Privacy, in plain English

What I collect

• Quote and contact forms: your name, business name, email, phone number if you give it, and your message.
• Free site audit form: your name, email, and your website or business name.
• Guide signup: your email address.
• Forms: I also keep a copy of what you send through a form in a private tool that only I can sign in to, so I can track who I owe a reply.
• Software inquiry form: your name, email, organization, how many licenses you need, and your message.
• Accepting a quote online: the name you type and the time you press Accept. I don't record your IP address for this. I also note when you first opened the quote link and how often.
• Emails I send you from my client tool: for quotes, invoices and reminders, the address, subject, message and the name of the attached file are kept with your record.
• Files you send me for your project: your logo, photos, text or a signed copy of a quote, kept in a private store only I can sign in to and backed up nightly.
• Calls, texts, and emails: your phone number or email address, and whatever you send me.
• Basic technical data: like most websites, the server keeps standard logs, such as IP address, browser type, and pages visited, for security and troubleshooting.

How I use it

• To reply to you, send a quote, or do the audit you asked for
• To send the guide you signed up for, two short welcome emails over the next couple of weeks, then new guides when they come out. Every email has an unsubscribe link.
• To send invoices, take payment for a monthly plan, and keep records of work I do for you
• To keep the site secure and working

I don't use your information for anything else, and I never sell or rent it to anyone.

Businesses I email first

Now and then I email a business that hasn't contacted me, to offer help with its website. I only use an address the business has published itself, on its own website or a listing.

For each business I keep its name, that address, the phone number and website it lists, my notes from its public website, and the emails between us. It's all kept in a private tool only I can get into. I use it for that one short run of emails, three at most unless you write back, and for nothing else.

Reply "no thanks" to any of them. I check for replies before every send, so a follow-up doesn't go out after you've said no. Your address then goes on a do-not-contact list and stays there for good, because that list is how I make sure they stay stopped. An address that bounces goes on the same list.

How long I keep the rest depends on how it went:

• I looked the business up but never emailed it: 12 months.
• I emailed and nothing came of it, or you wrote back but we didn't go further: 24 months after my last email.
• You said no thanks, or my email bounced: 12 months, apart from the address on the do-not-contact list.
• You wrote back and we kept talking: your details move into my client records and are kept the same way as everyone else's, under "How long I keep it" below.

When the time is up I delete the notes, the emails and the replies. What stays is the business name and town, its web address, email and phone number, so it gets skipped if it turns up in a later search. The copies on my own computer go at the same time. Backups on my server age out after about two weeks, and the copies I keep of those after about a month.

If you ask me to delete everything I have on your business, I will, apart from your address on the do-not-contact list. Without it I'd have no way to know not to email you again.

Who else sees it

A few services help run this site. Each one only gets what it needs to do its job.

• Hosting: the site runs on a server I manage myself, rented from Hostinger.
• Cloudflare: helps protect the site from attacks and spam.
• Email: messages from the forms, and the guide and toolkit emails, are sent through ZeptoMail, which is part of Zoho. My own mailbox is Zoho Mail.
• Google Workspace: emails to businesses I contact first go out from a separate mailbox, on its own domain rather than this one, and Google Workspace runs it. Replies to those emails land there too.
• Payments: card payments go through Stripe. On the monthly plan or hosting, Stripe keeps your card on file and charges it each month until you cancel, and holds the name, email and billing address you give it. Stripe sends its own receipts and failed-payment emails. Card details go straight to Stripe; I never see or store the full number.
• Analytics: visitor numbers are counted using Umami, which I host myself on the same server. It doesn't use cookies, doesn't follow you between websites, and doesn't collect anything that identifies you personally.

I'll also share information if the law requires it.

Cookies

This site doesn't use tracking cookies, and the analytics don't use cookies at all. Two small things are stored in your own browser rather than sent to me: whether you chose light or dark mode, and whether you've already been shown the guide popup, so you only see it once. Both stay on your device and I can't read them. Cloudflare may set a small cookie of its own to help block bots. On a payment page, Stripe may set its own cookies to prevent fraud.

How long I keep it

I keep messages and quotes as long as they're useful for working with you, and records of paid work as long as tax rules require. Guide subscribers stay on the list until they unsubscribe. A copy of a form message stays in that tool for as long as it's useful for working with you, and is deleted when you ask. Backups of it are kept for a short while and replaced as they age. Your name, accepted quotes, email history and files are kept while we work together, and as long as tax rules require for records of paid work. Ask me to delete them and I will within 30 days; backups on my server age out after about two weeks, and the copies I keep of those after about a month. For a business I emailed first, the times are in that section.

Your choices

• Unsubscribe from guide emails any time, using the link at the bottom of every email.
• Stop emails I sent you first by replying "no thanks" to any of them.
• Ask what I have about you, or ask me to delete it, by emailing [email protected]. I'll take care of it within 30 days.

Kids

This site is for businesses. It isn't meant for children under 13, and I don't knowingly collect their information.

Changes

If this page changes, I'll update the date at the top.

Questions

Email [email protected], or call or text 845-500-6590.