Privacy Policy

Last updated: 10 September 2026

This Privacy Policy explains how Elena Daehnhardt ("we", "us", "our") collects, uses, and protects personal data when you use daehnhardt.com and its associated web application at app.daehnhardt.com (collectively, the "Service").

1. Data We Collect

We collect only the data necessary to provide the Service:

  • Account data — your email address, display name, and (if you choose Google sign-in) your Google profile name and avatar URL.
  • Purchase data — order references and payment status provided by our payment processor (LemonSqueezy or Stripe). We do not store card numbers or payment credentials.
  • Usage data — pages visited, lesson progress, and forum activity, stored to provide course tracking and personalisation.
  • Subscriber AI tutor — if you use the chat launcher on an article, the questions you send, the article context used to answer them, and the generated replies. Conversations are stored per article so you can continue later.
  • Forum and article comments — the text of comments you post on the blog embed or /forum, used to recommend moderation (spam, tone) and optional reply drafts.
  • Technical data — IP address, browser type, and request timestamps, collected automatically in server logs for security and rate-limiting purposes.
  • Experiment log — if you use the Save Time with AI workspace, the tasks you log (category, tools, before/after/setup/check times, and optional notes) are stored on this app and are private to your account. If you opt in on your profile, we may later use anonymous category and time totals only; notes and task text are never included in aggregates. You can delete individual logs in the workspace, or ask us to delete them via the contact page.

We do not use tracking pixels, third-party advertising cookies, or sell your data to any third party.

2. How We Use Your Data

  • To create and manage your account.
  • To verify purchases and grant access to purchased content.
  • To track your course progress and issue completion certificates.
  • To send transactional emails (purchase receipts, password resets) — never unsolicited marketing unless you explicitly opt in.
  • To protect the Service against abuse, spam, and security threats.
  • To answer subscriber questions about articles via the optional AI tutor, and to review those questions so we can improve the writing.
  • To help moderate forum and article comments (spam and tone) and to draft optional replies, which Elena reviews before anything is hidden or posted as the site assistant unless she has turned those automations on.
  • To personalise downloaded books with a discreet watermark — your name (as set on your profile) and an opaque copy reference — to discourage unauthorised redistribution. Your email address is never written into downloaded files.

3. Legal Basis (GDPR)

The controller of your personal data is Elena Daehnhardt, based in the Netherlands. We process your data under the following legal bases:

  • Contract — to fulfil purchases and provide course access and subscriber features you have requested, including the optional article tutor.
  • Legitimate interest — for security logging, fraud prevention, comment spam detection, and watermarking downloaded books to protect our intellectual property against unauthorised redistribution.
  • Consent — for the optional newsletter (you may withdraw at any time from your account settings).

4. Data Sharing

We share your data only with:

  • Payment processors (LemonSqueezy, Stripe) — to process transactions. Their own privacy policies apply.
  • Google — if you sign in with Google. Google's privacy policy applies to that interaction.
  • AI language-model provider — if you use the subscriber tutor, your question and the retrieved article excerpts are sent to a cloud model (configured on the server; OpenAI-compatible) so an answer can be generated. If you post a forum or article comment while comment classification is on, the comment text (and a short thread excerpt) is sent to the same kind of cloud model so it can recommend moderation. The browser never talks to that provider. We do not use those texts for advertising.

We do not share, rent, or sell personal data to any other third party.

5. Data Retention

Account and purchase data is retained for as long as your account is active and for up to 7 years thereafter to comply with applicable tax and accounting obligations. You may request deletion of your account at any time by contacting us — purchase records required for legal compliance will be retained for the statutory period.

Tutor conversations are deleted automatically after 90 days of inactivity on that article (the period is configurable by us, between 7 and 365 days). You can also stop using the tutor at any time; turning it off does not immediately erase stored threads until that retention period ends.

6. Your Rights

Under the GDPR you have the right to access, rectify, erase, restrict, or port your personal data, and to object to certain processing. To exercise any of these rights, contact us via our contact page. We will respond within 30 days.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Dutch supervisory authority:

Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens (AP)
Postbus 93374, 2509 AJ Den Haag
autoriteitpersoonsgegevens.nl

7. Cookies

We use a single session cookie to keep you logged in. No advertising or analytics cookies are used. Your theme preference is stored in localStorage in your browser — no data is sent to our server for this purpose.

8. Security

We apply industry-standard security practices including encrypted connections (HTTPS), hashed password storage (bcrypt), rate limiting, and IP-based abuse detection. No method of transmission over the internet is 100% secure; we cannot guarantee absolute security.

9. Changes

We may update this policy from time to time. The "last updated" date at the top will reflect any changes. Continued use of the Service after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

10. Contact

Questions about this policy? Contact us.