Privacy policy

Last updated: 29 August 2026

Who I am

This site is operated by The Business Synthesizer, a sole proprietorship based in Alberta, Canada. It is run by one person, and that person handles every request made under this policy personally.

Privacy contact: the Owner of The Business Synthesizer, at hello@thebusinesssynthesizer.com. That is the person who can answer questions about anything described here, including anything about service providers located outside Canada.

I do graphic design, motion design and video editing for other businesses. I do not sell anything through this website's checkout, and I do not process payments here.

Most of what I collect is business contact information

Canadian privacy law treats business contact information differently from personal information. Under PIPEDA section 4.01 and Alberta's Personal Information Protection Act section 4(3)(d), information such as your name, job title, employer and work email is outside those Acts when it is collected and used only to contact you about your work.

That is what the enquiry form on this site is for. I use what you send to reply to you about the project you described, and for nothing else. I do not add you to a mailing list, I do not build a prospect database out of it, and I do not sell or share it.

Some of what the site collects is not business contact information, including your IP address and cookie data. The rest of this policy covers all of it, whichever category it falls into.

That carve-out also depends on the capacity you are writing to me in, not on the kind of information. If you are an individual commissioning something for personal reasons rather than for a business, you are not a representative of an organisation, the carve-out does not apply, and both Acts cover your information in full. Everything below applies to you either way, so nothing about how I handle it changes.

What I collect, and why

When you use the enquiry form. Your name, email address, company, when you need the work, and whatever you write in the message. I use all of it to answer you and to quote the work. Shopify also records the IP address the submission came from, as a normal part of running a website.

When you email me. I keep the email. That is how correspondence works.

If you become a client. I collect what I need to invoice you and to do the job, which usually means billing details and whatever files you send me. Invoicing happens outside this store. I never collect or store card numbers.

When you visit the site. Shopify sets cookies. Some are strictly necessary for the site to work, including _shopify_essential, _shopify_test, _tracking_consent and storefront_digest. Others are for analytics, including _shopify_y, _shopify_s, _shopify_analytics, _landing_page and _orig_referrer. Shopify publishes the current list at shopify.com/legal/cookies.

Whether you are asked about the analytics ones depends on where you are. Shopify shows a cookie banner to visitors in the regions this store has configured for it. Where the banner appears you can accept or refuse the analytics cookies, and change your mind later through the Cookie preferences link in the footer. Where it does not appear, those cookies are set when the page loads. Either way you can block or delete cookies in your browser settings at any time, and you can email me to ask what was collected about you or to have it deleted.

I do not run advertising pixels. No third party analytics or advertising tool is installed on this site. I do not sell or share personal information, and I never have.

Files and footage you send me

If you send me footage, images or project files, they may contain personal information about other people, such as anyone appearing on camera. I treat those files as confidential, I use them only to do the work you asked for, and I delete them when the retention period below runs out or when you ask, whichever comes first. Making sure you have the right to send me those files in the first place is your responsibility, and the terms of service say so.

Service providers outside Canada

Alberta's Personal Information Protection Act requires me to tell you, before or at the time I collect or transfer your information, that I use service providers located outside Canada, and to tell you how to reach someone about it. This section is that notice, given under section 13.1 of that Act.

The providers, the countries, and what each one is authorised to do:

- Shopify. Canada and the United States. Hosts this website, serves the pages, sets the cookies described above, and receives and stores enquiry form submissions. Authorised to store and process that information solely to operate the site and deliver the form submissions to me.

- Zoho. Canada. Runs my email. Authorised to transmit and store my correspondence solely so that email works. My account is on Zoho's Canadian data centres, in Montreal and Toronto, so this correspondence is stored in Canada.

That is the complete list of providers acting on my behalf. If it changes, this policy changes with it.

Shopify operates partly in the United States, so information it holds may be stored or processed there, and it could in principle be reachable by the courts and law enforcement of that country under its own laws. I use established providers with published security practices, but I cannot put your information beyond the reach of a foreign legal order, and I am not going to pretend otherwise.

You can obtain the written information about my policies and practices regarding these providers by emailing hello@thebusinesssynthesizer.com. This policy is that written information, and I will send it in another format on request.

If you message me on social media

I post work on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Snapchat, and people sometimes message me there instead of emailing. Those platforms are not my service providers. They are their own operators, they hold your message under their own privacy policies, and I have no agreement with any of them about your information.

I cannot delete a message from their systems and I cannot tell you what else they collected while you were there. I read the message, I answer it, and if it turns into work I move the conversation to email. If you would rather none of that applied, write to hello@thebusinesssynthesizer.com in the first place and the whole conversation stays between Shopify, Zoho and me.

How long I keep things

Enquiries that do not turn into work, one year. Correspondence, three years. Records of a paid engagement, including invoices, seven years, because Canadian tax rules require it. Client files and footage, one year after the job closes, unless you ask me to delete them sooner.

Ask me to delete something earlier and I will, unless tax law requires me to keep it, in which case I will tell you exactly which part I have to keep and why.

Your rights

Wherever you are, you can ask me what I hold about you, ask for a copy, ask me to correct it, ask me to delete it, ask me to stop using it for something, or withdraw consent.

Email hello@thebusinesssynthesizer.com. Under Alberta's Act I have 45 days to respond to an access request, and under the federal Act 30 days. I aim to answer inside a week. There is no charge, and I will not treat you differently for asking.

If you are in the UK or EU, you also have the right to receive your data in a portable format, to object to processing based on legitimate interests, and not to be subject to decisions made solely by automated means. I do not make automated decisions about people. If you are in Quebec, you have the right to data portability and the right to be told when technology is used to identify, locate or profile you. The only such technology on this site is the Shopify analytics cookies described above, and the cookie section of this policy is that notice.

Marketing email

Sending me an enquiry does not sign you up for anything. I will reply to you about your enquiry, and that is all.

If I ever send commercial email, it will identify me, give a mailing address and a way to reach me, and carry an unsubscribe link that works and that I honour within ten business days. That is what Canada's anti-spam legislation requires, and I follow it. Where I write to someone in the United States, the CAN-SPAM Act applies on top of that, and I follow it too: a subject line that tells the truth, a real postal address in the message, and an unsubscribe that works. Where I write to a business in the United Kingdom, the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations apply. Those allow direct marketing email to a company or a partnership with legal personality, and require consent for an individual or a sole trader, and I keep to that line. I do not buy email lists and I do not scrape addresses. If you tell me to stop, once, that is permanent and I keep a record of it so it cannot be undone by a later list.

Security

The site runs over HTTPS. Data sits with Shopify and Zoho, both of which encrypt in transit and at rest. Both accounts use two-factor authentication. I am one person, so access is limited to me. No system is perfectly secure and I will not claim otherwise. If a breach creates a real risk of significant harm to you, I will notify you and the relevant regulator, as Alberta and federal law require.

Children

This is a service for businesses. It is not directed at children and I do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 16. If you think I have, email me and I will delete it.

Complaints

Tell me first and I will try to fix it. If that does not resolve it, you can complain to the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta at oipc.ab.ca, or to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada at priv.gc.ca. If you are in Quebec, the Commission d'acces a l'information du Quebec. If you are in the EU, your national data protection authority. If you are in the UK, the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.

Changes

If this policy changes materially I will update the date at the top. The version that applies to you is the one published when you gave me the information.