Privacy Policy

What is collected, and when

When you browse the website

This website is built and hosted on Framer. Two analytics tools measure traffic on it, and I want to be specific about both, because "privacy first" is a phrase every analytics company uses and it deserves to be unpacked rather than repeated.

Neither tool uses cookies. Neither creates a persistent identifier. Nothing is placed on your device to recognise you later, which is why this site does not ask you to accept cookies. There is nothing to consent to, because nothing is being stored on your side.

Rybbit is the tool I chose. It is open source and cookieless by design, and it salts visitor IDs daily so that visitors cannot be fingerprinted. Rybbit's cloud service stores its data on servers in Germany. Through it I can see: how many people visited, which pages they read, how long they stayed, the city and country a visit came from, what browser and device was used, and whether someone arrived from a search engine, a social link, or directly.

I want to name the city point plainly rather than let you discover it: yes, I can see the city a visit came from. That is a rough geographic lookup from your IP address, done at Rybbit's end. It is not your address, it is not tied to your name, and I cannot connect it to any other visit you make. But it is finer than country level and you should know it.

Rybbit's session replay feature is switched off, and will stay off. Rybbit is capable of recording and replaying real visitor sessions. I have chosen not to use it. You are welcome to read about my work without me watching over your shoulder, and given what I ask people to share with me, anything else would sit badly.

Framer's built-in analytics also run, and this one is not a choice. Analytics tracking is built into every Framer site automatically, with no setup and no off switch. It is also cookieless, and it measures roughly the same things: visitor counts, pageviews, bounce rate, session length, traffic sources, top pages, countries, and device types. Its "unique visitors" figure resets daily, so someone reading on Tuesday and again on Thursday is counted twice. Framer's own privacy practices are at framer.com/legal/privacy-statement.

What all of this is for. I want to know whether the writing is reaching anyone and which pages are worth improving. That is the entire purpose. None of it is used for advertising, none of it is sold, and none of it becomes a picture of you.

Separately, Framer's servers keep ordinary technical logs in order to serve the site and keep it secure, which can include IP addresses and requested pages. That is standard web hosting and I do not receive it as a report about anyone.

If you would rather not be counted at all, a tracker-blocking extension will handle it, and nothing on this site will break.

When you use the contact form

The contact form on this site is Framer's built-in form. When you submit it, the information you type into it, typically your name, your email address, and your message, is stored by Framer and sent to me by email.

I use this only to reply to you and to keep a record of our conversation.

When you book a call

Bookings are handled through TidyCal. When you book, TidyCal collects your name, your email address, and anything you choose to write in the booking notes, and sends that to me.

TidyCal is the scheduling system. I use it to know when we are meeting and how to reach you about it. TidyCal's privacy practices are described at tidycal.com/privacy.

When you subscribe to the newsletter

The AnimaDreams newsletter is published on Substack. If you subscribe, you are giving your email address to Substack, and Substack handles the subscription and the sending. I can see the list of subscribers.

You can unsubscribe at any time using the link at the bottom of any email, and you do not need to ask me first. Substack's privacy practices are described at substack.com/privacy.

When you become a client

If we work together, I hold what you share with me in order to do the work. Depending on the service, this can include:

• Your answers to any intake questions or questionnaires

• Notes I take during or after a session

• Photographs, floor plans, or descriptions of your home, if you send them

• The written report I prepare for you, if your service includes one

Client materials are stored on private storage that I own and control directly, not on a public cloud service. Copies of anything you email me will also exist in my email account.

I hold this because I cannot do the work without it. Nothing you share with me is used for marketing, published, or shown to anyone else. See "Confidentiality" below.

What is not done

• No Google Analytics, no advertising or retargeting pixels, no heatmaps, no data brokers.

• No session replay. The analytics tool I use can record and replay visitor sessions. It is switched off.

• No cookies used to track you, and no persistent identifiers. Nothing follows you across days or across sites.

• No selling, renting, or trading your information to anyone, for any reason.

• No automated decision-making or profiling.

• No building a picture of you as an individual visitor. The traffic counts described above are not tied to a person and cannot be untangled back into one.

• No sharing your information with other clients, colleagues, or third parties, except as described in "Confidentiality" below.

Why your information is held

Plainly:

• To answer you. If you write to me, I need your message and your email to reply.

• To meet with you. If you book a call, I need to know who is coming and how to reach you.

• To do the work. If we work together, I need what you tell me about your life and your home in order to be useful to you.

• To send the newsletter, if and only if you asked for it.

• To keep basic records, for example so I know what we discussed last time, and to meet any tax or accounting obligations that apply.

• To know whether the writing is reaching anyone, through the anonymous traffic counts described above.

Where a law requires me to name a legal basis for holding your information, it is your consent, or the performance of our agreement to work together, or my legitimate interest in running a small practice and answering people who contact me.

Who else can see it

The services I use to run this practice can technically access the information stored in them. They are:

• Rybbit holds anonymous traffic counts, on servers in Germany. It is how I know whether the writing is reaching anyone.

• Framer hosts the website, stores contact form submissions, and keeps its own anonymous traffic counts.

• TidyCal holds your name, email, and booking notes, and it is how sessions get scheduled.

• Substack holds your email address, if you subscribed to the newsletter.

• My email provider holds anything you have emailed me.

• Private storage I own holds client intake answers, session notes, and reports. This is where the work itself lives.

These providers are bound by their own privacy terms. I do not authorise any of them to use your information for their own marketing.

Beyond these, your information is shared only if I am legally required to share it, or in the narrow safety situations described in "Confidentiality" below.

Where your information goes

I work with people in several countries, and the services above are operated by companies based in different countries, including the United States. Analytics data sits on servers in Germany. This means your information may be stored or processed outside the country where you live. By using this website, booking a call, or working with me, you understand that this is the case.

I have chosen small, standard tools rather than large data-driven platforms, in part for this reason.

How long it is kept

• Contact form messages and email: kept while there is a reason to, then deleted. If a conversation goes nowhere, I clear it out.

• Booking records: kept while the booking is active and for a reasonable period afterwards.

• Newsletter subscription: kept until you unsubscribe.

• Analytics: traffic data is kept by Rybbit's cloud service for twelve months by default, then deleted automatically. Since none of it identifies anyone, there is nothing in it to hand back to you or erase on request.

• Client materials: kept for as long as we are working together, and afterwards for a reasonable period so that your history is available if you return. You can ask me to delete it sooner and I will.

If you ask me to delete something and I am legally required to keep it, for example for tax records, I will tell you that plainly rather than quietly keeping it.

Your rights

I give every person the same rights, regardless of where you live. You do not need to cite a law and you do not need to explain why.

You can ask me to:

• Tell you what I hold about you

• Correct anything that is wrong

• Delete what I hold about you

• Send you a copy of what you gave me

• Stop using your information for a particular purpose

• Withdraw consent you previously gave, at any time

Write to dominique@animadreams.com and I will respond within thirty days, usually much sooner. It is me reading the email, not a system.

If you are in the European Union, the United Kingdom, Canada, or another place with a data protection authority, you also have the right to complain to that authority. I would ask you to write to me first, so I have a chance to fix it.

Children

This website and this practice are for adults. Services are not for anyone under 18, and I do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18. If you believe a child has given me information, write to me and I will delete it.

Links to other places

This website links to other sites, including Substack and TidyCal, and mentions SOS El Arca, an animal shelter in Playa del Carmen.

A note on SOS El Arca: AnimaDreams is not affiliated with, associated with, or endorsed by SOS El Arca. I suggest a donation to them because I believe in their work. Any donation you make goes directly to them. I do not collect it, I do not handle it, I do not see it, and I receive nothing for it.

Once you leave this website, you are covered by the privacy policy of wherever you land, not by this one.

Security

Client materials are stored on private storage I control, and access to the services above is protected. I take this seriously and I keep the number of places your information lives deliberately small.

That said, no method of storing or transmitting information is perfectly secure, and I will not pretend otherwise. If something ever went wrong in a way that affected you, I would tell you.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes in a way that matters, the date at the top will change and, where the change is significant, I will tell subscribers and active clients directly. Continuing to use the site after a change means you accept the updated policy.

Contact

dominique@animadreams.com

Write to me. I read it myself.