Privacy

Site analytics (PostHog)

We use PostHog (US cloud) for product analytics. It records page views, when you leave a page, clicks on page elements, and PCRANK events such as search and filter changes and which listing you clicked (name, price, rating, CPU, GPU, and retailer link). PostHog also receives the standard details any website gets, such as your IP address and browser type, and stores an anonymous visitor ID in a cookie and local storage.

Our own analytics and attribution

PCRANK also records a small set of events on its own servers: page views, listing page views, search and filter interactions, and retailer clicks. Each event includes the page path, a random per-tab visit ID, the page you first landed on, the site that referred you (domain only), any utm_source, utm_medium, and utm_campaign values in the landing URL, whether you arrived from a Google ad click, and a device type (desktop, mobile, or tablet) derived from your browser. We do not store your IP address or full browser string with these events.

Retailer clicks

When you click through to a retailer, we record the listing, the retailer, its price, and its deal rating. Many of these links carry affiliate codes so the retailer can credit PCRANK for a purchase (see our affiliate disclosure). Once you are on the retailer's site, its own privacy policy applies. Retailers do not send us your name, address, or payment details.

Google Ads

Every page loads the Google Ads tag after the page finishes loading. Google uses it, along with its own cookies, to measure the results of PCRANK ad campaigns. Google's handling of that data is covered by Google's privacy policy.

Cookies and browser storage

• __pcrank_sessionCookie (HTTP-only)

  Keeps you signed in. Only set when you sign in; lasts up to 30 days.

• pcrank-themeLocal storage

  Remembers light or dark mode.

• pcrank_funnel_sessionSession storage

  Random visit ID plus landing page, referrer, and UTM values for our own analytics. Cleared when you close the tab.

• PostHog (ph_*)Cookie and local storage

  Anonymous visitor ID used by PostHog analytics.

• Google AdsCookies set by Google

  Measures visits that come from our Google ad campaigns.

You can clear or block these in your browser settings. The site still works without them, though you won't stay signed in.

Accounts and sign-in

Accounts are optional. If you create one, your email address and password are handled by Amazon Cognito, which sends the confirmation and password-reset codes. PCRANK never stores your password; the sign-in cookie holds only your account ID.

Feedback and messages

If you send feedback, we store your rating, your message, and the page you sent it from, along with a one-way hash of the network address for rate limiting. Messages sent through the contact form, and the email address you enter there, are written to our server logs.

Hosting and logs

PCRANK runs on cloud servers. Like most web hosts, the cloud provider keeps request logs that include IP address, requested URL, and browser details. Our own servers also log request paths, response times, and the search filters you choose. We use these logs to keep the site running and to fix problems.

Product images load directly from retailer servers, so those retailers receive a normal image request from your browser.

What we don't do

We don't sell the data described here, and we don't share it with anyone beyond the services and retailers named on this page.