How we handle your data
The short version: we collect as little as possible, we never sell it, and you can be removed at any time with one click. Here's the honest, plain-English detail — because that same honesty ought to apply to your data too.
- What we collect depends on how you use Pimpernel: an email for the newsletter; an email, password and name for an account; and only the profile details, documents and payment info you choose to give us for the tools and services you actually use.
- Why: to send what you asked for, run your saved plan and tools, and deliver anything you buy — nothing else.
- Where it lives: with a small set of trusted, GDPR-compliant providers — Buttondown, Supabase, Stripe, Resend, Netlify and Cloudflare — each under a data-processing agreement.
- Your tax figures stay on your device: the form-filler works in your browser and never sends your income or tax number to us.
- Your rights: see it, correct it, export it or delete it whenever you like — one email, no hoops.
- We never sell or share your details with anyone for marketing.
Pimpernel is run by a small team, and this notice is written the way we'd explain it to a friend: no ten-page legal wall, just what actually happens to your information. If you only read one line, read this one — we ask for only what each part of Pimpernel actually needs, we use it only for what you signed up for, and you're always in control of it.
What we collect, and when
It depends entirely on what you do here. Read the free guides and you give us nothing at all. Beyond that:
- The newsletter: your name and email, only if you sign up — so we can greet you properly and send the notes you asked for.
- An account: your email, a password and your name. Your password is stored securely by our provider in a form we can't read — we never see it.
- Your Pimpernel (optional): if you build a personal plan, we save only what you choose to enter — your move stage and key dates, and optionally details like date of birth, nationality, address, household members, and residency or employment status. If you use the tax tools you may add your French tax number (numéro fiscal). You decide what to add, and you can edit or delete any of it at any time. It lives in your account purely to power your plan, deadlines and tools.
- Documents you send us for a paid check (a letter, a dossier, and so on): whatever you upload. These can include sensitive papers — ID, financial or family documents. We use them only to do the specific job you asked for, keep them confidential, and delete or return them afterwards.
- Payments: handled by Stripe. We never see or store your card details — Stripe does, as a specialist PCI-compliant processor. We keep only a record that you bought something, so we can deliver it.
Worth knowing
Your tax figures never leave your device
The tool that pre-fills your real French tax forms runs entirely in your browser, on your device. The figures you enter — your income, your numéro fiscal, any foreign accounts — are written straight into the PDF on your own machine. They are never sent to us and never touch our servers. Your finished form is yours alone.
We collect all of this only when you deliberately give it to us. We don't harvest it, buy it, or gather it quietly in the background.
Sensitive information
Some of what the tools and checks touch — a health reference in a document, family details, an ID number — counts as special-category or sensitive data under UK and EU law. Where that happens, we handle it only to do the exact thing you asked of us, keep access to it tight, and never use it for anything else. If you'd rather not share something, leave it out — the tools still work, they just do less.
Why we have it, and what we do with it
Every piece of data above has one job: to give you the thing you asked for. Your newsletter details send the newsletter; your account and plan details run your saved plan, deadlines and tools; documents and payment records let us deliver the paid service you bought. As a founding-member courtesy we may write to existing subscribers first when something launches, but that's the same newsletter relationship you opted into. We will never use your details to cold-sell you something unrelated, and we'll never pass them to a third party to do the same.
Where your data lives
Rather than a spreadsheet on someone's laptop, your data sits with a small set of specialist providers, each acting as our data processor under a formal agreement and each handling data in line with GDPR. Everything travels over an encrypted (HTTPS) connection.
- Buttondown — stores the newsletter list and sends the emails.
- Supabase — stores your account and the Pimpernel plan details you choose to save.
- Stripe — takes payments and holds card details securely (we don't).
- Resend — sends transactional emails such as your purchase confirmations and service updates.
- Netlify — hosts the site and receives any documents you upload for a check.
- Cloudflare — delivers the site and provides privacy-friendly visitor analytics.
Plain and simple
You are always in control of your data
Under UK and EU data protection law you have the right to see what we hold about you, to correct it, to get a copy of it, and to have it deleted entirely. For the newsletter, the unsubscribe link at the bottom of every email removes you in one click. For an account or anything else, email team@pimpernelfrance.com and we'll sort it out — no hoops, no delay, no guilt-trip.
How long we keep it
We keep things only as long as they're doing the job you asked for. Newsletter details: until you unsubscribe. Your account and plan: while your account is open — close it, or ask, and it's deleted. Documents sent for a check: only as long as we need them to do the work, then deleted or returned. Payment records: kept as long as tax and accounting law requires, and no longer. We don't hang on to anything "just in case".
Cookies and tracking
We don't set advertising cookies and we don't track you around the web. If you sign in, we keep a secure token in your browser so you stay logged in — that's it. Our visitor analytics are privacy-friendly and anonymous: Cloudflare's aggregate stats plus our own first-party counts (which pages get used, and how the free tools are doing), recorded against a random, session-only identifier that's cleared when you close the tab — no name, no cross-site tracking, never sold on, and never used to build a profile of you elsewhere. Any email open-rates are ordinary email analytics through Buttondown.
Changes to this notice
If we add new services and the way we handle data changes, we'll update this page and note the date at the top. Anything significant, we'll tell subscribers about directly rather than burying it here.
This notice explains our own practices in plain terms and is not legal advice. Pimpernel — operated by Will Whinfrey, trading as Pimpernel — is the data controller for the personal data described here; Buttondown, Supabase, Stripe, Resend, Netlify and Cloudflare act as our data processors. If you have a concern we can't resolve, you have the right to complain to your data protection authority — in the UK, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO); in France, the CNIL. To exercise any of your rights, or if anything here is unclear, email team@pimpernelfrance.com.