Privacy Policy

Steve Schierholz ("I," "me," or "my") operates this portfolio website at steveschierholz.com (the "Site"). This Privacy Policy explains what information I collect when you visit the Site or submit a contact inquiry, how I use it, and the choices you have.

Other products and services I build or operate (such as SaaS applications under Bright Forest Software) have their own privacy policies. This policy applies to this portfolio Site and its contact form only.

I collect information in the following categories:

• Contact and inquiry information — when you submit the contact form, I collect the fields you provide (such as name, email, company, phone, project details, budget range, timeline, subject, message, and optional file attachments).
• Admin authentication — if you sign in as an authorized administrator, I collect account information through Google OAuth (name, email, profile image) and session metadata (such as IP address and browser user-agent) through my authentication provider.
• Usage analytics — I use Vercel Analytics on the Site to understand aggregate traffic patterns. I do not use this Site for cross-context behavioral advertising.
• Technical data — standard server and CDN logs (such as page requests, referrer, and approximate location derived from IP) may be processed by my hosting provider.

I use the information above to:

• Respond to contact and project inquiries.
• Operate, secure, and improve the Site.
• Authenticate authorized administrators and protect administrative areas.
• Send transactional emails related to inquiries (such as confirmation that I received your message).
• Comply with law and enforce my terms.

I do not sell your personal information. I share information only with service providers that help me run the Site, under contracts that limit their use of your data:

• Resend — delivery of inquiry notification and confirmation emails.
• Vercel — hosting, analytics, Blob storage for private attachments, and infrastructure for the Site.
• Google — OAuth sign-in for authorized admin accounts (not required for public visitors).
• Database hosting — inquiry records are stored in my PostgreSQL database.

Contact inquiries are retained so I can evaluate, respond to, and manage potential engagements. I may archive or delete inquiries when they are no longer needed.

Authentication session data is retained according to my auth provider configuration and deleted when sessions expire or accounts are removed.

Contact form attachments are stored in private object storage and are accessible only through authenticated admin tools.

You may request access, correction, or deletion of inquiry information you submitted by contacting me at steve@brightforestsoftware.com. I may need to verify your request before acting on it.

If you are in a region with additional privacy rights, you may have the right to object to or restrict certain processing. Contact me to exercise those rights where applicable.

Questions about this Privacy Policy or my data practices: steve@brightforestsoftware.com.

I may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. I will revise the "Last updated" date when I do. Continued use of the Site after changes means you accept the updated policy.