Privacy Policy

Effective October 22, 2026

This policy explains what Serious Business Network ("we," "us") collects and how we use it.

What we collect

• From you (the sender): your name, email address, and payment details. Payment details are entered directly with Stripe; we never see or store your full card number.
• About the recipient: the recipient's name and mailing address, your optional message, your letter style, and whether you chose to send anonymously.
• Opt-out requests: the name and address you submit so we can stop mailing to that address.
• Newsletter subscribers: if you sign up for the Odd News newsletter, your email address, when you signed up, the page you signed up from, which version of the consent wording you agreed to, and whether you're subscribed or unsubscribed.

How we use it

We use this information only to process your payment, print and mail your letter, enforce our Terms (including the do-not-clown list and the limit on anonymous letters), handle support and refunds, and meet our legal obligations.

Who we share it with

We do not sell or rent your information, and we don't share your order details (your name, email, recipient, address or message) for advertising. We share it only with the service providers that run Serious Business Network, and only as needed:

• Stripe processes payments and checkout.
• PostGrid prints and mails letters, so it receives the recipient's name, address and letter content.
• Netlify hosts our website, forms and order-processing code.
• USPS delivers the letter.

We may also disclose information when legally required, as described in our Terms.

How long we keep it

• We keep recipient names, addresses and messages for 90 days after an order, for support, reprints and abuse prevention, and then delete them.
• Payment and order records kept by Stripe are retained as required for tax, accounting and fraud-prevention purposes.
• PostGrid keeps its own copies of mailed letters under its own retention policy, which may be longer. We will ask PostGrid to delete an order's data on request where it allows us to.
• To enforce the limit of one anonymous letter per address every 30 days, we store a hashed key derived from the recipient address (not the address in readable form) and the date of the last anonymous letter.
• Do-not-clown list entries are kept until you ask us to remove them, so we can honor the request.

Email newsletter

If you sign up for the Odd News newsletter, we use your email address only to send you Odd News (funny true stories, with the occasional clearly labeled Clown Times satire piece) and occasional Serious Business Network news. We store your signup in our own website database hosted by Netlify. To prevent abuse, we briefly keep a hashed (not readable) form of your IP address to limit repeated signups; it is not tied to your email. If we later use an email delivery service to send the newsletter, it will receive your email address only to deliver it, and we will update this policy to name it.

Unsubscribe anytime using the link in any newsletter email, or by emailing hello@seriousbusinessnetwork.io. After you unsubscribe we keep a record that you opted out so we don't email you again, unless you ask us to delete it. We never sell, rent or share your email address with anyone for their own marketing. Newsletter emails will include our mailing address: Serious Business Network, 389 Waller Ave, Ste 130 #141, Lexington, KY 40504.

Visit statistics

We count visits to our site with our own simple, cookieless counter. It records the page visited, the website that sent you (for example "instagram" or "google", not the full address), any campaign tags or referral code in the link, the letter or product viewed, whether you're on a phone or a computer, and when you start a checkout or reach the order confirmation page. To count unique visitors per day, we combine your IP address and browser type with a random value that changes every day and keep only a short one-way code, which can't be turned back into your IP address and can't link your visits across days. We never store your IP address, set cookies or use your device's storage for this, and we don't share these statistics with anyone. They're kept in aggregate form only.

We also use Google Analytics to measure visits and how our pages are used. Unlike our own counter, Google Analytics sets cookies to do this. Visitors in the European Economic Area, the UK and Switzerland are asked for consent first. You can read how Google uses data from sites that use its services, and you can opt out of Google Analytics on any site with Google's opt-out browser add-on.

Weather page and your location

On our Weather page, if you choose to use your location, your browser shares it with the page only to fetch your forecast. Your browser sends it directly to the National Weather Service (api.weather.gov); it is never sent to or stored on our servers. If you search by city or ZIP code instead, your search is looked up with Open-Meteo or Zippopotam.us to find the place. Your last location is saved only in your own browser's storage on your device so the forecast is ready next time; you can remove it with the "Forget it" link on the Weather page or by clearing your browser data.

Advertising and cookies

Some pages on our site (such as our stories) may show ads. Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on a user's prior visits to this website or other websites. Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to our visitors based on their visits to our site and/or other sites on the Internet.

You may opt out of personalized advertising by visiting Google Ads Settings (adssettings.google.com). You can also opt out of some third-party vendors' use of cookies for personalized advertising by visiting www.aboutads.info. To learn more, see how Google uses information from sites that use its services.

Ads, when shown, appear only on our story pages and are provided by Google AdSense. Visitors in the European Economic Area, the UK and Switzerland are asked for consent through Google's certified consent message before advertising cookies are used, and until then ad cookies stay off by default (Google Consent Mode). You can change your choice at any time using the privacy settings link shown with that message. We don't show ads on our order, checkout or confirmation pages. Ordering a letter never requires accepting advertising cookies; checkout uses only the cookies Stripe needs to process payment securely.

Your choices and rights

To access, correct or delete your information, or to remove an address from our do-not-clown list, email hello@seriousbusinessnetwork.io. We'll respond within 30 days. Anyone who doesn't want to receive Serious Business Network can use our opt-out page.

Children

The Service is for adults 18+. We don't knowingly collect information about, or mail letters to, anyone under 18.

Security

We use reputable providers and limit access to order data. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure.

Changes

We'll post any changes here and update the effective date.

Contact

Email: hello@seriousbusinessnetwork.io
Mail: Serious Business Network, 389 Waller Ave, Ste 130 #141, Lexington, KY 40504

Your privacy rights (GDPR, UK GDPR and U.S. state laws including the CCPA/CPRA)

If you are in the European Economic Area, the UK or Switzerland, we ask for your consent before personalized ads or analytics cookies are used, through a Google-certified consent message. You can change your choice at any time from that message. You have the right to access, correct, delete or port your personal information, and to object to or restrict its processing.

If you are a California resident (or live in another U.S. state with a similar law), you have the right to know what personal information we collect, to request deletion or correction, and to opt out of the "sale" or "sharing" of personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising. We do not sell your information for money. To opt out of personalized ads, use Google Ads Settings or the opt-outs above, or email hello@seriousbusinessnetwork.io. We will not discriminate against you for using these rights.

Questions about this policy: hello@seriousbusinessnetwork.io, or by mail at Serious Business Network, 389 Waller Ave, Ste 130 #141, Lexington, KY 40504. The Clown O Grams letter shop on this site is operated by Serious Business Network and is covered by this policy.