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BirchTree Intelligence

Privacy policy

Last updated

This policy explains what information BirchTree collects through birchtreeintel.com, how we use it, who helps us handle it, and the rights you have. In short: we collect only what you choose to send us, the basic technical details needed to run the site and, if you accept, a count of your visit. We use your details to reply to you and to follow up about your inquiry and related BirchTree services, and we do not sell them.

Who we are

BirchTree Intelligence is the management and strategic consulting practice of Laura Englander, Founder & Principal Consultant. The practice and this website, birchtreeintel.com, are operated by Birch Tree Intelligence LLC, a company based in the United States (“BirchTree”, “we”, “us”).

We decide why and how the information described in this policy is used, which makes us its “controller” under European and UK data protection law. If you have a question about this policy, or about information we hold about you, email laura@birchtreeintel.com.

What we collect and how

When you use the contact form. You give us your name, job title, company and email address, which we need in order to reply. You can also add your phone number, choose the topics you are interested in and write a message. With your message, the form also sends the address of the page you sent it from and, if you came to the site from another website or from a link with campaign tags, that website’s address and those tags, so that we can see how people find us. The form is meant for business contact details, so please do not include health information or other sensitive personal information.

When you contact us directly. If you email or call Laura, or message her on LinkedIn, we keep that correspondence and the contact details that come with it.

When you visit the site. Our hosting provider automatically processes standard server log information, such as your IP address, your browser type and the pages you request, so that it can deliver the site and keep it secure. We do not use this information to identify you. If you accept analytics, the site also counts your visit, as described under “Cookies and analytics”.

Cookies and analytics

Visit counts, only if you accept. On your first visit, a bar at the bottom of the screen asks whether the site may count your visit. If you accept, each page you view is counted: which page it was and, for the first page of a visit, the website or campaign link you came from and your country, worked out from your network address, which is not stored. The site also keeps two small notes in your browser: one so the pages of a single visit count as one visit, deleted when you close the tab, and one recording that you have visited before. Nothing identifies you. The counts are kept as daily totals, for about 13 months, with our hosting provider, and are never shared with advertisers or other companies.

If you decline, nothing is counted and nothing is kept in your browser for analytics; the site only remembers your choice, so it does not ask again on every page. You can change your choice at any time with “Cookie settings” at the bottom of every page, or by clearing this site’s data in your browser.

No other cookies or tracking. The only cookie is a sign-in cookie for the few people who manage the site, and it is never set for visitors. The site has no advertising, tracking pixels or social-media embeds, and its fonts are hosted on the site itself, so loading a page does not contact an outside service. We do not track your activity across other websites, and we do not let anyone else do so through this site. If we ever add anything else that uses cookies, we will update this policy first and ask for your consent where the law requires it.

How we use your information

We use your information to:

  • read and reply to your message, discuss whether and how we might work together, and manage any work that follows;
  • follow up with you about your inquiry and about BirchTree services related to it;
  • keep a record of inquiries;
  • count visits and see how people find the site, if you accept analytics;
  • deliver the site and keep it secure;
  • get professional advice, meet our legal obligations and protect our legal rights; and
  • pass our records to a buyer or successor if the business is sold or reorganized.

We do not use your information for any other purpose. In particular, we do not use it for targeted advertising, or to make automated decisions that have legal or similarly significant effects on you.

If you would like us to stop following up with you, reply to any of our messages or email laura@birchtreeintel.com. Stopping follow-up does not stop Laura from replying to messages you send her.

Who we share it with

We do not sell your personal information, share it for advertising, or give it to other businesses for their own marketing. We share it only with the service providers who help us run this site and handle inquiries, and in the few cases listed below.

When you send the form, your details travel over an encrypted connection to a small program that runs on our hosting provider’s servers. That program keeps a copy in the site’s private admin area, which only Laura and the people who help her run the site can open. It also emails them to Laura, and to anyone who helps her handle inquiries, and passes them to any services we connect to the form, for example to keep our record of inquiries. The providers who help us are:

  • Netlify, based in the United States, which hosts the site and its private admin area, processes the server logs described above, runs the program that receives the form, and stores the copy of each message kept in the admin area.
  • Resend, based in the United States, which delivers the emails that tell Laura, and the people who help her, about each new message.
  • Microsoft, which provides our email through Microsoft 365.
  • Services we connect to the form, such as a workflow automation service, a cloud spreadsheet or a customer relationship management (CRM) service, which receive a copy of each message so that we can keep our record of inquiries and organize our replies and follow-up.
  • Our web developer, who builds and maintains the site and may access these systems to keep the site and form working.

They handle your information on our behalf, to provide their services to us. You can ask us which of them hold your information.

We may also share information:

  • with our professional advisers, such as lawyers and accountants;
  • when the law requires it, or when we need to protect our legal rights; or
  • with a buyer or successor if the business is sold or reorganized, who would have to keep protecting it as this policy describes.

International transfers

BirchTree is based in the United States, and our service providers may process information in the United States and in other countries. If you are in the EU, the EEA or the UK, this means your information will be handled outside your country, where data protection laws may differ from yours.

When our service providers handle information about people in the EU, the EEA or the UK, we rely on recognized safeguards, such as the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework and its UK Extension where a provider is certified under them, or standard contractual clauses. You can ask us for details or a copy of these safeguards.

How long we keep it

We keep inquiries and correspondence only as long as we need them: to reply to you, to follow up about your inquiry and related services, to manage any work that follows, to meet legal, tax and accounting obligations, and to deal with any legal claim. After that, we delete them or keep them only in a form that no longer identifies you. Visit counts, which do not identify anyone, are kept as daily totals for about 13 months.

If you ask us to delete your information, we will delete it from our records, including the copy in the site’s admin area and the copies in the services we connect to the form, unless we need to keep it to meet a legal obligation or to deal with a legal claim. To protect the form from being flooded, the site also notes how many messages arrive from each network address in an hour; it keeps only a scrambled code that cannot be turned back into the address, and deletes it within a day. Our hosting, email delivery and automation providers keep their own technical records, such as server logs, a log of the emails they have sent and a history of the form submissions they have processed, for a limited time and then delete them on their own schedules.

Security

The site is served over an encrypted (HTTPS) connection, and form submissions are encrypted while they travel between the services we use. Day to day, only Laura and the people who help her answer inquiries or keep the site and form working can access them. We share them with anyone else only as described under “Who we share it with”.

No way of sending or storing information is completely secure, but we take reasonable care to protect what you send us.

Your privacy rights

Wherever you live, you can ask us what information we hold about you, and ask us to correct it, delete it or stop contacting you. We will not treat you differently for making a request.

If you are in the EU, the EEA or the UK, you also have these rights, some of which apply only in certain circumstances:

  • Access: get a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
  • Correction: have inaccurate information corrected.
  • Erasure: have your information deleted.
  • Restriction: limit how we use your information.
  • Objection: object to our use of your information based on our legitimate interests. You can always object to direct marketing, such as our follow-up about related services, and we will stop.
  • Portability: receive your information in a portable format.
  • Complaint: complain to us at laura@birchtreeintel.com, or to a data protection authority, such as the Information Commission’s Office (ICO) in the UK or the authority where you live or work in the EU or EEA.

If you live in a U.S. state with a consumer privacy law, you may have the right to know what personal information we hold about you and how we use and disclose it, to get a copy of it, and to have it corrected or deleted. Some states also give you the right to opt out of the sale of your information, its use for targeted advertising, and certain kinds of profiling. We do not sell your information or use it for targeted advertising or profiling, so there is nothing to opt out of.

If we decline a request, you can appeal by replying to our response. If you are still not satisfied, you can contact your state attorney general in the United States, or a data protection authority in the EU, the EEA or the UK.

How to make a request

To make a request, email laura@birchtreeintel.com or call 703.389.9274 and tell us what you would like us to do. Someone else can also make a request for you as your authorized agent, in which case we may ask for proof that you authorized them.

We may need to confirm your identity before we act, usually by checking that the request comes from the email address we already have for you. We will respond within one month. If a request is complex, we may need up to 45 more days, and we will tell you why within the first month. There is normally no charge.

Children

This site is for business professionals. It is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 16. If you believe a child has sent us information, please let us know and we will delete it.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. When we do, we will post the new version on this page and change the date at the top. If a change significantly affects how we use information you have already given us, we will tell you before it applies.

Contact us

For questions about this policy or your information, contact:

  • Company: Birch Tree Intelligence LLC
  • Contact: Laura Englander, Founder & Principal Consultant
  • Email: laura@birchtreeintel.com
  • Phone: 703.389.9274

Our terms of use explain the rules for using this site.