What We Do With Your Words

Privacy Policy.

Version ·Last Updated

Stone Harbor exists because men in difficult seasons deserve a private, respectful space. What you write here belongs to you. This policy explains, in plain language, what data we collect, why we collect it, how we use it, who we share it with (almost no one), and the rights you have over it.

Contents

  1. 01. Our Commitment
  2. 02. Who We Are
  3. 03. What We Collect
  4. 04. How We Use Your Information
  5. 05. Journal Entries and Direct Messages
  6. 06. Who We Share With
  7. 07. Where Information Is Stored
  8. 08. How Long We Keep It
  9. 09. Your Rights
  10. 10. State-Specific Rights
  11. 11. Children's Privacy
  12. 12. Security
  13. 13. Crisis-Related Disclosures
  14. 14. Changes to This Policy
  15. 15. Contact

Section 01

Our Commitment

Stone Harbor exists because men in difficult seasons deserve a private, respectful space. What you write here belongs to you. This policy explains, in plain language, what data we collect, why we collect it, how we use it, who we share it with (almost no one), and the rights you have over it.

Section 02

Who We Are

Stone Harbor is operated by Stone Harbor. We are the data controller responsible for the personal information described in this policy.

Section 03

What We Collect

Account information

When you create an account, we collect:

  • Your email address and password (hashed and salted, never stored in plain text).
  • Your display name and (optionally) a username.
  • Your gender attestation (you affirm at signup that you identify as a man).
  • The terms version you accepted, the date, the IP address, and the user-agent string of the device.

Profile information

If you choose to fill in your profile, we may collect:

  • A profile photo and banner photo.
  • A bio, location, hometown, work, education, relationship status, website, languages, interests, and a favorite quote — all optional.
  • An optional birthday (month and day stored; year separately optional). Used only for the quiet acknowledgment tile — never to surface your age to other members.
  • Your healing stage (Clarity, Calm, or Strength) and privacy preference.

Content you create

  • Journal entries (treated as strictly private — see Section 5),
  • Member posts and comments in the brotherhood feed,
  • Direct messages between you and other members (private),
  • Mood logs and roadmap progress markers.

Technical and usage information

  • Your IP address, device type, operating system, browser.
  • Request logs, authentication events, performance metrics.

Cookies and similar technologies

Stone Harbor uses a small number of cookies and local-storage items that are essential to the Service (an authentication cookie and a session token managed by Supabase Auth). We do not use third-party advertising cookies, behavioral tracking, or cross-site tracking.

What we do NOT collect

We do not collect:

  • Your Social Security number or government identification (except via Stripe Identity at the moment of high-trust verification, if and when you opt in for coaching),
  • Your bank account number or credit card number (Stripe handles all payment data; we never see your card),
  • Health records from external providers,
  • Behavioral tracking for advertising,
  • Facial recognition data,
  • Voice recordings without your knowledge.

Section 04

How We Use Your Information

We use the data above only to:

  • Provide the Service.
  • Authenticate you and keep your account secure.
  • Send service emails — account confirmation, password reset, terms updates, billing receipts, security alerts.
  • Personalize content (daily reflection by pillar, acknowledgment by date).
  • Investigate reported Terms violations.
  • Operate the moderation system.
  • Improve the Service through aggregate, non-identifying analytics.
  • Comply with legal obligations.

What we do NOT use your data for

  • We do not sell your personal information to anyone, ever.
  • We do not share your personal information with advertisers or data brokers.
  • We do not use your journal entries, messages, or private content to train artificial intelligence models(our own or anyone else’s).
  • We do not analyze the emotional content of your journal entries for product purposes.

Section 05

Journal Entries and Direct Messages

This is the most sensitive content in Stone Harbor, and we treat it as such.

Your journal is yours

Your journal entries are private to you. No other member, no coach, no admin, and no Stone Harbor employee reads them in the ordinary course of operating the Service.

Direct messages are private to the participants

Direct messages between you and another member are visible to the participants in that conversation. No other member sees them.

When Stone Harbor may access private content

We may access your journal entries or direct messages only:

  • When required by law (valid court order, subpoena, or warrant),
  • When necessary to prevent imminent harm to you or another person,
  • When necessary to investigate a serious Terms violation that has been formally reported, and only the specific content reasonably relevant,
  • When you explicitly request it (e.g., technical support).

Encryption

All journal entries, messages, and other user content are stored in an encrypted database (Supabase, AES-256 at rest). Connections to the Service are protected by TLS 1.2 or higher.

Section 06

Who We Share Information With

Service providers (subprocessors)

These third parties process data on our behalf, under contractual data protection obligations:

ProviderPurpose
SupabaseDatabase, authentication, storage
VercelApplication hosting
Anthropic / OpenAIAI-assisted content generation (never your private journal)
Stripe (planned)Payment processing for coaching
Resend / Postmark (planned)Transactional email

Other members

Information that is public by your settings (profile fields, posts, comments) is visible to other members. Private content (journal, messages, mood data, birthday) is never shared with other members.

Legal and safety circumstances

We may disclose personal information when we reasonably believe it is necessary to comply with law, enforce our Terms, protect safety, or detect fraud.

Business transfers

If Stone Harbor is acquired, merged, or sells substantially all of its assets, your information may be transferred to the acquiring entity, subject to the protections of this policy.

Section 07

Where Your Information Is Stored

Stone Harbor’s primary data infrastructure (Supabase, Vercel) is hosted in the United States. If you are located outside the United States, your information will be transferred to and processed in the United States.

Section 08

How Long We Keep Your Information

We keep your information for as long as your account is active. When you close your account:

  • Your profile is marked closed and public content is removed from public view immediately.
  • Your private journal entries are deleted within 30 days.
  • Your direct messages are deleted within 30 days, except where the other party has retained their conversation history.
  • Other personal data is deleted or anonymized within 90 days, except where retention is required by law.

Terms acceptance records are retained indefinitely as part of an immutable audit log.

Section 09

Your Rights

  • Access. Request a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
  • Correction. Update most information directly from your profile settings.
  • Deletion. Close your account from profile settings, or request deletion of specific pieces of content.
  • Export.Request a machine-readable export of your data; we’ll provide within 30 days.
  • Objection and restriction on certain processing of your data.
  • Withdrawing consent at any time by updating your settings.
  • Complaints. Contact us first; you may also file with a data protection authority in your jurisdiction.

Section 10

State and Region-Specific Rights

California (CCPA / CPRA)

California residents have additional rights, including the right to know, the right to delete, the right to correct, the right to opt out of “sales” (we do not sell), and the right to limit the use of sensitive personal information.

Other US states

Residents of Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, and other states with comparable laws have similar rights to access, delete, and correct personal information.

Section 11

Children's Privacy

Stone Harbor is not directed to anyone under 18 years of age, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from minors. If we learn that we have inadvertently collected information from a minor, we will delete it as soon as practicable.

Section 12

Security

  • Encryption at rest (Supabase, AES-256).
  • Encryption in transit (TLS 1.2+).
  • Row-level security policies on every database table.
  • Hashed and salted passwords.
  • Limited access to production systems.
  • Audit logging of administrative actions.
  • Vetted third-party providers with their own security certifications.

No system is perfectly secure. If you suspect your account has been compromised, contact us immediately.

Section 13

Crisis-Related Disclosures

  • The 988 footer and crisis resources we display are direct contacts you initiate. Stone Harbor does not transmit your data to 988 or any other crisis service.
  • If a Stone Harbor admin, moderator, or coach becomes aware of an imminent threatto your life or another person’s life, we may, in our reasonable judgment, contact emergency services and provide the minimum information necessary to facilitate a welfare check.
  • Stone Harbor does not have a clinical duty of care, but we have an ethical commitment to act when we reasonably believe a life is in imminent danger.

Section 14

Changes to This Policy

When we make material changes, we will update the “Last Updated” date, increment the privacy version, and notify members via email and via an in-app prompt requiring re-acceptance.

Section 15

Contact

For privacy questions, requests, or complaints, contact the Stone Harbor team. The contact email is published on the Stone Harbor support page when available.

Stone Harbor is a place where men in pain are asked to be honest about hard things. That honesty depends on trust, and trust depends on knowing what happens to your words after you write them.

Stone Harbor

Men's Mental Wellness

The harbor is patient.

If You Are In CrisisCall or text 988 — 24/7. Free. Confidential.