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Privacy Policy

This policy explains what Decaf ("we", "us") does with information when you visit decaf.top. It covers the site itself, the advertising that appears on it, and the choices available to you. It applies to every page under decaf.top, in both the English and the Chinese version.

Information we collect

We do not ask you to create an account, and we do not collect names, postal addresses or payment details. The site is a set of reference pages; there is no login, no comment form and no newsletter.

Like most web servers, ours records standard request data: the page requested, the time of the request, the referring page, an approximate location derived from your IP address, and your browser and operating system type. This is used in aggregate, to see which entries are being read and to detect abuse. It is not used to build a profile of you as an individual.

Cookies and similar technologies

Cookies are small text files placed on your device by the sites you visit. We use them, and we allow selected third parties to use them, for three purposes: keeping the site working correctly, measuring aggregate traffic, and serving the advertising that pays for the site.

You can block or delete cookies at any time through your browser settings. Blocking them will not stop you reading the glossary — every definition on Decaf works without cookies — though advertising may become less relevant to you.

Advertising and Google AdSense

Advertising on Decaf is served by Google AdSense and by other third-party advertising vendors. Those vendors are independent companies, not part of Decaf, and each has its own privacy policy.

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 Decaf and/or other sites on the internet.

Google uses the DoubleClick DART cookie and similar advertising identifiers for that purpose. These cookies do not contain your name, email address, postal address or telephone number, but they do allow a browser to be recognised across visits and across websites.

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not hand your email address or any directly identifying detail to advertisers.

Opting out of personalised advertising

You are not required to accept personalised advertising, and you can turn it off in several ways:

None of these choices costs anything, and none of them limits your access to any part of Decaf.

Your rights under the GDPR

If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, you have the right to be informed about how your personal data is used, to access it, to have inaccurate data corrected, to have it erased, to restrict or object to its processing, and to receive data you provided in a portable format. Where we rely on consent, for example for advertising cookies, you may withdraw that consent at any time.

To exercise any of these rights, email [email protected]. We will respond within one month. We may need to ask for enough information to verify the request, and we will not charge a fee for a reasonable one. If you believe your data has been handled unlawfully, you have the right to complain to your national data protection authority.

Your rights under the CCPA

If you are a California resident, you have the right to know what categories of personal information are collected and for what purpose, to request deletion of personal information we hold, to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information, and not to be discriminated against for exercising those rights.

Decaf does not sell personal information in the everyday sense of the word. However, under the CCPA as amended by the CPRA, using third-party advertising cookies to build interest-based ad profiles can count as "sharing" for cross-context behavioural advertising. You can opt out through the cookie controls in the section above, or by emailing [email protected] with the subject line "Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information". We will honour the request for the browser and device you write from.

Consent and legal basis

Where the law requires it, we ask for your consent before non-essential cookies are set, and you can change or withdraw that choice at any time. Where consent is not the applicable basis, we process the limited technical data described above because we have a legitimate interest in keeping the site available, secure and reasonably understood.

Data retention and security

Raw server logs are kept for a short period for security and troubleshooting, then discarded or aggregated. We do not build or keep user profiles ourselves. Data held by Google and other advertising vendors is retained under their own policies, which we do not control. The site is served over HTTPS, and access to any data we do hold is limited to the people who need it to run the site.

Third-party links

Entries sometimes link to producers, standards bodies or other reference sites. Once you follow such a link you are on someone else's website, and their privacy policy, not this one, governs what happens next.

Children

Decaf is a general-reference site about coffee and tea. It is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13, or under 16 where that is the applicable age of digital consent.

Changes to this policy

This policy may be updated at any time. When we make a material change — for example, adding a new advertising partner or a newsletter — we will revise this page and update the date below. Continuing to use the site after a change means you accept the revised policy, so please check back occasionally. Questions about this policy can be sent to [email protected].

Last updated: 15 September 2026.