Privacy policy

What you type stays with you

Everything you type or choose in the tools, worksheets, check-ins and calculators on this site stays in your browser, on your own device. It is never collected. It is not sent to us or to anyone else, and we never see it. Some tools, like My weather today and Rewind the talk, save your entries in your browser so you can come back to them. A few, like the chat with Professor Puddles, keep a draft only in the current tab until you close it. Clearing your browser data removes them, and What’s stored on this device lists every one with a button to erase it.

If you choose to visualize your own music on Brain Breakers or Drift, your browser asks before it uses your microphone, or before you share a tab’s sound on a computer. That sound is only measured, live, on your device to move the picture. It is never recorded, saved or sent to us or anyone else, and it stops when you press Stop listening or leave the page. We can’t connect to a Spotify account, and we don’t ask you to.

The only things that ever reach us are things you choose to send: your email address if you choose to get email updates, and a message if you write to us.

Overview

This Privacy Policy explains what information is collected when you use spreadloveandacceptance.com (Spread Love & Acceptance), operated by Patrick Christian Andrews. The site is intentionally simple: it is a static website with no server-side code of its own, and almost everything described below happens through third-party services, not through code we control directly.

Everything on the site is free. There is no account, nothing to sign up for to use the site, and no paid version, so we never ask for your name, a password or payment details. The only personal information you can choose to give is an email address, if you want email updates (held by Buttondown, and nothing on the site is locked behind it).

What Data Is Collected

Information may be collected in these places:

• Email updates (optional): if you choose to sign up for updates, the email address you enter is sent to and stored by Buttondown, our newsletter service. Buttondown may also collect standard email engagement data (such as whether an email was opened or a link was clicked), depending on newsletter settings. This is governed by Buttondown's own privacy policy. This browser also keeps a copy of the address you typed in the sign-up box so the site does not ask again. It is listed on What’s stored on this device, and “Erase everything” removes it. The book download box keeps only a note that you gave an address, never the address itself.
• Hosting logs: this site is hosted on GitHub Pages, which may log visitor IP addresses and request data as part of standard web server operation, governed by GitHub's own privacy policy.
• Font loading: this site loads typefaces from Google Fonts, which may receive your IP address as part of the standard font-loading request, governed by Google's privacy policy.
• Weather (optional): if you turn on the weather in the time-and-weather note, in Settings or on the pal cam, your browser asks for your location first. A rounded spot (about a town’s width) is kept only on your device and is sent to Open-Meteo, a free weather service that needs no account, to look up the current weather. It is never sent to us. Turning the weather off forgets the spot.
• Album player: on the Echoes of Gold album page, Spotify’s music player loads only if you tap “Play here.” Nothing from Spotify loads before that, and once it does, Spotify’s own privacy policy and cookies apply to it.
• Visit statistics: most of this site’s pages load Google Tag Manager, a Google service the site uses to run its visit statistics, and many of them also load Google Analytics, which uses cookies to count visits and see which pages are viewed. Neither gets what you type or choose in the site’s tools: they get the page’s address, the page title and standard browser details such as screen size and the page you came from, governed by Google's privacy policy. You can block them in your browser's privacy settings. Both are left off entirely on the more private pages: the chat with Professor Puddles, the Chat analyzer (where people paste their own messages and chats), grief, caregivers, when one of you is ill, coming out as an adult, foster and kinship families, coming home after time apart, family rifts, teens, Upset right now?, both pages for people who were sent a link (Sent this by someone? and Someone sent you this?), Calm without pills, your nervous system, the made-up examples, Week 0, the Frequency Buddies cartoon pages and every fill-in worksheet. “Erase everything” on the What’s stored on this device page also clears their cookies.
• Casting to a TV: the Frequency Buddies Live and Pal Cam TV pages load Google’s Cast library when they open, so you can send the picture to a TV. Google may receive your IP address as part of that request, governed by Google's privacy policy. Nothing you type or choose is sent with it. On the episode, trailer and music video pages the Cast library loads only if you press Watch on your TV.
• Tools, worksheets and check-ins (never collected): everything you enter in the site’s tools, worksheets, check-ins and calculators, including My weather today, Who does what?, the Chat analyzer, Rewind the talk, the how-to-talk-to-me card, the Fair split check and the fill-in worksheets, is handled entirely in your browser. None of it is transmitted to us or to any third party. Some tools keep your entries in your own browser so you can return to them. Clearing your browser data removes them. Fill-in workpapers are saved only as PDFs on your own device.

Third-Party Processors

We rely on the following third-party services, each governed by its own privacy policy:

• Buttondown: the optional email updates.
• GitHub Pages: website hosting.
• Google Fonts: web font delivery.
• Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics: counting visits and page views (never on the private pages listed above).
• Open-Meteo: the weather forecast, only if you turn the weather on (it receives a rounded location, never anything you type).
• Google Cast: loads on the Frequency Buddies Live and Pal Cam TV pages, and on the episode pages when you press Watch on your TV, so you can send the picture to a TV. Google may receive your IP address.
• Spotify: the album player on Echoes of Gold, only after you tap “Play here.”

We do not sell or share your personal data with any party beyond what is necessary for these services to function.

How Data Is Used

If you choose to get email updates, your email address is used only to send those updates (at most one email a week), and is never used for advertising or shared beyond Buttondown. We do not use your data for advertising.

Data Retention

Email addresses for updates are kept by Buttondown until you unsubscribe or ask us to delete them. What the tools keep in your browser stays there until you clear it: What’s stored on this device lists every item with a button to erase it.

Your Rights

If you chose to get email updates, you can leave at any time using the unsubscribe link in any email. You may also ask what information is associated with your email address, request a copy of it, or request its deletion (subject to what Buttondown and applicable law require us to retain) by contacting us at the email in Section 09. Depending on your location, you may also have specific rights under laws such as the GDPR or CCPA.

Children's Privacy

The site is for adults and older teens. Some pages are written for teens, and the Frequency Buddies cartoons are for all ages. Children under 13 should use the site with a grown-up. We don’t ask anyone, of any age, for personal information, and nothing anyone types or chooses on the site is collected. The optional email updates are for adults, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 (or under 16 where applicable law requires).

Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Material changes will be reflected by an updated "Last updated" date at the top of this page.

Contact

Questions about this Privacy Policy, or requests regarding your data, can be sent to spreadloveandacceptance@gmail.com.