Last updated: 31 October 2026
The Protein Index is written and operated by Ryan Davis and is a Ryan Davis, LLC publication. This page says what the site collects when you read it or write to us, where that information goes, and how long we keep it. It describes the site as it runs on 31 October 2026. When the site changes, this page will change with it.
The short version
- The site sets no cookies for readers.
- We count visits with analytics that run on our own server and use no cookies.
- If you use the contact form, we keep what you send, and a spam-checking service reads it first.
- The site has no reader accounts, comments, newsletter or advertising.
Cookies and browser storage
Reading pages and following links sets no cookies in your browser. WordPress stores one small test result in your browser’s session storage, recording whether your browser can show emoji. Session storage is cleared when you close the tab.
Logged-in staff accounts get WordPress’s login cookies, and our analytics sets one cookie on staff browsers so our own visits are left out of the counts. Readers never get these.
Analytics
We count visits with Independent Analytics, a WordPress plugin that runs on our own server. It uses no cookies and sends nothing to an outside analytics company.
For each visit it records the page you read, the page that sent you here, your browser, operating system and device type, links you click to other sites, and whether a form was sent (a count only; the analytics never sees what you wrote). It also records your country and city, worked out from your IP address with a location database file kept on our server.
To tell one visitor from another, it keeps a scrambled code made from your IP address, your browser’s user agent string and a secret value. The analytics stores that code and does not store the IP address itself.
We keep analytics records for 13 months, then delete them.
Affiliate links
Affiliate links on this site go through our own /go/ addresses, as the affiliate disclosure explains. When you follow one, we add one to a daily count for that link. We record nothing about you when you do.
The site you land on, and any affiliate network behind it, may set its own cookies so the sale is credited to us. Their privacy policies cover what they collect.
The contact form
When you send the contact form, we keep your name, email address, topic and message. The form software also stores your IP address, your browser’s user agent string and the page you sent it from.
Before your message is saved, the form sends your message, email address and IP address to OOPSpam (oopspam.com), a spam-filtering service, which returns a spam score. We keep a log of each check on our server, including the message, and that log is cleared every month.
A copy of each message is emailed to us through Amazon Simple Email Service. Our email software keeps a log of the emails it sends, including their text.
We keep contact messages, and the log of emails sent, for 12 months, then delete them.
Fonts, images and outside services
Fonts, images and scripts are served from our own server. Pages load no embeds, fonts or tracking code from other companies.
If your browser cannot display emoji, WordPress loads emoji images from s.w.org, run by WordPress.org, which sees your IP address as any website you load does.
Links to brands, registries and sources take you to their sites, under their own privacy policies.
Server and security logs
The web server and its security tools, a firewall and a malware scanner, log requests to the site: the IP address, the address requested, the time and the browser’s user agent string. We use these logs to keep the site running and to block attacks. Access logs stay on the server for about a day. Archived copies of access logs, and the firewall’s own log, are kept for up to 3 years for security investigations, then deleted.
The site and its database are backed up every day, and each backup is kept for 7 days. A backup holds whatever the site held that day, contact messages included.
The site is hosted by WebOps Hosting on servers in New York, United States.
Your requests
To ask what we hold about you, or to have it deleted, use the contact form.
Contact
The Protein Index, a Ryan Davis, LLC publication. Write to us with the contact form, or at partners [at] theproteinindex.com.