Privacy & Security
It’s important to you, and me.
Updated April 18, 2023.
Privacy, Security, and your personal data is no laughing matter.
This policy aims to explain how your data is collected, used, shared, transferred and stored so your mind and heart can rest assured that whatever you share here is safe and treated respectfully.
(It’s also very booooooooooring. Sorry about that. So, while this is no laughing matter, I tried to sprinkle in some fun things, so that it’s at least tolerably readable.)
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me.
You are not being tracked on this website.
We do not have any Google or Facebook tracking cookies installed.
∞actualinfinity has never, and will never, upload or share your data to Facebook (or any other social platform) for any reason.
Personal Information – Collection & Use
Personal information is any identifying information regarding a single person, such as name, address, telephone number, email address, etc.
Browsing the actualinfinity site doesn’t require you to give us any information. Contacting actualinfinity, Steve Mattus or anyone on the actualinfinity team will likely require you to share some personal contact information so we can be of service. Additionally, completing any forms on our site will require you to share some personal information, and is also your explicit authorization for actualinfinity to store and retain that information indefinitely (unless you request it to be permanently deleted or updated).
If you don’t wish to share any personal information, it will likely mean that we are not able to provide you service or respond to queries.
The information you provide may be added to a more complete record of other personal information you’ve shared in the past so that we can be of better service.
What personal information is collected?
It varies. It really depends on how you’re interacting with us. Here’s what I can tell you, though… no personal information is ever collected which you do not proactively and voluntarily share with us. There is never any use of any nefarious data gathering tools to gather additional personal information that you haven’t voluntarily, openly and transparently given. If we need a piece of personal information, we’ll ask for it clearly. If we don’t ask for it, we don’t collect it.
Some examples of personal information that may be collected via forms, purchases or emails:
- Name
- Mailing address
- Phone number
- Email address
- Credit card information
- Date of birth
- actualinfinity username/password
- Photo
- Website
- Other contact information or preferences
How your personal information is used
Any personal information collected is stored in our internal systems such as email address book, Secure WordPress database, our secure automated marketing system (currently ConvertKit), and in any payment processing systems (e.g.: PayPal, Square) so we can identify you, understand how you wish to interact with us, and provide services which you request such as programs, community, and coaching.
We may use your personal information to help us create, develop, design and offer services or marketing that may be of value. Of course, none of your personal information will be shared (see below) but when we create products and services, we’re thinking of the hearts of individuals – not “mass markets” of people. We might think of you, personally, when we have the next brilliant idea for how to be of service. We want to be transparent about that. (And, thanks in advance for being so awesome!)
Your personal information will be used to communicate with you, sending you emails, notices of services, updates and other notifications. Sometimes, information such as your address will be used to send a card in the mail, or a small gift, like cookies or chocolates. Or, maybe even a brand new computer. (But probably not a computer, cause… you know… I gots my own bills to pay, yo!)
Your personal information might also be used for internal statistical analysis of the business and it’s operations – to make it better for you.
Also, if there is ever a promotion, contest or other fun activity offered through actualinfinity, your personal information will be used to manage any of those programs.
Non-Personal Information – Collection & Use
Non-personal information is that which does not outrightly identify a single person such as occupation, zip code, area code, IP Address, city, time zone or device type.
We do NOT use services such as Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel Tags, or Cookies to better help us understand user behavior, patterns and the effectiveness of the website, services and products we’re offering here at actualinfinity.
We are committed to not tracking you and violating your data privacy so that we can target you with advertising, or use that data to sell you on something. No thanks.
Should any of non-personal information get combined or connected in some way to personal information, it will all be treated as personal information, for as long as it’s combined or connected.
A Special Note About Cookies ???
Cookies are delicious. There’s just no arguing about that – especially the chocolate chip kind. I love ’em. In fact, I’ll just go ahead and say it, I won’t be angry if you want to send me a whole box full of em. Make ’em yourself, buy them from the grocery store, get them from a bakery – I don’t care, not even a little bit – as long as they end up in my tummy.
Unfortunately, this section is not only about cookies of the chocolate chip kind. It’s also about the little bits of tracking code that is stored on your system when you visit websites. Almost all websites do this, so it’s nothing unusual or nefarious. Usually. You would be surprised how helpful cookies can be, actually. You can read all about cookies here.
And you deserve to know clearly and honestly all about how cookies are used on this site, and your current status with the cookie section of this policy.
About this cookie policy
This Cookie Policy explains what cookies are and how we use them. You should read this policy to understand what cookies are, how we use them, the types of cookies we use i.e, the information we collect using cookies and how that information is used and how to control the cookie preferences. For further information on how we use, store and keep your personal data secure, see our Privacy Policy.
You can change or withdraw your consent at any time.
Learn more about who we are, how you can contact us and how we process personal data in our Privacy Policy.
Your consent applies to the following domain: actualinfinity.com
What are cookies ?
Cookies are small text files that are used to store small pieces of information that can be used by websites to make a user’s experience more efficient. The law states that we can store cookies on your device if they are strictly necessary for the operation of this site. For all other types of cookies we need your permission.
This site uses ONLY two different types of cookies: Functional & Necessary. Some cookies are placed by third party services that appear on our pages. Learn more about who we are, how you can contact us and how we process personal data as you read through this page.
How do we use cookies ?
As most of the online services, our website uses cookies first-party and third-party cookies for a number of purposes. The first-party cookies are mostly necessary for the website to function the right way, and they do not collect any of your personally identifiable data.
The third-party cookies used on our websites are used mainly for keeping our services secure, keeping our lines of communication open, providing you with a better and improved user experience, and help speed up your future interactions with our website.
What types of cookies do we use ?
Necessary: Necessary cookies help make a website usable by enabling basic functions like page navigation and access to secure areas of the website. The website cannot function properly without these cookies. They allow us to maintain user sessions and prevent any security threats. They do not collect or store any personal information. For example, cookies are what allow you to log-in to an online account and add products to your basket and checkout securely.
Statistics (WE DO NOT USE): Statistic cookies help website owners to understand how visitors interact with websites by collecting and reporting information anonymously. These cookies store information like the number of visitors to the website, the number of unique visitors, which pages of the website have been visited, the source of the visit etc. These data help us understand and analyze how well the website performs and where it needs improvement.
Preferences / Functional: These are the cookies that help certain non-essential functionalities on our website. These functionalities include embedding content like videos or sharing contents on the website on social media platforms. These cookies also help us store your settings and browsing preferences like language preferences so that you have a better and efficient experience on future visits to the website.
Marketing / Advertising (WE DO NOT USE): Marketing cookies are used to track visitors across websites. The intention is to display ads that are relevant and engaging for the individual user and thereby more valuable for publishers and third party advertisers.
Here is a current list of all cookies that are used on ∞actualinfinity’s website:
The image above was taken from the website: CookieServe.
There are four cookies from ConvertKit (abbreviated as: ck) which connects some of the sign-up forms and landing pages for my email list. If you don’t fill out any forms on my website, your data will not be transferred to ConvertKit, my email provider.
There is one cookie from alphassl.com which provides my security encryption certificate.
You’ll notice, that all the cookies are from CloudFlare, which are the hosting service ConvertKit and my webhost use. CloudFlare’s business is online security, which hopefully gives you some sense of ease knowing that the only cookies on my site are from a company who’s business is privacy and security.
Sometimes you may notice YouTube videos embedded in various pages of the site. When this is true, please be aware that YouTube embeds cookies along with videos to help track views, clicks, watch time, and where you stopped the video (why would you ever stop watching? ha ha) so that if you return to the page, it will know where you left off. These cookies are a part of YouTube embeds. ∞actualinfinity tries to use a special “no-cookie” URL when embedding videos, but that does not always work. So, if you’re concerned about how YouTube might report your viewing history on the ∞actualinfinity website, please see their Privacy Policy.
I understand that a real cookie might be a bit more awesome, but I just don’t have a way to give you one right now.
Are the websites and people you trust to run them actually trustworthy?
If you want to see if the website you trust is actually trustworthy, type the websites URL into the CookieServe search box and see where they’re sharing your data. You might be astounded, feel betrayed, or come to understand that many “heart-centered” businesses who speak against traditional capitalistic business practices are still benefiting from using them behind the scenes, where they don’t anticipate you’ll go looking for them. The hypocrisy is painful to my heart.
You may find sites that have a Privacy Policy which says something like, “We don’t consciously give out your information to other companies that would then market to you. Never ever.”
Yet, if you read through the whole Privacy Policy, you’ll often find that they admit to uploading your information to Facebook or other sites. Do you fully trust that Facebook doesn’t give out and sell your information to other companies that are now marketing and advertising to you? Ha! Don’t believe that for a second. The truth is, in many instances, you’re being played. You’re being sold a bill of goods. And the not-so-small details of how your private personal data is being, or has been, used informs the real story of the heart and character of who you’re doing business with.
(Should you ever find conflicting data, or hypocrisy in my behavior, please, please bring it up so I can be in integrity. I’ve spent dozens of hours untangling my business from these invasive and unethical business practices, and if I missed any details, I welcome being shown how and where so I can fix things right away, and make amends.)
Oh… and one more thing…
Check the “last updated” date on the privacy page of your trusted small-business websites (if they even have one). If the page hasn’t been updated for several years, how much attention do you think the business is actually paying to your privacy data?
How can I control the cookie preferences ?
Most sites now ask you to agree to using cookies as a part of your experience. You will not see an annoying cookie declaration on ∞actualinfinity because we only use cookies that are necessary for our site to function on the web, and so we can communicate with you. And, you still retain control of what you allow to be stored on your computer. There are things you can do to curtail cookies being stored on your computer, as I describe below.
As a service to you, I want to share some tools which can help prevent you being tracked. For a more far reaching affect, these are two sites which can help you opt-out of many of the online advertising companies that track you and target ads to you. If you would like to opt-out you may do so here:
- http://optout.aboutads.info
- http://preferences-mgr.truste.com/
- For those in the EU or GB: http://www.youronlinechoices.eu
For your convenience, I’m also including some other links which you can look at to help manage how your personal data is used. Please note – none of the links I’m providing have originated from me, and I do not have any affiliation with them, nor do I endorse them as safe, or effective. I will say that I’ve visited each of these sites and use one of the tools below. These are provide for your convenience and entertainment purposes only.
- If you use Chrome, both of these are extensions which may help stop your data from being taken and used to target ads:
- Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on: click here
- Opt out of Google’s interest-based ads as you browse the web with Chrome (which come from their partner company DoubleClick): click here
- This link takes you to the Google Account Support Page where there are several different strategies to stop Google from tracking you in certain ways.
In addition to this, different browsers provide different methods to block and delete cookies used by websites. You can change the settings of your browser to block/delete the cookies. To find out more out more on how to manage and delete cookies, visit wikipedia.org, www.allaboutcookies.org.
We don’t share your information
There’s not a whole lot extra to say about this. actualinfinity does not share or distribute, sell or share any of your personal information to others for any reason. We just don’t do it. Not for a gajillion bucks.
∞actualinfinity does use third party service providers to help administer the operations of the business such as ConvertKit, Paypal (or other payment processors), Acuity Scheduling, and other various online tools. However, this information is only used in an effort to run the business, communicate with you, and enhance your user experience. Your information is never shared with anyone so that they can solicit business, products or services from you, or target advertising to you. Ever.
I know I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again… when I say I don’t share your information, that means I do not (nor have I ever) upload your data to Facebook or anywhere else. I don’t say, “I don’t share your information,” and then upload your name and email to Facebook. That would be lying to you, or gaslighting you.
I’m making such a big deal about this because hypocrisy matters to me. Integrity matters to me. If it matters to you too, then we’re in good company.
Security & Protection
It’s important that your personal information is securely transmitted to us, stored with us and protected at all times. And, while I don’t know exactly what 256-bit socket layer encryption or salted-hashes are or how they help protect you, I hear that it’s bad-ass level security ninja type stuff… so… yeah… good stuff… all detailed below.
The actualinfinity website uses up to 256-bit Secure Sockets Layer encryption to protect any data you send us. Additionally, Every email we send from the following domains will be cryptographically signed using DKIM and originate from an IP address we publish in our SPF record, so you can trust that it’s really from little ‘ol Steve or someone on the team.
- actualinfinity.com
All technology used in actualinfinity which may store or access your personal information are locked with passwords and encrypted for your security (this includes backups to external hard drives and backups to the cloud using the secure service BackBlaze ). Additionally, physical computers are typically either cable locked to the building or stored in a fire-proof safe during longer absences. Seriously… you should see it in here… it’s a labyrinth of cable-locks peppered with padlocks, and laser-guided missile pointed at my windows, to discourage thievery. 😉
No physical (paper) documents with personal information are kept on file.
All technology is automatically updated with the latest security updates within 15 days of release.
All passwords used to access the systems that contain your information are 12 character strings of random mixed elements, stored using LastPass which uses AES-256 bit encryption with PBKDF2 SHA-256 and salted hashes to ensure complete security in the cloud, along with local-only encryption and two-factor authentication. So, even if the computers were stolen, there is no access to your data. Passwords are never stored within browsers or other systems which can be breached.
Our third party service partners also use similar security to protect your information and all are in compliance with all regulatory, privacy and security mandated by law. Linked below are all of the external services utilized by actualinfinity which handles, processes, transmits, stores or otherwise access various pieces of your personal information which you submit:
Any information you share with us which includes explicit permission to use as a testimonial or case study on our site may include personal information such as name, a photo, your city and your website URL. You are responsible for how you use your information on any site outside of actualinfinity.
Any personal or non-personal information we gather from you may be retained indefinitely, unless you ask us to remove it, in which case we will (outside of necessary, legal, or financially critical information). If you want all or part of your information removed from our systems, all you need to do is ask, and we will absolutely take care of it. You can contact us here.
You retain control
You can listen to the soundtrack to this section while you read! (Opens in a new tab.)
It’s your data, and you have the rights to determine if, how and when it’s used. You have the right to be informed what information is stored, and why. You have the right to ask for a copy of all the information stored. You also have the right to correct your information so that it’s accurate.
You are warmly invited to ensure your contact information and contact preferences are complete, accurate, and current. If, at any time, you feel that your information is inaccurate, please contact us here to update your information.
You are able to adjust your preferences for contact and/or unsubscribe from all email communication by clicking the link that appears at the bottom of any of our system-generated emails. Or, you can simply let us know how you prefer to interact with us, and we’ll honor your request. Also, at the bottom of every email is a link to update your contact information. Please use this link to keep your records with us current.
If you want your data erased from our system – please make a request, and we will happily confirm that this has been completed within 30 days.
If you are not happy with how your data is being handled, you also have the right to file a complaint. You can do so on the FTC website, or with the ICO for UK/European complaints.
Questions?
We do everything in our power to honor and respect your privacy. If you have any questions, concerns or other inquiries, please reach out and ask.
This privacy policy may be updated from time to time without notice, so please revisit this page to keep yourself up to date.
Thank you for visiting, and may all of our data on the web be secure, protected and respected.
And, may we, you, and all of us be committed to more love, not less – all-ways. ℠ ?