Privacy policy.

OBdesign is my web development business, based in Victoria and Salt Spring Island, British Columbia: it's just me, Owen Brown. This policy explains what personal information this website collects, why, and what you can do about it. I keep things minimal on purpose: no advertising trackers, no selling your data, ever.

Information I collect

Information you give me

When you fill out the contact form, you choose to send me your name and email address, what you need help with, and optionally your business name, town, website address, the package you're interested in, what your site is built on, a message, and the name of whoever sent you my way (a referral link fills that in for you). If you'd like a text or a call instead of an email, you also send your phone number and the time of day that suits you. Until you send it, what you've answered is kept in this browser tab only, so it's still there if you look around the site and come back; sending it, or closing the tab, clears it. When you send it, you get a copy by email saying what happens next. If you looked at the Get found on Google and AI page earlier in the same visit, or followed a link from OBdesign's Instagram, LinkedIn or Google Business Profile, the form also tells me that, so I know what the message is about. That's it: nothing else comes with what you type.

When you ask for a free AI report, you send me your name, email address, business name, town, what your business does, and optionally your website address and a message. I use them to make your report and send it to you. The questions the report asks an AI name only your trade and your town. To put the report together, Claude also sees your business's name and website (see Anthropic, below).

Information collected automatically

I use privacy-friendly, cookieless analytics to see how the site is used: things like which pages are visited, your approximate location (country level), and your device or browser type. It also counts how far people get through the contact form, step by step, and what kind of help they picked, never what they typed. This data is aggregated and is not used to identify you personally, and I don't use advertising cookies or cross-site tracking.

If we work together: your project page

Every client gets a private project page on this site (obwebdesign.ca/project) for their build. You sign in with your email address: I send you a link that works once, for 15 minutes, and your device then stays signed in for six months with one cookie that holds your email address and when you signed in, and nothing else. If a device is ever lost, I can sign every device out of your page, and you sign in again with a fresh link. On the page, it keeps what you send me there: your answers (the words for your site, where messages should go, where you're based), the photos and files you upload, your rounds of changes and any requests, and the date of each. A photo's location (the GPS position a phone can save in it) is taken out as it uploads. It also holds your project's dates, what you've paid and your invoices, and the reminders it has sent you. Everything is kept in a private store on Vercel that only you and I can open through the page; nothing in it is public. When something is waiting on you past its date, the page can email you a reminder (at most three in a row), from me. Each time you do something on the page, I get an email and a short alert on my phone. I keep it all for as long as I look after your site, and delete it whenever you ask.

How I use your information

• To reply to your inquiry and discuss a possible project.
• To follow up about work we've discussed or are doing together.
• To understand how the site is performing and improve it.

I do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information, and I don't send marketing emails unless you've asked me to.

Service providers I rely on

To run this site I use a few trusted third-party services. They only process your information so the site and contact form can function:

• Vercel: website hosting, the cookieless analytics described above, and the private store that holds each client's project page.
• Resend: delivers your contact-form submission to my email inbox, and your copy of it to yours, and the project page's sign-in links and reminders.
• ntfy: sends my phone a short alert when the contact form is sent, with your first name, your business name and what you asked about, and when a client does something on their project page, with the business name and what they did. It never receives an email address or a phone number.
• Cloudflare Turnstile: protects the contact form from spam and bots.
• Anthropic: Claude, the AI assistant that answers an AI report's questions and helps me put the report together. The questions name only your trade and your town; when it helps with the report, it also sees your business's name and website. It never receives your name or email address.
• Stripe: takes care plan payments on its own secure page, and handles a cancellation. Your card details go to Stripe, never to me or this site.

These providers may store or process data on servers outside Canada, including in the United States. By using the contact form, the AI report form or your project page, you consent to your information being handled this way. Your submission ultimately arrives in, and is stored in, my email account.

Cookies

This site does not use advertising or tracking cookies, and the analytics are cookieless. The one cookie is the project page's sign-in, set only when a client signs in to their own page; it holds their email address and when they signed in, is never read by any other site, and ends after six months or when they sign out.

How long I keep your information

I keep contact-form and AI report emails for as long as needed to respond to you and, if we work together, to maintain reasonable business records. You can ask me to delete your information at any time (see below).

Your rights

Under Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and British Columbia's Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA), you can:

• Ask what personal information I hold about you.
• Ask me to correct or update it.
• Withdraw your consent or ask me to delete your information.

To make any of these requests, just email me at owenbrown@obwebdesign.ca.

Security

I take reasonable steps to protect your information, but no method of transmission over the internet is completely secure. Please don't send sensitive information (like passwords or payment details) through the contact form.

Children's privacy

This site is intended for businesses and adults. I don't knowingly collect personal information from children.

Changes to this policy

I may update this policy from time to time. When I do, I'll revise the "Last updated" date at the top of this page.

Contact

Questions about this policy or your information? Reach me at owenbrown@obwebdesign.ca or 250-222-6054.

If you have an unresolved privacy concern, you also have the right to contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada ↗.