Privacy policy

Who this covers

This policy covers butterflyeffect.digital and my web design business, Butterfly Effect Digital, LLC, a North Carolina limited liability company based in Raleigh, North Carolina. Orders for fish, plants, and ponds at Firefly Medaka are covered by its own policy at fireflymedaka.com/privacy. If I build a website for you, the privacy policy for your site is yours to publish, and I am glad to help you write it.

What I collect

There are two situations where I receive information from you.

When you send a message through the contact form, I receive your name, your email address, your phone number if you choose to give one, how you would like me to reach you, whoever referred you if you choose to say, and whatever you write in your message.

When you become a client, I also receive what I need to run your plan: your business name, your billing email, and the details of your payments, which come from Stripe.

How the contact form works

The form on this site sends what you type to a server at fireflymedaka.com, which belongs to me, and from there it is emailed to my inbox through Resend. I do not keep a separate database of form messages. They live in my email, which is routed through Cloudflare and delivered to a Google inbox.

To keep spam out, the form uses Cloudflare Turnstile, a human check that loads from Cloudflare when you open the form and may look at technical details like your IP address and browser. It also uses a hidden trap field for bots and a limit on how many messages one connection can send in a minute.

Chat

If you use the Chat button, the chat is provided by Crisp. Nothing from Crisp loads until you point at, focus, or tap it. Once you do, Crisp runs the chat window and stores your messages, along with the email address you give it, so that I can reply, and it sets cookies in your browser to remember the conversation. Crisp handles that information under its own privacy policy at crisp.chat/en/privacy. I read and answer the chat myself.

Payments

Card payments are handled by Stripe. Your card details go directly to Stripe and are never stored on this site or on my own systems. Stripe shows me payment details, such as the amount, the date, and the card brand and last four digits, and handles your card information under its own privacy policy at stripe.com/privacy.

Cookies and tracking

This site sets no cookies unless you start a chat (see Chat above). I count visits with Cloudflare Web Analytics, which shows me which pages were opened, which website sent the visit, and the type of device, the browser, and the country. Cloudflare says it uses no cookies or local storage for this and does not fingerprint visitors. I do not use it for ads, and I do not use advertising cookies or ad trackers.

Some pages remember small things in your own browser so the experience works the way it should, such as whether you have already seen the opening sequence. That information stays on your device, is never sent to me, and goes away when you clear your browser data.

Hosting

This site is hosted on Cloudflare. Cloudflare processes basic technical information, such as IP addresses, to deliver and protect the site and to count visits, under its own privacy policy.

Who else sees your information

Only the services that make this work, and only for that purpose:

• Stripe, to take payments
• Cloudflare, to host the site, count visits, route my email, and run the human check
• Resend, to deliver the contact form to my inbox
• Crisp, to run the chat window if you start a chat, and to store those messages
• Google, which hosts the inbox where my email lands

How I use it

I use your information to answer your message, to build and run your site, to bill you, and to keep my records for taxes. I do not send marketing email unless you ask me to.

How long I keep it

Contact emails stay in my inbox until I delete them. Payment and client records stay in Stripe and in my email for as long as business and tax rules require me to keep them.

Your choices

You can ask me what I have about you, ask me to correct it, or ask me to delete whatever I am not required to keep. Email chris@butterflyeffect.digital and I will take care of it.

Children

This site is not directed at children under 13, and I do not knowingly collect information from them.

Changes

If I change how I handle information, I will update this page and the date at the top.

Contact

Questions about privacy go to chris@butterflyeffect.digital.