Privacy Policy

1. Overview

The Mark Effect ("we," "us") is owned and operated by Steven F. Mark in Pasadena, California. We take your privacy seriously. This policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, and your rights regarding it.

2. What We Collect

We collect information you provide directly when you:

• Purchase a product or a session (name, email, payment information processed by Stripe for sessions and one-on-one work, and by Lemon Squeezy as merchant of record for digital products)
• Fill out a contact form or waitlist (name, email)
• Participate in one-on-one sessions (information you share during sessions)
• Subscribe to our email list (email address)

We also collect basic analytics data (page views, traffic sources) through standard web analytics tools.

3. How We Use Your Information

We use your information to deliver products you've purchased, provide services, respond to inquiries, send email updates you've opted into, and improve our products and site.

We don't sell, rent, or trade your personal information to third parties. Period.

4. Third-Party Services

We use the following services to operate our business:

• Stripe processes payments for sessions and one-on-one work, including Life Architect. They handle your payment information directly. We don't store credit card numbers.
• Lemon Squeezy processes payments for digital products as our merchant of record. They handle your payment information directly.
• Beehiiv manages our email newsletters. You can unsubscribe at any time.
• Google Workspace handles email, calendar, file storage, and video meetings (Google Meet).
• Zoom is used for video meetings and live sessions.
• Netlify hosts our websites and processes contact and waitlist form submissions.
• DocHub handles document signing (waivers and agreements).
• Fathom records live sessions (with your consent).

Each of these services has its own privacy policy governing how they handle your data.

5. AI-Assisted Tools

Some of our workflows use AI-assisted tools to help structure content, organize themes, or draft materials. We take reasonable steps to avoid entering personally identifying information into AI systems. However, digital tools carry residual privacy and security risks, and we apply reasonable safeguards rather than absolute guarantees.

6. Session Confidentiality

We treat information shared during one-on-one sessions as confidential and use reasonable care to protect it. However, absolute confidentiality cannot be guaranteed because our services involve email, cloud storage, scheduling platforms, videoconferencing, and other digital systems. We may disclose information when required by law, court order, or safety concerns.

7. Data Security

We use reasonable measures to protect your information, including encrypted connections (HTTPS), secure payment processing through our payment providers, and access controls on our systems. No system is perfectly secure, and we can't guarantee absolute protection.

8. Your Rights

You can request access to, correction of, or deletion of your personal information at any time by contacting us through our contact form. You can unsubscribe from email communications using the link in any email. California residents may have additional rights under the CCPA.

9. Children

Our products and services are not directed at anyone under 18. We don't knowingly collect information from minors.

10. Changes

We may update this policy from time to time. The "Last updated" date reflects the most recent version.

11. Contact

Questions about your privacy? Reach us through our contact form.