Privacy Policy

The Grounded Expat (“we,” “us,” “I”) is a small business run by Stephanie, a licensed clinical social worker, offering journals, reflective tools, one-to-one coaching, and a membership community (“The Circle”) for the emotional side of living abroad. This policy explains what information we collect through thegroundedexpat.com and The Circle app, how we use it, and the choices you have. We’ve tried to write it in plain language.

What we collect

Information you give us

• Your email address — to sign you in, send your one-time sign-in code, and (if you subscribe) confirm your membership.
• A first name or display name, if you choose to post in the community, so others can see who’s speaking.
• Community posts — anything you write in The Circle’s conversation spaces.
• Your reflections — the private journaling and check-ins you write in the app (see “Where your data lives” below).
• Messages you send us by email.

Payment information

Subscriptions and purchases are handled by Stripe (for The Circle) and Gumroad (for individual journals). We never see or store your full card number. We receive confirmation of your email and whether your subscription is active.

Information collected automatically

Our hosting provider keeps basic technical logs (such as IP address and request times) to keep the service secure and running. We also keep simple, anonymous usage counts (for example, how many reflections are written or posts are made in a day) to understand whether the app is helpful. These counts contain no personal information and are not tied to you. We do not use third-party advertising or cross-site tracking.

Where your data lives, and how we use it

• Your reflections stay on your own device. The check-ins and journaling you write are saved locally in your browser, private to you. To offer a gentle reflection prompt, the words you write are sent securely to our AI provider (Anthropic) to generate a single response, and are returned to you. We do not store your reflections on our servers, and they are not used to train AI models.
• Community posts are stored in our database (hosted by Cloudflare) and are visible to other members and to the host. Please treat the community as a shared space and don’t post anything you wouldn’t want other members to read.
• Your email is used to send your sign-in code (through Resend) and, if you’ve opted in, occasional updates and newsletters (through Kit). You can unsubscribe from marketing emails at any time.
• Membership status is checked with Stripe each time you open the app, so access follows your active subscription.

Who we share information with

We use a small number of trusted service providers to run the service. They only process your information to provide their service to us:

• Stripe — subscription payments
• Gumroad — individual journal purchases
• Cloudflare — website hosting and the community database
• Resend — sending your sign-in codes and account emails
• Anthropic — generating AI reflection prompts
• Kit — our email newsletter, if you subscribe to it

We do not sell your personal information, and we don’t share it with anyone else except where required by law or to protect the safety of our members.

Coaching

If you book one-to-one coaching, this section applies too. Coaching is coaching, not therapy. I don’t keep clinical records, and what we do together isn’t healthcare. The coaching agreement you accept when you book has the full terms.

• Booking and payment. Sessions are booked through Cal.com and paid for through Stripe. Video sessions, email and other tools I use to run coaching may also be provided by third parties, such as Google and the video provider we choose. They handle information under their own terms and privacy practices, and it may be processed in countries other than your own.
• Recaps and notes. I don’t keep session notes. After each session I send you a brief written recap, and that recap is yours. Beyond that, the only records are the ones that come with booking and paying, which live with Cal.com and Stripe, and our emails. You may also get a private page for your coaching work.
• AI-assisted recaps are your choice. Only if you say yes, a session may be transcribed and, only when technically necessary, recorded so a note-assistance service can draft your recap. I’ll tell you which service before it’s used. If you say no, or change your mind, I write the recap by hand, and it doesn’t affect your access to coaching or its price. When AI assistance is used, the recording and full transcript are deleted within 14 days after the recap is delivered, unless the law or a security or legal issue requires keeping them longer.
• Confidentiality and its limits. I treat what you share as private, and I won’t sell it or use it in my writing, newsletter, social media, or marketing without your separate, explicit permission. Coaching may not carry the same legal privilege or confidentiality protections as healthcare, so I can’t promise absolute confidentiality. I may share information when you authorize it, when a valid law, court order, or other legal process requires it, when a reporting duty applies to me (including suspected abuse or neglect of a child or vulnerable adult), or when I reasonably believe it’s necessary to respond to a serious and imminent threat of harm.
• Please keep it light in forms and email. Please don’t put sensitive clinical information in scheduling forms or ordinary email.

International users

The Grounded Expat serves people living all over the world. Our service providers may store and process your information in the United States and other countries. By using the service, you understand your information may be transferred to and processed in countries with different data-protection laws than your own.

How long we keep it

Your reflections remain on your device until you clear them. Community posts remain until you or we remove them. Account and payment records are kept as long as you have an account and as needed for legal, tax, and accounting purposes. If you close your account, we’ll delete or anonymise your personal information within a reasonable time, except where we’re required to keep it.

Your choices and rights

• Access, correct, or delete your information; email us and we’ll help.
• Delete your community posts yourself, any time, from within the app.
• Unsubscribe from marketing emails using the link in any email.
• Close your account by emailing us; cancelling your subscription in Stripe ends future billing.

If you’re in the EU, UK, or California, you may have additional rights under the GDPR or CCPA, including the right to access a copy of your data, to have it deleted, and to object to certain uses. To exercise any of these, just email us. We won’t discriminate against you for doing so.

Security

We use reasonable measures to protect your information, including encrypted connections and access-controlled systems. No method of storage or transmission is ever completely secure, so we can’t guarantee absolute security, but we take it seriously.

Children

The Grounded Expat and The Circle are intended for adults (18 and over). We don’t knowingly collect information from children. If you believe a child has provided us information, please contact us and we’ll remove it.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. When we do, we’ll change the date at the top. If the changes are significant, we’ll let members know.

Contact

Questions about your privacy? Email [email protected] and I’ll personally reply.

This policy describes how the service actually works today. Nothing here is legal advice, and it isn’t a substitute for professional or mental-health care; see our Terms of Service for more on that.