This Privacy Policy explains how SootDive collects, uses, shares, and protects your personal information when you visit our website or use our sustainable irrigation tools and resources.
Last Updated: January 15, 2026
SootDive ("we," "our," or "us") is committed to protecting your personal data and respecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy describes our practices regarding the collection, use, storage, and disclosure of information that we receive when you visit our website at sootdive.com, use our interactive irrigation planner tool, download our free resources, subscribe to our newsletter, or otherwise interact with our services.
SootDive is operated by SootDive LLC, a company registered in the State of New York with its principal office located at 350 Fifth Avenue, Suite 4820, New York, NY 10118. For the purposes of applicable data protection legislation, including the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), SootDive LLC acts as the data controller responsible for processing your personal data through this website.
By accessing or using our website, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with our data practices described here, please discontinue use of our website and services. We encourage you to review this policy periodically, as we may update it from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or legal requirements.
We collect different categories of information depending on how you interact with our website. The types of personal data we may collect include:
We do not collect any special categories of personal data (also known as sensitive data), such as data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious beliefs, trade union membership, genetic data, biometric data, health data, or data concerning sexual orientation.
We collect personal data through the following methods and channels:
Website forms: When you fill out our contact form, newsletter signup form, or resource download form, the information you enter is transmitted securely to our servers over an encrypted HTTPS connection. Each form collects only the data fields necessary for its specific purpose.
Cookies and tracking technologies: We use first-party cookies and third-party analytics services to gather usage data automatically as you browse our website. Our cookie consent banner allows you to accept or reject non-essential cookies before they are placed on your device. Essential cookies that are strictly necessary for the website to function do not require your consent.
Analytics tools: We use Google Analytics to understand aggregate traffic patterns, popular content, and user flow through our site. Google Analytics collects data through cookies and JavaScript tags embedded in our pages. This data is anonymized and aggregated before we access it. We have configured Google Analytics to anonymize IP addresses before storage and processing. We do not use Google Analytics to identify individual users.
Server logs: Our web hosting infrastructure automatically records basic access logs including your IP address, request time, requested URL, HTTP status code, and referring URL. These logs are used for security monitoring, error diagnosis, and performance optimization. Server logs are retained for 90 days and then permanently deleted.
Email service provider: When you subscribe to our newsletter, your email address and name are transmitted to our email service provider for the purpose of delivering our monthly newsletter. The email service provider may collect open rates and click-through data to help us understand which content is most useful to our subscribers.
Under the General Data Protection Regulation, we process your personal data based on the following lawful grounds:
Consent (Article 6(1)(a))
We rely on your freely given, specific, informed, and unambiguous consent for: sending you our newsletter and seasonal irrigation tips; placing non-essential analytics and marketing cookies on your device; and processing your email address when you download free resources. You may withdraw consent at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link in any email, adjusting your cookie preferences, or contacting us directly.
Legitimate Interest (Article 6(1)(f))
We rely on legitimate interest for: analyzing aggregated, anonymized website usage data to improve our content and user experience; maintaining server security and preventing abuse; and responding to your inquiries submitted through our contact form. We have assessed that these processing activities do not override your fundamental rights and freedoms.
Legal Obligation (Article 6(1)(c))
In certain circumstances, we may be required to process or retain your data to comply with applicable laws, regulations, or legal processes, such as responding to lawful requests from public authorities or retaining records for tax and accounting purposes.
We use the personal data we collect for the following specific purposes:
Service delivery and communication: To respond to your questions and inquiries submitted through our contact form; to deliver the newsletter you subscribed to, including monthly irrigation tips, new guide announcements, and seasonal water management advice; and to provide access to free downloadable resources such as our water usage calendar.
Website improvement and analytics: To understand which irrigation guides and tools are most popular and useful, allowing us to create better content and improve existing resources; to analyze navigation patterns and identify usability issues; to test new features and content layouts; and to monitor website performance and loading speeds across different devices and browsers.
Security and fraud prevention: To protect our website and infrastructure from unauthorized access, abuse, and malicious activity; to detect and prevent spam submissions through our forms; and to maintain the integrity and availability of our services for all users.
Legal compliance: To comply with applicable laws, regulations, and legal processes; to enforce our Terms of Service; and to protect the rights, property, and safety of SootDive, our users, and the public.
We do not use your personal data for automated decision-making or profiling that produces legal effects or similarly significant effects concerning you. We do not sell your personal data to third parties for their marketing purposes. We do not use your email address for marketing unless you have explicitly opted in through our newsletter subscription form.
We retain your personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected, or as required by applicable law. Below are our specific retention periods for different categories of data:
| Data Category | Retention Period |
|---|---|
| Contact form submissions (name, email, message) | 2 years from date of submission |
| Newsletter subscriber data (name, email) | Until you unsubscribe, plus 30 days for processing |
| Download form data (email) | 18 months from date of download |
| Analytics cookies | 13 months from date of placement |
| Essential cookies | Duration of browsing session or up to 12 months |
| Server access logs (IP, URL, timestamp) | 90 days |
| Irrigation planner tool inputs | Not retained (processed in your browser only) |
When the retention period for a specific data category expires, we securely delete or anonymize the data so that it can no longer be associated with you. If deletion is not immediately possible due to backup systems, we isolate the data from further processing until deletion can be completed.
We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal data to third parties for their own marketing or commercial purposes. We share your data only with the following categories of service providers who assist us in operating our website and delivering our services, and only to the extent necessary for those purposes:
Hosting provider: Our website is hosted on secure servers provided by our hosting partner. They process server requests, including your IP address and page requests, as part of delivering web pages to your browser. Our hosting provider is contractually obligated to protect data in accordance with applicable data protection laws.
Email service provider: When you subscribe to our newsletter, your name and email address are shared with our email delivery service provider for the sole purpose of sending you the newsletter content you requested. This provider is contractually bound by a data processing agreement that restricts them from using your data for any other purpose.
Analytics provider: We use Google Analytics, operated by Google LLC, to collect and analyze anonymized website usage data. Google processes this data on our behalf under a data processing agreement. Google's privacy policy governs their handling of analytics data. We have enabled IP anonymization so that your full IP address is not stored by Google Analytics.
Legal authorities: We may disclose your personal data if required to do so by law, such as in response to a valid subpoena, court order, or government investigation. We will only disclose the minimum amount of data necessary to comply with the legal obligation.
All third-party service providers we work with are required to implement appropriate technical and organizational security measures and are prohibited from using your personal data for purposes other than those we have specified. We regularly review our service providers to ensure continued compliance with our data protection standards.
SootDive is based in the United States. If you are visiting our website from outside the United States, please be aware that your data will be transferred to, stored, and processed in the United States where our servers and service providers are located.
For visitors from the European Economic Area (EEA), United Kingdom, or Switzerland, we ensure that any transfer of personal data outside these regions is protected by appropriate safeguards as required by the GDPR. Specifically, we rely on the following transfer mechanisms:
Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs): We have entered into Standard Contractual Clauses approved by the European Commission with our service providers that process personal data outside the EEA. These clauses impose contractual obligations on the data recipient to protect your data to EU standards.
Adequacy decisions: Where applicable, we transfer data to countries that the European Commission has determined provide an adequate level of data protection, including transfers covered by the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework for certified organizations.
You may request a copy of the safeguards we have in place for international data transfers by contacting us at the email address provided in Section 13 of this policy.
If you reside in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or another jurisdiction with applicable data protection legislation, you have the following rights regarding your personal data. We are committed to respecting and facilitating these rights:
You have the right to request a copy of the personal data we hold about you, along with information about how we process it.
You have the right to request correction of inaccurate personal data or completion of incomplete data we hold about you.
You have the right to request deletion of your personal data when it is no longer necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, or when you withdraw consent.
You have the right to request that we restrict the processing of your personal data under certain circumstances, such as while we verify the accuracy of contested data.
You have the right to receive your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format and to transmit it to another controller.
You have the right to object to processing based on legitimate interest or for direct marketing purposes. We will cease processing unless we demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds.
Where processing is based on consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. Withdrawal does not affect the lawfulness of processing that occurred before the withdrawal. You can withdraw newsletter consent by clicking "Unsubscribe" in any email, and withdraw cookie consent by clearing your browser cookies and reloading our site.
How to exercise your rights: You can submit a request to exercise any of these rights by emailing us at [email protected]. Please include your full name and the email address associated with your interaction with our site so we can locate your records. We will respond to your request within 30 days of receipt. If your request is complex or we receive a large number of requests, we may extend this period by an additional 60 days, in which case we will inform you of the extension and the reasons for it within the initial 30-day period.
Right to lodge a complaint: If you believe that our processing of your personal data infringes your rights under applicable data protection law, you have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. For individuals in the EEA, you may contact the supervisory authority in the EU Member State where you reside, work, or where the alleged infringement occurred. A list of EU data protection authorities is available on the European Data Protection Board website.
Our website and services are designed for adults who are involved in farming, agriculture, gardening, and land management. SootDive is not directed at children under the age of 16, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from individuals under 16 years of age.
If we become aware that we have inadvertently collected personal data from a child under 16, we will take prompt steps to delete that data from our records. If you are a parent or guardian and believe that your child has provided personal data to us, please contact us at [email protected] so we can take appropriate action.
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technology, legal requirements, or other factors. When we make material changes to this policy, we will take the following steps to notify you:
We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we protect your data. Your continued use of our website and services after any changes to this policy constitutes your acceptance of the updated terms. If you disagree with any changes, please stop using our website and contact us to request deletion of your personal data.
If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or our data processing practices, please contact us using the following details:
Privacy Contact / Data Protection Officer
SootDive Privacy Team
Postal Address
350 Fifth Avenue, Suite 4820, New York, NY 10118, United States
General Contact
Phone
We aim to respond to all privacy-related inquiries within 5 business days of receipt. For formal data subject requests (access, deletion, rectification, etc.), our maximum response time is 30 days as specified in Section 9 above.