Who we are

Find Wool is a repository of geolocations and contact details for every wool product maker worldwide.

The website address is: https://findwool.com

The contact form is located here: https://findwool.com/contact

The email address is: info@getrawmilk.com

Definitions

Collecting data: Transferring data from your device to Get Raw Milk servers, or anywhere else, counts as a “collection” of data. Collection is any time data, or any information you input into the website, is interacted with or received.

Sharing data: Sending data to a third-party.

The website: This website, the raw milk website: GetRawMilk.com.

Website or mobile app visitors and users: You.

Cookies: Strings of text stored in your browser by websites for later identification and use.

Listing: Database record containing information. On this website, listings are wool product makers.

IP Address: When you request a URL, the website server needs an address to respond with that information. Usually, your IP Address is an unchanging string of numbers determined by your internet provider and dedicated to your home or business address. If you are accessing websites through a virtual private network (VPN), your IP Address is hidden from those websites under normal circumstances.

Data we collect, how, and why we collect it

Introduction

Apart from experience and hunches, I seek to run this project in a data-driven way. Understanding how visitors use a website can hint towards work that needs to be done to improve the website’s performance and experience.

The standard third-party analytics provider is Google Analytics (GA). Google Analytics collects a lot of data that isn’t necessary, and the tooling does not give me the ability to moderate what Google collects and stores. It’s very simple to use, but it’s all or nothing.

Protecting your data as a website provider starts at the baseline of simply not collecting or storing data. If collecting, storing, or sharing data is useful and aligned with the project, I should do so with purpose and care. Some data is required for website functionality, like searching the map, while other data is useful for analyzing website traffic and usage.

How we protect your data

The primary method of tracking website usage is Plausible Analytics.

Plausible: GDPR, CCPA and cookie law compliant site analytics 

Even though the purpose of Plausible Analytics is to track the usage of a website, this can still be done without collecting any personal data or personally identifiable information (PII), without using cookies and while respecting the privacy of the website visitors.

Here’s a closer look at our data policy, the information that we do collect, what we use it for and steps we’ve taken to comply with the cookie law and the privacy regulations such as the GDPR, CCPA and PECR.

To collect website usage data, Plausible Analytics needs to assign an identifier that follows the visitor and tracks which actions they are taking. With non privacy respecting analytics, your IP address is logged as-is and assigned to your flow of interactions, page views, etc.

With Plausible Analytics, your IP address is immediately turned into a “hash” with a daily rotating “salt.” A hash is your IP Address, or any other string of text, jumbled into a much longer string of encrypted text. A salt is a second key created to encrypt that text. A daily rotating salt means that day by day, the second key to your encrypted IP Address is destroyed.

This encryption method makes it unrealistically expensive to reverse engineer the identifier assigned to your website interactions the next day. Connecting your interactions with your IP Address a day later becomes virtually impossible. This architecture is just one way that Plausible protects your privacy.

What data is Plausible Analytics tracking?

Plausible Analytics tracks the amount of unique visitors and total visits per day, page views, visitor locations (broad, limited to the country, state, and city levels), visit durations, and other website usage metrics. You can read more about Plausible Analytics on their website.

Conversion Event Tracking

One custom feature I’ve employed with Plausible Analytics is event tracking. On any listing’s details page, you’ll see the information that’s been submitted to the map.

When you press on details such as their website, email address, phone number, and social media accounts you expect the website to route you to their website, start an email thread, call their phone number, or visit their social media account. This action tells me that you have found a farm, and that you are interested in learning more about them. This is my success. This is the most important metric.

One million people could visit the website in one day and that day could matter very little in the greater scheme of things. Most likely, that’s a good day for raw milk, but I’m not concerned with getting a lot of attention. The objective here is to connect farmers and consumers.

If you are checking out a farm or retailer’s Instagram account, because you found them on FindWool.com – my job was a success. Conversion tracking helps me put numbers to that success and feel real good about it.

Website Functionality

Here’s how data is collected to create the functionality of GetRawMilk.com.

New Listing Form

The form to add a wool product maker listing to the map collects all information placed into the form and sends it to Find Wool. So long as I can verify or reasonably assume that the listing is a legit wool product maker, that information is then stored in the Listing database.

When you submit a new listing on FindWool, you are granting Find Wool the right to keep and use that information. You submit this information so that I can make it available to the public freely. My commitment to our community is simple: finding raw milk and listing raw milk will always be free and available to anyone with an internet connection.

Update Listing Form

Repeat what was stated about the New Listing Form. By using the form, that information is collected and will likely be stored. You waive the rights to this information and are granting Find Wool the right to keep and use that information.

Contact Form

When you use the contact form, all information placed in the contact form is collected and sent to Find Wool servers then emailed to Find Wool admin for reading. You waive the rights to this information and grant me the right to share this information. If you need anonymity or confidence, just ask.

Cookies

I love cookies, but this website uses none.

Payment Processing with the Tip Jar

You might notice there aren’t any ads on this website, yet websites cost money. In fact, this website costs a bit more than your average website. Instead of inserting a bunch of ads onto the website and worsening the experience, I cover the website costs and provide a method for website visitors to leave a tip.

Payments are handled securely using Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Square. Apple, Google, and Square might be tracking you on the Tip Jar page.

My general understanding is that this tracking is used to approximate your location and prevent your payment method from being used in geographic locations that you are unlikely to be located in at the time. Imagine you live in San Diego, aren’t currently traveling, and someone uses your credit card in India to tip me millions of dollars through the website. Theoretically, these protections should deprive me of your millions. Theoretically, this is a good thing.

As far as I know… Apple does not sell your data to advertisers, while Google and Square definitely do. For a full explanation of what any of these companies are doing with your data, please visit their respective websites and policies.

Embedded content from other websites

This is similar to the payment processing. Embedding a credit card form is the same as embedding a YouTube video, and the embedded website can try their best to track what they can.

Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.

These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

Who we share your data with

As of April 2023, Find Wool website usage data has been shared with nobody. I’m not interested in sharing your data with advertisers or data brokers. If I stumble upon a good reason to share this data, the privacy policy page will be updated.

How long we retain your data

All data stored should be assumed to be retained indefinitely.

What rights you have over your data

I have no way to determine that any piece of data is yours. Therefore, I cannot provide you a copy or delete your data.

Contact information

Use the contact form or email info@getrawmilk.com.

Additional information

Find Wool is not affiliated with any particular wool maker or wool product enterprise unless otherwise stated with context.

I reserve the right to update this policy without notice.

Anyways, support the Electronic Frontier Foundation‘s work to promote data privacy legislation.