1. Data we collect.
We collect only what is necessary to deliver The Council's Brief and operate heircouncil.com. That is: the email address a reader enters on the signup form, the date and page of subscription, and standard email-engagement signals (confirmation, opens, clicks, unsubscribes) recorded by our email provider. Our hosting provider records standard server logs — IP address, user agent, referrer, and requested URL — for security and aggregate traffic measurement. If a reader writes to us by email, we keep that correspondence so we can reply.
We do not collect names, phone numbers, billing details, location data, or any special-category information. The Brief is a one-field signup — address only.
2. How we use it.
Email addresses are used to deliver The Council's Brief, the confirmation message, and occasional service notices about the Brief itself (a change to cadence, or a security incident affecting subscribers). The list is not used for third-party promotional campaigns, sponsorship blasts, or product launches outside the Brief, and the list is never sold, rented, or shared. Server logs are used to diagnose errors, mitigate abuse, and understand aggregate reading patterns — never to build per-reader profiles.
3. Your rights.
A reader can unsubscribe at any time using the one-click link at the bottom of any Brief. We do not run win-back, re-engagement, or re-segmentation campaigns against unsubscribed addresses. A reader can also request access to, correction of, or deletion of personal data we hold by writing to privacy@heircouncil.com; we respond within thirty days. A reader may object to processing, withdraw consent, or lodge a complaint with their local data-protection authority. Withdrawing consent does not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before the withdrawal.
4. Cookies.
The pages of heircouncil.com themselves do not set tracking cookies. Two narrow exceptions: the Brief signup form is served by Kit (our email provider) and may set a small cookie so the form is not shown again to a reader who has already submitted; embedded YouTube videos load from youtube.com and follow Google's cookie practices, in privacy-enhanced mode where available. We do not run third-party advertising networks, retargeting pixels, social-media tracking pixels, or session-replay tools.
5. Contact.
Questions, requests, or complaints about this notice or about The Council's handling of reader data go to privacy@heircouncil.com. Correspondence is signed — The Council.
6. Changes.
Material changes to this notice are reflected by updating the “Effective” date above and, where the change is significant for existing subscribers, by a note in the next Brief. The current version always lives at heircouncil.com/privacy.