Privacy, in plain words

This site is for shoppers in the United States. It is not directed at children under 13, so please don't enter a child's personal details; if you tell the chat about a child, give only an age and a height for sizing. We don't sell your data.

The home, how we pick, deals, privacy and terms pages have no forms, sign-ups, analytics or tracking scripts, and set no cookies of their own. Like the chat, they load their fonts from Google Fonts, so Google receives your IP address and browser details when a page loads.

By default, what you type goes to our server and OpenAI (details below). With ?ai=0 added to the address, the chat runs entirely in your browser: nothing you type or tap leaves your device. Either way, the chat sends only the counts and saved chats described below, and none with ?ai=0.

• On your device: so you can pick up where you left off, the chat keeps your answers, any picks you save and any correction notes in your browser's storage for this site. It also keeps a short record of the chat's steps in the current tab; that record is never sent anywhere. "Start over" clears your answers; clearing this site's data in your browser removes everything.
• Sending a pick: tap Send and your own Messages or Mail opens with a short note, or you can copy it. We don't send it and we don't see where it goes.
• Other companies: fonts, on these pages and in the chat, load from Google Fonts, and bike photos in the chat load straight from each brand's own website (most are hosted by Shopify) or the brands' own image servers (yubabikes.com, ride1up.com, ternbicycles.com, aventon.com, velotricbike.com, prioritybicycles.com, lectricebikes.com, blixbikes.com, blixbike.com, radpowerbikes.com, trekbikes.com, specialized.com, pon.bike; pon.bike is Pon, the parent company of Gazelle). When a font or a photo loads, that company can see your IP address and that your browser asked for the file, as with any image or font on the web. We set our pages to tell them only our site's name, not which page you were on. Their own privacy policies apply.
• Store links: a seller link opens that seller's own page. Once you're on a seller's site, its privacy policy applies.

By default. Each time you type, the chat sends our server and OpenAI your message, the answers you've given so far, your last few messages and the bikes you're looking at, so it can understand you. OpenAI processes it under OpenAI's API terms. Before sending, our server tries to remove email addresses and phone numbers. Our server saves chats as described under Saved chats below. To limit how much one visitor can use it, it keeps a short code made each day from your IP address (not the address itself) and passes that code to OpenAI as a safety identifier. If you would rather keep everything in your browser, add ?ai=0 to the address: the chat then uses only our published rules, and nothing you type leaves your device.

Counts. We count a few steps in the chat (a chat started, the first reply seen, a pick shown, a store button seen or clicked), by bike and store and by day, to learn whether the chat helps people buy. The counts hold no cookie, no IP address and nothing you type; Cloudflare, our host, handles the request; counts are kept three months and never sold, and aren't sent if your browser has Global Privacy Control or Do Not Track on, or if the address has ?ai=0. Saved chats, described below, keep the same steps under the chat's random code for 30 days.

We save each chat so that we can read it and make the chat better. Each chat is saved under a random code, not your name; the code is new each time you open the chat. We save what you type, the chat's replies, the bikes and prices it showed, and what you did next: whether you reached a pick, tapped a store button and which store, tapped Send or started over, which screen you left on, and how long you stayed, with the day but not the exact time. If you came through a link with a source tag (the ?s= part of the address), we save the tag too. If you tell us you ordered, we save that too: while saving is on, the picks you save on your own device (kept there for up to 90 days) also hold that chat's random code, so a later "I ordered it" tap joins the chat it came from. We don't save your IP address, and we set no cookie. Before saving, we remove email addresses, phone numbers, street addresses and ZIP codes, and we try to remove names. That is best effort: people can type anything, and we can't promise we catch everything, such as names, places, health details or children, so please don't type personal details. If you write about an emergency, your safety, your health, or a battery that is smoking or on fire, we save only that it happened, not your words. Chats are stored in our own Cloudflare account and deleted automatically 30 days after the chat. We read them, and we use AI tools from OpenAI and Anthropic to help read them and improve the chat, so their text can pass through those companies, under their terms. Because we keep no name or account, we may not be able to find one person's chat. To have yours removed sooner, email ricky@myhonestpick.com with the date and what you typed, and we'll try; otherwise it deletes itself within 30 days. Nothing is saved with ?ai=0 on the address, or when your browser sends Global Privacy Control or Do Not Track.

Email ricky@myhonestpick.com with your feedback; we use it only to improve the chat. Your email and any screenshots are deleted within 30 days of arriving.

The site is served by Cloudflare. To deliver and protect it, Cloudflare processes technical request data such as IP addresses and browser type, under Cloudflare's privacy policy.

If we add analytics, or collect anything beyond what this page describes, it will say what is collected before that is switched on.

Email ricky@myhonestpick.com. Your message and email address are sent through our host, Cloudflare, to Ricky's email inbox, held by his email provider. We use them to reply and never for marketing. Every message is deleted within 30 days of his reply and in any case within 60 days of arriving. Ricky answers by email, not live. His reply shows his own email address.