Privacy: what this site records and why
The short version: no accounts, no ad tracking, nothing sold. The site keeps anonymous visit counts so we know which pages are useful, and remembers your province so it shows the right helpline and the right licensed operators.
Last updated 2026-09-28. This page covers hardhatnorth.ca and all nine guides on it.
What we record when you visit
We use a service called PostHog to count visits. It doesn't put a tracking cookie on your device and doesn't build a profile of you. It gives your browser tab a random visit number that is forgotten as soon as you close the tab, so it can't recognise you the next time you visit. For each visit it records:
- which pages you looked at, roughly how long you stayed, and how far down each page you scrolled;
- which buttons and links you tapped on this site (for example a menu day, or a link out to a licensed operator);
- the site that sent you here, if any (for example Google);
- your device type, operating system, browser, screen size and language;
- your rough location -- country, province and city -- worked out by our web host from your connection;
- your IP address (your connection's internet address), which helps us tell real visitors apart from automated robots. It's used only for our own visit statistics, never shared or sold;
- whether you opened the site in a browser or as an app from your home screen, and whether you installed it;
- on the camp menu, which dishes you liked, marked "not for me", hid or unhid (the dish name and the meal only), so we can see what people actually want to eat;
- if a page breaks or a tap doesn't do anything, a note of the error so we can fix it.
Visit replays. While the site is new, PostHog also records how each visit moves on this site -- scrolling, taps, and which page elements you tapped -- so we can replay it later and see where a page is confusing or hard to use on a phone. It's a recording of this site's pages only, not of anything else on your phone or computer. Anything you type into a box on the site is hidden before it's sent, and the replay isn't linked to your name or to any other visit. Replays are kept by PostHog for up to 30 days, then deleted.
We don't record your name, email, or anything you type. There's no advertising tracking, no social-media tracking pixels, and we don't sell or share visit data with anyone for marketing.
Cookies and what's stored on your phone
The site sets three small cookies, none of them used for advertising:
- province -- remembers your province for 180 days, so you see your own province's legal age, helpline and licensed operators. You can change it any time with the province picker.
- province_method -- notes whether your province came from your connection or from the picker. It deletes itself after 30 seconds.
- hhn_geo -- your rough location (country, province, city) for the visit counts above. It deletes itself when you close your browser.
While a tab is open, PostHog also keeps that tab's random visit number in the tab's temporary storage (not a cookie), so the pages you look at in one sitting are counted as one visit. Closing the tab erases it.
The site also keeps a few things on your device only, never sent to us:
- a note that you tapped "Not now" on the install card, so it stays out of your way for 30 days;
- your camp-menu likes and hidden dishes, so the menu remembers them next time (the tap itself is also counted in the visit statistics above, without anything that identifies you);
- a note, for as long as the app is open, that you opened it from your home screen, so an app launch is only counted once;
- saved copies of pages you've visited, so they still load when camp WiFi or cell signal drops.
Who handles the data
- Cloudflare hosts the site. Like any web host, it handles your connection, including your IP address, to deliver pages.
- PostHog stores the anonymous visit counts and visit replays described above, on servers in the United States.
When you click through to a gambling operator
Links to licensed operators may tell the operator that you came from this site, which is how we get paid a commission if you sign up (see how the network makes money). Once you're on the operator's site, its own privacy policy applies, not this one. We never get your account details, deposits or betting activity from an operator.
If you email us
If you write to [email protected], we use your email address only to reply, and we don't add you to any list.
How to turn it off
- Most ad and tracker blockers stop the visit counting completely -- the site works the same without it.
- Clearing this site's data in your browser settings removes the cookies and saved pages.
- Blocking cookies still leaves the site usable; you'll just see the province picker again.
Age
This site is for adults. The gambling content is only for people of legal age in their province (18+ in Alberta, Manitoba and Quebec, 19+ everywhere else), and we don't knowingly collect anything from anyone under that age.
Questions or changes
Questions about this page, or want to know what's recorded? Email [email protected]. If what the site records changes, this page changes with it and the date at the top is updated.