Effective October 14th, 2025
A Virtual Vegan found at https://avirtualvegan.com/ ("Website") is governed by the following privacy policy ("Privacy Policy"). We respect your privacy and are committed to protecting it through our compliance with this policy.
This policy describes the types of information we may collect from you or that you may provide when you visit the website avirtualvegan.com (our "Website") and our practices for collecting, using, maintaining, protecting, and disclosing that information.
This policy applies to information we collect:
- On this Website.
- In email, text, and other electronic messages between you and this Website.
It does not apply to information collected by:
- Us offline or through any other means, including on any other website operated by A Virtual Vegan or any third party or
- Any third party, including through any application or content (including advertising) that may link to or be accessible from or through the Website.
Please read this policy carefully to understand our policies and practices regarding your information and how we will treat it. If you do not agree with our policies and practices, your choice is not to use our Website. By accessing or using this Website, you agree to this privacy policy. This policy may change from time to time (see the "Changes to Our Privacy Policy" section below). Your continued use of this Website after we make changes is deemed to be acceptance of those changes, so please check the policy periodically for updates.
Children Under the Age of 18
Our Website is not intended for children under 18 years of age. No one under age 18 may provide any information to or on the Website. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 18. If you are under 18, do not use or provide any information on this Website or through any of its features, create an account on the Website, use any of the interactive or public comment features of this Website, or provide any information about yourself to us, including your name, address, telephone number, email address, or any screen name or user name you may use. If we learn we have collected or received personal information from a child under 18 without verification of parental consent, we will delete that information. If you believe we might have any information from or about a child under 18, please contact us at mel@avirtualvegan.com.
Changes to Our Privacy Policy
We may change this Privacy Policy from time to time. The most recent version of the Privacy Policy will always be posted on the Website, with the "Effective Date" posted at the top of the Policy. We may revise and update this Privacy Policy if our practices change, as technology changes, or as we add new services or change existing ones. If we make any material changes to our Privacy Policy or how we handle your personal information, or we are going to use any personal information in a manner that is materially different from that stated in our Privacy Policy at the time we collected such information, we will give you a reasonable opportunity to consent to the change. If you do not consent, your personal information will be used as agreed to under the terms of the privacy policy in effect at the time we obtained that information. By using our Website or services after the Effective Date, you are deemed to consent to our then-current privacy policy. We will use information previously obtained in accordance with the Privacy Policy in effect when the information was obtained from you.
Information We Collect About You and How We Collect It
We collect several types of information from and about users of our Website, including information:
- By which you may be personally identified, such as name and email address ("personal information");
- That is about you, but individually does not identify you, such as deidentified or aggregated information; and/or
- About your internet connection, the equipment you use to access our Website, and usage details.
We collect this information:
- Directly from you when you provide it to us.
- Automatically as you navigate through the site. Information collected automatically may include usage details, IP addresses, and information collected through cookies, web beacons, and other tracking technologies.
- From third parties, for example, our business partners, affiliate marketing, and advertising partners, including:
- Analytics providers such as Google;
- Advertising networks such as CMI Marketing; and
- Newsletter signup providers such as Kit.
Information You Provide to Us
The information we collect on or through our Website may include:
- Information that you provide by filling in forms on our Website. This includes information provided at the time of registering to use our Website, subscribing to our service, posting material, or requesting further services. We may also ask you for information when you enter a contest or promotion sponsored by us, and when you report a problem with our Website.
- Records and copies of your correspondence (including email addresses), if you contact us.
- Your responses to surveys that we might ask you to complete for research purposes.
- Your search queries on the Website.
You also may provide information to be published or displayed (hereinafter, "posted") on public areas of the Website, or transmitted to other users of the Website or third parties (collectively, "User Contributions"). Your User Contributions are posted on and transmitted to others at your own risk. We cannot control the actions of other users of the Website with whom you may choose to share your User Contributions. Therefore, we cannot and do not guarantee that your User Contributions will not be viewed by unauthorized persons.
Information We Collect Through Automatic Data Collection Technologies
As you navigate through and interact with our Website, we may use automatic data collection technologies to collect certain information about your equipment, browsing actions, and patterns, including:
- Details of your visits to our Website, including traffic data, location data, logs, and other communication data and the resources that you access and use on the Website.
- Information about your computer and internet connection, including your IP address, operating system, and browser type.
We also may use these technologies to collect information about your online activities over time and across third-party websites or other online services (behavioural tracking). For information on how you can opt out of behavioural tracking on this website and how we respond to web browser signals and other mechanisms that enable consumers to exercise choice about behavioural tracking, please see the "Choices About How We Use and Disclose Your Information" section below.
The information we collect automatically may include personal information. It helps us to improve our Website and to deliver a better and more personalized service, including by enabling us to:
- Estimate our audience size and usage patterns.
- Store information about your preferences, allowing us to customize our Website according to your individual interests.
- Speed up your searches.
- Recognize you when you return to our Website.
The technologies we use for this automatic data collection may include:
- Cookies (or browser cookies). A cookie is a small file placed on the hard drive of your computer. You may refuse to accept browser cookies by activating the appropriate setting on your browser. However, if you select this setting, you may be unable to access certain parts of our Website. Unless you have adjusted your browser settings so that it will refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies when you direct your browser to our Website. For information about managing your privacy and security settings for cookies, please see the "Choices About How We Use and Disclose Your Information" section below.
- Log Files. The Website makes use of log files, which log visitors to the Website, and which is a standard procedure for web hosting companies and a part of the hosting service's analytics. The information inside the log files includes internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, Internet Service Provider (ISP), date/time stamp, referring/exit pages, and the number of clicks.
- Local Stored Objects. Certain features of our Website may use local stored objects to collect and store information about your preferences and navigation to, from, and on our Website. Local stored objects are not managed by the same browser settings as are used for browser cookies. For information about managing your privacy and security settings for local stored objects, see "Choices About How We Use and Disclose Your Information."
- Web Beacons. Pages of our Website and our emails may contain small electronic files known as web beacons (also referred to as clear gifs, pixel tags, and single-pixel gifs) that permit A Virtual Vegan, for example, to count users who have visited those pages or opened an email and for other related website statistics (for example, recording the popularity of certain website content and verifying system and server integrity).
Third-Party Use of Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies
Some content or applications, including advertisements, on the Website are served by third-parties, including advertisers, ad networks and servers, content providers, and application providers. These third parties may use cookies alone or in conjunction with web beacons or other tracking technologies to collect information about you when you use our website. The information they collect may be associated with your personal information or they may collect information, including personal information, about your online activities over time and across different websites and other online services. They may use this information to provide you with interest-based (behavioural) advertising or other targeted content.
CMI Marketing, Inc., d/b/a Raptive ("Raptive") is a service provider of this Site for the purposes of placing advertising on the Site, and Raptive will collect and use certain data for advertising purposes. To learn more about Raptive's data usage, click here: https://raptive.com/creator-advertising-privacy-statement.
We use Google Analytics and Clicky to analyze the use of the website. They gather information about website use by means of cookies with a randomly generated Client ID on your browser. They do use your personal information such as your IP address in order to capture the reporting for the Website regarding the usage. You may opt out of Google Analytics with a browser add-on, which is available here.
Google's privacy policy is available at: https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en-US
Clicky's privacy policy is available at: https://clicky.com/terms/privacy
A Virtual Vegan uses Cloudflare for website security and caching. Any personal information obtained by Cloudflare is not shared with any third parties.
A Virtual Vegan uses Slickstream to personalize your website experience and recommend recipes you may like. Slickstream also allows you to save your favourite recipes. Favourites are saved in your browser temporarily by default, but if you input your email address when prompted, your favourites will then save and sync across all of your devices (phone, desktop, tablet, etc) so that you can access them anywhere and at any time. Please refer to Slickstream's privacy policy for further information.
A Virtual Vegan participates in affiliate marketing programs. This means we may post customized links, provided by retailers, to track referrals to their websites, and we may earn an advertising fee from any purchases made through these links. This program uses cookies to track visits for the purposes of assigning commission on these sales.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and providing links to products or services available from Amazon.com. As part of this Amazon Associates program, we may post customized links, provided by Amazon, to track the referrals to the Amazon listing. This affiliate program utilizes cookies to track visits for the purposes of assigning commission on these sales.
We are a participant in the rewardStyle content monetization platform. By clicking on select links, you will be transferred to a third party from which you can make a purchase. RewardStyle utilizes cookies to track visits for the purposes of assigning commission on these sales. Please refer to the rewardStyle Privacy Policy for more information.
A Virtual Vegan may also participate in other non-specified affiliate programs, which have the capability to track the referrals to their websites and utilize cookies to track visits for the purposes of assigning commission on these sales.
We do not control these third parties' tracking technologies or how they may be used. If you have any questions about an advertisement or other targeted content, you should contact the responsible provider directly. For information about how you can opt out of receiving targeted advertising from many providers, please see the "Choices About How We Use and Disclose Your Information" section below.
Third-Party Websites
The Website contains links to third-party websites and applications of interest, including advertisements and external services, that are not affiliated with us. Once you have used these links to leave the Website, any information you provide to these third parties is not covered by this Privacy Policy, and we cannot guarantee the safety and privacy of your information. Before visiting and providing any information to any third-party websites, you should inform yourself of the privacy policies and practices (if any) of the third party responsible for that website, and should take those steps necessary to, in your discretion, protect the privacy of your information. We are not responsible for the content or privacy and security practices and policies of any third parties, including other sites, services or applications that may be linked to or from the Website.
Newsletters
On the Website, you may subscribe to our newsletter, which may be used for advertising purposes. All newsletters sent may contain tracking pixels. The pixel is embedded in emails and allows an analysis of the success of online marketing campaigns. Because of these tracking pixels, we may see if and when you open an email and which links within the email you click. Also, this allows the Website to adapt the content of future newsletters to the interests of the user. This behaviour will not be passed on to third parties. Please refer to the Kit Privacy Policy for further information.
How We Use Your Information
We use information that we collect about you or that you provide to us, including any personal information:
- To present our Website and its contents to you.
- To provide you with information, products, or services that you request from us.
- To fulfill any other purpose for which you provide it.
- To provide you with notices about your account.
- To carry out our obligations and enforce our rights arising from any contracts entered into between you and us, including for billing and collection.
- To notify you about changes to our Website or any products or services we offer or provide though it.
- To allow you to participate in interactive features on our Website, including saving recipes.
- To maintain the safety, security, and integrity of the Website, as well as our databases and other technology assets and our business.
- To analyze trends and track user's movements around the Website to better understand how our users use the Website.
- To notify you about changes to this Privacy Policy or other agreements between you and us and to send you security alerts, confirmations, and other administrative messages (to the extent we possess your email address or other contact information).
- To respond to law enforcement requests and as required by applicable laws, rules, court orders, or governmental regulations, as well as to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations and to defend legal claims.
- To evaluate or conduct a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of our assets as described in this policy.
- In any other way we may describe when you provide the information.
- For any other purpose with your consent.
Disclosure of Your Information
We may disclose aggregated information about our users, and information that does not identify any individual without restriction.
We may disclose personal information that we collect or you provide as described in this privacy policy:
- To our subsidiaries and affiliates.
- To contractors, service providers, and other third parties we use to support our business.
- To a buyer or other successor in the event of a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of A Virtual Vegan's assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding, in which personal information held by A Virtual Vegan about our Website users is among the assets transferred.
- To third parties to market their products or services to you.
- To fulfill the purpose for which you provide it.
- For any other purpose disclosed by us when you provide the information.
- With your consent.
We may also disclose your personal information:
- To comply with any court order, law, or legal process, including to respond to any government or regulatory request.
- To enforce or apply our terms of use and other agreements.
- If we believe disclosure is necessary or appropriate to protect the rights, property, or safety of A Virtual Vegan, our customers, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organizations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction.
Choices About How We Use and Disclose Your Information
We strive to provide you with choices regarding the personal information you provide to us. We have created mechanisms to provide you with the following control over your information:
- Tracking Technologies and Advertising. You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when cookies are being sent. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of this site may then be inaccessible or not function properly.
- Newsletter from A Virtual Vegan. If have subscribed but you no longer wish to have your contact information used by A Virtual Vegan to receive our newsletter, you can opt-out by following the instructions included in every e-mail sent to you via the "Unsubscribe" or other similar link. If we have sent you a promotional email, you may send us a return email asking to be omitted from future email distributions. This opt-out does not apply to information provided to A Virtual Vegan as a result of a product purchase, warranty registration, product service experience or other transactions.
We do not control third parties' collection or use of your information to serve interest-based advertising. However, these third parties may provide you with ways to choose not to have your information collected or used in this way. You can opt out of receiving targeted ads from members of the Network Advertising Initiative ("NAI") on the NAI's website.
Please note that our Website is not configured to accept and respond to web browser Do Not Track (DNT) signals. As such, if you would like to opt-out of certain specific cookies or automatic tracking technologies, you will need to do so by exercising one of the other methods described in this privacy policy.
Accessing and Correcting Your Information
You can review and change your personal information by logging into the Website and visiting your account profile page.
You may also send us an email at mel@mel@avirtualvegan.com to request to correct or delete any personal information that you have provided to us. We cannot delete your personal information except by also deleting your user account. We may not accommodate a request to change information if we believe the change would violate any law or legal requirement or cause the information to be incorrect.
If you delete your User Contributions from the Website, copies of your User Contributions may remain viewable in cached and archived pages, or might have been copied or stored by other Website users. Proper access and use of information provided on the Website, including User Contributions, is governed by our Terms of Use.
Non-Canadian Visitor's Rights
The owner of the Website is based in the Province of British Columbia in Canada. We provide the Website for use only by persons located in Canada. Non-Canadian persons visiting from other countries should be aware that, by visiting the Website, you are agreeing to be subject to Canadian privacy laws rather than the laws of your home country. If you access the Website from outside Canada, you do so on your own initiative, consent to the transfer of your personal information to Canada, consent to the use of your personal information as in this privacy policy and are responsible for compliance with local laws. Non-Canadian persons have the same rights as Canadian persons as described in this privacy policy.
Data Security
We have implemented measures designed to secure your personal information from accidental loss and from unauthorized access, use, alteration, and disclosure. All information you provide to us is stored on our secure servers behind firewalls.
The safety and security of your information also depends on you. Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password for access to certain parts of our Website, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share your password with anyone. We urge you to be careful about giving out information in public areas of the Website like the comments and reviews section. The information you share in public areas may be viewed by any user of the Website.
Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of your personal information transmitted to our Website. Any transmission of personal information is at your own risk. We are not responsible for circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained on the Website.
Data Retention
We will only keep your information, including any personal information, for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which we collected it, to comply with our legal obligations, or to enforce our legal rights (or as required so others may enforce their legal rights).
Generally, the length of time we keep your information will depend on the type of information and the purpose for which we are processing it. To determine the appropriate retention period, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the information, the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure, the purposes for which we are processing it and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and any applicable legal requirements.
At the end of the appropriate retention period, we will either delete your information from our systems completely or anonymize it so it can be used without identifying you and so we no longer have the ability to re-associate the anonymized information with you in the future, such as by aggregating the information.
If you would like more information about our retention practices, please contact us using the contact information provided in the "Contact Information" section below.
AI
The owner of this website does not consent to the content on this website being used or downloaded by any third parties for the purposes of developing, training or operating artificial intelligence or other machine learning systems ("Artificial Intelligence Purposes"), except as authorized by the owner in writing (including written electronic communication). Absent such consent, users of this website, including any third parties accessing the website through automated systems, are prohibited from using any of the content on the website for Artificial Intelligence Purposes. Users or automated systems that fail to respect these choices will be considered to have breached our Privacy Policy.
Copyright and Trademark
Unless otherwise specified, all materials appearing on this site, including the text, site design, logos, graphics, icons, and images, as well as the selection, assembly and arrangement thereof, are the sole property of Melanie McDonald and A Virtual Vegan, Copyright © 2025, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. You may use the content of this site only for the purpose of reading the information on this site, for your own education, for shopping on this site or for placing an order through this site and for no other purpose. No materials from this site may be copied, reproduced, modified, republished, uploaded, posted, transmitted, or distributed in any form or by any means without our prior written permission. All rights not expressly granted herein are reserved. Any unauthorized use of the materials appearing on this site may violate copyright, trademark and other applicable laws and could result in criminal or civil penalties.
Additional Rights of EEA (European Economic Area) Residents
If you are a resident of a country in the EEA, you have the rights, among others, to:
- (i) access your personal data
- (ii) ensure the accuracy of your personal data
- (iii) the right to have us delete your personal data
- (iv) the right to restrict further processing of your personal data, and
- (v) the right to complain to a supervisory authority in your country of residence in the event that data is misused
If you believe that our processing of your personal information infringes data protection laws, you have a legal right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority responsible for data protection. You may do so in the EU member state of your residence, your place of work or the place of the alleged infringement.
The California Consumer Privacy Act
Contact Information
This website is operated by A Virtual Vegan. Questions about this Privacy Policy, our terms and conditions, or our website can be sent to us using the information below:
A VIRTUAL VEGAN
PO BOX 99900 UE 786 036 RPO
COLWOOD CORNERS COLWOOD BC
V9B 0P8 CANADA
Email: mel@avirtualvegan.com