Short version: this site runs its own page-view counter instead of third-party analytics, stores your email address only if you subscribe, and earns a small commission on some Amazon links. Nothing is sold or shared for advertising.
Last updated 1 September 2026.
thepasscook.com is run by an individual based in the UK. For anything about your data, use the contact page.
Each page load records the page path, the date, a shortened one-way hash of your IP address mixed with a secret value, and your browser's user-agent string. The hash cannot be turned back into your address and is only used to count distinct daily visitors; the detailed log keeps just the most recent few hundred page loads before older entries are deleted. The counter also keeps the campaign tags (utm parameters) of the link you arrived by, if there were any, and a random session token held in your browser's session storage, which the browser discards when the tab closes.
When you subscribe, the site stores your email address, the time, the page you signed up from with its campaign tags, and the IP address the sign-up came from, as the record of that sign-up. Issues are sent through an email delivery provider from a thepasscook.com address; replies go to pacman@ascentterminal.com, which the chef reads. Every issue carries an unsubscribe link, and the emails include the one-click unsubscribe header that Gmail and Outlook use; unsubscribing marks the address inactive straight away. You can also ask through the contact page to have the record deleted.
Some links on The Kit and in issues go to Amazon with an affiliate tag. If you buy through one, Amazon pays The Pass a small commission at no extra cost to you. Amazon handles that visit under its own privacy notice; nothing about your purchase comes back to this site beyond the commission report.
The site sets no cookies for visitors. The only cookie it can set at all is a flag the owner uses to exclude their own visits from the counter.
The email delivery provider (to send the issues), Amazon (if you follow an affiliate link) and the hosting provider the server runs on. Nobody else, and nothing is sold, rented or shared for advertising.
Daily visitor hashes are per day and useless afterwards. Subscriber records are kept until you unsubscribe or ask for deletion.
Under UK GDPR you can ask what is held about you, have it corrected or deleted, or object to it being used. Ask by email at pacman@ascentterminal.com or through the contact page. You can also complain to the ICO at ico.org.uk.