Privacy Policy: What This Site Collects, and What It Does Not

Effective date: September 7, 2026. This policy replaces the policy dated June 11, 2023, and applies from the day this version of the site goes live.

This website (danieltstephens.com, the “Service”) is operated by Stephens Counseling PLLC, an Arizona professional limited liability company. This page tells you what personal data the Service collects, how it is used, and what choices you have. By using the Service you agree to the collection and use of information as described here.

The short version

Every page here is written out ahead of time and served as a finished file. Its fonts come from this site rather than from a font network, so no font company sees you either. Visitor counting is done by software I run on my own account rather than by an advertising company, and nothing it records is sold, shared with advertisers, or used to follow you anywhere else. No advertising or remarketing trackers run here at all.

Definitions

Service. The danieltstephens.com website.
Personal Data. Data about a living individual who can be identified from that data, or from that data together with other information in my possession or likely to come into it.
Usage Data. Data collected automatically, either generated by use of the Service or by the computers that serve it, for example the duration of a page visit.
Cookies. Small pieces of data stored on your device.
Data Controller. The person or entity that determines the purposes for which and the manner in which personal data are processed. For this Service, that is Stephens Counseling PLLC.
Data Processor, or Service Provider. Any person who processes data on the Controller’s behalf.

What is collected

Personal Data. Reading the Service asks nothing of you. There is no account, no comment box, and no mailing list. The contact form on the contact page asks for your name, your email address, and your message. I use what you send only to answer you, and I keep it as ordinary correspondence.

A mailing list is planned before this site launches. When it exists, you will have to ask for it, nobody is added without asking, every message will carry a one-click way out, and the list will never be sold, rented, or shared. This page will name the company that carries it before it collects a single address.

Usage Data. The company that hosts the Service keeps ordinary server request logs. These may include your Internet Protocol address, browser type and version, the pages you request, the date and time of the request, and diagnostic information such as error codes. I use these only to keep the site working and secure. I do not use them to build a profile of you, and I do not join them to anything else.

Visitor counting. The Service counts visits using Matomo, analytics software that runs on an account I control rather than on an advertising company’s platform. It records the kind of thing a server log records: which pages were requested, roughly where in the world the request came from, and what linked you here. It is configured to shorten your Internet Protocol address before storing it, so the record cannot be tied back to you. Nothing it collects is sold, shared with advertisers, or combined with anything else.

Advertising and remarketing. None. The Service loads no advertising, remarketing, or social tracking code from anyone.

Cookies. You can instruct your browser to refuse cookies without losing anything on this site.

How the data is used

Usage Data is used to provide and maintain the Service, to detect and address technical problems, to protect the Service against abuse, and to count how many people read what. Nothing else.

If you are in the European Economic Area, the legal basis for processing the limited data described above is legitimate interest: keeping a website available, secure, and working. Where I ever rely on consent instead, for example for a mailing list, I will ask for it plainly and you will be able to withdraw it at any time.

Retention

Hosting logs are retained for a short period, for security and for finding faults, then discarded on the host’s ordinary schedule. What you send through the contact form is kept as long as it is useful for answering you, and longer only where a law requires it.

Transfer of data

The Service is operated from the United States, and its hosting and any processors may store or process data outside your state, province or country, where data protection law may differ from your own. If you choose to send me information from outside the United States, you consent to that transfer.

I take the steps reasonably available to me to see that data is handled securely and consistently with this policy.

Disclosure

I may disclose personal data if a law requires it, or in response to a valid request by a public authority such as a court or a government agency. I may also disclose it where I believe in good faith that doing so is necessary to protect the rights, property or safety of the Service, its readers, or the public. The same applies where it is necessary to investigate possible wrongdoing, or to defend against legal liability.

I do not sell personal data, and I do not share it with advertisers.

Security

The security of your data matters to me, but no method of transmission over the internet and no method of electronic storage is completely secure. I use commercially reasonable means to protect what I hold, and I cannot guarantee absolute security. Please do not send anything confidential or clinical through this site.

Do Not Track

Some browsers can send a Do Not Track signal. The visitor counting described above is configured to honor it, and it does not follow you across other sites in any case.

If you are a resident of the European Economic Area you have certain data protection rights:

To access, correct or delete the information I hold about you.
To have inaccurate or incomplete information rectified.
To object to processing.
To ask that processing be restricted.
To receive a copy of your information in a common format another service can read.
To withdraw consent, where processing rests on consent.

Because this site collects so little, in most cases I hold nothing about you beyond hosting logs I cannot tie to a person. To make a request, write to me through the contact page. I may have to ask you to verify your identity first. You also have the right to complain to your local data protection authority.

Service providers

Four companies help operate the Service. Here is each one, by name, and what it holds.

Cloudflare hosts the site and keeps the request logs described above.
MailerSend carries the contact form. When you write to me, MailerSend is what puts your message in my inbox, so it handles your name, your address and what you wrote.
MailerLite will carry the mailing list once there is one. It is run by the same company as MailerSend. Nothing has been given to it, because nothing collects an address yet.
Stripe will handle reader support when it goes live, on the terms in the next section.

The visitor counting is not on this list, because it runs on my own account rather than a third party’s. Each of these has access only to what it needs in order to do its part, and is obliged not to use it for anything else.

Payments

There are no paid products and no payments processed on this site today. When reader support goes live it will be handled by Stripe, whose privacy policy is at stripe.com/privacy.

I will not store or collect your payment card details. That information goes directly to the payment processor, whose use of your personal information is governed by its own privacy policy. Payment processors adhere to the standards set by PCI-DSS as managed by the PCI Security Standards Council, a joint effort of brands including Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover. PCI-DSS requirements help ensure the secure handling of payment information.

Links to other sites

The Service links to sites I do not operate, including Restored Life Counseling’s website and scheduler, booksellers, and the sites of the tools listed in the Workshop. Clicking a link takes you to that party’s site, under that party’s policies. I have no control over, and take no responsibility for, the content or the privacy practices of any third party site.

Children’s privacy

The Service is not directed to anyone under the age of 18, and I do not knowingly collect personal data from children. If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has provided me with personal data, write to me through the contact page and I will remove it.

Changes to this policy

I may update this policy from time to time. Changes are posted on this page, with the effective date at the top updated. Where a change is significant, and especially where it adds a category of collection, I will say so prominently before it takes effect. You are advised to review this page periodically.

Contact

Questions about this policy go through the contact page.