What this page covers
A plain-language explanation of what data Totally Hawaii collects, why, and what you can do about it. This isn't a substitute for reading the full legal text if you need it for a specific purpose, but it should give you an honest, readable answer to "what happens with my data here."
Analytics
We use Google Analytics (GA4) to understand which pages get read, roughly how visitors find the site, and which guides need improving. This collects standard web analytics data — pages visited, approximate location (city/region level, not precise), device type, and referring site — but not your name, email, or anything that directly identifies you as an individual, unless you've separately given it to us (for example, by emailing us).
What we don't do
- We don't sell or share visitor data with third parties for advertising purposes.
- We don't run third-party advertising networks or display ads on this site.
- We don't track you across other websites — our only tracking is the first-party analytics described above, plus the standard link-level tracking used by our two partner programs, described next.
No paid or affiliate links
This site does not currently carry any paid links, affiliate links, or referral links. See our editorial transparency page for more detail.
Cookies
Google Analytics sets a small number of first-party cookies to distinguish visitors and sessions. We don't set any other tracking cookies ourselves. Your browser's standard cookie controls (blocking third-party cookies, using private/incognito browsing, or a browser extension) will limit or stop first-party tracking on this site if you'd prefer not to be counted.
Contact form and email
If you email us directly — via our contact page — we keep that correspondence to respond to you and, where relevant, to improve the site (for example, applying a correction you flagged). We don't add your email to a marketing list without your explicit, separate opt-in.
External links
Pages on this site link to external sources (National Park Service, USGS, Hawaiʻi Beach Safety, and similar). Once you click through, you're subject to that site's own privacy practices, not ours — we don't control or receive data from those external sites.
Changes to this policy
If our data practices change in a way that meaningfully affects visitors, we'll update this page and note the change in our News & journal.