Privacy Policy

Plain English First

Credit And Cashmere LLC (“Credit & Cashmere,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) runs creditandcashmere.com and The Ledger, our financial tools web app at creditandcashmere.com/app/. This Privacy Policy explains what we collect, what we do with it, and — just as importantly — what we don’t do. We wrote it in plain English. If anything’s unclear, email us at [email protected] and we’ll explain it like a friend would.

1. Information We Collect

We try to collect as little as possible. Here’s what we do collect, and why:

• Email address — when you create an account, join our email list, or request a free resource. Used to log you into the app and to send you what you signed up for.
• Account information — your display name (if you set one) and a password hash. Passwords are hashed by our authentication provider; we cannot read them in plain text.
• The data you enter into The Ledger — the numbers you type into the tools (debt balances, interest rates, budget categories, savings goals, and so on). It is saved to your account so you can come back to it. You typed it; you own it. It is not sent to any third party for their own purposes. It is not used for advertising. It is never combined with anyone else’s data.
• Membership and billing records — which plan you’re on, when it started, when it renews or ends, and the amount charged. We need these to give you the access you paid for and to meet our tax obligations. We do not hold your card details (Section 3).
• Analytics data — pages visited, time on site, device type, approximate location (city/country level), and traffic source. Collected via Google Analytics. Used to understand what’s helpful and what isn’t.
• Communications — anything you send us via email or the contact form.

What we explicitly do NOT collect:

• Bank account numbers, routing numbers, or banking login credentials
• Social Security numbers
• Full credit card numbers (handled by Paddle, never seen by us)
• Driver’s license, passport, or government ID numbers
• Health information
• Precise geolocation (no GPS tracking)
• Contacts, photos, or files from your device

2. How We Use What We Collect

• To run your account. Create it, log you in, unlock the tools your membership includes, and save your work so it’s there tomorrow.
• To send you the emails you need. This includes a reminder before every renewal charge, receipts, payment problems, password resets, and account notices. These are transactional — they go out whatever your marketing preferences are, because you need them.
• To send you email you asked for. Newsletter, education, product news — only if you opted in, and always with a one-click unsubscribe.
• To answer your questions. Support, billing issues, account help.
• To improve the site and the tools. Analytics tells us which pages help and which don’t. We use that to make things better.
• To stay compliant. Tax records, fraud prevention, responding to lawful requests.

3. Payments — Paddle Is the Seller of Record

Paddle is the merchant of record for every Ledger membership. When you buy or renew, Paddle processes the payment, is responsible for sales tax and VAT, issues your invoice, and handles refunds. Paddle’s own privacy notice and buyer terms apply to that transaction alongside this policy.

• Credit And Cashmere LLC never sees or stores your card number. Your card details are entered with Paddle and stay with Paddle.
• What we receive back from Paddle is the minimum we need: your billing email, the last four digits and type of card, the plan you bought, the amount, and whether the charge succeeded, failed, or was refunded.
• Paddle writes one thing into our system: which plan your account is on, and when it runs to. That’s the switch that unlocks your tools.
• To take payment, Paddle will collect the information it needs from you directly — including your card details, billing address, and the country you’re taxed in. Paddle is a separate controller of that data.

Legacy spreadsheet orders on Etsy are paid for through Etsy, under Etsy’s own payment processing and privacy policy. Paddle isn’t involved, and neither are we.

[[LOLA: counsel to confirm the exact Paddle contracting entity to name here, and whether a link to Paddle’s privacy notice should sit in this section.]]

4. Where Your Data Lives (Data Residency)

The Ledger runs on Vercel (hosting) with Supabase as the authentication and database provider. All Supabase data is stored in a US region. Your account and everything you enter into the tools sit on servers physically located in the United States.

The website (everything outside /app/) is hosted on WordPress at Bluehost, also US-based.

If you’re visiting from outside the US, your data will be transferred to and processed in the US. See the GDPR section below.

[[LOLA: confirm whether any additional infrastructure sub-processor must be listed here — e.g. the CDN/edge provider in front of /app/. Do not publish a vendor list that is missing a processor that actually handles user traffic.]]

5. Analytics — What Google Sees, and What It Never Sees

Most money apps pipe your behaviour to third parties without ever telling you. We don’t, and rather than gesture vaguely at “protecting your data,” here is the actual architecture, in full.

5a. Yes, we use Google Analytics

Google Analytics (GA4) runs on the website, the blog, and inside The Ledger itself. We are not going to pretend otherwise — it is a requirement of the ad network that helps keep the education library free to read.

What GA4 receives is page paths and session data, and nothing else: which page was opened, when, roughly where in the world from (city level), what device, and where the visit came from.

5b. What Google never receives

This is the part that matters, so we will be specific rather than reassuring. Google never receives:

• Any balance, APR, payment amount, or income figure you enter
• Any debt name or category you typed
• Any check-in feeling or journal note
• Any custom dimension carrying a financial value — we do not configure one, and we will not
• Any identifier that would link a browsing session back to your financial records

Google can see that someone opened a dashboard. Google never sees what is on it.

5c. Where the numbers actually live

Every figure you enter stays in our own database (Supabase, US region). It is never sent to any third party for analytics — not to Google, not to anyone.

When we want to know how the product is doing — how many people finish setting up, which tools actually get used — we work that out from our own data, inside our own system. Your numbers do not leave the house to answer a question about the house.

5d. And there is no bank in this picture at all

We have no bank connections. Everything in The Ledger is there because you typed it. There is no aggregator, no read-only link, no bank login field, and nothing streaming in behind the scenes. It is the single strongest privacy decision in the product, and it was deliberate.

6. Cookies

Yes, we use cookies. When you first visit the site, our cookie consent banner (powered by CookieYes) gives you the choice to accept or decline non-essential cookies. You can change your preferences anytime through the banner.

• Strictly necessary cookies — required for login sessions, keeping you signed in, and security. Can’t be disabled without breaking the app.
• Analytics cookies — Google Analytics, only loaded if you consent. Helps us understand site usage anonymously.
• Marketing/social cookies — Pinterest tag, TikTok pixel, and similar may be loaded if you consent. Used to measure ad and content performance.
• Email marketing cookies — Kit (formerly ConvertKit) may set a cookie when you interact with our forms.
• Payment cookies — Paddle may set cookies on the checkout to process your payment and prevent fraud.

You can also block cookies in your browser settings or use the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on.

7. Third-Party Services

We use a small set of vendors to run the business. Each one only sees the data it needs:

• Supabase — authentication and database (US region)
• Vercel — app hosting
• Bluehost — website hosting
• Paddle — merchant of record: payment processing, invoicing, sales tax and VAT, refunds
• Kit (formerly ConvertKit) — email list, renewal reminders, and automated sequences
• Google Analytics — site usage analytics
• CookieYes — cookie consent management
• Etsy — legacy spreadsheet purchases made through our Etsy shop, governed by Etsy’s own privacy policy
• Pinterest, TikTok, Instagram — social platform pixels (only if you consent)

The old website checkout and its payment processor have been retired. Every membership payment now runs through Paddle, the merchant of record. No other payment vendor touches your card.

We may add or change service providers over time. Material changes will be reflected in this policy. None of these vendors are authorized to use your data for their own marketing.

8. What We Do NOT Do

We’re being explicit about this because it matters:

• We do not sell your personal information. Not to advertisers, not to data brokers, not to anyone.
• We do not share your data with third parties for their own marketing.
• We do not use your data to train AI models. The financial information you enter into The Ledger is never fed into any machine-learning system, ours or anyone else’s.
• We do not link your account to outside financial accounts. No bank connections, ever. We will never ask for your bank login.
• We do not run behavioral advertising based on the data you enter into our tools.
• We do not hold your card number. We couldn’t leak it if we tried — we don’t have it.

9. Data Retention

We keep your data only as long as it’s useful or required:

• Billing and membership records: 7 years (US tax law)
• Active account data: as long as your account is active. Delete anytime — see Section 10.
• The data you entered into The Ledger: kept while your account exists. If you cancel, see below — cancelling does not wipe your work.
• Email subscriber data: while you’re subscribed. Removed from marketing lists within 30 days of unsubscribe.
• Google Analytics data: 26 months (Google default)
• Contact form messages: up to 24 months

9a. If you cancel your membership

The fear here is a fair one: you spent months typing your real numbers in, and now you’re leaving. Do you lose it? No.

• We keep your data for 12 months after you cancel. Every debt, every category, every month you tracked — it stays in your account exactly as you left it. Come back in three weeks or eleven months and you pick up where you stopped, not from scratch.
• You can export all of it, any time, in one click. Before you go, after you go, or simply because you feel like having your own copy. It is your data.
• After 12 months, we delete it permanently. We are not going to sit on the financial records of a woman who has moved on with her life.
• You can delete it yourself, immediately, whenever you like. There is no 12-month wait if you want it gone now, and you don’t have to ask anyone’s permission.

Billing records are held separately, for the 7-year window US tax law requires. That is the one thing we cannot delete on request, and we would rather tell you than let you find out.

10. Your Rights (Including How to Delete Your Data)

You always have these rights:

• Access — request a copy of the personal data we hold about you
• Export — take the data you entered into The Ledger with you, in a usable format
• Delete — request deletion of your account and data
• Correct — fix anything inaccurate
• Unsubscribe — every marketing email has a one-click unsubscribe link
• Opt out of cookies — through the CookieYes banner or your browser

To request deletion of your data:

Email [email protected] with “Data Deletion Request” in the subject line. Include the email address associated with your account.

Our response window: within 30 days. In most cases, much faster.

What gets deleted: your account, everything you saved in The Ledger, and your email from our marketing lists. Billing records may be retained for the 7-year tax window required by law, and Paddle keeps its own transaction records as the seller of record; those are de-identified on our side where possible.

11. California Residents (CCPA / CPRA)

If you live in California, you have additional rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act and the California Privacy Rights Act:

• The right to know what personal information we collect, use, and disclose
• The right to delete personal information we hold about you
• The right to correct inaccurate personal information
• The right to opt out of the “sale” or “sharing” of personal information (we do not sell or share your data, so this is already the default)
• The right to limit use of sensitive personal information
• The right to non-discrimination for exercising these rights

To exercise any of these rights, email [email protected] with “California Privacy Request” in the subject. We respond within 45 days as required by law.

“Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information” link: You’ll find a “Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information” link in our website footer. Clicking it lets you opt out of any “sale” or “sharing” of your personal information under California law. Because we already do not sell or share your personal information, clicking this link confirms the default for your visit and applies your Global Privacy Control (GPC) signal where available.

12. International Visitors (GDPR / UK GDPR)

If you’re in the EU, EEA, UK, or another region with similar laws:

Legal basis for processing:

• Consent — for marketing emails, non-essential cookies, newsletter signups
• Contractual necessity — to operate your account, deliver the membership you bought, and send the transactional emails that go with it (including the pre-renewal reminder)
• Legitimate interest — for analytics, fraud prevention, and product improvement
• Legal obligation — to retain billing records for tax compliance

Additional GDPR rights beyond Section 10:

• Right to data portability (machine-readable copy of your data)
• Right to restrict processing
• Right to object to processing based on legitimate interest
• Right to withdraw consent at any time
• Right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority

International transfers: Your data may be transferred to and processed in the United States. By using the site, you consent to this transfer. We use vendors with appropriate safeguards (Standard Contractual Clauses where applicable).

A note on cookie consent for EU/UK visitors: Our cookie consent banner is currently configured to enforce US state-law (CCPA-style) consent standards. EU and UK visitors retain all GDPR rights listed above. If you’re in the EU or UK and want to exercise any cookie-related right (including withdrawal of consent for non-essential cookies on a previous visit), email us using “GDPR Request” in the subject and we’ll process your request manually.

Email [email protected] with “GDPR Request” in the subject. We respond within 30 days.

13. AI Tools — Disclosure

Credit & Cashmere uses AI tools to help draft content, brainstorm answers, build formulas, and produce marketing copy. Every piece of content is reviewed by a human at Credit & Cashmere before it’s published. AI helps us move faster. It does not replace editorial judgment.

We do not feed your personal data, your billing data, or anything you’ve entered into our tools into any AI system. This includes everything you save in The Ledger — your debt balances, budget figures, and financial goals never leave our database to be used as AI training material. AI is used at the company-content level only, never on user data.

A note on accuracy: AI can be wrong. So can humans. So can formulas. Always fact-check anything you’re going to act on, especially major financial decisions. See our Disclaimer for more.

14. Security

We use industry-standard practices:

• SSL/TLS encryption on all data in transit
• Hashed passwords — we cannot see your password in plain text
• PCI-compliant payment processing through Paddle, our merchant of record — card data never touches our systems
• US-region database with Supabase’s security controls
• Access controls — only authorized team members can access customer data
• No bank credentials to steal. The most sensitive financial data you can give a company — your bank login — is data we deliberately never hold.

No system is 100% secure. If a breach affects your data, we will notify you within the timeframes required by applicable law.

15. Children’s Privacy

Credit & Cashmere is not intended for anyone under 18. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13, in compliance with COPPA. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, email [email protected] and we’ll delete it.

16. Email — Marketing and Transactional

• Marketing email is opt-in only. We only send it if you signed up.
• Easy out. Every marketing email has an unsubscribe link. We process unsubscribes within 10 business days (usually instantly).
• Transactional email goes out regardless of marketing preferences, because you need it. This includes: the reminder we send before every renewal charge, receipts and invoices, notice of a failed payment, password resets, and important changes to your account or to these policies.
• Unsubscribing from marketing does not cancel your membership, and it does not stop the renewal reminder — that email exists to protect you from a surprise charge.

17. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy when our practices change or when laws change. When we make material changes, we’ll update the “Last updated” date at the top and, for significant changes, email account holders and subscribers. Continued use of the site after an update means you accept the new version.

18. Contact Us

Credit And Cashmere LLC
A Pennsylvania limited liability company
Email: [email protected]

For privacy questions or requests, use “Privacy Request” in the subject line. We aim to respond within 30 days for general requests and within the specific windows noted above for jurisdictional requests (CCPA, GDPR).

[[LOLA: counsel to confirm whether a postal address and/or an EU/UK representative must be named on this page for GDPR Art. 27 purposes, given that EU visitors can buy a membership.]]