What we keep, and why

Who we are

Be Kind Design is a small design studio in Bozeman, Montana. This notice covers this website and any message you send us through it. If you have a question about it, write to hello@bekind.design.

What we collect

Only what you give us on the contact form: your name, the organization you're with, your email address, and whatever you write in the message. Nothing on this site asks for a phone number, a street address, a date of birth, or payment details.

When you visit, our hosting provider's web server records what most web servers record: the address of the page you asked for, the time, your browser type, and your IP address. These logs are used to keep the site running and to diagnose problems. We do not combine them with what you put on the form.

We don't use analytics services, advertising pixels, social-media buttons, or tracking cookies. The site sets no cookies of its own. Your browser may keep a small note of which version of the site you last chose; that stays on your device and never reaches us.

Why we collect it, and what we do with it

To read your message and reply to it. That's the whole use. We don't add you to a mailing list, we don't send newsletters, and we won't email you about anything other than the conversation you started unless you ask us to.

We don't sell personal information, and we never have. We don't share it with anyone for their own marketing. We don't use it to build profiles or make automated decisions about you.

Who else touches it

Two kinds of service providers, both working only on our instructions:

Delivery. When you press the stamp, your message travels through the form service we use to deliver messages to our inbox, and our email is hosted by a mainstream email provider. Those companies store the message so that it can be delivered and read; they are not permitted to use it for anything else.

Hosting. The site is served from Google Cloud, which handles the server logs described above under its own privacy commitments.

Beyond that, we would disclose information only if the law required it, or to protect someone's safety. If we ever sold the studio, your message would go with the inbox it lives in, and we'd tell you here.

How long we keep it

Messages stay in our inbox for about two years so we can pick a conversation back up, then we delete them. Server logs are kept for thirty days. If you become a client, what you've told us becomes part of the project file, which we keep for as long as we're working together and for a reasonable time afterward so we can support the work.

Your choices and your rights

You can ask us, at any time, to tell you what we hold about you, to correct it, or to delete it, and we will, within thirty days, no matter where you live. Email hello@bekind.design from the address you used and we'll take care of it. We won't treat you differently for asking.

Several states — California, Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia, Utah, Texas, Oregon, Montana and others — give residents specific rights over their personal information. Most of those laws apply only to businesses far larger than this one, and we are well below their thresholds. We honor the requests anyway, because that's the right way to treat people. California residents may also ask what information we've disclosed to third parties for direct marketing in the past year; the answer is none, and it will stay none.

Because we collect nothing through cookies or tracking, there's nothing to opt out of. We don't respond to browser "Do Not Track" or Global Privacy Control signals in any special way, since the site already behaves as if every visitor had sent one.

Children

This site is for organizations and the adults who run them. We don't knowingly collect information from anyone under thirteen, and we don't direct the site at children. If you believe a child has sent us something, tell us and we'll delete it.

Security

The site is served over HTTPS, so what you type on the form is encrypted on its way to us. The inbox and the form service are protected with strong passwords and two-factor sign-in. No system is perfect; if something ever goes wrong with your information, we'll tell you promptly and plainly.

Changes

If we change how we handle information — say, we add a newsletter or an analytics tool — we'll update this page, change the effective date at the top, and, if the change matters, mention it on the contact form itself. We won't apply a new policy to information we already have without telling you.