Privacy notice
Last updated 10 September 2026
This site is written under a pen name, by one person, and it is deliberately built to hold as little about you as possible. Most of it holds nothing at all.
The short version
- The free tools keep everything on your own device. Nothing you type into the tracker, the diary card or the self-check is ever sent anywhere, and I cannot see it.
- Visitor statistics are cookieless and anonymous. There is no cookie banner because there are no tracking cookies to consent to.
- If you give me your email address, it is used to email you about the books, and nothing else. No selling, no sharing, no cold lists.
Who is responsible
Esme Hartley is a pen name. The person behind it is the data controller for this site. The contact point for anything on this page, including a request to see or delete your data, is esme@esmehartley.com.
The free tools hold nothing
The symptom tracker, the DBT diary card and the quiet BPD self-check run entirely in your browser and store what you write in your own device's local storage. That data never reaches this server. It is not backed up, it is not readable by me, and if you clear your browsing data it is gone, which is why each tool has a button to save a backup file you keep yourself.
This is a deliberate design decision. What you would write into those tools is special category health data, and the safest way to handle it is not to hold it.
Visitor statistics
I count page views so I know which writing is being read. This uses no cookies and no third party analytics service.
When a page loads, this server records the page path and the site you arrived from, and creates a short one-way hash from your IP address and browser string combined with a secret that changes every day. That hash lets me count one person visiting five pages as one visitor rather than five, and because the secret rotates daily it cannot be linked across days or turned back into your IP address. Your IP address itself is never stored. These counts are kept for 120 days and then deleted automatically.
Lawful basis: legitimate interests, in understanding how the site is used, balanced against a design that identifies nobody.
If you join the email list
If you enter your email address, on the newsletter page or to receive the free pocket guide, I store your email address, the name you gave if you gave one, which page you signed up from, and the date.
- Why: to email you when a new book lands, and to send you the guide you asked for. Lawful basis: your consent.
- Who else sees it: the list is held on this site's own server, in Germany, and also in Brevo, an email platform based in France, which sends the emails. Both are inside the UK adequacy arrangements. Nobody else receives it. It is never sold, rented or swapped.
- How long: until you unsubscribe or ask me to remove you, then it is deleted.
- Unsubscribing: every email has a one click unsubscribe link, or email me and I will do it.
I do not send unsolicited email. If you have not typed your address into this site, you will never hear from me.
Buying a book
The books are sold by Amazon, not by me. When you follow a link to Amazon you are on their site under their privacy policy, and I never see your name, your address or your payment details. I only ever see anonymous totals of how many copies sold.
Your rights
Under UK data protection law you can ask me for a copy of what I hold about you, ask me to correct it, ask me to delete it, ask me to stop using it, or withdraw your consent at any time. Email esme@esmehartley.com and I will do it. There is no charge and I have one calendar month to respond.
If you are not happy with how I have handled it, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office, the UK regulator. You do not need to go through me first.
Children
This site is written for adults. I do not knowingly collect anything from anyone under 16. If you believe a child has given me their email address, tell me and I will delete it.
Changes
If this notice changes in a way that matters, the date at the top changes with it. If the change affects how your email address is used, I will email you before it takes effect rather than quietly amending this page.