Privacy Policy
PlainSubstitute publishes ingredient-substitution data drawn from the U.S. Department of Agriculture FoodData Central database (379,000+ food records, Standard Reference release April 2019) and the Cook's Illustrated Test Kitchen corpus. We do not sell personal data, and our analytics are limited to aggregate, privacy-respecting measurement. This policy explains exactly what we collect, why, and the choices you have. See our methodology for the data sources behind the site.
Information We Collect
PlainSubstitute does not require account registration. We collect standard web server logs (IP addresses, browser type, pages visited) for security and performance monitoring.
Analytics
We use privacy-respecting analytics to understand how visitors use the site. We do not sell personal data to third parties.
Advertising
We use Google AdSense to display ads. Google may use cookies to serve personalized ads based on your interests. You can opt out via Google's ad settings. We implement Google Consent Mode v2 and respect your consent choices.
Cookies
We use cookies for dark mode preference storage and advertising (Google AdSense). No personally identifiable information is stored in our cookies.
Third-Party Services
We use Cloudflare for CDN and security, and Google Analytics for traffic analysis. Both services have their own privacy policies.
Contact
For privacy questions, email us at hello@plainsubstitute.com.
Our Approach to Your Data
We collect only what is necessary to operate PlainSubstitute and understand, in aggregate, how the site is used. We do not sell visitor data, do not share it with data brokers, and do not build advertising profiles of individual visitors outside the boundaries set by our advertising partners (Google AdSense). Cookies used by the site are listed in the main privacy policy above; each is labeled with its purpose and retention window.
Public Records and Personal Data
The records surfaced on PlainSubstitute are drawn from public government datasets. These records are public by design — they exist to let citizens and regulators verify credentials, enforcement actions, safety outcomes, and other matters of accountability. We do not republish data that is not already publicly available, and we honor removal requests for records that are factually incorrect or that have been officially expunged at the source. Removal is a data-quality action, not a privacy right over lawful public records.
Your Rights
If you are a California, EU, UK, or other resident whose jurisdiction grants data-subject rights, you may request access, correction, or deletion of any personal data we hold about you (which is generally only a hashed IP address and a short server-access log). Contact requests are handled by our editorial team at the email on the contact page. We do not charge for requests, we do not require you to create an account to exercise a right, and we do not retaliate against anyone who submits a request.
Advertising, Measurement, and Your Consent
PlainSubstitute displays contextual advertising through Google AdSense, which may set its own cookies for measurement and frequency capping. We deploy Google's Consent Mode v2, so if you decline cookies via a consent banner or privacy-first browser, Google limits its measurement to anonymous, aggregate signals. We also use a first-party privacy-preserving analytics tool (Umami) that does not track individuals across sites. If you prefer zero measurement, enable a tracker-blocker or browse privately — we will not work harder to profile you.