Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy describes how thebondlab.net (“The Bond Lab,” “we,” “us”) handles information when you use our molecular biology tools and related pages. These tools are offered for educational and research support; they are not a substitute for professional judgement where medicine or safety-critical decisions apply. This policy is written to meet Google AdSense and related advertising disclosure requirements, among other transparency goals.

Last updated: 31 October 2026

Cookies, device data, and similar technologies

We and third-party vendors (including Google) may store or access information on your device, including cookies, local storage entries, and similar technologies. Depending on your choices and the services in use, that information can include:

When you first visit thebondlab.net, a cookie consent banner lets you accept all cookies or reject non-essential cookies. Essential use means the site and tools still work without analytics or personalised advertising cookies. Non-essential cookies may be used for Google Analytics (traffic measurement) and Google AdSense (advertising). We use Google Consent Mode so these services respect your choice until you accept.

Visitors in the UK, European Economic Area (EEA), and Switzerland are presented with this consent banner before non-essential cookies for analytics or personalized ads are used. You can change your mind anytime by clearing site data for thebondlab.net in your browser, which will show the banner again on your next visit. You can also block or delete cookies through your browser settings.

Analytics (Google Analytics)

We use Google Analytics (GA4) to understand aggregate traffic — for example which pages are visited and how the site performs technically. Google may collect information such as pages viewed, approximate location, device type, and referral source. Analytics may rely on cookies or similar technologies as described in Google’s Privacy & Terms. You can use browser controls to limit cookies and tracking, and you can opt out of Google Analytics using Google’s Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on where available.

Advertising (Google AdSense and partners)

Some pages on thebondlab.net display advertisements served by Google AdSense and other advertising partners. Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on a user’s prior visits to this website or other websites on the Internet. Google’s use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visit to this site and/or other sites on the Internet. These technologies may also be used to limit how often you see an ad and to measure ad performance.

We partner with Google. When you use sites or apps that partner with Google (including this site when ads are shown), Google may use data as described in Google’s Privacy & Terms and in How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services.

You may opt out of personalized advertising by visiting:

Opting out of personalized ads does not mean you will see no ads; you may still see non-personalized advertising. Our publisher identifier for ads.txt is pub-1026760236875256 (see ads.txt on this domain). AdSense is not loaded on every page (for example privacy, terms, contact, and some hub menus never request ads).

Tool inputs and server processing

When you run a calculator or sequence utility, your inputs are processed so the tool can return results. Treat unpublished data, identifiable human information, and confidential materials accordingly — do not submit sensitive personal health information unless your local policies explicitly allow it and you accept any associated risk.

Details of retention (how long inputs or outputs are kept on servers, if at all) depend on hosting configuration. Where feasible we minimise retention of submitted content beyond what is needed to complete a request.

Site content (guides, protocols, publications)

Guides and protocol pages on thebondlab.net are written for researchers and educators and are not medical advice. The publications page lists peer-reviewed work from the Bond Lab with links to external lookup services; citation data and copyright remain with the original publishers. If you subscribe to the optional quarterly newsletter (see below), emails may mention new site tools or lab-related updates — they are not a substitute for reading primary sources.

Third‑party services

Some tools load data from external sites when you request them, for example:

Quarterly newsletter

If you use the newsletter form in the site footer, we store your email address and whether you are subscribed or unsubscribed. Records are kept in a comma-separated file on the Hostinger web server that serves thebondlab.net. Each row also records when you subscribed, unsubscribed, or last changed your preference.

We use that list only to send occasional quarterly updates about The Bond Lab site, tools, and related lab activities. We do not sell or rent newsletter addresses, and we do not use them for unrelated marketing. You can unsubscribe at any time with the same form. New subscriptions require you to tick a consent checkbox on the form; that records your agreement under UK GDPR (lawful basis: consent). Unsubscribe does not require the checkbox.

The form is processed by a small server script on Hostinger. It does not add you to a third-party mailing platform automatically. If you contact us separately by email, that correspondence is handled outside this list file.

Contact & updates

For questions about privacy, this site, or lab research, email mark.bond@bristol.ac.uk or use our Contact Us page. See also Terms of Use. We may revise this notice from time to time; the current version will always be posted here with an updated “Last updated” date.