Privacy Policy

Last updated August 1, 2026

Effective date: August 1, 2026

The plain-talk version

CountryBucket is free to read because it shows ads. To run the site, keep it secure, and measure what people enjoy, we and our service providers collect some technical information about your visit, mostly through cookies. We don’t ask you to create an account, and we don’t sell your personal information for money. If you email us, we use your message to answer you. Visitors in Europe see a consent banner and can say no to advertising and analytics cookies. Visitors in U.S. states with privacy laws can opt out of targeted advertising. The rest of this page spells out the details.

1. Who we are

CountryBucket.com (“CountryBucket,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) is published by Country Bucket, LLC, 36337 E. Antelope Lane, Wellton, AZ 85356, United States. For visitors in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland, Country Bucket, LLC is the data controller for the processing described in this policy.

Privacy questions and requests: legal@countrybucket.com

2. Information we collect

Information you give us. If you email us, message us on Facebook, or contact us by mail, we receive whatever you send, along with your contact details. We use it to respond and to keep a record of the correspondence.

Information collected automatically. When you visit the site, our hosting and security provider and our analytics and advertising partners collect technical information such as your IP address, browser type, device type, operating system, language, referring page, the pages you view, and the dates and times of your visits.

Cookies and similar technologies. We and our partners use cookies, pixels, and local storage. The full list of categories, and how to control them, is in our Cookie Policy.

We do not knowingly collect sensitive categories of personal information, and we do not ask you to create an account or provide payment information.

3. How we use information

We use the information described above to:

operate, maintain, and secure the site;
display advertising, which funds the site;
measure readership and understand which stories people enjoy;
respond to messages and requests;
comply with legal obligations and enforce our Terms of Service.

We do not use your personal information to make automated decisions that produce legal effects or similarly significant effects about you.

4. Advertising (Google AdSense)

CountryBucket displays ads served by Google AdSense. Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this website and to other websites. Google’s use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visits to this site and other sites on the internet.

You may opt out of personalized advertising from Google by visiting Google Ads Settings. You may opt out of personalized advertising from many other third-party vendors at www.aboutads.info/choices and, in Europe, at www.youronlinechoices.eu.

Information about how Google uses data when you visit partner sites like ours is available at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.

Visitors in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland are shown a consent message before any advertising cookies are set. If you decline, Google serves non-personalized ads, which rely on contextual information rather than your browsing history.

5. Analytics

We use Google Analytics to understand readership in aggregate, such as which pages are popular and how visitors find the site. Google Analytics uses cookies and collects the technical information described in Section 2. You can prevent Google Analytics from using your information by installing the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on or by declining analytics cookies in the consent tool where it is shown.

6. Embedded content and social features

Our stories frequently include videos embedded from YouTube and Vimeo, and our images carry Pinterest save buttons. When you play an embedded video or interact with a social feature, the platform that provides it may set cookies and collect information about you under its own privacy policy:

We do not control those platforms’ processing.

7. Hosting and security

The site is hosted and delivered through Cloudflare, which processes visitor IP addresses and connection data to deliver pages, cache content, and protect the site from attacks and abusive traffic. Cloudflare’s practices are described in the Cloudflare Privacy Policy.

8. Legal bases (EEA, UK, and Switzerland)

Where the GDPR or UK GDPR applies, we process personal data on the following bases:

Consent for advertising cookies, analytics cookies, and embedded-content cookies. You can withdraw consent at any time through the privacy settings link in the site footer or as described in the Cookie Policy. Withdrawing consent does not affect processing that happened before you withdrew it.
Legitimate interests for operating and securing the site, preventing fraud and abuse, measuring readership at a basic level, and responding to your messages. Our legitimate interest is running a free, ad-supported publication safely.
Legal obligation where we must retain or disclose information to comply with law.

9. How information is shared

We share information only with:

Service providers and advertising partners named in this policy (Google, Cloudflare, and the platforms whose content we embed), each processing data to provide its service;
Authorities and other parties where required by law, such as in response to a lawful subpoena or to protect our rights, our readers, or the public;
A successor entity if the publication is sold or reorganized, in which case this policy continues to apply to previously collected information.

We do not sell your personal information in exchange for money. Some U.S. state laws define the use of advertising cookies as a “sale” or “sharing” of personal information; Section 12 explains how to opt out.

10. International transfers

We are based in the United States, and information is processed in the United States. Where personal data of EEA, UK, or Swiss visitors is transferred to the United States, our providers rely on recognized safeguards, including certification under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework and its UK and Swiss extensions, or Standard Contractual Clauses approved by the European Commission. Google and Cloudflare each maintain such safeguards.

11. Retention

Server and security logs are kept for a short period consistent with our providers’ standard settings. Analytics data is retained under Google Analytics retention settings and then deleted or aggregated. Email correspondence is kept as long as needed to handle the matter and maintain a record of it. We delete or anonymize information when it is no longer needed.

12. Your privacy rights

Everyone. You may contact us at legal@countrybucket.com with any privacy question or request. We may need to verify your identity before acting on a request, and we will respond within the time required by applicable law.

EEA, UK, and Switzerland. You have the right to request access to your personal data, correction, erasure, restriction of processing, and a portable copy; the right to object to processing based on legitimate interests; and the right to withdraw consent at any time. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local supervisory authority. A list of EEA authorities is available at edpb.europa.eu; the UK authority is the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk.

California and other U.S. states with privacy laws (including Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, Texas, and Oregon). Depending on your state, you have the right to know what personal information we collect, to access it, to correct it, to delete it, to obtain a portable copy, and to opt out of targeted advertising and of the “sale” or “sharing” of personal information as those terms are defined in your state’s law. We do not discriminate against you for exercising any right. To opt out, see Your Privacy Choices. We honor the Global Privacy Control browser signal as an opt-out of sale, sharing, and targeted advertising. If we decline a request, you may appeal by replying to our response, and we will have your request re-reviewed.

13. Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control

We honor the Global Privacy Control (GPC) signal as described above. There is no accepted standard for legacy “Do Not Track” browser signals, and the site does not respond to them.

14. Children

CountryBucket is a general-audience publication written for adults. It is not directed to children, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 (or under 16 where that is the applicable age). If you believe a child has provided us personal information, contact legal@countrybucket.com and we will delete it.

15. Changes to this policy

When we change this policy, we will update the effective date at the top of this page. If a change is material, we will post a notice on the site.

16. Contact

Country Bucket, LLC 36337 E. Antelope Lane Wellton, AZ 85356, USA legal@countrybucket.com