Privacy policy
Short version: no required accounts, no analytics profiling, no data selling. We are funded by affiliate links and by labelled Google ads (both disclosed below); neither ever changes a verdict. Here’s exactly what happens.
What we don’t do
- No required accounts — you can use the site and apps without signing in. (The iOS app offers an optional Sign in with Apple only to sync your saved product list across your devices — see below.)
- No display ads, no on-site analytics profiling, no data sold or shared for marketing. (We do use affiliate links to fund the site — see “How the site is funded” below.)
- No marketing email list — we don’t ask Apple for your email when you sync your saved list. The only emails we send are optional BUY alerts you signed up for.
- Optional BUY alerts (push or email) when you ask us to watch a product — stop anytime.
What we do handle
When you check a price
The product link or ID you enter is sent to our server to fetch its price research, cached to save cost. It isn’t tied to any identity; we keep only an anonymous, aggregate tally of how many checks we’ve done.
Browser extension (if you install it)
Our optional browser extension works only on Amazon product pages. When you view one, it reads two things from that page — the product’s ID (ASIN) and the price shown on your screen — and sends just those to our server to compute the verdict, which it shows in a small card. That is the only data it sends, and only while you’re on an Amazon product page. The extension has no login, sets no cookies, stores nothing on your device, reads no browsing history, tracks nothing across sites, and can reach no site other than Amazon product pages (to read the price) and our own API (to return the verdict). The ASIN and price aren’t tied to any identity and are never sold or shared, and it uses no third-party analytics or ad trackers. The card links only to worthitforyou.com for the full price research — it contains no link to Amazon and earns us nothing.
Snap product / Photo of price (optional)
If you use Scan → Snap product (camera or photo gallery) or Photo of price, the image you choose is sent to our server for a one-time product match and/or price read. For Snap we may run a reverse-image visual match (via our search provider’s Google Lens API) and/or read a visible label (name / brand / barcode). We use the image only for that one request, do not use it to build a profile, and do not invent a BUY / WAIT / SKIP / FAIR from the picture — you pick a match, and the verdict still comes from price research when you tap Check. You can always scan a barcode or type a search / price instead.
On your own device
We use your browser’s local storage to remember your preferences and your saved product list. By default that list stays on your device. If you turn on a BUY alert, we also store a push subscription (or email) and the product id so we can notify you when the verdict flips to BUY.
Optional: BUY alerts
On a product verdict you can ask us to notify you when it becomes a BUY. That uses either a browser/app push subscription (a delivery token, not your identity) or an email address you enter. We re-check that product on a schedule and send one alert on a WAIT→BUY flip. Stop anytime from the product page, the unsubscribe link in an email, or your browser/OS notification settings.
Optional: Sign in with Apple (iOS app only)
If you choose Sync saved list with Apple in the iOS app, Apple signs you in and we receive an opaque Apple user id (not your email — we do not request email). We store that id in hashed form with the product ids on your saved list so the same list can restore on another device signed into the same Apple ID. You can disconnect anytime in the app; that deletes the server copy. This is for saved-list sync across your devices. Price alerts use a separate push subscription or email you choose — not your Apple email. Not required to use worthitforyou.
Aggregate visit counts
We keep a simple, anonymous tally of how many times each page is viewed and which website referred the visit (the referring domain only, e.g. “reddit.com”). We also keep aggregate counts of the general location (country from our CDN edge; approximate state and city looked up from your IP address on our server the moment you load a page — the IP address is used for that one lookup and never stored or logged; city data by DB-IP, CC BY 4.0) and the device type and browser (e.g. “Mobile / Chrome,” read from your browser’s user-agent, which is not stored) — so we can see what’s useful and where our readers are. These are running totals only: no cookies, no IP addresses, no stored user-agents, no device fingerprints, no accounts, and nothing tied to you. Every figure is a plain count in a bucket (e.g. “United States: 1,240”); we can’t tell one visitor from another, and we don’t try to — that’s why it isn’t “profiling.”
Blog page (Soro embed)
Our /blog page loads a small script from Soro (app.trysoro.com) so published articles can appear there. That script runs only on /blog — not on the rest of the site, the apps, or the Chrome extension. Soro may receive a normal page request when you open /blog (their privacy policy applies to that load). We do not use Soro for ads, verdicts, or sitewide analytics. The rest of worthitforyou stays free of third-party ad and analytics scripts.
Server logs
Like any website, our hosting provider may briefly log request data (such as IP address) for security and reliability. We don’t use it to build profiles.
How the site is funded (affiliate links)
worthitforyou is free, with no paywall. Pages show labelled Google ads (see “Ads” below), kept apart from the verdict itself. Some retailer links are affiliate links; if you buy through one we may earn a small commission, through that retailer’s own affiliate program or an affiliate network (including Sovrn Commerce for some non-Amazon stores). Amazon clicks may earn us a small per-click fee through Sovrn Commerce (not Amazon Associates), at no extra cost to you. On the way to Amazon, Sovrn and its ad partners may set their own cookies; if your browser blocks them, we send you straight to Amazon instead. When you click through to a store, the retailer’s or network’s affiliate program may set its own cookie so the sale is credited to us. This is used only for affiliate attribution — not to show you ads or build a behavioral profile — and it never affects a verdict. Details on our affiliate disclosure page.
Ads
To keep worthitforyou free, pages across the website show ads served by Google AdSense, each labelled “Advertisement” and kept apart from the verdict itself — never inside a BUY / WAIT / SKIP / FAIR result or next to its buy button. On pages with ads, Google may use cookies and similar technology to show and measure them, under Google’s advertising policies; you can turn off personalised ads at adssettings.google.com. Visitors in the EU, UK and Switzerland are asked for consent first. Our privacy, terms and trust pages carry no ads. Our iPhone and Android apps show one Google AdMob banner above the tab bar on the deal lists — never on a verdict or the scanner; on iPhone it is non-personalised, and in the EU, UK and Switzerland you are asked for consent first. Advertisers never affect a verdict.
AI, and what leaves this site
Two small parts of the site send text to an AI provider to interpret it. This was not previously described here, and it should have been.
- Natural-language search. If you type a question rather than a product name — “cheap airpods under 200” — the words you typed are sent to Groq so they can be turned into a search filter. Nothing else goes with them: no account, no identifier, no history, no other query. We don’t store the question.
- Product summaries and photo matching send the on-page product details, or the photo you chose, to Anthropic when you tap those buttons. They are button-gated — nothing is sent unless you ask for it.
The AI never decides anything you see as a fact. It reads your words; it does not read our price research and it never produces a price, a product or a BUY / WAIT / SKIP / FAIR verdict. Those come from real recorded prices, exactly as they did before. Any number it hands back is discarded unless it appears in what you typed — so a search filter can never be a figure we invented.
If you would rather nothing left the site, type a plain product name or paste an Amazon link: neither path calls an AI provider.
Your choices
Clear local data anytime by clearing your browser storage. To ask about data we may hold, contact us. worthitforyou isn’t directed at children under 13.
Changes
If this policy changes, we’ll update this page and the date above.