Privacy Notice

1. Who I am

I'm Sarah Roughsedge — an author, speaker and financial wellbeing educator, trading as a sole trader in the UK. This notice covers the websites I run personally:

• Sarah Roughsedge — my personal site
• Smart Money, Strong Women — the website for my book
• Second Spring — my anonymous story collection project

For anything in this notice, I'm the "data controller" — the person responsible for your information. You can reach me at hello@sarahroughsedge.com. (My regulated financial planning businesses and my money management app are run separately and have their own privacy notices.)

2. What I collect, and why

I only collect what each feature actually needs. In plain terms:

Contact forms

Your name, email address and message — so I can reply to you. Lawful basis: my legitimate interest in responding to people who get in touch.

Newsletter

Your name and email address — so I can send you the emails you signed up for. Lawful basis: your consent. Every email includes an unsubscribe link, and unsubscribing takes effect straight away.

Money tools (quiz and calculator)

If you take the Money Mindset Quiz or use the Motherhood Money Calculator, I collect your answers and results, plus your email address if you choose to give it to receive your results or follow-up emails. Lawful basis: consent for the emails; legitimate interest in understanding how the tools are used. The calculator's figures stay in your browser unless you choose to share them.

Story submissions (Second Spring)

Second Spring stories are genuinely anonymous. The submission form does not ask for your name, email address or anything that identifies you — only your story and a few optional context questions (like age range). Your story text is encrypted before it is stored. Because no identifying details are collected, I have no way to link a story back to you — which also means I can't retrieve or delete "your" story on request, so please only submit what you're comfortable sharing. Lawful basis: your consent, given when you tick the consent box on submission.

Accounts and community features

If you create an account (where sign-up is offered), I collect your email address, a password (stored securely hashed — I never see it) and anything you choose to post. Lawful basis: performing my agreement with you to provide the account.

Book sales

I don't sell books directly through these sites. "Buy" links take you to external retailers (such as Amazon or Waterstones), who handle your purchase under their own privacy policies.

3. Who helps me run these sites

I never sell your information. A small number of trusted service providers ("processors") handle data on my behalf:

• Supabase — secure database where form submissions, sign-ups and stories are stored (hosted in the EU, London/EU region)
• Vercel — website hosting
• Resend — sends the emails (replies, newsletters, follow-ups)

Each provider only processes data on my instructions, under a contract that meets UK GDPR requirements. Beyond these providers, I only share information if the law requires it.

4. Where your data lives

Your data is stored in the UK/EU (the database is hosted in an EU region). Where a provider processes data outside the UK, it does so under recognised safeguards such as the UK's adequacy decisions or standard contractual clauses with the UK addendum.

5. How long I keep things

• Contact messages: kept while we're in conversation, then deleted within 12 months of our last exchange
• Newsletter details: kept until you unsubscribe, then removed from the mailing list
• Quiz and calculator results: kept while relevant to the emails you've asked for; deleted if you unsubscribe or ask me to remove them
• Anonymous stories: kept for the life of the Second Spring book project, in anonymised form
• Account data: kept while your account is active, deleted when you close it

6. Your rights

Under UK GDPR you have the right to:

• Access a copy of the information I hold about you
• Correct anything that's inaccurate
• Delete your information ("right to be forgotten")
• Restrict or object to how I use it
• Take your data with you (data portability)
• Withdraw consent at any time, where consent is the basis (e.g. the newsletter)

Just email hello@sarahroughsedge.comand I'll respond within one month. If you're unhappy with how I handle your information, you can complain to the UK regulator, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.

7. Cookies, briefly

These sites are deliberately light on cookies: essential cookies to keep you signed in if you have an account, and a record of your cookie choices. There are currently no analytics or advertising cookies. The full details are in the Cookie Policy.

8. Changes to this notice

If I change how I handle your information, I'll update this page and the "Last updated" date above. For significant changes affecting newsletter subscribers, I'll let you know by email.

9. Contact

Sarah Roughsedge (sole trader)
Email: hello@sarahroughsedge.com