Privacy policy, in plain language

The short version

We collect the information you choose to send us — through our contact form, free check-up request, the Compass chat assistant, or the client portal if you're a client — and we use it for one thing: responding to you and doing the work you ask us to do. We don't sell your information, we don't run advertising trackers, and we don't build profiles of visitors.

What we collect, and when

Forms you submit

When you send the contact form, the free check-up request, the launch-offer signup, or your details through the chat widget, we receive what you typed — typically your name, email, business name, and your message. If you came to the contact form from a package, a demo, or another page of this site, the form notes which one, so you don't have to explain it again; the check-up form also carries your answer about whether you'd like us to follow up. The contact form and the check-up form also ask, if you want to say, what kind of business you run and which town you're in, each picked from a short list; you can leave both on “Prefer not to say”. We use those two answers to sort enquiries in our own records (for example, all the restaurants in Ilwaco), and the check-up uses them to write your report. Form submissions are stored on the server that runs this website — a virtual private server in Canada that we rent and manage ourselves — and delivered to our inbox. Email to and from our domain, including those deliveries, is handled by Resend, the email service we use to receive and send mail. If you book a call with us, the booking is handled by Cal.com, which receives your name, email, and the time you choose.

Compass, our chat assistant

Compass is an AI assistant. Messages you type into the chat are sent to Anthropic, whose Claude AI model generates the reply. To see what people ask and improve Compass's answers, we keep the questions you type (not Compass's replies) for 30 days, on our own server, with email addresses, phone numbers, links, and long numbers removed first. They aren't linked to you or to your visit, and we may use an AI model, through OpenRouter, an AI infrastructure service, to group them into topics and summarize them. The conversation itself isn't saved between visits: if you close the page, it's gone. The one exception is when you leave your details through the chat: the conversation so far is sent along with them and kept with your submission, so whoever follows up can see what you asked. Don't share sensitive personal information in the chat; for anything private, email us instead. Compass only answers questions about NorthHead Digital, and a real person handles anything it can't.

Your automated check-up

When you run the free check-up, the details you enter and the website or profile address you share are sent to Anthropic, whose Claude AI model writes your Digital Readiness Report. Our server reads the public page you pointed us to and sends its text along, and the model writes your report on the spot; to see how your business shows up online, Claude may also read a few more pages of that site and run a small number of web searches through Anthropic's own search tool. We instruct it to search only for your business's public name, type of business, town and website, never your own name, contact details or message. Your finished report is emailed to you and to us through Resend. We store the submitted details, generated report, score, completion status, and basic usage metadata on that same server so we can send your copy, prevent abuse, improve the check-up, and follow up when needed. A real person reviews anything that needs follow-up.

The client portal

Active clients get an account on our client portal, where project notes, shared files, approvals, invoices, and support requests live. Anything you upload there — documents, images, and business files — is used only to do the work on your project and is visible only to you and us. The portal runs on the same server as this website, and accounts, files, and project records are stored there too, in a database we run ourselves. When you use the portal's Compass assistant or its reply-drafting tools, the records they need — your own project information, or a lead's name and message — are sent to OpenRouter, which passes them to an AI model (currently DeepSeek) to write the answer or draft. Payments and autopay are handled by Stripe: the card or bank account you keep on file for autopay is stored by Stripe, never by us. Portal notification emails are sent through Resend.

One ask: please don't put passwords or other account credentials in portal messages, files, or support requests. When we need access to something like your domain, hosting, or Google Business Profile, we'll ask for it during onboarding and give you a safe way to share it.

Agreements you sign with us

When we send you an agreement to sign, you get an emailed link and a one-time code, and you sign by typing your name. Alongside the signed document we keep a record of who signed and how: the name and title you typed, the email address the link went to, the date and time, the internet (IP) address and browser you signed from, and the consent statement you ticked. We also note each step along the way — the link being opened, the code confirmed, a copy downloaded — with the address it came from. That record is what makes an electronic signature hold up, for you as much as for us. Signed agreements and their records are stored on the same server as this website, the emails are sent through Resend, and you and we each get a copy of the signed PDF.

Businesses we work with or contact

We keep a simple business record for clients and for businesses we reach out to: the business name, public contact details, notes from our conversations, and research drawn from public websites, which we may use Anthropic's Claude to help us read and summarize. These records are stored on our own server, in a database we run ourselves. Our business email runs on our own mail service, which sends through Resend, and meetings are kept in Google Calendar. If you'd rather we didn't contact you, say so and we'll mark your record do-not-contact.

Basic visit statistics

We count visits with our own analytics service, which runs on the same server as this website — nothing is sent to an analytics company. It uses no cookies and never stores your IP address: a visit is counted with a code that changes every day and can't be traced back to you, so we see things like "how many people visited the pricing page," never "who you are." We also count what happens on the site as a whole, such as how many chats start, how many check-ups finish, how many forms are sent, which buttons are clicked (like "See Website Plans" or a call link, and which package), and which other websites people follow links to (the site's name only), but we never connect those numbers to the details you send us in a form. If your browser sends a Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control signal, your visit isn't counted at all. Detailed visit records are deleted after 90 days; after that we keep only daily totals.

What we never do

• We never sell or rent your information to anyone.
• We don't use advertising trackers or cross-site cookies.
• We don't sign you up for anything you didn't ask for.
• We don't train AI models on what you type into the chat, and we use provider settings that tell them not to either.

How long we keep things

We keep form submissions and email correspondence as long as we need them to respond to you and, if you become a client, to do the work. The same goes for the client portal: your files and project records stay there while we're working together. If you'd like something deleted, ask — we'll take care of it. Signed agreements are the one exception: we keep each one, with the record of how it was signed, as a lasting business record.

Your choices

You can browse this entire site without submitting anything. The chat widget only sends what you type into it. If you want to know what information we have about you, want it corrected, or want it deleted, email us and we'll sort it out.