided personal information to us, please contact us at support@thegourmetgeek.com so that we can investigate and delete it where appropriate.

21. External Websites and Embedded Content

The website may link to third-party websites or contain embedded content such as videos, social-media posts, forms, or advertisements.

Embedded content may operate as though you visited the third party’s website directly. Third parties may collect information, use cookies, track interactions, or associate your activity with an account you maintain with them.

We are not responsible for the privacy, content, or security practices of third-party websites and services. Please review their policies before providing information.

22. Do Not Track Signals

Some browsers provide a “Do Not Track” setting.

Because there is not a universally accepted standard for responding to all Do Not Track signals, our website may not respond to them in every circumstance.

Where required by applicable law, we may recognize legally supported opt-out preference signals, such as the Global Privacy Control.

23. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy periodically to reflect changes in our website, business practices, service providers, technologies, or legal obligations.

The revised policy will be posted on this page with an updated “Last Updated” date.

Material changes may also be communicated through the website, email, or another appropriate method.

24. Contact Us

Questions, concerns, and privacy requests may be directed to:

The Gourmet Geek Operated by Windward Vistas 369 Westpark Road Lehigh Acres, Florida 33936 Email: support@thegourmetgeek.com Website: https://www.thegourmetgeek.com