Minimalist Beginnings is a content site, reading app, and small print-on-demand bookshop. We collect only what we need to run the site, fulfill the small number of orders we take, and respond when you reach out.

Information we collect

Contact form. If you send us a message via our contact page, we collect the name, email address, and message you provide. We use this only to respond to you and we don’t share it with third parties.

Newsletter. If you subscribe to our newsletter, we collect your email address through Kit (formerly ConvertKit). We use it only to send you the content you signed up for. You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in any email.

Analytics. We use Google Analytics to understand how visitors use the site at an aggregate level. This data is anonymized and helps us improve our content. We do not sell your data, and we do not use analytics to identify individual visitors.

Purchases

We sell a small number of physical products through this site — print-on-demand books fulfilled by Lulu. When you place an order, here is what happens with your information.

Payment. Stripe processes your payment directly. We never see or store your full credit card number — Stripe handles all card data and is PCI-DSS compliant. Through our WooCommerce admin, we see only the masked last four digits of your card, the amount, and the transaction status.

Shipping. We collect your name, email address, and shipping address so Lulu can fulfill and ship your order. Lulu receives your shipping address to print and mail the book. We retain order records (without full card numbers) for tax, accounting, and customer-service purposes — typically seven years per US tax requirements.

Order communications. We use your email address to send order confirmations, shipping notifications, and customer-service responses. These are transactional emails and are not the same as our newsletter — opting out of one does not affect the other.

Refunds and disputes. If you request a refund or open a chargeback, we may share order details with Stripe or Lulu as needed to resolve the issue.

What we don’t collect

We don’t require user accounts to read the blog or use the iOS app. We don’t track you across other websites for advertising. We don’t sell your personal information to anyone.

If you click an Amazon affiliate link from our site, Amazon’s privacy practices apply once you arrive there. We don’t see what you buy or whether you buy anything at all — only an aggregate commission report.

Cookies and tracking

This site uses cookies and tracking scripts, primarily through Google Analytics and the Meta Pixel. Google Analytics helps us understand how visitors use the site at an aggregate level. The Meta Pixel — a tracking script from Meta — runs across the site so we can measure how content performs and reach similar readers if we run social ads.

You can disable cookies in your browser settings or use a tracker-blocking extension to opt out. Some site features may not work as expected with cookies disabled.

Our iOS app

The Minimalist Beginnings app reads public content from this site, our Pinterest boards, and our affiliate product list. It does not require an account or login. Articles you save and reading preferences (font size, dark mode) are stored only on your device.

The app does not collect personal data, does not use the advertising identifier, and does not share data with third parties. If you sign up for the newsletter from inside the app, your email is sent to Kit just as it would be from the website. The app does not process payments.

Third-party links

This site links to external websites including Amazon, Pinterest, and the social platforms we publish on. We’re not responsible for the privacy practices of those sites. We encourage you to review their privacy policies if you choose to visit them.

Children’s privacy

Minimalist Beginnings is not directed at children under 13. We don’t knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you’re a parent or guardian and believe your child has sent us information through our contact form, newsletter signup, or an order placed on our site, please reach out via our contact page and we’ll address it.

Your rights

You can ask us what information we have about you, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it. To do any of these things, send us a message via our contact page and we’ll respond within a few days.

If you live in the European Union or United Kingdom, you have additional rights under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), including the right to access your data, correct it, port it to another service, restrict how we use it, or have it erased. If you live in California, you have similar rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), including the right to know what we collect and to request deletion. We honor these requests for all readers, regardless of where you live.

Note on order records. If you’ve placed an order with us, US tax law requires us to keep transaction records for seven years. We can delete most personal data on request, but the order record itself may need to be retained in anonymized or limited form to meet that requirement.

If you’d like to unsubscribe from our newsletter, you can do that directly using the link in any email we send.

Changes to this policy

If we update this policy, we’ll change the “last updated” date at the bottom of the page. Significant changes will be flagged in our newsletter.