Privacy Policy
Effective: 8/19/26
The short version
This is a personal site. I write books, speak, and occasionally send an email newsletter. I collect the minimum I need to do those things.
- I don’t sell your information. Ever. Not to anyone, for any price.
- I don’t run advertising on this site and I don’t let ad networks track you here.
- I don’t ask about or try to infer your neurotype, diagnosis, or disability status.
- If you’re on my list, one click unsubscribes you and I stop emailing you.
- If in doubt email me and I’ll handle it. You don’t need a legal reason.
The rest of this page is the detail behind those five sentences.
Who is responsible for your information
Peter Allen Mann
For readers in the UK and EU: I am the data controller for information collected through this site.
What I collect
What you give me directly. If you sign up for my newsletter, I collect your email address and, if you choose to provide it, your first name. If you use a contact or speaking-inquiry form, I collect what you type into it: typically your name, email, organization, and your message. If you reply to one of my emails, I have that email.
What is collected automatically. Like nearly every website, my host records standard technical information when your browser requests a page: IP address, browser and device type, referring page, and the pages you view. I use Google Analytics to understand which pages people read and where visitors come from. I am not trying to identify you individually, and I don’t attempt to.
Email engagement. My email platform, Klaviyo, records whether a message was opened and whether links were clicked. I use this to tell whether a topic landed, and to stop emailing people who have clearly lost interest. If you’d rather not be measured this way, disabling image loading in your email client blocks open tracking, or you can unsubscribe entirely.
What I do not collect. I do not collect payment information. Books are sold through retailers and publishers, and any transaction happens on their systems under their policies. I do not use advertising cookies, retargeting pixels, or data brokers. I do not buy email lists.
A note on neurodiversity and sensitive information
My work is about how organizations perceive people. It would be a poor kind of irony to build a site that quietly profiles its readers.
So: I do not ask for, infer, store, or share anything about your neurotype, diagnosis, disability, health, or accommodation needs. If a page on this site ever asks a question that touches that territory, it will say plainly why it’s asking and what happens to the answer.
Two practical requests:
- Please don’t send me sensitive details you don’t need to send. If you’re writing about your own situation at work, you’re welcome to but you don’t have to disclose a diagnosis to get a useful reply from me.
- If you do share something sensitive, I treat it as confidential correspondence. I don’t add it to a marketing profile, I don’t share it, and I don’t use it in my writing. No living person is identifiable in my books; stories are altered so they can’t be traced back.
Speaking and event inquiries: if you send accommodation requirements for an event, I share only what the venue or host needs to make the arrangement, and only with your knowledge.
Why I use your information, and on what legal basis
| What I do | Why | Legal basis (UK/EU GDPR) |
|---|---|---|
| Send the newsletter | You asked to receive it | Consent |
| Reply to your message | You contacted me | Legitimate interests / steps prior to a contract |
| Handle speaking and media inquiries | To evaluate and arrange engagements | Legitimate interests / contract |
| Site analytics and security logs | To keep the site working and see what’s read | Legitimate interests |
| Keep records of consent and unsubscribes | To honor your choices and comply with law | Legal obligation |
I don’t use your information to make automated decisions about you, and I don’t profile you.
Cookies
This site uses the minimum cookies required to function. Specifically:
- Essential cookies needed for the site to load and for forms and security to work.
- Analytics cookies Google Analytics, used as described above. [If you serve EU/UK visitors, these should be off until consent is given via your banner.]
You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings; the site will still work. I honor Global Privacy Control (GPC) signals as an opt-out of any sale or sharing of personal information though as noted, I don’t sell or share it in the first place.
Who else touches your information
I use a small number of vendors to run this site. They process information on my instructions and are not permitted to use it for their own purposes:
- WordPress for hosting and server logs
I may also disclose information if the law requires it. There is no marketing partner, affiliate network, or data broker in it.
Links and embedded content
This site links to booksellers, publishers, podcasts, and my other project at ShieldPerception.com. Once you follow a link or interact with embedded media (a podcast player, a video, a social post), you’re on someone else’s system and their privacy policy governs not this one. Embedded players in particular may set their own cookies as soon as the page loads.
ShieldPerception.com is a separate site with its own privacy policy. Assessment responses given there are governed by that policy, and I don’t merge them with anything collected here. Adjust if the two sites share an email list if they do, say so plainly.
How long I keep things
- Newsletter subscribers: until you unsubscribe, plus a suppression record so I don’t accidentally email you again.
- Inquiries and correspondence: up to 2 years after our last exchange, then deleted, unless it relates to a contracted engagement.
- Analytics: 24 months or the shortest retention my provider allows.
- Server logs: as long as my host retains them, typically (30–90 days).
Security
Information is held in reputable third-party platforms protected by encryption in transit and access controls, with two-factor authentication on my accounts. No system is perfectly secure, and I’m not going to pretend otherwise which is one more reason I keep so little.
Your rights
Wherever you live, you can ask me to:
- Tell you what information I hold about you
- Give you a copy of it
- Correct anything that’s wrong
- Delete it
- Stop using it for a particular purpose, or stop emailing you
If you’re in the UK or EU, you also have the right to restrict or object to processing, to data portability, to withdraw consent at any time, and to complain to your national data protection authority (in the UK, the Information Commissioner’s Office).
If you’re in California, Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, or another US state with a privacy law, you have rights to know, delete, correct, and opt out of sale, sharing, and targeted advertising. I do not sell or share personal information or use it for targeted advertising, and I won’t treat you differently for exercising any right.
To exercise any of these, email me. I’ll respond within 30 days, usually much sooner. I may need to confirm you control the email address in question. You can use an authorized agent.
International transfers
I’m based in the United States, and my vendors are primarily US-based. If you contact me from outside the US, your information will be processed here, under standard contractual clauses or equivalent safeguards where required.
Children
This site is meant for adults and I don’t knowingly collect information from anyone under 16. If you believe a child has provided information, email me and I’ll delete it.
Accessibility
If any part of this policy is hard to read, or if the process for exercising a right doesn’t work for you, email me and I’ll accommodate whatever format works: plain email, a phone call, or a written response. You will never be required to fill in a form to exercise a privacy right.
Changes
If I change this policy, I’ll update the date at the top. If a change is significant such as new categories of data, a new purpose, I’ll say so in the newsletter rather than quietly editing the page.