Privacy Policy

The Short Version

We collect what we need to send you the newsletter, sell you a guide, run your free account and see which pages people read. We don't sell your personal information, and you can unsubscribe from any email in one click. Outside Europe, the site runs Meta's pixel so we can tell whether our Instagram and Facebook posts and ads bring in readers. You can switch it off (see "Selling and Sharing Your Information" below). When free accounts launch, the newsletter will be a separate box you tick, never automatic.

If you have a question, email contact@thebrandbet.com.

Who We Are

The Brand Bet is an independent publication about the business decisions behind brands. It is run by Jalen West in the United States. Our mailing address is available on request at contact@thebrandbet.com. In this policy, "we" and "us" mean Jalen West, operating The Brand Bet, and "the site" means thebrandbet.com.

For the EU and UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), we are the controller of the personal data described here. You can reach us at contact@thebrandbet.com.

What We Collect and Why

When You Sign Up for the Newsletter

Our signup forms ask for your email address. You can also give us your first name and pick what you do (founder, marketer, designer and so on). The form also records which page or social post sent you to us, for example "home page" or a short code for an Instagram post.

We use this to send the newsletter and the free guide you asked for, to greet you by name, and to learn which kinds of readers we have and which posts bring them in. We send a confirmation email first, and you only join the list once you click it.

Kit, our email provider, stores your signup. Kit also records when you signed up, which form you used, and whether you open our emails and click their links. Netlify, our web host, keeps a backup copy of each signup form, including the technical details it attaches, such as your IP address and browser type.

When You Create a Free Account (Coming Soon)

We plan to offer free site accounts that unlock members-only parts of our stories. To create one, you give us your email address and sign in with a one-time link we email you. You can also choose "Continue with Google," in which case Google shares your name, email address and profile photo with us.

Supabase, our account provider, stores your account, your sign-in history (dates and IP addresses) and a session that keeps you signed in.

The signup form will have an unticked box for the newsletter. If you tick it, we add you to our list in Kit with a "site member" label, so we know you joined through an account. If you leave it unticked, you get your account and no newsletter. See "How Your Account and the Newsletter Fit Together" below.

When You Buy Something

Our shop runs on Kit's checkout, and Stripe handles the payment. When you buy, we get your name, email address, what you bought, the price, the date and your country. Stripe collects your card or other payment details. We never see your full card number.

We use this to deliver your download, send your receipt, handle refunds and keep the records tax law requires.

When You Visit the Site

We use Google Analytics to count visits and see which pages and posts bring readers in. It tells us things like the pages you viewed, roughly where you are (country and city level), your device and browser type, and the site or post that sent you. We also record three actions: signing up (with the form, the post that sent you and the role you picked), downloading a guide, and clicking through to one of our social accounts.

How Google Analytics works depends on where you are:

• Visitors in the EU, EEA, UK and Switzerland: Google Analytics runs without cookies. Google receives a basic record of each visit without any identifier that links your visits together.
• Everyone else: Google Analytics uses cookies to recognize a returning browser.

We have turned off Google's data sharing options and advertising features, so this data isn't used to target ads.

Our pages also load fonts from Google Fonts, which means your browser sends your IP address to Google when a page loads.

Netlify keeps standard server logs for every visit, including IP address, browser type, the page requested and the time. These help keep the site running and secure.

When you arrive from a link with a post code in it (like ?ref=ig-barrel), your browser keeps that code for the rest of the visit so a signup can record which post sent you. It's stored in your browser's session storage and is deleted when you close the tab.

When You Email Us

If you email contact@thebrandbet.com, we get your email address, your name if you include it, and whatever you write. We use it to reply. Our email runs on Google Workspace.

When You Interact With Us on Social Media

We post on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Facebook. Those platforms run under their own privacy policies, and what you do there (likes, comments, follows) is handled by them.

On some posts, you can comment a keyword to get a link by direct message. If you do, our scheduling tool Blotato reads the comment and sends you one automated message with the link. Blotato and the platform process your username, your comment and the message. The link may carry a code that tells us which post it came from. It doesn't identify you.

The platforms also give us statistics about our pages, such as how many people saw a post. These come as totals, not as information about you. For our Facebook and Instagram pages, Meta and we share responsibility for these page statistics under EU law, and Meta handles requests about them. You can read Meta's terms for page insights at facebook.com/legal/terms/page_controller_addendum.

Our Legal Bases (EU and UK)

GDPR requires us to name a legal basis for each use of your data:

• Newsletter and welcome emails: your consent, which you give when you sign up, confirm your email or create an account. You can withdraw it at any time by unsubscribing.
• Running your account: what's needed to provide the account you asked for (contract).
• Purchases and downloads: what's needed to complete your order (contract). Keeping tax and accounting records: our legal obligations.
• Analytics, server logs and security: our legitimate interest in running a site that works, staying secure and learning what readers find useful. We keep this light: no cookies in the EU, UK and Switzerland, and no ad features.
• Replying to your emails and sending the link you asked for in a comment: our legitimate interest in answering you, or steps you asked us to take.

Where we rely on legitimate interests, you can object (see "Your Rights").

Cookies and Similar Technologies

Here's everything the site stores in your browser today:

• Google Analytics cookies (_ga and _ga_HR2VD3JKK0): recognize a returning browser so we can count visitors. They last up to 2 years. Not set for visitors in the EU, EEA, UK and Switzerland.
• Post code (bb_ref, session storage): remembers which post sent you, for one visit.
• Meta Pixel cookie (_fbp): see below. Not set for visitors in Europe.

Once site accounts launch, Supabase will also store a sign-in session in your browser so you stay signed in. It's needed for the account to work, and it's removed when you sign out.

Meta Pixel: for visitors outside Europe, the site loads Meta's pixel. It sets the _fbp cookie, which lasts up to 90 days, and tells Meta when someone views a page, signs up or reaches the thank-you page, along with which post sent them. The pixel doesn't send your email address or name to Meta, and we've turned off its automatic button and form tracking. Meta may connect this to your Meta account under its own privacy policy. The pixel doesn't load if your device is set to a European time zone or your browser sends a Global Privacy Control signal.

We don't run ad pixels from TikTok, Google or anyone else.

How to Turn Off Analytics and the Meta Pixel

You can stop Google Analytics and the Meta Pixel in any of these ways:

• Install Google's opt-out add-on: tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout
• Block or delete cookies in your browser settings.
• Use a browser or extension that blocks trackers.
• To stop the Meta Pixel, turn on Global Privacy Control in your browser (some browsers, like Brave and DuckDuckGo, send it by default), or change your ad settings in your Meta account.

The site works the same either way.

Email: What We Send and How to Stop It

If you sign up or create an account, we send:

• the weekly newsletter,
• a short welcome series in your first two weeks, which includes the free guide and, once we have them, offers for our paid guides.

If you buy something, we also send your receipt and download link. Those are part of your order and we send them even if you've unsubscribed from the newsletter.

Every newsletter and marketing email has an unsubscribe link at the bottom. One click takes you off the list. You can also reply to any email or write to contact@thebrandbet.com and ask us to remove you.

Our emails contain a small tracking image and tracked links, so Kit can tell us whether an email was opened and which links were clicked. We use this to see which stories land and to remove people who haven't opened anything in a long time. If you'd rather we not know, turn off automatic image loading in your email app.

How Your Account and the Newsletter Fit Together

Once site accounts launch:

• Creating a free account doesn't subscribe you to the newsletter on its own. The signup form has an unticked box for it, and you only get the newsletter if you tick it.
• You can unsubscribe and keep your account. Click unsubscribe in any newsletter email. Your account keeps working, and you can still read members-only content.
• You can delete your account. Use the delete option in your account settings, or email contact@thebrandbet.com. We delete your account within 30 days. Deleting your account doesn't unsubscribe you automatically, since some readers want to keep the newsletter. If you want both gone, unsubscribe too, or tell us in your email and we'll do both.
• If you were already a subscriber, creating an account doesn't sign you up twice. We add the "site member" label to your existing subscription.

Who Processes Your Data

We use these companies to run The Brand Bet. Each one handles your data only to provide its service to us, under its own terms and data protection agreement, unless we note otherwise.

• Kit (Kit.com, Inc.): newsletter, signup forms, email sequences and the shop checkout. United States.
• Stripe: payments. Stripe also uses payment data to prevent fraud and meet its legal duties, and for that it acts under its own privacy policy. United States and elsewhere.
• Netlify: website hosting, server logs and the backup copy of signup forms. United States.
• Google: Google Analytics, Google Fonts and Google Workspace (our email). Google Sign-In, if you choose it for your account. United States and elsewhere.
• Supabase (planned): site accounts and sign-in. United States.
• Blotato: scheduling our social posts and sending the automated link messages described above. United States.
• Meta Platforms: the Meta Pixel described above, used to measure our posts and ads, and the hashed email lists described in "Selling and Sharing Your Information," used to show or hide our ads. Meta acts under its own terms and privacy policy for this data. United States and elsewhere.
• Meta (Instagram and Facebook), TikTok and YouTube: where we publish. They act under their own privacy policies.

We may also share information if the law requires it, to protect our rights or someone's safety, or with a buyer if The Brand Bet is ever sold. In a sale, this policy would keep applying to your data unless you agree to something new.

Selling and Sharing Your Information

We don't sell your personal information for money. For visitors outside Europe, the site runs the Meta Pixel, which tells Meta about visits and signups so we can measure our posts and ads. California and some other states may treat that as "sharing" for cross-context behavioral advertising, so we treat it that way and let you opt out. Google Analytics runs with its advertising features turned off.

We may also share hashed (encrypted) email addresses with Meta so we can show our ads to subscribers, or leave subscribers out of ads that aren't meant for them. Meta only receives the scrambled version of your address, not the address itself. To opt out, email contact@thebrandbet.com and we'll take you off these lists.

To opt out, turn on Global Privacy Control in your browser and the pixel won't load, or email contact@thebrandbet.com.

If your browser sends a Global Privacy Control signal, we treat it as a request to opt out of sale and sharing, and the Meta Pixel doesn't load.

How Long We Keep It

• Newsletter subscribers: until you unsubscribe. After that, Kit keeps your email address on a suppression list so we never email you by mistake. We may also remove subscribers who haven't opened an email in 12 months.
• Netlify backup copies of signups: deleted within 30 days, once they're safely in Kit.
• Site accounts: until you delete the account, or for 30 days after we close an account that has been inactive for 3 years.
• Purchases: order and tax records for 7 years, which is what tax rules require. Stripe keeps payment records under its own rules.
• Google Analytics: visit-level data for 14 months. Reports that only show totals may be kept longer.
• Netlify server logs: for the short period Netlify keeps them.
• Emails you send us: up to 2 years after the conversation ends, unless we need them longer for an order or a legal matter.

Your Rights

Everyone

Whatever country you live in, you can ask us to show you the personal data we hold about you, correct it, or delete it. Email contact@thebrandbet.com from the address you used with us. We'll answer within 30 days. We'll ask you to confirm the request from that email address, so we know it's really you.

EU, EEA, UK and Switzerland

Under GDPR you have the right to:

• access your data and get a copy,
• correct it,
• delete it,
• restrict how we use it,
• object to uses based on our legitimate interests,
• receive data you gave us in a portable format,
• withdraw consent at any time, which doesn't affect anything we did before,
• complain to your data protection authority. In the UK, that's the Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk).

We'll answer within one month.

California and Other US States

If you live in California or another US state with a privacy law, you can ask us what personal information we've collected about you, ask us to delete or correct it, and opt out of its sale or sharing (see "Selling and Sharing Your Information" above). We won't treat you differently for using these rights. You can ask someone to make a request for you, but we may ask them to show your permission and confirm your identity with you.

For California residents: in the past 12 months we've collected identifiers (email, name, IP address), commercial information (purchases), internet activity (pages viewed and email engagement), approximate location, and professional information (the role you pick). The sources, purposes and recipients are in the sections above. We don't collect sensitive personal information.

International Transfers

We're based in the United States, and most of our providers store data there. If you're in the EU, UK or Switzerland, your data is transferred to the United States. Where a provider is certified under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (and its UK and Swiss extensions), the transfer relies on that. Otherwise, it relies on the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses (and the UK addendum) built into the provider's data protection agreement.

Security

We use reputable providers, keep access to our accounts limited and protected with two-step sign-in, and collect only what we need. No system is perfectly secure, though. If a breach affects your data, we'll tell you and the authorities as the law requires.

Children

The Brand Bet is for working professionals and students of business and marketing. It isn't directed at children. You must be 16 or older to subscribe or create an account. If we learn that we've collected data from someone under 16, we delete it. If you think that's happened, email contact@thebrandbet.com.

Changes to This Policy

If we change this policy, we'll update it here and change the date below. If a change affects how we use data you already gave us, we'll also tell subscribers by email before it takes effect.

Contact

Jalen West, The Brand Bet
Mailing address available on request
contact@thebrandbet.com