Privacy Policy

Who we are and who is accountable

CoolShades.net ("CoolShades", "we", "us") is an independent online casino information and review website operated from Canada.

Privacy Officer (person accountable for personal information under PIPEDA, and person in charge of the protection of personal information under Québec Law 25): James Burke, Owner
Privacy contact email: info@coolshades.net

Information we collect

• Information you give us: if/when our contact or newsletter forms are enabled, your name, email address and message when you use them. Those forms will be processed by our form provider, Formspree (Formspree, Inc., United States), which will receive and store the submitted data on our behalf. The forms are not currently active.
• Technical data: our hosting provider (Hostinger) keeps standard server logs (IP address, browser type, pages requested, date and time) for security and operation.
• Approximate location: to comply with Ontario and Alberta rules, when you open a page with casino links your browser sends your IP address to ipapi.co, a third-party geolocation service located outside Canada, which returns your country and region. We do not store your IP address; the resulting country/region code is kept only in your browser's sessionStorage until you close the tab. If the lookup fails, casino links stay disabled.
• Casino link clicks: when you click a casino link, it goes through our own server (/go/), which checks your country and province against a GeoIP database stored on our server (DB-IP "IP to City Lite", used under CC BY 4.0: IP Geolocation by DB-IP). Your IP address is not sent to anyone for this check. We log the date, the casino, your country/province and a shortened IP address (IPv4 /24, IPv6 /48) to show that our regional restrictions work. These logs are deleted automatically after 12 months (see Retention).
• Fonts: our pages load fonts from Google Fonts (Google LLC), so your browser sends your IP address and browser details to Google's servers, which may be located outside Canada.
• Affiliate links: when you click a link to a casino, the operator or affiliate network (e.g., Casino Rewards via iredirect.net) may set cookies to attribute your sign-up to us. Their privacy policies apply.
• Analytics: We do not currently use analytics cookies.

How we use it

To answer your messages, send newsletters you asked for (you can unsubscribe at any time), run and secure the site, comply with law, and receive affiliate commissions.

Sharing and service providers

We do not sell your personal information. We share it only with service providers that help us run the site, or when required by law. Current providers: Hostinger (web hosting, including the /go/ link-check logs), Formspree (contact and newsletter forms, if/when they are enabled), ipapi.co (IP geolocation), Google Fonts (web fonts).

Transfers outside Canada

Some of these providers process data in other countries, including the United States and the European Union. Your information may therefore be subject to the laws of those jurisdictions and accessible to their courts and authorities.

Newsletter and email consent (CASL)

We send newsletters only to people who have given express consent by subscribing. Every email identifies CoolShades, includes our contact information, and contains an unsubscribe link. You can unsubscribe at any time using that link or by emailing info@coolshades.net; we process unsubscribe requests within 10 business days, as Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation requires.

Retention

Contact messages are kept for up to 24 months; server logs according to our host's retention schedule. Casino-link check logs (/go/) are stored in monthly files that record the date, the casino, your country/province and a shortened IP address (IPv4 cut to the first three blocks, IPv6 to the first 48 bits); each monthly file is deleted automatically once it is more than 12 months old.

Your rights

Under Canada's PIPEDA (and Québec's Law 25 where applicable) you may request access to, correction of, or deletion of your personal information, and withdraw consent. Send requests to our Privacy Officer at info@coolshades.net. You may also complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (priv.gc.ca).

Age

This site is intended only for adults of legal gambling age in their province (19+, or 18+ in Manitoba and Québec). We do not knowingly collect information from minors.

Changes

We may update this policy; the date above shows the latest version.