Privacy Policy

Information you provide

When you contact us through our inquiry form, we ask for your name, email address and a description of your project. You may also provide your business name, current website address, project type, estimated budget and preferred timeframe. These details help us understand the work, respond and prepare an appropriate proposal. A website address submitted through the form is included in the inquiry email; the form does not automatically visit that address.

If we work together, we may also need your business and billing contact details, project requirements, agreed terms, approvals, correspondence, supplied content and information needed to deliver and support the work. We collect additional information only when it is relevant to the agreed service or a necessary business or legal obligation.

We may receive relevant business contact information through a referral, an authorized project contact, or publicly available business information. We use it in connection with a legitimate service inquiry or project and respect requests to stop non-essential follow-up.

Please do not put passwords, API keys, payment-card details or private customer records into the public inquiry form. If a project needs confidential materials or system access, we will agree an appropriate way to provide them. Avoid sending sensitive or regulated personal information unless it is needed for the agreed project and suitable handling arrangements have been confirmed.

Technical information and inquiry delivery

Our hosting, network and security services process technical information needed to deliver the website and protect it from misuse. This can include IP addresses, request times, the page requested, browser and device information, and security or error information. Cloudflare helps provide network delivery, performance and security services.

When you submit an inquiry, the information you enter is emailed to Stage4000. The inquiry email also includes the submission time, available server-reported connection or visitor IP information, and browser information supplied by your device. Where verified Cloudflare country information is available and enabled, it may include an approximate country. This is network context and can be inaccurate, including where a VPN, proxy or shared connection is used. It is not precise device location or verified identity.

The inquiry form does not request GPS location. Its email does not include a city or region. We use inquiry technical information to help process submissions, diagnose delivery problems and prevent spam or abuse.

The form maintains limited session and rate-limiting information to protect submissions and avoid duplicate delivery. This includes a session token, expiry and delivery status, a one-way fingerprint of the submitted content, and timestamps associated with salted identifiers derived from available IP information. The form does not create a separate inquiry-content database. Inquiry emails and hosting or mail-system records have their own storage and retention, as described below.

Cookies and similar technology

Our inquiry form uses a first-party session cookie named __Secure-stage4000_inquiry to maintain its security token and submission status. It is restricted to the inquiry endpoint, sent over HTTPS and unavailable to ordinary page scripts. It has no fixed persistent expiry and is intended to last for the browser session, although browser session-restoration settings can affect how long it remains.

You can control cookies through your browser settings. Blocking the inquiry session cookie may prevent the form from working. You can contact us by email instead.

We do not add advertising pixels, third-party analytics tags or an embedded chat widget to the website. Hosting and network providers still process technical requests to operate and secure it; performance code or security features provided by those services are not a promise that no technical information is processed. If we introduce optional tracking or another feature that materially changes this handling, we will update this policy and provide any choices or consent mechanism required by law before using it.

How we use information

We use relevant information to:

• Respond to inquiries, understand requirements and prepare quotes.
• Agree, deliver, test and support the services you request.
• Coordinate project access, approvals, changes and handover.
• Issue invoices, verify payments and handle billing questions or disputes.
• Operate, maintain and protect our website and service systems.
• Keep necessary project, accounting and legal records and respond to privacy requests.

We do not use inquiry or client information to build advertising profiles or sell it to other businesses. Sending an inquiry does not subscribe you to a marketing list. Service-related messages may still be needed to respond to your request or administer an active project.

Payments

Payments are handled through PayPal or another payment provider expressly agreed for the project. The payment provider collects the payment details needed to process the transaction under its own terms and privacy information.

We receive the business information needed to invoice you, match and verify a payment, maintain accounts and manage refunds or disputes. This may include your name, email address, invoice details, payment amount, transaction reference and payment status. We do not ask you to send us your full payment-card number or PayPal password. See PayPal’s Privacy Statement for information about its own processing; the statement applicable to your account may depend on your location.

When information is shared

We limit sharing to what is needed for the purpose involved. This may include:

• Hosting, domain, network and security providers that operate the website or an agreed client service, including Cloudflare.
• Email and communications providers, including Zoho, that deliver and store business correspondence.
• Payment providers, including PayPal, for invoices, payments, refunds and disputes.
• Project administration, document storage, code-management and development service providers used to carry out the agreed work.
• People you authorize to participate in your project or receive its deliverables.
• Professional advisers or authorities where necessary to meet a legal obligation, respond to a valid legal request, or establish or defend a legal claim.

Service-provider access must be appropriate to the service being performed and subject to suitable confidentiality and data-handling arrangements. We do not disclose one client’s private project information to another client or publish it as a portfolio example without permission.

Providers may have their own responsibilities for information they process, particularly for their direct account relationships, security and legal compliance. You can read Cloudflare’s Privacy Policy and Zoho’s Privacy Policy for more information. We remain responsible for our own handling of information and for the obligations that apply to our use of providers.

Information in client projects

A client’s website or application may contain information about its own customers, staff or visitors. When Stage4000 accesses or processes that information to deliver an agreed service, we use it for the agreed purpose and follow the applicable project and data-processing arrangements. We seek only the access needed and use sample or redacted data where practical.

Clients are responsible for determining why their own services collect personal information, providing appropriate notices, and obtaining any permissions or other legal basis they need. Our role and responsibilities depend on the actual service and applicable law; a development or hosting agreement does not automatically make us responsible for every use of a client’s website.

If your request concerns information held through one of our clients’ websites, contact that business first. If we receive such a request, we will direct it or assist the client as appropriate without disclosing the client’s information to an unauthorized person.

How long we keep information

We keep personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it was collected, including the service relationship and any applicable legal requirement. The relevant period depends on the type of information and the circumstances:

• Inquiries and correspondence: whether the inquiry remains active, whether a project follows, and whether the record is needed for a reasonable follow-up, complaint or dispute.
• Project records and deliverables: the project term, handover, agreed support and any need to establish what was requested, approved and supplied.
• Invoices and payment records: applicable accounting, tax and recordkeeping obligations, and legitimate payment disputes.
• Access credentials and working copies: whether access is still required for the agreed work or support. Temporary access and unnecessary working copies should be removed when that purpose ends.
• Security records, session information and backups: their operational or security purpose, the relevant system’s retention arrangements and any incident or legal-preservation need.

We do not keep information simply because it might be useful one day. When it is no longer needed, we delete it or otherwise remove identifying information where practical and lawful. Deletion from active systems may not immediately remove copies in backups or records that a provider must retain for its own legal obligations. Any retained copies remain subject to the applicable safeguards and retention requirements.

Security

We use reasonable technical and organizational safeguards appropriate to the information and service, including access restrictions and secure transmission where supported. We limit project access, avoid putting secrets or private customer information into public code or reports, and use the permissions needed for the work.

No website, email service or storage system can be guaranteed completely secure. Let us know promptly if you believe information or project access has been exposed. We will assess the issue, take appropriate protective steps and provide any notifications required by applicable law or our agreement.

International processing

Our service providers may process or store information in countries other than where you live. The locations and relevant safeguards depend on the provider and the particular service. Where applicable law requires a transfer mechanism or other safeguard, it must be addressed in the relevant service arrangement. Contact us if you need more information about a particular project or provider.

Your choices and privacy requests

You can choose not to provide optional information. If information is necessary to answer your inquiry or perform a requested service, we will explain when its absence prevents us from doing so.

Depending on the law that applies to your information, you may have rights to request access, correction, deletion or a portable copy, to restrict or object to certain processing, or to withdraw consent where processing relies on consent. These rights can be subject to legal exceptions, such as necessary accounting records or information needed for a legal claim. You may also have the right to complain to the relevant privacy regulator.

Send requests to [email protected] and tell us what you need. We may ask for proportionate information to verify your identity and authority before disclosing or changing records. We will respond within the time required by applicable law and explain any relevant limitation. You do not need to send a password, payment-card number or unnecessary identity document to make a request.

You can ask us to stop non-essential service follow-up by replying to the message or contacting us. That does not prevent communications needed to complete an active request, administer an agreement or meet a legal obligation.

Children

Our services are directed to businesses and people authorized to arrange business services. We do not knowingly seek personal information directly from children through this website. If you believe a child has supplied personal information unnecessarily, contact us so we can review and address it. Any client project involving children’s data requires specific handling arrangements before access is provided.

Other websites and policy changes

Links to client sites, portfolio examples, payment services and other external websites lead to services operated by others. Their own privacy information applies to those visits.

We may update this policy when our services or information practices change. Material changes will be communicated where required by law. A policy update does not itself authorize a new use of information where separate notice, consent or another legal requirement applies.