Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

Welcome to Find My Smell ("we," "our," or "us"). We respect your privacy and are committed to protecting your personal data. This privacy policy explains how we collect, use, and protect your information when you use our fragrance personality quiz at findmysmell.com.

2. Information We Collect

2.1 Information You Provide

When you take our quiz, we may collect:

• Quiz responses (your preferences, lifestyle patterns, emotional preferences) — including the answers of a quiz you start and do not finish,
• Your own words, whenever you choose to write them — in any question that offers an “Other” field, and in the open question at the end,
• Email address, only if you ask us to send you your result.

2.2 Information Collected Automatically

We run no third-party analytics, no advertising, and no device-fingerprinting scripts on this website. Nothing you do here is reported to Google, Meta, or any other company. We do count how far people get through the quiz, on our own server — see section 4.3. The only identifier involved is a random number your browser generates at the start of a quiz run and keeps in its own storage. It lets us avoid saving the same run twice, and lets us read one run as a single journey rather than a pile of unrelated steps. It is not derived from your device, it tells us nothing about you, and it is discarded when you start a new run.

Like any website, ours is served by a hosting provider that keeps standard server logs (IP address, browser type, requested page) for security and troubleshooting. We do not combine those logs with your quiz responses.

3. How We Use Your Information

We use your information to:

• Provide personalised fragrance recommendations based on your quiz responses,
• Improve our quiz algorithm and user experience,
• Send you your quiz result (if you provided an email address),
• Comply with legal obligations.

Legal Basis for Processing (GDPR Art. 6)

We process your personal data on the following legal bases:

• Consent — storing your quiz responses for research, and sending you your result by email. Each is a separate checkbox, and you may withdraw either at any time by contacting us at contact@findmysmell.com.
• Legitimate interest — aggregated psychographic and demographic analysis for fragrance market research, and website security.
• Legal obligation — where processing is required to comply with applicable laws.

If you decline the research checkbox, you still see your result: it is calculated in your browser. Your answers are recorded as not consented and are not used in research.

If you leave before the end, the answers you have already given are kept as an unfinished run. We ask for the research consent on the last screen, so an unfinished run has never been through it: it is recorded as not consented and is not used in research, exactly like a declined one. We keep it to see where and why people stop, which is the legitimate interest named above. It holds no email address and no name, so there is nothing in it that points back to you — which is also why we cannot single it out and delete it on request. It is erased on the same schedule as any other quiz run: three years at the most, see section 7. The copy kept on your own device you can clear yourself at any time, through your browser settings.

4. Cookies and Tracking Technologies

This website sets no cookies. What it does use is your browser's own storage, on your device, to remember your progress through the quiz and your result. Nothing in that storage is sent anywhere except your answers: the full set when you reach your result, or what you had answered so far if you leave before the end (see section 3). You can clear it at any time through your browser settings, and doing so removes everything the site has kept on your device.

Automated Processing & Profiling

Our quiz uses automated processing to assign you a fragrance archetype based on your responses. This profiling is not used to make decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects on you. It is used solely to generate a personalised fragrance recommendation. You have the right to request human review of any automated result by contacting us at contact@findmysmell.com.

4.3 Audience Measurement

We measure how the quiz performs: which question a person reached, which question they answered, which answer options get chosen, and how many people reach their result and ask for it by email. This is recorded by our own server in our own database in the European Union. No third party receives it, and nothing is placed on or read from your device in order to collect it.

What is recorded in these counters: the step, whether it was shown or answered, the answer option chosen, the site language, and the time. What is not in them: your IP address, your browser or device, the page you arrived from, your screen size, your location, and any free text. Your answers themselves, including anything you write in your own words, are not part of this measurement — they are stored with your quiz run, finished or not, and covered by section 3. Each row is keyed only by the random per-run number described in section 2 — it dies with your browser session and cannot connect two visits.

No consent banner appears on this site because there is nothing to consent to: no cookie is set, nothing is sent to a third party, and the only thing kept on your device for measurement is the random number in section 4.4. For the measurement itself, and for that number, we rely on the exemption from prior consent that the CNIL provides for audience statistics strictly limited to the site owner's own use, first-party, never shared, and kept for a limited period. Measurement rows are deleted after 13 months and the number expires after 13 months — the maximum the CNIL states.

4.4 Recognising Repeat Runs

Your browser also keeps one random number whose only job is to tell a first run of the quiz apart from a second or third one. Without it, one person taking the quiz ten times looks like ten people, and the research set stops being a sample. It is generated by your browser, it is not derived from your device, and it contains nothing about you.

It expires after 13 months and is then replaced by a new one, so it never lives longer than the maximum the CNIL allows for measurement identifiers. It is used for our own statistics only, is never shared, and is never used to follow you on any other website. You can remove it yourself at any time: the “Cookies & data” link in the footer of every page opens a panel that shows whether your browser holds one, how many runs it has sent, and a button that deletes it. Clearing your browser storage removes it too, and the next run simply counts as a first run again. Runs you already sent stay in our database — they are anonymous, so we cannot find them to delete.

Be aware of what this does and does not mean. It identifies a browser, not a person: the same person on a phone and on a laptop counts as two. It lets us say “these runs came from the same browser, and the archetype changed between them”. It does not let us say who you are, and we still cannot connect a run to you unless you give us your email address.

5. Affiliate Marketing Disclosure

Find My Smell participates in affiliate marketing programs. When you click on product recommendations and make a purchase, we may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.

5.1 Affiliate Partners

We work with the following affiliate networks and retailers:

• Awin (including merchants like Cult Beauty, Douglas, and others),
• CJ Affiliate (including Notino and other fragrance retailers),
• Individual brand affiliate programs.

5.2 Affiliate Tracking

When you follow a product link, you leave our site and the retailer's own tracking begins. Those cookies are set by the retailer, not by us. They identify that you came from our website, track whether you made a purchase, typically expire within 30 days, and do not collect personally identifiable information.

For more information on how our affiliate partners handle data, please review their privacy policies: Awin (awin.com/gb/privacy) and CJ Affiliate (cj.com/legal/privacy-policy-services).

6. Data Sharing

We do not sell your personal data. We may share your information with:

• Service providers: third-party services that help us operate our website (hosting, database, image delivery, email),
• Business insights partners: aggregated, anonymised psychographic and demographic data (trends, preferences, archetype distributions, geographic patterns) may be shared with fragrance brands for market research purposes. Individual user information is never identified or shared,
• Legal compliance: when required by law or to protect our rights.

Data Processors

We use the following third-party data processors, who may access your data solely to provide services on our behalf:

• Railway Corp. — application hosting and database. Our database runs in the European Union (Amsterdam).
• Cloudinary Ltd. — image delivery (USA). Images only; no quiz data reaches Cloudinary.
• Brevo (Sendinblue SAS, 55 rue d'Amsterdam, 75008 Paris, France) — email delivery, when you ask for your result by email. Brevo is GDPR-compliant and stores data within the EU.

All processors operate under GDPR-compliant data processing agreements.

7. Data Retention

We retain your information as follows:

• Quiz response vectors (your full set of scored answers): retained for a maximum of 3 years from the date of submission, after which they are permanently deleted or fully anonymised.
• Aggregated, anonymised psychographic data (trends, archetype distributions, demographic patterns): retained indefinitely for research and market intelligence purposes. This data cannot be linked to any individual user.
• Email addresses: stored for a maximum of 12 months, after which they are deleted.
• Funnel measurement rows (which quiz step was shown or answered, with no personal data in them): retained for 13 months, then permanently deleted.
• The random run identifier: lives only in your browser's storage and never leaves your device in any form that identifies it.
• The random browser number used to tell repeat runs apart: expires after 13 months, then replaced. It lives in your browser's own storage and you can clear it yourself at any time.

You may request deletion of any data associated with a contact you have provided by emailing contact@findmysmell.com.

7.1 Email

When you ask for your quiz result by email, we collect your email address. It is stored in our database in the European Union and used solely to send you your result — one transactional email. We do not send newsletters, marketing emails, or any follow-up communications unless you explicitly opt in separately. Your email address is stored separately from quiz responses and is not linked to them.

Legal basis: we process your email on the basis of your explicit consent, given via the checkbox on the result page.

8. Your Rights (GDPR)

If you are located in the European Union, you have the following rights:

• Right to Access: request a copy of your personal data,
• Right to Rectification: correct inaccurate or incomplete data,
• Right to Erasure: request deletion of your personal data,
• Right to Restrict Processing: limit how we use your data,
• Right to Data Portability: receive your data in a structured format,
• Right to Object: object to certain types of processing,
• Right to Withdraw Consent: withdraw consent for data processing at any time.

Whether we can delete what we hold about you comes down to one thing: whether you gave us an email address.

• You did — write to contact@findmysmell.com and we will delete everything stored under that address, and tell you when it is done.
• You did not — then nothing we hold points to you. Your answers are stored without a name and without an address; the only thing they carry is the random browser number from section 4.4, which relates one run to another but never to a person. We cannot find them, and neither can anyone else. They are erased on a schedule instead: three years at the most, see section 7.

Your email address is kept separately from your quiz answers and is not linked to them (section 7.1). That separation is what keeps the answers anonymous, and it is also its cost: deleting your address does not delete a particular quiz run, because we cannot tell which run was yours.

To exercise any of these rights (if you have provided contact information), please contact us at contact@findmysmell.com.

Supervisory Authority

You have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority. In France, this is the Commission Nationale de l'Informatique et des Libertés (CNIL). Website: www.cnil.fr. Address: 3 Place de Fontenoy, TSA 80715, 75334 Paris Cedex 07.

9. International Data Transfers

Your quiz responses and, if you provide one, your email address are stored in the European Union and do not leave it.

Images on this site are delivered by Cloudinary, whose servers are outside the European Economic Area. This affects the delivery of pictures only — no quiz data is transferred. Where data is transferred outside the EEA, we rely on Standard Contractual Clauses approved by the European Commission under Article 46 GDPR. For more information on the safeguards in place, please contact us at contact@findmysmell.com.

10. Security

We implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data against unauthorised access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction. However, no internet transmission is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

11. Children's Privacy

Our website is not intended for individuals under the age of 18. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children. If you believe we have collected information from a child, please contact us immediately.

12. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time. We will notify you of significant changes by posting the new policy on this page with an updated "Last updated" date. We encourage you to review this policy periodically.

13. Contact Us

The data controller for this website is Kristina Vanhove, Lille, France. If you have any questions about this privacy policy or our data practices, please contact us:

• Email: contact@findmysmell.com
• Website: findmysmell.com

14. Glossary

The following terms are used in this privacy policy:

• Archetype — a fragrance personality profile assigned to you at the end of the quiz (for example: CEO, HUG, JAPAN, SUMMER). Your archetype is based on the pattern of your quiz responses and is used solely to generate your personalised fragrance recommendation.
• Psychographic data — information about your personality traits, preferences, lifestyle patterns, and emotional responses, as revealed through your quiz answers. This type of data goes beyond basic demographics (age, location) to describe how and why you make choices.
• Score vector — the full numerical record of your quiz responses across all questions and answer options. Rather than storing only your winning archetype, we store the complete set of scores, which provides richer data for research and recommendation accuracy. Score vectors are stored without personal identifiers and cannot be linked to you personally.
• Aggregated data — data that has been combined and summarised across many users so that no individual can be identified. For example: "40% of users in Europe selected the same perfume archetype." This is the form in which we share insights with fragrance industry partners.

15. Version History

• Version 1.0 — February 2026. Initial policy published.
• Version 1.1 — April 2026. Added legal basis for processing, data processors list, CNIL reference, glossary, version history, updated data retention specifics.
• Version 2.0 — September 2026. Rewritten for the new website. Device fingerprinting, analytics cookies, and Google Sheets storage were removed from the product, and from this policy with them. Quiz responses and email addresses are now stored in the European Union.
• Version 2.1 — September 2026. First-party audience measurement added: the site now counts progress through the quiz on its own server, with no cookie, no third-party script, and no personal data. Section 4.3 describes exactly what is and is not recorded.
• Version 2.2 — September 2026. Added the random browser number that distinguishes a first run of the quiz from a repeat one, described in section 4.4. Section 8 was corrected accordingly: responses are pseudonymous rather than fully anonymous, because two runs from the same browser can be seen as related.