Privacy Policy

Out & Found is a trade name of Christian Hutchinson, sole proprietor, based in Spokane, Washington, USA. We publish relocation guides for LGBTQ+ people. We know that the fact you are researching a move, or which guide you read, can itself be sensitive. This policy explains what we collect, why, who sees it, and what you can do about it.

It applies to www.outandfound.com, our emails, and purchases made through our online store.

2. Information we collect

When you buy a guide

• Name, email address, and billing address.
• The guide purchased, price, tax, date, and order number.
• Payment information. Card and PayPal details are entered directly with Squarespace Payments / Stripe or PayPal. We receive only limited details such as the card type, last four digits, and whether payment succeeded. We never see or store your full card number.

When you contact us

• Your name, email address, and whatever you choose to write to us.

When you join our email list

• Your email address and, if you provide it, your first name.
• Whether you open our emails or click links in them, which our email provider measures by default.

When you visit the website

• Technical information that browsers send automatically: IP address, browser and device type, pages viewed, the page that referred you, and approximate location derived from your IP address.
• Information from cookies, described in Section 6.

We do not create customer accounts. If you lose your download link, email us and we will send a fresh one. We do not buy information about you from anyone else.

3. Information we do not collect

We do not ask for, and do not want, information about your sexual orientation, gender identity, HIV status, medications, gender-affirming care, or any other physical or mental health condition. None of our forms or checkout fields ask for it.

We do not collect “consumer health data” as defined in Washington’s My Health My Data Act. We do not infer health information from what you buy or read, and we do not use your purchase of a guide, or the chapters it contains, to draw any conclusion about you.

If you include personal health details in an email to us, we will use them only to answer your message and will delete them when we no longer need them to help you. Please do not send us medical records.

4. How we use your information

We use it to:

• process your payment, deliver your guide, and resend download links;
• send your receipt and important messages about your order, including corrected versions of a guide you bought (see our Terms of Sale);
• respond to questions, refund requests, and error reports;
• calculate and pay taxes, keep business records, and meet legal obligations;
• prevent fraud, spam, and misuse, including unauthorized distribution of our guides;
• understand, in aggregate, how the website is used so we can improve it;
• send the newsletter or updates you signed up for.

We do not use your information for automated decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects about you.

Legal bases for visitors in the EU and UK. We process information to perform our contract with you (orders and delivery), to comply with legal obligations (tax and accounting records), based on our legitimate interests (security, fraud and spam prevention, answering messages, and basic site improvement), and based on your consent (analytics cookies and our email list). You can withdraw consent at any time.

5. Who we share it with

We share information only with the service providers that run parts of the business for us, and only as much as each one needs:

Payment processors such as Stripe and PayPal, and Google for reCAPTCHA, also use information under their own privacy policies for fraud prevention, security, and legal compliance.

We may also disclose information when the law requires it, such as a valid court order, subpoena, or tax audit; to protect our rights or someone’s safety; or to a successor if Out & Found is sold or transferred, in which case this policy continues to apply to your information.

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioral or targeted advertising. We do not place advertising pixels from Meta, Google Ads, TikTok, or similar networks on our website.

6. Cookies

Our website uses three kinds of cookies:

• Necessary cookies from Squarespace make the shopping cart, checkout, and other core features work. The site cannot function without them.
• Analytics cookies from Squarespace help us see, in aggregate, how many people visit, how they arrive, and which pages they use.
• Spam-protection cookies from Google. Some of our forms use Google reCAPTCHA to block spam, and Google may set its own cookies when those pages load. Google handles them under Google’s privacy policy.

When you first visit, a cookie banner lets you accept or decline analytics cookies. Analytics cookies are not placed until you accept. You can also block or delete cookies in your browser settings; the store will still work with necessary cookies only, though blocking Google’s cookies may stop some forms from submitting.

7. How long we keep it

• Order and payment records: at least five years after the purchase, because Washington tax law requires businesses to keep those records (RCW 82.32.070), and longer if an open tax matter requires it.
• Support emails: up to 2 years after the conversation ends, then deleted, unless they relate to an order record we must keep.
• Email list: until you unsubscribe. We then keep only your address on a suppression list so you are not added again by mistake.
• Analytics data: as retained by Squarespace’s analytics tools.

8. Your choices and rights

Wherever you live, you can ask us to:

• tell you what personal information we hold about you and give you a copy;
• correct information that is wrong;
• delete your information, except records we are legally required to keep, such as tax records;
• stop sending you marketing emails. Every newsletter has an unsubscribe link, and you can also just email us.

If you are in the EU, UK, or another place with similar laws, you also have the right to object to or restrict certain processing, to receive your data in a portable format, and to complain to your local data-protection authority. We would appreciate the chance to address your concern first.

To make a request, email hello@outandfound.com from the email address you used with us. We may ask you to confirm details of an order so we know the request is really from you. We respond within 30 days and do not charge for requests.

9. Where your information is stored

Out & Found is based in the United States, and our service providers process information in the United States and other countries. If you are outside the US, your information will be transferred to the US, where privacy laws may differ from those in your country. Where required, our providers use recognized transfer safeguards such as the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses.

10. Security

Checkout pages are encrypted, payment details go directly to the payment processor, and access to our store and inbox is protected by strong passwords and two-factor authentication. No online system is completely secure. If a breach affects your personal information, we will notify you as the law requires.

11. Children

Our guides and website are intended for adults. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 16. If you believe a child has given us information, contact us and we will delete it.

12. Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we will post the new version here and update the effective date. If a change materially affects how we use information we already hold, we will email customers and subscribers before it takes effect.

13. Contact