How we handle your data.

1. Who we are

"The Helm HQ," "we," "us," and "our" refer to the administrative consulting practice operated by Elizabeth Belchick, doing business as The Helm HQ, located in the United States. We can be reached at welcome@thehelmhq.com. "You" means anyone visiting thehelmhq.com or contacting us about our services.

2. What we collect

We collect two kinds of information.

Information you give us

• Booking information. When you book a call through Calendly, Calendly collects your name, email address, time-zone, and any answers you provide on the booking form. Calendly forwards this information to us.
• Email correspondence. When you email welcome@thehelmhq.com, we receive your email address, your name (if included), and the contents of your message.
• Engagement information. If you become a client, we collect the information needed to deliver our services. This may include business details, access credentials you choose to share, and information about the workflows we are auditing or automating.

Information collected automatically

• Server logs. Our hosting provider (Netlify) automatically logs basic request information (IP address, browser, time of visit, pages requested) for security and uptime purposes. We do not access these logs for marketing purposes.
• Web fonts. The site loads typography from Google Fonts. Google may log your IP address as part of serving the font files. We do not control or have access to those logs. You can review Google's Privacy Policy for details.

We do not run Google Analytics, advertising pixels, retargeting tools, session-recording tools, or social-media tracking pixels on this website.

3. How we use it

We use the information you provide to:

• Respond to inquiries and schedule introductory calls.
• Discuss potential engagements, prepare proposals, and contract for services.
• Deliver the services you have engaged us for, including the work we agree to in writing.
• Send transactional communication related to our work together (invoices, scheduling, deliverables).
• Comply with our legal, tax, and accounting obligations.

We do not use your information for advertising, profiling, or any form of automated decision-making.

4. Legal basis for processing

Where required by law (for example, for visitors in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom), we process your personal information under the following bases:

• Consent. When you contact us or book a call, you consent to us using the information you provide for the purposes described above.
• Contract. When you become a client, processing is necessary to perform the services you have engaged us for.
• Legitimate interests. We rely on legitimate interests for basic operations like security logging and responding to inquiries.
• Legal obligation. Tax, accounting, and other compliance-related processing.

5. Who we share it with

We share personal information only in the limited ways below. We do not sell, rent, or trade your information.

• Service providers. We use a small number of vendors to operate the business. These currently include Netlify (website hosting), Calendly (booking), Google Workspace (email), and our payment, accounting, and contracting tools. Each of these vendors processes information on our behalf and is bound by their own terms and privacy policies.
• Legal compliance. We may disclose information if required by law, subpoena, or other legal process, or where we believe disclosure is necessary to protect our rights or the rights of others.
• Business transfer. If the business is sold, merged, or transferred, your information may be transferred as part of that transaction. Any successor will be bound by this Privacy Policy or by a successor policy you are notified of in advance.

6. Cookies and tracking

The thehelmhq.com website does not set tracking cookies, advertising cookies, or analytics cookies. We do not use local storage to track you across visits.

Third-party services (Calendly, Google Fonts) may use their own cookies when their resources load. Their use is governed by their own policies. Most modern browsers let you block third-party cookies at the browser level.

7. How long we keep it

We keep personal information only as long as needed for the purposes described above. Specifically:

• Inquiries that don't lead to an engagement are deleted within 12 months.
• Client records are kept for the duration of the engagement and for up to seven years after, to satisfy tax, accounting, and contract-evidence requirements.
• Email correspondence is retained according to the same schedules above.

You can ask us to delete your information earlier. See "Your rights" below.

8. How we protect it

We use industry-standard measures to protect personal information, including encrypted-in-transit communication (HTTPS), password-protected accounts on our vendor tools, and access controls that limit who can see client information. No method of transmission or storage is perfectly secure, however. We will notify affected individuals of a security breach as required by applicable law.

9. Your rights

You may, at any time, ask us to:

• Confirm whether we hold personal information about you, and provide a copy of it.
• Correct any information that is inaccurate or out of date.
• Delete information we hold about you (subject to limited legal-retention exceptions noted above).
• Restrict or object to certain uses of your information.
• Withdraw any consent you previously gave us.

To exercise these rights, email welcome@thehelmhq.com. We will respond within 30 days, or as required by the law that applies to you. We will not discriminate against you for exercising these rights.

10. U.S. state-specific rights

Several U.S. states give residents additional privacy rights. The Helm HQ honors the rights granted to residents of California (CCPA/CPRA), Virginia (VCDPA), Colorado (CPA), Connecticut (CTDPA), Utah (UCPA), and any other state with a comparable comprehensive privacy law, regardless of whether we meet the statutory revenue or volume thresholds that would otherwise require it.

California residents

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA), California residents have the right to know what categories of personal information we collect, the purposes for collecting it, the categories of third parties we share it with, and the right to access, correct, delete, and limit use of sensitive personal information. The Helm HQ does not sell or share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising, and does not use sensitive personal information for purposes other than those allowed under the CPRA. To submit a verifiable consumer request, email welcome@thehelmhq.com with the subject line "California Privacy Request."

Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, and Utah residents

You have rights to access, correct, delete, and obtain a portable copy of your personal information, and to opt out of targeted advertising, the sale of personal data, and certain profiling. We do not engage in targeted advertising, sale of personal data, or profiling, so the opt-out rights have no current application to our practice. To exercise your other rights, email welcome@thehelmhq.com.

Appealing a decision

If we decline a request, you have the right to appeal that decision by replying to our response email. We will review the appeal and respond within 45 days.

11. Children's privacy

The Helm HQ is a business-to-business practice. Our website and services are not directed to children under 16, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us so we can delete it.

12. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will revise the "Effective" date at the top of this page. Material changes will be highlighted on the website or, where required by law, communicated to you directly. Your continued use of the website after a change becomes effective constitutes acceptance of the revised policy.

13. How to contact us

Privacy questions, requests, and complaints can be sent to:

The Helm HQ
Attn: Privacy
Email: welcome@thehelmhq.com

If you live in a jurisdiction with a data-protection authority, you also have the right to lodge a complaint with that authority.