Last updated: September 1, 2026
Tasting Panel Magazine operates TastingPanel.com. In this Privacy Policy, “Tasting Panel Magazine,” “The Tasting Panel,” “we,” “us,” and “our” refer to Tasting Panel Magazine.
This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and protect personal information when you visit TastingPanel.com, use a service or form that links to this Policy, subscribe to our publications or newsletters, register for an account or event, submit wine or spirits for review, communicate with us, or otherwise interact with us online or offline (collectively, the “Services”).
This Policy does not apply to websites, platforms, or services operated by other organizations, even when we link to or embed them. Those organizations’ privacy policies govern their practices.
1. Information We Collect
The information we collect depends on how you interact with the Services. We may collect information directly from you, automatically from your browser or device, and from service providers, business partners, and public sources.
Information you provide
- Contact and identifying information. Your name, email address, telephone number, mailing address, company, job title, and other professional or trade information. For Trade Access, this includes a work mailing address, a personal home mailing address, a personal mobile number, employer, and job title.
- Account and subscription information. Login details, subscription status, publication preferences, account settings, and records associated with your print or digital subscription.
- Transaction information. Billing address, purchase or payment history, and information needed to process subscription, sample-submission, event, or other fees. Payment-card details are collected and processed by our payment processor; we do not intend to store complete card numbers or card-security codes on our own systems.
- Sample-submission and industry information. Winery, distillery, importer, distributor, agency, or brand information; product names and categories; vintage, appellation, suggested retail price, production, distribution, technical details, shipping information, and related communications or materials submitted for editorial review.
- Communications and submissions. Messages you send us, survey responses, event registrations, contest or promotion entries, comments, photographs, documents, and other information you choose to provide.
- Marketing preferences. Your choices about newsletters, promotional communications, cookies, and other privacy preferences.
Information collected automatically
When you use the Services, we and vendors working on our behalf may automatically collect information through cookies, pixels, tags, local storage, server logs, and similar technologies. This information may include:
- Device and network information, such as IP address, browser type, operating system, device identifiers, language, and general device settings.
- Usage information, such as pages and articles viewed, links or advertisements clicked, referring and exit pages, dates and times of visits, session duration, search activity, and interactions with emails or embedded content.
- Approximate location inferred from an IP address. We do not intend to collect precise geolocation through the Site unless we provide clear notice and obtain any consent required by law.
- Advertising and preference information, such as inferred interests, audience segments, cookie choices, and whether an advertisement was displayed or selected.
Information from other sources
We may receive information from subscription and fulfillment providers, payment processors, event and form platforms, analytics and advertising providers, social-media platforms, sponsors or partners, fraud-prevention and security providers, publicly available trade sources, and affiliated publications. We may combine that information with information collected through the Services.
2. How We Use Information
We may use personal information to:
- Provide, maintain, and improve the Services, including articles, reviews, digital editions, newsletters, accounts, subscriptions, events, webinars, and sample-submission programs.
- Process transactions, fulfill print subscriptions, confirm registrations or submissions, and send service-related notices. For Trade Access members, we use the work mailing address and the home mailing address to deliver the print magazine to both places, and we use the personal mobile number only to contact you about continued employment (re-verification), not as a substitute for marketing consent.
- Verify eligibility for Trade Access using a work email domain or documents you upload (such as a pay stub, employment letter, LinkedIn URL, or liquor license). Uploaded verification documents are kept only as long as needed to support the decision and are then deleted.
- Respond to questions, requests, and editorial or business communications.
- Personalize content and recommendations and remember user settings.
- Measure readership, circulation, engagement, advertising performance, and the effectiveness of our communications.
- Market our publications, events, and services, subject to your communication and privacy choices.
- Protect the Services, our readers, and our business; detect fraud, abuse, security incidents, and other harmful activity; and enforce our agreements.
- Comply with law, respond to lawful requests, establish or defend legal claims, and maintain business and tax records.
- Evaluate or complete a merger, financing, acquisition, reorganization, sale of assets, or similar business transaction.
- Carry out another purpose disclosed to you when the information is collected, or with your consent.
3. Cookies, Analytics, and Advertising
We use cookies and similar technologies for several purposes:
- Essential technologies help the Site function, secure forms and accounts, remember privacy choices, and provide features you request.
- Functional technologies remember preferences and improve convenience.
- Analytics technologies help us understand how readers use the Services and where we can improve them.
- Advertising technologies help us measure campaigns, limit repeated ads, understand audience reach, and, where permitted, deliver advertising based on interests or activity across websites or services.
Third-party analytics, advertising, social-media, video, podcast, digital-edition, and other embedded-content providers may collect information from your browser or device when their technologies appear on a page. Their collection and use of information are governed by their own policies.
You can manage nonessential cookies through Cookie Settings and may also adjust your browser settings. Blocking some technologies may affect how the Services work. Browser-based “Do Not Track” signals are not consistently defined, so the Services may not respond to them. Where required by law, we treat a recognized universal opt-out signal, such as Global Privacy Control, as a request to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information for the browser or device that sends the signal.
4. How We Disclose Information
We may disclose personal information to the following categories of recipients for the purposes described in this Policy:
- Vendors and service providers. Companies that support hosting, cloud storage, security, analytics, advertising operations, email delivery, subscription and circulation management, payment processing, forms, shipping, events, customer support, and professional services.
- Affiliated publications and operations. Other publications, brands, and business operations affiliated with Tasting Panel Magazine, including The SOMM Journal, when needed for shared administration, subscriptions, events, communications, or other purposes described here.
- Advertising, analytics, and technology partners. Partners that help measure audiences and advertising or provide interest-based advertising, subject to applicable law and your privacy choices.
- Sponsors and business partners. A named sponsor or partner when you ask us to share information, register for a jointly offered program, or affirmatively consent to the disclosure. We do not sell, rent, or provide our reader contact lists to another company for its own direct marketing without your affirmative consent.
- Legal and safety recipients. Courts, regulators, law-enforcement agencies, government authorities, opposing parties, or others when we reasonably believe disclosure is required or permitted by law or is necessary to protect rights, safety, property, or the integrity of the Services.
- Transaction participants. Prospective or actual buyers, investors, lenders, advisers, and other participants in a merger, acquisition, financing, reorganization, bankruptcy, sale of assets, or similar transaction, subject to appropriate confidentiality protections where applicable.
- Recipients you direct. Other persons or organizations when you direct us to disclose information or give consent.
We may also disclose information that has been aggregated or deidentified so that it cannot reasonably be linked to you. We do not attempt to reidentify information that has been deidentified, except as permitted by law to test whether our deidentification processes are effective.
5. Sale, Sharing, and Targeted Advertising
We do not sell personal information for money, and we do not rent or trade reader contact lists. Some privacy laws, however, define “sale” or “sharing” broadly enough to include allowing advertising or analytics partners to receive online identifiers, browsing activity, approximate location, or inferred interests for cross-context behavioral or targeted advertising.
Where those laws apply, you may opt out through Your Privacy Choices, through Cookie Settings, or by sending a recognized universal opt-out signal such as Global Privacy Control. We do not knowingly sell or share personal information of anyone under 16.
6. Communications Choices
You may unsubscribe from promotional email by selecting the unsubscribe link in the message or contacting us at [email protected]. We may still send nonpromotional messages, such as subscription, transaction, security, policy, or service notices. You may update print-mail preferences by contacting us using the information below.
7. Data Retention
We retain personal information for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this Policy, including to provide the Services, maintain subscription and editorial records, meet legal and accounting obligations, resolve disputes, enforce agreements, prevent fraud, and protect security. Retention periods vary based on the type and sensitivity of the information, the reason it was collected, legal requirements, and operational needs. We delete, aggregate, or deidentify information when it is no longer reasonably needed, subject to backup and archival cycles.
Trade Access verification documents are deleted after the review decision plus a short administrative hold. If a Trade Access account lapses and the member unsubscribes, we retain the email on a suppression list as required to honor opt-outs, and we do not use that address for marketing.
8. Data Security
We use reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards designed to protect personal information. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of any account credentials and for notifying us if you believe an account or transaction has been compromised.
9. Children and Alcohol-Related Content
The Tasting Panel is a publication about wine, spirits, hospitality, and beverage culture. Its alcohol-related content is intended for adults of legal drinking age in their jurisdiction. The Site does not itself sell or ship alcoholic beverages.
The Services are not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information online from children under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has provided personal information to us, contact us at [email protected] so that we can take appropriate action.
10. Third-Party Links and Embedded Services
The Services may link to or display content from other organizations, including advertisers, retailers, ticketing or registration providers, social networks, video and podcast platforms, and digital-edition services. We do not control those organizations’ privacy or security practices. Review their policies before providing information or using their services.
11. Your Privacy Rights
Depending on where you live and subject to legal exceptions, you may have the right to:
- Request access to or a copy of personal information we maintain about you.
- Request correction of inaccurate personal information.
- Request deletion of personal information.
- Request a portable copy of certain personal information.
- Opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information, targeted advertising, or certain profiling.
- Limit certain uses or disclosures of sensitive personal information, where applicable.
- Withdraw consent where processing is based on consent.
- Appeal our decision on a privacy request, where the law provides an appeal right.
To make a request, contact us at [email protected] or use this privacy request form. Describe the right you wish to exercise and provide enough information for us to locate relevant records. We may verify your identity and authority before completing a request. An authorized agent may submit a request where permitted by law; we may require proof of authorization and may verify the request directly with you.
We will not discriminate against you for exercising a privacy right. Certain information may be exempt from a request, including information we must retain to complete a transaction, protect security, comply with law, or exercise legal rights. If we deny an appealable request, you may appeal by replying to our decision or emailing [email protected] with the subject line “Privacy Appeal.”
12. California Privacy Notice
This section supplements the rest of this Policy for California residents. It is intended to provide notice under the California Online Privacy Protection Act and, if applicable to our operations, the California Consumer Privacy Act as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (“CCPA”).
Categories of personal information
During the preceding 12 months, we may have collected the following categories of personal information, as those categories are defined by California law:
- Identifiers, including name, postal address, email address, telephone number, online identifiers, IP address, and account identifiers.
- Customer-record information, including contact details and payment or billing information. Complete payment-card information is handled by our payment processor.
- Commercial information, including subscription, transaction, submission, event, and service history or preferences.
- Internet or other electronic-network activity, including browsing, search, interaction, device, and advertising information.
- Approximate geolocation derived from an IP address.
- Professional or employment-related information, including employer, title, trade role, and company affiliations.
- Audio, electronic, visual, or similar information that you submit or that is created in connection with an event, webinar, interview, or communication.
- Inferences drawn from other information, such as likely interests, publication preferences, or audience segments.
- Sensitive personal information, such as account login credentials and, when necessary for a transaction, payment information handled by our payment processor. We use sensitive personal information only for permitted operational purposes and do not use it to infer characteristics about you.
We collect these categories from the sources described in Section 1, use them for the purposes described in Section 2, and disclose them to the categories of recipients described in Section 4. We do not sell personal information for money. Depending on our advertising configuration, we may “share,” as that term is defined by the CCPA, identifiers, internet or network activity, approximate location, and inferences with advertising or analytics partners for cross-context behavioral advertising. You can opt out as described in Section 5.
California rights and requests
If the CCPA applies to our processing, California residents may request to know, access, correct, or delete personal information; request information about collection, use, disclosure, sale, or sharing; obtain a portable copy of certain information; opt out of sale or sharing; limit qualifying uses of sensitive personal information; and receive equal service and pricing when exercising these rights, subject to exceptions under law.
Submit a request using this privacy request form or by emailing [email protected]. Requests to opt out of sale or sharing may also be submitted through Your Privacy Choices or Global Privacy Control. We may need to verify a request and will respond within the period required by applicable law.
California “Shine the Light”
California Civil Code Section 1798.83 permits certain California customers to request information about disclosures of personal information to third parties for those third parties’ direct-marketing purposes. Our policy is not to disclose reader contact information to third parties for their own direct marketing without affirmative consent. You may send a request to [email protected] or the mailing address in Section 15.
13. Information for Visitors Outside the United States
The Services are operated from the United States. If you access them from another country, your information may be transferred to, stored in, and processed in the United States and other countries where our vendors operate. Those countries may have privacy laws different from the laws where you live.
For individuals in the European Economic Area, United Kingdom, or Switzerland, where applicable, we process personal information as necessary to perform a contract with you, comply with legal obligations, pursue legitimate interests such as operating, securing, analyzing, and improving the Services, and, where required, based on consent. You may have rights to access, correct, erase, restrict or object to processing, receive data portability, withdraw consent, and lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. Contact [email protected] to exercise a right.
14. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will post the revised version with a new “Last updated” date. If a change materially affects your privacy rights, we will provide additional notice in a manner appropriate to the change, such as a notice on the Site or an email to registered users.
15. Contact Us
Questions or requests concerning this Privacy Policy may be directed to:
Tasting Panel Magazine
Attn: Privacy
1146 N. Central Ave.
No. 329
Glendale, CA 91202
Email: [email protected]
Privacy request form: Submit a privacy request