Short version: I collect the least I can, I don't sell anything to anyone, and nothing you or your readers give me is ever used to train an AI model.
This is a plain-language policy written by the person who runs the business, not a template. It has not been reviewed by an attorney. If you need a specific legal assurance for your own compliance obligations, ask me and I will get it in writing.
Who this covers
Spine & Site is a trade name of Optimize Income LLC, a company based in New York. This policy covers spineandsite.com and the client dashboard used to edit sites we build. It does not govern the websites of individual authors we've built for; each author sets their own policy, and we're happy to help them write one.
What is collected on this site
When you send an inquiry
The contact form collects your name, email address, and whatever you choose to write in it. Optional fields include an author name, a current website, and a rough count of books published. That information is used for exactly one thing: replying to you and, if we work together, running your project.
Inquiries are kept for as long as there's a live conversation, and for up to two years afterward in case you come back. Ask me to delete yours and it's gone the same day.
When you just read
Page views are counted using a self-hosted analytics tool running on our own server. It sets no cookies, records no IP addresses in a way that identifies you, follows nobody across the internet, and builds no profile. It answers one question: which pages people read. There is no Google Analytics on this site, and no advertising or social pixels of any kind.
Fonts, images, and other files
Every typeface, image, and script on this site is served from our own domain. There are no requests to Google Fonts, no CDN trackers, and no embedded third-party widgets. Loading this page tells no company other than us that you visited.
What is never done
- Your information is never sold, rented, or traded. There is no circumstance in which this changes.
- Your manuscripts, your site content, and your readers' data are never used to train an AI model, by us or by anyone we work with.
- You will not be added to a mailing list because you contacted me. If a newsletter ever exists, you'll have to deliberately ask for it.
- No advertising networks, no retargeting, no data brokers.
Client data
If we build your site, additional information is necessarily handled: your domain registration details, billing information, the content you publish, and login credentials for the dashboard.
- Payments are processed by Stripe. Card numbers never touch our servers and we never see them.
- Transactional email (project updates, form notifications from your site) is sent through Resend.
- Your site's data lives in a database dedicated to you, not pooled with other clients, and is backed up continuously to encrypted object storage.
- Your readers' data is yours, not ours. Newsletter signups on your site go directly to your email platform. We do not keep a copy and we do not analyze it.
Pen names
If you write under more than one name and we build sites for both, those identities are treated as confidential and unconnected. The sites are never cross-linked, they use separate analytics properties, and neither appears alongside the other in any portfolio, case study, or conversation without your written permission. Billing descriptors are configured so they do not reveal the pairing.
Where things are stored
Servers and backups are located in the United States. If you're in the EU or UK and that matters for your own compliance, tell me and I'll walk you through the specifics before you sign anything.
Your rights
Whatever jurisdiction you're in, the answer here is the same. You can ask what information I hold about you, ask for a copy, ask me to correct it, or ask me to delete it. There is no form and no waiting period. Email and I'll handle it.
Depending on where you live you may have additional statutory rights under the GDPR, the UK GDPR, or the CCPA. Those are honored. The list above is what I'd do anyway.
Cookies
This marketing site sets no cookies at all. The client dashboard sets a single session cookie so you stay logged in. It is not used for tracking and it expires when your session ends.
Children
This is a service sold to professional authors. It isn't directed at anyone under 18 and no information is knowingly collected from them.
Changes
If this policy changes in a way that affects how your information is handled, active clients get an email about it before it takes effect. Cosmetic edits just update the date at the top.
Contact
Questions, requests, or corrections: use the form on the main site and mark it as a privacy question. A person reads it.