Privacy – The Salish Guide

Effective October 20, 2026

This policy explains what information The Salish Guide collects on salishguide.com, why we collect it, who we share it with, and the choices you have.

The Salish Guide is a directory of fishing guides in Washington State. We are not a booking service and we never take payment for a trip. When you find a guide you like, you book and pay the guide directly.

Questions or requests about your information can go to hello@salishguide.com.

The short version

We collect only what we need to run the directory: your inquiries to guides, your account, your reviews, the guides you save, and the fishing profile you choose to fill in.
Your fishing profile is private. We use it only to suggest guides, and we never show it to guides.
When you send an inquiry, the guide you wrote to gets your name, email, phone and message so they can reply. Our team gets a copy too.
We don’t send marketing email unless you opt in. We don’t send any marketing email today.
We don’t sell your information, and we don’t use ad tracking or advertising cookies. We count visits and clicks without cookies and without identifying you, so we can see how the site is used and show guides how many anglers we send them. See “Visit and click counts” below.
We may count contacted marks to understand how many anglers reach each guide. These counts are internal and never public.
You can ask us to see, correct or delete your information at any time.

What we collect and why

Inquiries to a guide. When you use the inquiry form on a guide’s page, we collect your name, email, phone number (if you give one), the dates you’re interested in, whether your dates are flexible, party size, the trip and species you’re interested in, and your message. We use these to deliver your inquiry to that guide so they can reply to you, and to send you a confirmation copy. You also tick a box confirming that you understand The Salish Guide only connects anglers with guides and that you’ll book and pay the guide directly. We record that you ticked it. If you’re signed in, or create an account later with the same email, the inquiry is linked to your account.

Your account. You sign in with a one-time link sent to your email address. There is no password. We keep your email address and a display name. We use them to sign you in, to show your name on reviews you write, and to send you the emails described in this policy. You can change your display name in your account settings.

Sign-in links. When you ask for a sign-in link, we email it to you so we can confirm that you control the address. Each link works once and expires after 15 minutes. We keep a record that a link was requested so we can limit repeated requests.

Reviews. If you write a review, we keep your overall star rating, your ratings for the five areas we ask about, the review text, the month and year of your trip, which trip you took, and your display name. If your review has a Trip-linked badge, we also keep a note of how it was verified (a review link from your inquiry, or a receipt a moderator checked). We also keep your account email with the review so we know which account wrote it. A person reads every review before it goes public. Published reviews show your display name and your review, never your email. If you upload a receipt or photo to show the trip happened, only our moderators see it, and we remove camera details such as location from photos.

Saved guides. If you save guides, the list is stored with your account. If you’re signed out, it’s stored in your browser instead, and it’s added to your account when you sign in.

Guides you’ve contacted. If you mark a guide as contacted, we save the date you marked it, so we can show it on that guide’s page and in your Saved list. If you’re signed out, it’s stored in your browser instead, and it’s added to your account when you sign in. Uncheck it to remove the mark. We don’t share it with guides, and it doesn’t affect any score or badge.

A list of guides you’re comparing is also kept in your browser.

Your fishing profile. Your account page has an optional, private fishing profile. You can tell us the species you target, the methods you like, the regions you fish, fresh or salt water, the kinds of trips you want, the months you like to fish, your party size, your skill level, your budget range and the gear brands you use. Filling it in is up to you, and you can leave any part blank. We use it only to suggest guides that match you. We never share it with guides or show it to them, and it isn’t included in the inquiries you send. We don’t use it for marketing. You can edit or clear it at any time on your account page, or ask hello@salishguide.com to delete it.

Your two optional choices. On the sign-up and inquiry forms there are two boxes. Both start unticked and both are optional:

“Send me The Salish Guide fishing reports and offers.” This tells us you’d like to get fishing reports and offers from us. We record your choice and the date you made it. We don’t send this kind of email today. If we start, we’ll only send it to people who ticked this box, and we’ll update this policy first. We never pass this choice to guides.
“Guides may contact me about trips.” The guide you write to always gets your details so they can reply to your inquiry, whether or not you tick this box. The box records whether you’re also open to hearing from guides about trips. Right now we use it in one way: the inquiry email to the guide you wrote to says “yes” or “no” for this choice. We record your choice and the date you made it. We don’t share your details with any other guide.

If you’re signed in, you can change both choices at any time in your account settings.

Information about your connection. To slow down spam and repeated form posts, we keep a scrambled code made from your internet address when you send an inquiry, write a review or ask for a sign-in link. We don’t store the address itself.

Visit and click counts. We count how the site is used, in two ways. Both run on our own website, use no cookies, and don’t store your internet address.

Site visits. Our analytics software counts page views and visits, which page you arrived on, the site or search engine that sent you, your country and city, and your device and browser type. To tell a new visit from a repeat one, it makes a scrambled code from your internet address and browser details. It doesn’t store the address itself, and the code is reset regularly. We look at totals, not at individual people.
Guide counts. We count when a guide’s page is viewed, when someone clicks a guide’s website, phone or booking link (including Book on FishingBooker), and, if we offer labeled Featured spots, when one is shown or clicked. Each count records the guide, the page and the time. It doesn’t record who you are, your internet address, a cookie or your browser details. To stop automated clicks from being counted, we keep a scrambled code made from your internet address for about 10 minutes, then it expires.

We use these counts to run and improve the site, to spot problems, and to show each guide their own totals, such as views, clicks and inquiries. Guides see totals only, never who visited. The counts never change a guide’s place in the list, reviews or license status.

What we don’t do: we don’t use Google Analytics, advertising pixels or ad tracking, we don’t follow you to other websites, and we don’t sell or share these counts with advertisers.

Search engines. We use Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools to see how our pages appear in Google and Bing search, for example how often a page was shown and clicked in search results. Google and Bing collect that on their own sites and show us totals. Neither puts anything on our pages.

Guides who claim a listing. If you’re a guide claiming your listing, we also keep the license number you give us, your claim details, and any profile changes you propose. A moderator reviews them before anything changes on your public page.

Information about guides’ businesses. Listings show business details guides publish themselves, such as trips, prices, boats, captains’ names and meeting points. We collect them from the guide’s own website and other public sources, check them, and write them in our own words. Some profiles also have a short Overview that sums up public feedback about the guide from other websites in our words, without copying reviews, ratings or reviewer names. Guides can correct any of it by claiming their listing or emailing hello@salishguide.com.

Please don’t include health information, payment card numbers or other sensitive details in an inquiry or review. We don’t need them.

Who we share it with

The guide you contact. When you send an inquiry, we email your name, email, phone, dates, party size, trip, species and message to that guide so they can reply. The form tells you this before you send. If we don’t have an email for a guide, the page shows their phone number or website instead of a form, and you contact them directly.

Our team inbox. When an angler sends an inquiry, we email it from noreply@salishguide.com to the inquiry address we have for that guide, either from our records or one the guide proposed and a moderator approved, with hello@salishguide.com copied so we can follow the conversation. If the guide’s address is no longer on file when the inquiry is sent, it goes only to hello@salishguide.com. The angler receives a confirmation, which is not copied to us.

Service providers. We use a small number of companies to run the site:

Hostinger hosts the website and its data, and provides our email through Titan email. Inquiries, confirmations and sign-in links are sent through it.
Cloudflare Turnstile checks that a real person is using our forms. When a form uses it, your browser connects to Cloudflare, and we send Cloudflare the check result and your internet address so it can confirm the check.

These companies handle information only to provide their service to us.

When the law requires it. We may share information if we’re legally required to, or to protect people or the site from fraud or harm.

We don’t sell your information, and we don’t share it with advertisers.

How guides handle your information

Guides listed on The Salish Guide are independent businesses. Once we pass your inquiry to a guide, the guide is responsible for how they use and keep your information, under their own practices. If you want a guide to stop contacting you or to delete your details, please ask the guide directly. We’re happy to help if you can’t reach them.

How long we keep it

Inquiries: kept in our records until you ask us to delete them. Nothing is deleted automatically today. Copies of an inquiry also stay in the guide’s mailbox and in our team mailbox. Deleting our record doesn’t remove the copy a guide has already received.
Your account and your choices: kept for as long as your account exists.
Reviews: kept for as long as the review is on the listing or your account exists, unless you ask us to remove it.
Fishing profile: kept with your account until you clear it, ask us to delete it, or delete your account.
Saved guides: kept with your account for as long as it exists. A saved list in your browser stays until you clear your browser’s site data. Contacted marks are kept with your account until you uncheck them or delete your account. Marks in your browser stay until you uncheck them or clear your browser’s site data.
Receipts and photos uploaded with a review: deleted 30 days after a moderator makes a decision on the review.
Sign-in links: stop working after one use or 15 minutes, whichever comes first.
Visit counts from our analytics software: kept for up to 18 months, then deleted automatically.
Guide page views and clicks: each raw count is kept for up to 90 days. Clicks on Book on FishingBooker are kept for 180 days. After that, we keep only daily totals per guide and page, which don’t relate to any visitor.
Guide listings and claims: kept for as long as the listing exists.

Your choices and rights

You can ask us to:

See the information we hold about you
Correct anything that’s wrong
Delete your account, reviews, inquiries or fishing profile
Withdraw either of your opt-in choices

Email hello@salishguide.com with your request. You can also change your opt-in choices, display name and fishing profile yourself on your account page. We may need to confirm that the request comes from you, usually by replying from the same email address. We won’t treat you differently for making a request.

Cookies and similar

We keep this minimal:

Sign-in cookie. When you sign in, the site sets a cookie in your browser so it knows you’re signed in. It’s needed for your account to work.
Browser storage. Your saved guides (when you’re signed out), guides you’ve marked as contacted (when you’re signed out), and your compare list are kept in your browser’s storage. They stay on your device.

When you remove a saved guide while signed in, it's removed from your account too. This browser also keeps a small marker so it knows your list has already been added to your account.

Cloudflare Turnstile. The human check on our forms is provided by Cloudflare, which may use its own cookies or similar technology to tell people from bots. Cloudflare’s privacy policy covers that.
Site software. WordPress, which runs the site, may set a few small cookies it needs to work.

Our visit and click counts don’t use cookies. We don’t use ad tracking or advertising cookies.

Links to other sites

Guide pages link to guides’ own websites, and some pages link to partner sites such as FishingBooker. Some of these are affiliate links: if you book through one, we may earn a commission, and the link is labeled. Those sites have their own privacy policies, and we’re not responsible for how they handle your information.

Children

The Salish Guide is not for children under 13. We don’t knowingly collect information from children under 13. If you believe a child has given us information, email hello@salishguide.com and we’ll delete it.

Security

We take reasonable steps to protect your information. The site uses an encrypted connection (HTTPS). Sign-in links are single-use and short-lived. On the site, only our team can see inquiry records and private account details such as email addresses. No website or email system is completely secure, though, so we can’t guarantee absolute security.

Support view. To help with support and fix problems, our site administrators can open a read-only view of your account page that shows it the way you see it. It works the same way as the view they already use for guide accounts. They can’t change anything through it, and we keep a record of each time it’s opened.

Changes to this policy

When we change this policy, we’ll update it on this page and list the change below, with its date. If a change significantly affects how we use your information, we’ll also post a notice on the site.

Version 1, effective October 16, 2026.
Version 2, effective October 17, 2026: added the optional, private fishing profile on your account page, and the read-only support view our administrators can use to help with your account.
Version 3, effective October 20, 2026: added “Visit and click counts”, which covers our cookie-free site analytics, the counts we show guides, and our use of Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, and updated the short version, cookies and how long we keep it.

Future changes will be listed here, one line each, with the date.

Contact

Questions or requests about your privacy: hello@salishguide.com

The Salish Guide