Privacy Policy

Overview

This website, jamesbenham.com, is operated by James M. Benham of College Station, Texas, USA ("James," "we," "us"). James is the controller of the personal information described here. This policy explains what we collect, why, who helps us process it, how long we keep it, and the rights you have, including under the EU and UK GDPR and California's CCPA/CPRA.

We do not sell personal information. Optional analytics and marketing cookies run only if you say yes, and you can change that anytime with Your privacy choices.

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Information We Collect

Booking and Contact Forms

When you send the booking form at /book we collect your name, email address, and organization, and optionally your phone number, plus what you tell us about the event: its name, date, location, format, audience size and makeup, the talk you have in mind, a budget if you give one, and any notes. When you send the contact form we collect your name, email address, company or publication (optional), the topics you pick, and your message.

Each submission is saved in a private log on our hosting provider (Vercel Blob) so James and his team can follow up and track the request, and it is emailed to James and to his marketing and communications agency (The MicDrop Agency) through our email delivery provider (Resend). We use it only to respond to you and to arrange anything you asked about. We don't add you to a mailing list because you used a form.

Newsletter

If you subscribe in the footer or on the contact page, your email address is sent to HubSpot, which we use to send the newsletter. We use it only for that. Every newsletter email has an unsubscribe link, and unsubscribing stops them.

Talk Feedback Forms

After some of James's talks, attendees can reach a feedback page for that talk. If you fill it out, we collect your name, email address, and optionally your company, job title, and type of organization, along with your ratings, written answers, the topics you'd like to hear more about, and the options you check (for example, a Terra demo, a conversation with JBK, booking James, the newsletter, or permission to quote you). We use this to send you the slides, improve the talk, and follow up on anything you asked for.

Feedback is stored in private storage on our hosting provider (Vercel Blob) and recorded in our customer relationship management system (HubSpot) as a contact with a note containing your feedback. If you ask about Terra or JBK, James and those companies may contact you about it. If you check the newsletter box, you are subscribed through HubSpot and can unsubscribe from any email. We also store a one-way hash of your IP address to help spot duplicate or abusive submissions. We only quote your feedback publicly if you check the box giving permission.

Event Attendee Lists

When an event organizer shares its attendee list with James, we store the names, email addresses, companies, job titles, and phone numbers on it in the same private storage, and add or update each person in HubSpot with a note that they attended the talk. After the talk we may send you a follow-up email with a personal link to that talk's feedback page. The link fills in your name and email for you, and the slides are available after you answer. We record when you open that page, leave feedback, and download the slides, and log those in HubSpot so James knows who to follow up with. Every follow-up email has an unsubscribe link, and once you unsubscribe you won't get follow-up emails after James's talks. If the organizer's list doesn't include your email, we may look it up in our own records (other events' attendee lists and feedback forms), in HubSpot, or in Apollo.io, a business contact database, which may also give us your public LinkedIn profile link. The source of this information is the event organizer.

To read uploaded attendee lists and slide decks, and to match feedback to the attendee list when the emails differ, we use Anthropic's Claude API as a service provider. Anthropic processes that information only to provide the service, and its commercial terms say it does not train its models on it.

Server Logs and Page Counts

Our hosting provider (Vercel) keeps standard server logs, including IP address, browser type, referring page, and pages visited, for operations and security. Vercel Web Analytics counts page views without cookies and without identifying you, so it runs on every page.

Fonts, Map, and Video

The site's fonts are hosted on our own server, so loading them sends nothing to Google. The speaking-engagements map uses Leaflet with OpenStreetMap tiles, and loading the tiles sends your IP address to OpenStreetMap's servers (see the OpenStreetMap Foundation Privacy Policy). The speaker reel on the speaking page loads from YouTube (Google) only when you press play, using YouTube's privacy-enhanced mode.

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Cookies and Tracking Technologies

Optional cookies are grouped into two categories, and nothing in either one runs until you choose. The first time you visit, a notice offers Accept all, Reject all, or Choose. You can change your mind anytime with Your privacy choices in the footer of every page. Turning a category off removes its cookies from this site and stops it from loading. Your choice is remembered in your browser for 12 months, then we ask again.

• Necessary (always on): Cloudflare Turnstile on forms to block spam (Cloudflare's Privacy Policy), cookieless Vercel Web Analytics, and the browser storage entry that remembers your choices.
• Analytics (optional): Google Analytics, which measures traffic and usage (Google's Privacy Policy), and Microsoft Clarity, which records how pages are used, such as clicks and scrolling, so we can fix what's confusing (Microsoft's Privacy Statement).
• Marketing (optional): HubSpot's tracking script, which recognizes returning visitors and measures our marketing (HubSpot's Privacy Policy), and the LinkedIn Insight Tag, an advertising pixel that measures LinkedIn campaigns and can inform ad targeting (LinkedIn's Privacy Policy). Under California law, the LinkedIn tag counts as "sharing" personal information.

Global Privacy Control and Do Not Track

If your browser sends a Global Privacy Control (GPC) signal, we treat it as an opt-out of sale and sharing: Marketing stays off, the cookie notice doesn't appear, and Analytics stays off unless you turn it on in Your privacy choices. GPC is checked on every page load. There is no accepted standard for "Do Not Track," so the site doesn't respond to it separately.

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Why We Use It (Legal Bases)

• Answering booking requests and messages: to take steps you asked for before an agreement, and our legitimate interest in replying to people who contact us.
• Talk feedback and slides: your request when you submit the form, and our legitimate interest in improving talks and following up on what you asked for.
• Event attendee lists and follow-up emails: our legitimate interest in following up with people who attended a talk, balanced by an unsubscribe link in every email and your right to object at any time.
• Newsletter, analytics, and marketing cookies: your consent, which you can withdraw anytime.
• Security, spam prevention, and server logs: our legitimate interest in keeping the site safe and working.

Who Processes It

We use these service providers, each under its own terms to process data only for us: Vercel (hosting, private storage, server logs, cookieless page counts), Resend (email delivery), HubSpot (contacts, newsletter, marketing tracking), Anthropic (reading attendee lists and slide decks), Cloudflare (Turnstile spam protection), Google (Analytics; YouTube when you play the reel), Microsoft (Clarity), and LinkedIn (Insight Tag). Apollo.io may be used to look up a work email for someone on an attendee list. The MicDrop Agency receives copies of form messages to help James respond. We share information when the law requires it, and never sell it.

International Transfers

We're based in the United States, and our providers process data mainly in the United States. When we receive personal data from the EU, EEA, UK, or Switzerland, the transfer relies on the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (and its UK and Swiss extensions) where the provider is certified, or on the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses in the provider's data processing terms.

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Data Retention

• Booking requests and contact messages: kept in the inquiry log for three years, then deleted automatically. Copies in James's and his team's email follow normal email practices.
• Talk feedback: kept as long as it's useful for improving James's talks and following up, and deleted on request.
• Event attendee lists: kept as long as they're useful for following up on that event and connecting it to later talks, and deleted on request. If you unsubscribe, we keep a one-way hash of your email so we don't email you again.
• Newsletter: until you unsubscribe.
• Cookies: see the table above.

Your Rights

Everyone

You can ask to see the personal information we hold about you, correct it, or delete it. Use the contact form and pick "Privacy request," or email jbenham01@gmail.com. We'll confirm the request comes from you, usually by replying to the email address on file, and we won't treat you differently for asking.

EU, EEA, and UK Residents (GDPR)

You also have the right to data portability, to restrict processing, to object to processing based on our legitimate interests (including follow-up emails after a talk), and to withdraw consent at any time without affecting earlier processing. We respond within one month. You can complain to your local data protection authority. We don't make decisions about you based solely on automated processing.

California Residents (CCPA/CPRA)

In the past 12 months we collected these categories of personal information: identifiers (name, email address, phone number), professional information (company, job title, organization type), the content of your messages and feedback, and, only with your consent, internet activity (how you use this site, through Analytics and Marketing cookies). We collect it from you, from event organizers (attendee lists), and automatically through cookies, for the purposes described above. We disclose it to the service providers listed in "Who Processes It." We do not sell personal information. If you turn Marketing on, the LinkedIn Insight Tag shares internet activity with LinkedIn for cross-context behavioral advertising. We don't collect sensitive personal information, and we don't knowingly sell or share the information of anyone under 16.

You have the right to know what we collect and how we use and disclose it, to delete it, to correct it, and to opt out of sale and sharing. To opt out, use Your privacy choices (leave Marketing off), or turn on Global Privacy Control in your browser. For the other rights, use the contact form ("Privacy request") or email us. An authorized agent may submit a request for you with your written permission. We respond within 45 days and won't discriminate against you for using any of these rights.

Texas and Other U.S. States

Residents of Texas (TDPSA) and other states with consumer privacy laws, such as Virginia, Colorado, and Connecticut, have similar rights to access, correct, delete, and get a portable copy of their data, and to opt out of targeted advertising. Use the same contact options. If we decline a request, you can appeal by replying to our decision, and we'll respond within the time your state's law requires.

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Children's Privacy

This website is not directed at children under 16, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Material changes will be reflected in the "Last updated" date at the top of this page.

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Contact

James M. Benham, College Station, Texas, USA. For privacy requests or questions about this policy, use the contact form or email jbenham01@gmail.com.