The short version

We collect your email to send you the newsletter, plus a few details you choose to share.
We never sell your email address or hand our subscriber list to sponsors.
We use trusted tools (like beehiiv, Stripe and Google) to run the newsletter, and ad pixels to measure and grow it.
You can unsubscribe, turn off ad tracking, or ask us to see, fix or delete your data at any time.
Questions? Email hey@ledgerlowdown.com.

01Who we are

Ledger Lowdown ("Ledger Lowdown," "we," "us" or "our") publishes a newsletter and website for accounting and finance professionals at ledgerlowdown.com. This policy explains what personal information we collect, how we use and share it, and the choices and rights you have.

It applies to our website, our newsletters and emails, our free and paid subscriptions, our sponsor inquiry form, and any other place that links to this policy (together, the "Services"). For the purposes of the EU and UK GDPR, Ledger Lowdown is the "controller" of the personal information described here.

By using the Services, you acknowledge the practices described in this policy. If you don't agree with them, please don't use the Services.

02What we collect

Information you give us

Subscription details: your email address and, if you share them, your name, job title, company, industry, and interests.
Paid subscriptions: your billing name, email and plan. Card payments are handled by Stripe. We never see or store your full card number.
Sponsor inquiries: your name, email, company name and website, role, company type, the sponsorship you're interested in, and anything you write in the message box.
Messages and feedback: anything you send when you reply to an email, answer a poll or survey, enter a giveaway, or contact us.

Information collected automatically

Device and usage data: IP address, browser and device type, operating system, rough location (city or region, based on IP), referring page, pages viewed, and time spent.
Email engagement: whether you open our emails, which links you click, and when.
Cookies and similar technology: small files and pixels that help us remember your preferences, measure traffic and ad results, and prevent fraud. See Section 05.

Information from other sources

Advertising and social platforms (like Meta and LinkedIn), when you subscribe after seeing one of our ads.
Newsletter partners and recommendation tools, when you subscribe to Ledger Lowdown through another publication's recommendation.
Publicly available sources, such as a business website or professional profile, when we're following up on a sponsor inquiry.

We don't intentionally collect sensitive information such as Social Security numbers, health data, or precise GPS location. Please don't send it to us.

03How we use it

What we do	Why (legal basis where GDPR applies)
Send you the newsletter and account emails	To provide the service you signed up for (contract)
Process paid subscriptions and billing	Contract; legal obligations such as tax records
Answer sponsor inquiries and support questions	Our legitimate interest in responding to you, or steps before a contract
Understand what readers like and improve our content	Legitimate interest
Measure and improve our own ads, and show ads for Ledger Lowdown on other sites	Consent where required; otherwise legitimate interest
Report on sponsor campaign performance (totals only, like opens and clicks)	Legitimate interest
Prevent spam, fraud and abuse, and keep the Services secure	Legitimate interest; legal obligations
Comply with the law and enforce our terms	Legal obligation; legitimate interest

We don't use your personal information to make decisions that have legal or similarly significant effects on you based only on automated processing.

05Cookies, pixels & email tracking

Cookies are small text files saved in your browser. Pixels (also called web beacons or tags) are tiny pieces of code or images that tell a service when a page or email was viewed. Here's what we use them for:

Type	What it does	Examples
Essential	Keeps the site working, remembers your login and subscription, and blocks spam	beehiiv, Stripe
Analytics	Tells us how many people visit, which pages they read, and where they came from	Google Analytics, beehiiv analytics
Advertising	Measures our ads and lets us show Ledger Lowdown ads to people who've visited our site	Meta Pixel, LinkedIn Insight Tag, Google Ads
Email tracking	Records whether an email was opened and which links were clicked	beehiiv

Global Privacy Control: if your browser sends a Global Privacy Control (GPC) signal, we treat it as a request to opt out of targeted advertising and the "sale" or "sharing" of your information for that browser.

Do Not Track: there's no common standard for browser "Do Not Track" signals, so we don't respond to them. We do honor GPC as described above.

06Your choices

Unsubscribe: click "unsubscribe" at the bottom of any email. We may still send you account or billing emails if you have a paid plan.
Cancel a paid plan: manage it from your account page or email us.
Cookies: block or delete cookies in your browser settings. Some parts of the site may not work without essential cookies.
Email tracking: turn off automatic image loading in your email app to stop most open tracking.
Google Analytics: install the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on.
Targeted ads: visit optout.aboutads.info, optout.networkadvertising.org, or youronlinechoices.eu, and adjust ad settings in your Meta, LinkedIn and Google accounts.
Opt out of "sale" or "sharing": turn on GPC in your browser, or email hey@ledgerlowdown.com with the subject "Do Not Sell or Share."

07Your privacy rights

Wherever you live, you can ask us to:

Tell you what personal information we have about you and give you a copy
Correct information that's wrong or out of date
Delete your information
Stop sending you marketing emails

How to ask: email hey@ledgerlowdown.com with the subject "Privacy Request." Tell us what you'd like us to do and the email address you use with Ledger Lowdown.

Verification: to protect you, we'll confirm the request came from you, usually by replying to the email address on file. We may ask for more details if needed. We'll only use that information to verify your request.

Timing: we aim to respond within 30 days, and always within the time the law requires (for example, 45 days under most U.S. state laws, which can be extended once when reasonably necessary). We'll let you know if we need more time.

We won't treat you differently or charge you more for using your privacy rights. Some information may need to be kept for legal, tax or security reasons, and we'll tell you if that's the case.

08U.S. state privacy rights

Residents of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and other states with similar laws may have these rights, depending on where they live and whether the law applies to us:

Know and access the personal information we've collected about you, including the categories, sources, purposes and who we've shared it with
Get a copy in a portable format
Correct inaccurate information
Delete your information
Opt out of the "sale" or "sharing" of your information, targeted advertising, and profiling that has significant effects
Limit the use of sensitive information (we don't collect sensitive information for these purposes)
Appeal our decision if we deny your request. Reply to our decision email with the subject "Privacy Appeal," and we'll respond within the time required by law. If you're still unhappy, you can contact your state attorney general.

Authorized agents: you can have someone make a request for you. We may ask for signed permission and still verify your identity directly.

California notice at collection

In the past 12 months, we've collected the following categories of personal information, as described by the California Consumer Privacy Act (as amended by the CPRA):

Category	Examples	Disclosed to	"Sold" or "shared"?
Identifiers	Name, email, IP address, cookie IDs	Service providers; ad and analytics partners	Cookie IDs and IP address only, through ad pixels
Customer records	Billing name and email	Service providers (Stripe, beehiiv)	No
Commercial information	Plans purchased, subscription history	Service providers	No
Internet activity	Pages viewed, email opens and clicks, referring site	Service providers; ad and analytics partners	Yes, through ad pixels
General location	City or region based on IP address	Service providers; ad and analytics partners	Yes, through ad pixels
Professional information	Job title, company, role	Service providers	No
Inferences	Topics you seem interested in, based on clicks	Service providers	No

We collect these categories from the sources and for the purposes described in Sections 02 and 03, and keep them for the periods in Section 10. We don't knowingly sell or share the personal information of anyone under 16.

Shine the Light: California residents can ask whether we've shared personal information with third parties for their own direct marketing in the past year. We don't do this.

09EEA, UK & Swiss rights

If you're in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, we process your information under the legal bases listed in Section 03. You have the right to:

Access, correct, or delete your information
Restrict or object to how we process it, including for direct marketing
Receive your information in a portable format
Withdraw consent at any time, where we rely on consent. This won't affect processing that already happened.
Complain to your local data protection authority

Where required, we ask for your consent before setting non-essential cookies. To use any of these rights, email hey@ledgerlowdown.com.

10How long we keep data

Subscriber data: for as long as you're subscribed, and for a reasonable time afterward so we can honor your unsubscribe request and keep basic records.
Payment and tax records: as long as tax and accounting laws require, usually up to 7 years.
Sponsor inquiries: for as long as we're discussing or working together, and up to 3 years afterward.
Analytics and cookie data: according to each tool's settings, usually 26 months or less.

When we no longer need information, we delete it or make it anonymous.

11Security

We use reasonable technical and organizational safeguards to protect your information. These include encrypted (HTTPS) connections, trusted service providers with strong security programs, limited access to personal data, and strong passwords and account protections. Payments are processed by Stripe, which is certified to the PCI DSS standard.

No system is 100% secure, so we can't guarantee absolute security. If a data breach affects your personal information, we'll notify you and any regulators as the law requires.

12Children

Ledger Lowdown is written for working professionals and isn't directed to children. We don't knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 16. If you believe a child has given us information, email hey@ledgerlowdown.com and we'll delete it.

13International transfers

Ledger Lowdown is based in the United States, and our service providers may process information in the U.S. and other countries. Those countries may have different data protection laws than where you live. When we transfer personal information out of the EEA, UK or Switzerland, we rely on appropriate safeguards, such as the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses or the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, where our providers take part in it.

14Sponsors & outside links

Our newsletter and website include links to sponsors and other websites. When you click through, you leave Ledger Lowdown, and that company's own privacy policy applies. We're not responsible for how other companies handle your information, so we encourage you to read their policies.

15Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as our Services or the law change. When we do, we'll update the "Last updated" date at the top. If the changes are significant, we'll let you know by email or with a notice on our site before they take effect. Continuing to use the Services after an update means you accept the updated policy.

This policy is governed by the laws of the State of Illinois, except where the privacy laws of your home state or country give you additional rights.

16Contact us

Questions, requests or concerns about your privacy? Email us and a real person will get back to you.

Ledger Lowdown
Email: hey@ledgerlowdown.com
Website: ledgerlowdown.com