What we collect,
and what we don't.

The short version

If you read nothing else, read this:

• There are no user accounts or logins anywhere on this site.
• We run no advertising trackers and no analytics of any kind. Nothing on this site measures, profiles, or retargets you.
• We only hold what you hand us directly: an email address for a newsletter, an enquiry form, or a donation.
• We never sell, rent, or trade anyone's information. Full stop.

What you give us directly

A few places on the site ask you for information on purpose. Here is each one, and exactly where that information goes.

Newsletter signup

The email field in the footer is a Paperform form. Your email address is stored with Paperform on our behalf so we can send occasional updates. See Paperform's privacy policy for how they handle it.

Workplace and ambassador enquiries

The request-a-date form on the workplaces page is also a Paperform embed. The ambassador application form sends what you type (name, email, phone if you give it, city, and your answers) through FormSubmit, a relay service that forwards form submissions straight to our inbox by email without storing them in a database of its own. FormSubmit's handling of that relay is described in their privacy policy.

Donations

Donations are processed entirely by Zeffy, our payment processor. Card numbers, bank details, and other payment information go directly to Zeffy and never touch our site or our servers. Zeffy shares donor name, email, and gift details with us so we can send a receipt and say thank you.

Event RSVPs

Popup events and card-making sessions are listed through Luma, an events and calendar platform. If you RSVP to a popup, that RSVP is handled by Luma under its own privacy policy, linked above.

What is collected automatically

This site is a static build with no database of its own. Our hosting provider keeps standard web server logs, the same kind every website generates: IP address, browser type, and the page requested. Those logs are kept briefly for security and troubleshooting, then cycled out.

We do not run Google Analytics, Meta Pixel, or any other analytics or advertising tracker on this site. Nothing here builds a profile of you or follows you to other sites. We also recently moved our webfonts to our own servers, so your browser no longer contacts Google's font servers just to load this page.

Cookies

The site itself sets no cookies. The third-party embeds described above, Paperform, Zeffy, and Luma, run inside their own frames and may set cookies under their own domains to do things like remember a form in progress or process a payment. Those are governed by each provider's own policy, linked above.

Physical mail and photographs

Volunteers mail handmade cards to our P.O. Box. When a card arrives, we read the return name and any note the sender included only to sort and route the card, we don't keep a running list of senders. Cards are sometimes photographed before they go out, and those photos may appear on this site, on our social media, or in our archive of past cards.

If you would rather your card not be photographed, or you'd like a photo of your card taken down, write to us and we'll take care of it. Seniors in care facilities who receive cards are never named or identified in a photo or post without their permission.

Children and school chapters

Cards made by students come to us through a teacher, school, or chapter leader, not directly from the child. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children directly. If a parent or teacher would like a card or photo involving a student removed, email us and we will handle it promptly.

Who we share with

We share information only with the service providers named on this page, each strictly to do the job we hired them for: Paperform for forms, Zeffy for donation processing, FormSubmit for relaying an enquiry form, and Luma for event RSVPs. We never sell, rent, or trade anyone's information to anyone else. The one exception is if we are required to share something to comply with the law.

How long we keep things

Newsletter addresses are kept until you unsubscribe. Enquiry emails are kept as long as we need them to follow up, then cleared out. Donation records are kept as long as nonprofit accounting and tax rules require.

Your choices and rights

Every email we send has an unsubscribe link. At any time, you can write to us to ask what we hold about you, correct it, or have it deleted. We honor these requests for anyone who asks, no matter where you live, rather than applying different rules by region.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, we'll update it here. The date at the top of this page is the most current record.

Contact

Questions about your information? Email hello@hellobyhand.org or write to us at Hello by Hand, P.O. Box 49823, Austin, TX 78765.