Last Updated: October 1, 2025

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Style Elevation with Tara (“Company,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) respects your privacy and is committed to protecting it through this Privacy Policy. This policy explains what information we collect about you when you use StyleElevationWithTara.com (the “Site”) and our related services (such as the style quizzes, membership content, and forums), how we use and share that information, and your rights and choices regarding your information. By using the Site, you agree to the collection and use of information in accordance with this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, please do not use our Site or services.

Scope: This Privacy Policy applies to information we collect through our website and services. It does not apply to third-party websites or services that you may access through links on our Site (such as external retailers or sponsor sites); those are governed by their own privacy policies.

1. Information We Collect

We collect two categories of information: (A) information you voluntarily provide to us, and (B) information collected automatically as you use our Site.

A. Information You Provide Voluntarily

• Contact and Account Information: When you contact us via web forms or emails, or when you create an account, we may collect personal identifiers such as your name, email address, and phone number. For example, our Contact Us form will ask for your name, email, and message (and optionally your phone) so we can respond to your inquiry. If you sign up for our newsletter or opt in to marketing communications, we collect your email (and possibly name) for that purpose.
• Quiz Information: If you participate in our Seasonal Style Quiz, we will collect your email address (and possibly your name) in order to send you your personalized style results. We also collect your answers to the quiz questions (which might include style preferences, color choices, etc.). For the standard quiz, this information remains with us and is not shared or sold. For the sponsored quiz version, as noted in our Terms, your name, email, and quiz results will be shared with the sponsoring partner (e.g., the local mall) so that both we and the sponsor can follow up with you. In either case, providing your email for the quiz is voluntary, but it is required to receive the results. You may opt out of further communications at any time after receiving your results.
• Membership Registration and Profile: If you purchase a Style Membership subscription, we will collect information necessary to create your member account. This typically includes your name, email address, and a password. We might also collect additional profile details that you choose to provide, such as a profile photo or style preferences, which can personalize your experience. Any optional profile fields (like a bio or social media handles) are up to you to fill in and share.
• Payment Information: We do not collect or store full payment card details on our servers. When you subscribe to the membership, payment is processed via Stripe, a secure third-party payment processor. You will provide your credit or debit card information directly to Stripe through the embedded checkout. Stripe may share with us certain limited information necessary for record-keeping, such as the last four digits of your card, the card type, and payment status, but we never see your full card number or security code. We do retain records of your transactions (e.g., that you purchased a subscription on a certain date, the amount, and whether the transaction was successful). All such transactions are encrypted and handled under Stripe’s security measures. (For more details, see Stripe’s Privacy Policy on how they handle your data.)
• Forum and User Content: If you are a member and use the style questions forum or other interactive features, we collect the content you post. This includes any text, images, or other media you upload, as well as metadata like the time of the post. Note that information you post in the forum is visible to other members. Even though the forum is private to subscribers, please avoid sharing sensitive personal data there. We moderate and log forum content to maintain community standards (as described in our Terms). If you upload images, be aware they may contain metadata (like location where a photo was taken); you can remove that before uploading if you wish.
• Communication Preferences: We record your preferences in receiving communications from us. For example, if you opt in (consent) to receive marketing emails, or if you later opt out/unsubscribe, we will note that in our system so we honor your choices. Similarly, if you explicitly consent to share your info with a sponsor (such as by taking the sponsored quiz, which implies consent), we log that consent.
• Customer Support Interactions: If you reach out to us for support or with questions (via email, phone, or any support chat), we will collect and maintain a record of that correspondence, which may include your contact information and any additional information you provide in your request. This helps us assist you and keep track of any issues.

B. Information Collected Automatically
Like many websites, we (and our service providers) automatically collect certain information about your device and usage of the Site through cookies, pixels, log files, and similar technologies. This may include:

• Usage Data: We log data about your visit such as the date and time of access, the pages or features you accessed, the route by which you navigated (e.g., what link or page led you to our Site), and how you interact with our content. For instance, we may see that a user visited the “Quiz” page, then the “Membership Info” page, etc., and the time spent on each.
• Device and Technical Information: We collect information about the device you use to access the Site, including your IP address, browser type and version, operating system, device type (e.g., mobile or desktop), and screen resolution. The IP address may give a general idea of your approximate location (city or region), which helps us understand where our users are coming from (note: we operate primarily in the US and currently target US users).
• Cookies and Tracking Technologies: We use cookies (small text files stored on your browser) and similar technologies (such as web beacons and pixels) to remember user preferences and track user trends. For example:
  • We use Google Analytics to collect data on Site usage. Google Analytics sets cookies to track what pages users visit, for how long, what country/region they are in, etc. This helps us analyze user behavior to improve content and usability. Google Analytics may collect information like your IP address and combine it with information from other sites that use their services to track you across sites. (Learn more in Google’s own Privacy Policy. If you wish, you can opt out of Google Analytics by installing Google’s opt-out browser add-on.)
  • We use the Meta (Facebook) Pixel on our site. This is a piece of code from Facebook that allows us to understand and measure the effectiveness of our Facebook/Instagram ads and to possibly retarget our site visitors with ads on Facebook/Instagram. The Meta Pixel may track actions you take on our Site (like visiting a certain page or clicking a button) and associate it with your Facebook user ID if you are logged into Facebook. This helps us show you relevant ads on Facebook or Instagram related to our services. For example, if you took our quiz, we might later show you an ad about our Style Membership. Meta’s use of data collected through the pixel is covered by Facebook’s Data Policy. You can manage your ad settings through your Facebook account.
  • We maintain server logs and may use additional analytics or monitoring tools that record information about user sessions, such as error logs if a page fails to load or if there are unusual activities (for security purposes).
  • Cookies for Preferences: We might set functional cookies to remember choices you make on the Site, such as your login status (so you don’t have to re-enter your credentials every time) or your quiz progress.
  • Email Tracking: When we send you emails (for example, a newsletter or a quiz result), our email service (SendGrid) might use tiny invisible images (tracking pixels) to tell us if you opened the email or clicked links. This helps us gauge engagement and refine our communications. If you prefer not to be tracked this way, you can disable image loading in your email client; note that this might also disable seeing images in our emails.

You can control or block cookies using your browser settings. However, note that disabling cookies might affect functionality (for instance, you may not stay logged in, or certain features might not remember your preferences). Our Site currently does not respond to “Do Not Track” signals from browsers, because there is no industry consensus on how to interpret them. We do honor cookie consent requirements where applicable and allow you to opt out of targeted advertising cookies (for example, via the Facebook opt-outs or browser settings mentioned above).

C. Information from Third Parties: We generally collect information directly from you or automatically as described. In some cases, we might receive information about you from third parties – for example:

• If you engage with our content on social media (such as liking our page on Facebook or Instagram), those platforms might share aggregate data with us (like how many followers we have from certain demographics) but not typically personal data unless you make it public.
• If we run a joint promotion or event with a partner (like the sponsored quiz), the partner may share with us the list of participants or leads from that promotion. For instance, if the sponsored quiz participants sign up through the partner’s site, the partner will send us those contacts to fulfill the quiz results and add to our mailing list, because those users have effectively opted in to both. We ensure such sharing is only done with proper consent as described (you will know you’re signing up for both).
• If you use a third-party login or integration (currently, we don’t have social logins, but if in future you could sign in via Google/Facebook, etc.), we would receive whatever info you authorize that third-party to pass to us (like your name and email from your Google account).

2. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect for various purposes consistent with providing and improving our services, as well as for communication and legal compliance. Specifically, we may use your information to:

• Provide Services and Personalize Your Experience: We use personal information to create and maintain your account, to authenticate you when you log in, and to provide you with the features you expect. For example, we use quiz answers to generate your style result; we use your membership status to determine what content you can access; we use your name to personalize communications or the site experience (“Welcome, [Name]!”).
• Email You Your Requested Results and Updates: If you take the style quiz, we use your email to send your quiz results (which is the main purpose of collecting it). If you are a member, we use your email to send transactional emails like purchase confirmations, welcome emails, and any important account notices (such as payment issues or changes to terms). These are considered part of the service.
• Send Marketing Communications: Consistent with your preferences and applicable law, we may use your contact information to send newsletters, promotional emails about new content, offers, style tips, or upcoming events that we think may interest you. If you took the quiz and agreed (or were required as part of participation) to join our mailing list, you will receive our marketing emails. You can opt out at any time (see Your Choices below). For sponsored quiz participants, we or the sponsor may also send co-branded promotions. All marketing emails will have an unsubscribe mechanism, and we will promptly honor opt-out requestsftc.gov. We comply with the CAN-SPAM Act for marketing emails, meaning we include our contact information and a way to opt out in every such email and we do not send misleading subject linesftc.gov.
• Facilitate the Membership Subscription and Payments: We use data to manage subscriptions – for example, to remind you of upcoming renewal dates or to update you if your payment method needs attention. We may send automated emails for receipts or payment failures. We also use your information to provide you access to the member content you’re entitled to, and to restrict access when needed (such as after cancellation and the grace period).
• Provide Customer Support: Information you give us (like emails or messages) and information about your usage helps us troubleshoot problems. If you report an issue with the Site or have a question, we will use your information to respond and resolve it.
• Enforce Rules and Ensure Safety: We monitor activities on the Site to detect and prevent fraudulent transactions, spam in the forums, or misuse of our services. For example, if our systems or moderators flag certain unusual activities (like logging in from many IP addresses in a short time, which might indicate a compromised account, or someone posting prohibited content), we may use the collected information to investigate and take action. We also use it to enforce our Terms and Code of Conduct – for instance, reviewing reported posts for rule violations.
• Improve and Analyze Services: Using aggregated and analytic information, we try to understand how users interact with our Site to make improvements. For example, user behavior data from Google Analytics tells us which pages are most popular or where users drop off, guiding us in refining our content or site navigation. We may analyze quiz response patterns (in aggregate) to see trends (e.g., “X% of users got ‘Autumn’ as their style season”), which could inform our content strategy or marketing. We also might use feedback or surveys (if we conduct any) to improve user satisfaction.
• Advertising and Retargeting: We may use the data collected via cookies and pixels to create custom audiences for advertising. For example, we might use Meta Pixel data to target an ad on Facebook to people who visited our site but haven’t subscribed, or to exclude current members from seeing ads to join. We could also use analytics to see how an ad campaign resulted in site traffic or conversions. Any such usage is generally based on cookies/online identifiers and not on your name or direct contact info (except if we ourselves email you an offer, which we only do if you’ve subscribed to emails).
• Affiliate Revenue Tracking: If you click an affiliate link from our Site, we may use cookies or unique links so that the retailer knows to credit our account for any purchases you make. We may receive reports from affiliate programs that tell us which links are generating sales (e.g., “5 people bought item X through your link”), which we use for revenue tracking and to refine our recommendations. These reports typically don’t contain personal details about the buyers, or if they do (e.g., first name, city), we do not use that info except to gauge general demographic response.
• Comply with Legal Obligations: We may need to use or disclose your information to comply with laws, regulations, court orders, or other legal processes. For example, keeping transaction records for tax and accounting purposes, or disclosing information if required by a lawful subpoena. We also may use your data to exercise or defend legal claims, and to cooperate with law enforcement investigations if necessary (e.g., if fraud or a security breach occurs).
• Business Transfers: If we ever plan to merge with another business, or if we are involved in a sale of all or part of our business or assets, we might use information in evaluating or executing that transaction, and personal data might be among the assets transferred to the new owner so they can continue providing the service. If such a transfer occurs, the successor’s handling of your data would remain subject to this Privacy Policy (unless and until changed, in which case you’d be notified).

We will not use your personal information in a manner materially different from what is described in this policy without your consent. If we plan any new use of personal data that is incompatible with the original purpose, we will inform you (and if required by law, obtain consent or provide an opt-out opportunity).

3. How We Share or Disclose Information

We understand the importance of keeping your personal information private. We are not in the business of selling your personal data to third parties for their independent marketing purposes. We share information in limited scenarios, described below, and always with appropriate safeguards and legal basis:

• With Service Providers (Processors): We employ third-party companies and individuals to facilitate our Services (“Service Providers”). These third parties perform tasks on our behalf, such as:
  • Payment Processing: As noted, we use Stripe to handle payments. Stripe will receive your payment card details and process transactions. They are a service provider in this context, using your info only to provide the service (processing the payment).
  • Email Delivery and Communications: We use SendGrid (a Twilio company) to send out our transactional and marketing emails. When we send you an email (whether it’s a quiz result, a membership welcome, or a newsletter), your email address and the content of the email goes through SendGrid’s platform. They may also process data for analytics (like open rates) on our behalf. We similarly might use Twilio’s SMS service if we ever send text verifications or alerts to your phone (at this time, most of our communications are via email). These providers are contractually prohibited from using your email or message content for their own purposes; they only process it to help us send communications.
  • Website Hosting and IT Infrastructure: Our website might be hosted on third-party servers or use cloud services. For instance, our database and server might be managed by a hosting provider or by a platform service. Those providers inevitably handle the data stored on our site (which includes personal data) but only for storage/hosting and backup purposes.
  • Analytics and Tracking: As detailed, we use Google Analytics and Meta Pixel which technically means those companies are getting data from your interaction with our Site. Google Analytics mostly provides aggregated info to us, but Google itself might use the data for its own purposes (under their terms, e.g., improving their products or for their advertising). We have enabled IP anonymization in Google Analytics where possible to reduce data sensitivity. For Meta Pixel, Facebook may use the data to provide us with advertising services and also for their own ad targeting algorithms. We consider these third parties as partners; while we don’t “share” identifiable info like your name with them, the cookie-based data is shared. You can opt out as described in Section 1B.
  • CRM and Customer Management: We currently use HoneyBook as a sort of customer relationship management tool, where we might organize our contacts or leads. For example, new quiz leads or members might be logged in HoneyBook for follow-up or record-keeping. HoneyBook would then hold contact details (like name/email) and possibly notes on our interactions. We treat HoneyBook as a confidential service provider, and currently we are not using it for any active outreach without user’s consent (no automated marketing through it at this time). It’s mainly a storage/organization tool until our own backend is expanded.
  • Forum and Site Functionality: If our forum or certain site features are powered by third-party plugins or platforms (for example, if we used a third-party forum software that stores data on their servers), those providers would have access to what’s posted. We ensure any such provider is reputable and compliant with privacy standards.
    These service providers are given access only to the information necessary for them to perform their specific functions, and they are contractually obligated to keep your information secure and confidential and to use it only for the purposes we specify.
• With Sponsors or Partners (Specific Programs): As discussed, if you participate in a sponsored quiz or co-branded event, we will share the information of those participants with the sponsoring partner because that is integral to that program. This typically includes your name, email, and perhaps quiz responses or results relevant to the sponsor’s follow-up. The sponsor will use that information to contact you with their own marketing or offers (such as mall promotions). We will ensure that at the point of data collection (when you take the sponsored quiz), it’s clearly communicated that your information will be shared with the named sponsor and what they may do with it. We do not share information from users of the regular site or quiz with any sponsors – the sharing only occurs when you choose to engage in a sponsored activity. If for a sponsored quiz we present you with a checkbox or form that indicates agreeing to share with sponsor, your submission of that form constitutes your consent. If you wish to revoke consent after participating, you can contact us or the sponsor to opt out of further communications; however, we cannot un-share the data once it’s given to the sponsor. (We can request the sponsor to remove you from their list if you contact us.)
• Within Our Corporate Family: Currently, Style Elevation with Tara is a single-owner business. If in the future we establish affiliated entities (e.g., a parent company or subsidiaries), we may share your data with those affiliates for operational purposes (for instance, if a sister brand or an affiliate is helping to provide a service or analyze data). Any such affiliates would follow this Privacy Policy in handling your info.
• Legal Compliance and Protection: We may disclose your information if required to do so by law or in the good-faith belief that such action is necessary to: (a) comply with a legal obligation, subpoena, or request from government authorities; (b) protect and defend our rights or property, or the safety of our users or the public; (c) investigate and defend against any third-party claims or allegations; or (d) prevent or stop any illegal, unethical, or legally actionable activity. For example, if we suspect fraud or a cyber-attack, we might share relevant information with law enforcement agencies. Or if a user posts content that involves threats of violence or self-harm, we might report that along with user info to appropriate authorities.
• Business Transfers: If we are involved in a merger, acquisition, asset sale, reorganization, bankruptcy, or other transaction, your personal information may be transferred to the successor or assignee as part of that transaction. We would ensure the new owner continues to be bound by confidentiality and data protection obligations consistent with this policy. If the new entity’s plans for your data differ, they will need to notify you and possibly obtain consent where required.
• With Your Consent: Other than as set out above, we may explicitly ask for your consent to share certain information with third parties. In such cases, we will explain what information would be shared and for what purpose. For instance, if in the future we run a giveaway with another brand and as part of entry, we ask if you’d like to allow that brand to contact you, we would only share your contact info with them if you opt in.

Sale of Personal Information: We do not sell personal information as commonly understood (monetary exchange for personal data). In the context of some privacy laws (like the California Consumer Privacy Act, CCPA), “sale” is defined broadly to include some sharing of information for benefits. Under that definition, our use of the Meta Pixel or Google Analytics might be considered a “sale” of online identifiers or usage data, because those companies may use the data to improve ad targeting – but we do not receive money for that exchange; it’s more like we get analytics or advertising services in return. To be safe, if you are a California resident, you can opt out of those tracking cookies by using browser signals or contacting us (see Your Rights below). We also reiterate that sharing with the sponsor of the quiz could be seen as a “sale” because we possibly receive a partnership benefit – if you are a California resident and do not want your info shared in that way, simply do not take the sponsored quiz or contact us immediately to withdraw (though once the sponsor has it, we can’t pull it back, only ask them to remove you from marketing).

4. Your Rights and Choices

A. Marketing Communications – Opting Out: If you no longer wish to receive marketing or promotional emails from us, you can opt out at any time. The easiest way is to click the “Unsubscribe” link in the footer of any marketing email you get from us. You can also manage your subscription preferences on our site’s unsubscribe page (when available) or by contacting us at tara@styleelevationwithtara.com with your request. Please note: even if you opt out of marketing emails, we may still send you transactional or relationship messages (such as purchase confirmations, password resets, important account notices, or responses to your inquiries), as these are not subject to general unsubscribe. We also ensure that opting out of our emails is free and straightforward – in compliance with CAN-SPAM, we do not charge any fee or require more information than your email to honor an opt-outftc.govftc.gov, and we process unsubscribe requests promptly (usually immediately via the link, or within 10 business days at most if done through a request).

For the sponsored quiz participants: To opt out of the sponsor’s communications, you will need to use the unsubscribe mechanism in the sponsor’s emails or contact the sponsor directly (their privacy policy or emails should provide instructions). If you have any difficulty, you can reach out to us and we will assist by notifying the sponsor of your opt-out request, but we cannot guarantee the sponsor’s compliance (though any reputable company should comply as required by law).

B. Access, Correction, Deletion: Depending on where you live, you may have certain legal rights to access the personal information we hold about you, request correction of inaccuracies, or request deletion of your personal data. We describe specific rights for certain jurisdictions below (see section C), but regardless of legal requirement, we provide the following to all our users as a matter of good practice:

• Access and Update: You can view and update much of your account information directly by logging into your account profile on our Site. For example, you can change your name on your profile, update your email or password, and edit any optional information. If there’s any information you cannot directly access or change (such as data not shown in your account dashboard), you may make an access request to us, and we will provide you with a copy of your personal data that we have on file, to the extent required and within a reasonable timeframe. We may first need to verify your identity to ensure we’re providing data to the correct person.
• Correction: If any of your personal details are incorrect or outdated, please update them in your account or notify us, and we will correct them. For instance, if you realize we have a misspelled name or an old email, let us know so we can fix it.
• Deletion (Right to be Forgotten): You have the ability to delete your member account at any time via your profile settings. This will remove your profile information from active use. Additionally, if you want all your personal data removed from our systems (which is what account deletion generally does), you can contact us to request deletion. Note that we may need to retain certain information for legitimate reasons – e.g., records of transactions for financial reporting, or forum posts you made may remain in an anonymized form (the content might remain but not associated with your name) if removing them entirely would disrupt other users’ experience. If you posted content that is now deleted, other users might see a placeholder that the user is no longer active. We will inform you of any data we cannot delete and the reason (e.g., “We cannot delete purchase records for accounting purposes”). Also, if you ask to delete data but you have an active subscription, deletion will terminate your access (as it essentially closes your account). We might offer you an alternative like canceling the subscription first or clarify the consequences.
• Portability: If you require, we can provide your personal data in a machine-readable format (this typically applies if you want to transfer to another service). Given the nature of our service, this is rarely requested, but we are willing to accommodate legitimate requests. For example, we can export your profile info and forum contributions if you want them.

C. Specific Jurisdiction Rights:

• California Residents: If you are a resident of California, you have rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) (as amended by CPRA) including:
  • The right to know what personal information we have collected about you in the past 12 months, including the categories of information, the sources, the business purpose for collection, and whether we disclosed or “sold” it to third parties (and the categories of those third parties). We have largely disclosed these things in this Privacy Policy. You can also request the specific pieces of information we have about you.
  • The right to request deletion of your personal information, subject to certain exceptions (for example, we might retain data needed for completing a transaction or for legal compliance).
  • The right to opt out of “sale” of personal information. As noted, we do not sell your info for money. The only potential “sale” under CCPA’s broad definition might be our sharing of online identifiers (cookie data) with analytics/advertising partners. If you want to fully opt out of that, you can enable a recognized opt-out preference signal (like the Global Privacy Control, GPC, in your browser – our site will treat that as a do-not-sell signal for California users) or contact us to manually process an opt-out. We will then make efforts to disable non-essential cookies or otherwise not share your data in ways that constitute a “sale.” (Note: if you use our cookie banner, that also manages tracking cookies.) For sponsor quiz, by choosing not to participate, you inherently opt out of that sharing; if you did participate and changed your mind, as mentioned, contact us.
  • The right to non-discrimination for exercising your privacy rights. We will not deny you service or charge you a different price because you exercised any CCPA rights. However, note that if deletion of data prevents us from providing a service (e.g. if you delete your account data, you can no longer use the membership), that’s a consequence of deletion, not discrimination.
  • Shine the Light: Separately from CCPA, California’s “Shine the Light” law allows residents to request certain information about our disclosure of personal data to third parties for their direct marketing purposes in the preceding calendar year. We do not disclose personal information to third parties for their own direct marketing (without your consent). The only comparable scenario is the sponsored quiz where you consent to receive sponsor’s marketing; in that case, you already know the sponsor (since you interacted with them) and that was a one-time specific event. Nonetheless, if you’d like to make a Shine the Light inquiry, you can reach us with “California Shine the Light Request” in the subject. We will provide a response as required.
    To submit a request under CCPA, you (or your authorized agent) can email us at tara@styleelevationwithtara.com with subject “CCPA Request” and detail which right you want to exercise. We will need to verify your identity (typically by matching information we have, or if an agent makes the request, verifying their authority and perhaps asking you to confirm). We aim to respond within 45 days as the law requires (with an extension of an additional 45 days if necessary with notice).
• Other US States: Other states like Virginia, Colorado (our home state), Connecticut, and Utah have passed privacy laws with rights to access, delete, correct, etc., similar to CCPA (with variations). If you are a resident of any of those states, you may exercise your rights under those laws in the same way: contact us with your request. Colorado, for example, gives a right to opt out of processing for targeted advertising and sale – which you can do by opting out of cookies as described or contacting us. We also note that our own practices align with giving you choice and control as discussed. If any state law requires a specific appeals process for denied requests, we will follow it (for instance, in Colorado, if we were to deny a deletion request, we would inform you how to appeal that decision).
• GDPR (European Economic Area, UK, etc.): Our services are primarily offered in the U.S., but if you are in the EEA, UK, or another region with comprehensive data protection laws (like GDPR), you have the right to: access your data, correct it, delete it, restrict or object to processing, and portability of data. You also have the right to withdraw any consent you’ve given (withdrawal does not affect past processing but stops future). Additionally, you have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority in your country. We operate on a consent and legitimate interest basis mostly. Because we do not actively target or do business in EU, we do not have an EU representative or DPO, but we still welcome any requests and will honor them as if GDPR applied. If you are from these regions, please be aware that by using a site operated in the U.S., your data will be transferred to the U.S. which may not have the same level of data protection as your home country – by using our site, you consent to this transfer. (We include this notice because it’s legally required; again, our userbase is intended to be U.S. only.)

D. Account Security Measures: As a user, you also have some control over the security of your account. Always choose a strong, unique password and do not share it. We encourage you to use two-factor authentication (2FA) if we offer it. If you suspect any unauthorized access, notify us immediately.

E. Do Not Track Signals: As mentioned, we currently do not respond to “Do Not Track” headers or signals because there is no industry standard for compliance. If a universal standard emerges, we will update our practices.

5. Data Retention

We will retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes we collected it for, including for satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. In general:

• For active members and users, we keep your information for as long as your account is active.
• If you cancel your membership or your subscription lapses, we keep your account data for at least the 2-month grace period in case you return, and typically we would keep it for a longer period in inactive status unless you request deletion. We might retain inactive account data for a period (e.g., 1-2 years) before anonymizing or deleting it, in case you reactivate or for analysis of churn, etc. However, forum posts or content you contributed may be retained longer (even after account deletion) to preserve the integrity of discussions – though we will disassociate your name from them if you delete your account.
• If you delete your account (or request deletion), we will remove or anonymize personal information within a reasonable time frame, except for information we are required or permitted to retain (see below).
• We retain quiz participant data (email, quiz answers) to send results and potentially follow-ups. For those who do not opt into anything else and do not become members, we may periodically purge quiz data that is no longer needed (for example, if someone took a quiz and never opened the result email or never interacted after, we might delete their info after some months to reduce storage, unless we have a legal reason to keep it). If you only partially completed a quiz without submitting an email, we do not have personal data (just incomplete answers which aren’t tied to identity).
• We keep transaction records (payments, invoices) and related contact info as long as required by law (for tax, audit purposes, typically 7 years in the US).
• Backup and archival copies: our systems may keep backup copies of data, which might not be immediately deletable when you delete data from the live system. However, we will ensure that such backups are securely stored and are deleted or overwritten in the normal backup rotation cycle. During that interim period, your personal data will not be used for any active purpose, it’s just in storage.
• If there’s information used for security (for example, logs of IP addresses that accessed our servers, which might be kept to analyze malicious activity), we may keep those logs for a longer period even after you’ve left, if relevant for security analysis.
• In summary, we aim not to keep personal data longer than necessary. When we determine personal information is no longer needed, we will either delete it or de-identify it (so it can no longer be associated with you).

6. Data Security

We take reasonable measures to protect the confidentiality, integrity, and security of your personal information. These measures include:

• Encryption: The Site is accessed over HTTPS, meaning data transmitted between your browser and our server is encrypted in transit. Also, any sensitive payment information handled by Stripe is encrypted.
• Access Controls: We restrict access to personal data to authorized personnel and service providers who need it to operate our services. For example, only our admin and certain trusted team members can access the database or user records, and they do so via authenticated accounts. We also ensure our team is aware of privacy and security best practices.
• Password Protection: User passwords are hashed (stored in a one-way encrypted form) in our database, so even we cannot read them. If you forget your password, we can’t tell you what it is; we can only prompt a reset. Please note: if you use a weak password or reuse a password that was compromised elsewhere, that poses a risk – we urge strong unique passwords.
• Two-Factor Authentication (2FA): If available, we strongly encourage you to enable 2FA for your account, which adds an extra layer of security (something you know + something you have, like a code texted to your phone). If we have not yet implemented 2FA, know that it’s on our roadmap and in the meantime maintain good password hygiene.
• Regular Updates and Patches: We keep our website platform and software up to date with the latest security patches to minimize vulnerabilities.
• Monitoring: We use security tools and monitoring to detect unusual activity. Our hosting environment likely has firewalls and intrusion detection systems. We also receive alerts for multiple failed login attempts or other suspicious events, which we investigate.
• PCI Compliance: Since payments go through Stripe, we rely on them for PCI compliance related to credit card data. We do not store credit card numbers, which reduces risk.
• Staff Training: Any staff or moderators with access to personal info are trained to handle it carefully – e.g., not to send sensitive info over email, to avoid phishing attempts, etc.
  Despite our efforts, no website or Internet transmission is completely secure. We cannot guarantee that data may not be accessed, disclosed, altered, or destroyed by breach of our safeguards. In the unfortunate event of a data breach involving your personal information, we will notify you and relevant authorities as required by law, and we will take appropriate steps to mitigate the impact.

It’s also important for you to protect against unauthorized access to your account. Be sure to log out when finished if using a shared device, and do not share your account credentials with others. We will never ask you for your password via email, so beware of phishing attempts pretending to be us.

7. Children’s Privacy

Our Site and Services are not intended for children under 13 years of age. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 13. If you are under 13, please do not attempt to use our services or send any personal information about yourself to us (including your name, address, telephone number, or email). If we learn that we have inadvertently collected personal data from a child under 13, we will delete that information as quickly as possible.

Parents or guardians: if you become aware that your child under 13 has provided us with personal information, please contact us at tara@styleelevationwithtara.com so that we can delete the information.

For minors between 13 and 17: As stated in our Terms, our Services (especially the paid membership) are intended for adults. We do not actively encourage minors to create accounts. If a minor does use the Site (e.g., takes a quiz or views content), we urge that they do so with parental supervision. If you are a minor in this age range, do not provide us with any sensitive personal information and do not interact on the forum without permission from a parent.

Under certain state laws (like California’s “Privacy Rights for Minor Users” law), minors have rights to request removal of content they posted. If you are under 18 and have posted content on our Site that you cannot remove via normal means, you can contact us to request deletion of that content. We will then make best efforts to anonymize or remove it (though note, the removal may not be complete if other users have re-posted it, etc.).

8. Third-Party Links and Services

Our website contains links to third-party websites and may include embedded content or services not operated by us. For example:

• When you click an affiliate shopping link or a recommended product link, you will be redirected to an external retailer’s site.
• If you interact with the sponsor’s logo or link on the sponsored quiz page, you might go to the sponsor’s website.
• Our Site might feature social media widgets (like an Instagram feed or a Facebook “share” button) which are hosted by those platforms and may collect your IP and see which page you’re on.
• If in the future we embed a YouTube video or similar, that is content from Google/YouTube and subject to their privacy policies.

Once you leave our Site or interact with a third-party service, this Privacy Policy no longer applies to those external activities. The information collected by those third parties is governed by their own privacy policies. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of any third-party site or service before providing any personal information or engaging with it.

We are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of third-party sites. However, if you have a concern about a link or third-party service found on our Site, please let us know, and we will consider removing or modifying how we use that integration if appropriate.

9. Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technologies, legal requirements, or other factors. When we make changes, we will post the updated policy on this page with a new “Last Updated” date at the top. If the changes are significant, we may also provide a more prominent notice (such as a banner on the website or an email notification to members).

We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we are protecting your information. Your continued use of the Site after any changes to this Privacy Policy constitutes your acceptance of the updated terms.

If you do not agree to the revised policy, you should stop using our services and may request us to delete your data as per Section 4.

10. Contact Us

If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please feel free to contact us:

• Email: tara@styleelevationwithtara.com
• Phone: (401) 578-7826

We will do our best to address your inquiry promptly and thoroughly. Your privacy is important to us, and we will strive to resolve any issues to your satisfaction.

Thank you for entrusting Style Elevation with Tara with your personal style journey and your personal information. We value both and will continue to work hard to keep your data secure and your experience enjoyable.

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