Privacy Policy

Last updated: September 28, 2026

Overview

This Privacy Policy explains how candorbrief.com (“the Site”) collects, uses, shares, and protects information when you visit the Site, contact us, purchase CandorBrief Pro, or otherwise interact with the Site.

candorbrief.com is the marketing, support, and commerce site for CandorBrief, a WordPress plugin created by HighTechDad that helps professionals publish a focused, candidate-controlled brief for hiring managers. The Site explains CandorBrief, answers common questions, and routes visitors to downloads, purchases, and support.

CandorBrief the plugin is a separate thing from this Site. When someone installs CandorBrief on their own WordPress site, that installation collects and stores its own data (candidate profile content, visitor contact requests, and so on) entirely within that person’s own WordPress database. HighTechDad does not receive, host, or have access to that data. What the plugin does with data on someone’s own WordPress site is covered by the separate CandorBrief Plugin Privacy Policy, not by this document.

By using the Site, you acknowledge the practices described in this Privacy Policy.

1. What This Policy Covers

This Privacy Policy applies to information collected through candorbrief.com, including its WooCommerce store and the private CandorBrief Licensing Server it hosts.

This Privacy Policy does not directly govern:

data collected or stored by an individual installation of the CandorBrief plugin on someone else’s WordPress site (see the Plugin Privacy Policy instead)
third-party websites, services, plugins, analytics providers, embedded content, or platforms linked from the Site
payment card entry that happens within Stripe’s hosted card fields embedded in the Site’s WooCommerce checkout, beyond the order and billing information WooCommerce records

If you leave candorbrief.com and visit a third-party site or service, that site or service has its own privacy policy and terms.

2. Information We May Collect

Information you provide directly

If you contact us, submit a support request, send an email, or otherwise communicate with us through or because of the Site, we may collect:

your name
your email address
your company or organization name, if you provide one
the contents of your message
any order, license, or support details you choose to include

Information collected when you download CandorBrief Free

Downloading CandorBrief Free also goes through the Site’s WooCommerce checkout, at no cost. That $0 checkout collects:

your name, email address, and billing address, to create the order
your order details (product, order date, order status)

This checkout requires no payment method and creates no account. It does not create a CandorBrief Pro license or send any information to the CandorBrief Licensing Server.

Information collected when you purchase CandorBrief Pro

If you purchase CandorBrief Pro through the Site’s WooCommerce store, we (through WooCommerce and our payment processor, Stripe) collect and process:

your name, billing email address, and billing address
your order details (product, price, order date, order status)
a WooCommerce customer account tied to your purchaser email, so repeat purchases and downloads are linked to one account rather than a new account per order
payment confirmation from Stripe. We do not see or store your full card number. Stripe processes and stores card details under its own security standards and privacy policy.

Information collected by the CandorBrief Licensing Server

candorbrief.com privately hosts the CandorBrief Licensing Server, which issues and administers CandorBrief Pro licenses. The Licensing Server processes:

purchaser or grant-holder name and email address, as recorded at purchase or provided for an authorized tester or internal grant
the canonical URL of the WordPress installation on which a license is activated
an environment classification, either local/development or production, that the Licensing Server derives from the canonical site URL and uses to enforce the license’s production-site activation limit
license status, activation, renewal, deactivation, and related support timestamps
a securely hashed record of the license key on the Licensing Server. The Licensing Server’s own database never stores the raw license key. The email delivery service used to send your activation-key email may temporarily retain a copy of that email, including the license key it contains.
ordinary technical request and security-log information, such as the requesting server’s IP address, request time, and diagnostic information needed to operate and protect the service

During activation, the installed Pro plugin sends the entered license key, activation email address, canonical site URL, and a request identifier. During renewal and deactivation, it sends an activation token, canonical site URL, and request identifier. The installed plugin does not transmit a separate environment field; the Licensing Server derives that classification itself from the canonical site URL it receives. The Licensing Server does not receive candidate profile content, Resume/CV data, visitor contact or access-request data, prompt content, or product-usage analytics from the customer’s WordPress site.

The plugin may use a separately configured development endpoint during local development. This is endpoint selection, not additional data sent in a licensing request.

See Section 6 below.

Information collected automatically

Like most websites, the Site, its host, CDN, security tools, or related service providers may automatically collect technical and usage information, such as:

IP address
browser type and version
device type and operating system
referring URL or source
pages viewed and approximate time spent
dates and times of visits
approximate geolocation derived from IP address
diagnostic, security, or performance log data

This information may be collected through server logs, security monitoring, cookies, or similar technologies.

Cookies and similar technologies

The Site uses cookies required for basic operation, for example, WordPress and WooCommerce session cookies needed to keep your cart, checkout, and logged-in account working. The Site may also use cookies or similar technologies for:

traffic measurement and analytics
remembering preferences
security and abuse prevention

At the time of this policy’s last update, we have not committed to a specific third-party analytics provider. If we add one (for example, a standard web analytics tool), we will update this section to name it and describe what it collects. If the Site ever uses third-party analytics, embedded media, forms, or similar tools, those tools may also collect information according to their own privacy practices.

You can usually control cookies through your browser settings. Disabling cookies may affect the availability of certain parts of the Site, including checkout.

3. How We Use Information

We may use information collected through the Site to:

operate, host, maintain, and improve the Site
process and fulfill CandorBrief Free and CandorBrief Pro orders, delivering downloads and, for CandorBrief Pro, issuing and administering license keys
respond to questions, support requests, and other communications
monitor performance, traffic, errors, and security
prevent abuse, fraud, spam, or unauthorized activity
enforce license terms, including detecting unauthorized license sharing across sites
maintain business records
comply with legal obligations

We do not sell personal information collected through the Site.

We may share information in the following limited circumstances:

with Stripe, to process payments (Stripe has its own privacy policy governing the payment data it handles directly)
with WooCommerce and the underlying WordPress hosting infrastructure that operates candorbrief.com
with our email delivery provider, to send order confirmations, license keys, account-setup emails, and support replies
with service providers or vendors that host, maintain, secure, monitor, or analyze the Site
if required by law, subpoena, court order, legal process, or valid governmental request
if reasonably necessary to protect our rights, property, safety, systems, users, or the public
in connection with a merger, acquisition, financing, sale of assets, restructuring, or transfer of all or part of the business

5. Purchases, Accounts, and Downloads

When you buy CandorBrief Pro, WooCommerce creates or links a customer account tied to your purchase email (one account per purchaser identity, not a new account for every order). You’ll receive a password-setup email and can use My Account to view orders, download your purchased plugin file, and manage your billing details.

Free downloads of CandorBrief Free go through a $0 guest checkout. This creates an order for delivery and support purposes, but it does not require or create a WooCommerce customer account, and it never creates a CandorBrief Pro license. Your CandorBrief Free download is available immediately after checkout, and a download link is also sent to the email address you provide.

6. Purchases and Licensing

CandorBrief Pro requires a license issued by the CandorBrief Licensing Server described in Section 2. That license is deliberately narrow in what it tracks: it exists to verify that your installation is entitled to run Pro, to support one activated production site per license, and to let us process support requests, refunds, and revocations. It is not a usage-tracking or behavioral-analytics system, and it never receives the content of your CandorBrief profile, your candidates’ data, or your site visitors’ data.

Refunds. Refund requests are reviewed and handled individually by our support team; see the Terms & Conditions for details. If a refund is approved, the associated license is revoked, which disables CandorBrief Pro on your site going forward. Your existing Pro data on your own site is not deleted by this process.

Manual release checks

CandorBrief Free and Pro include an optional administrator-initiated Check for updates action. It contacts the CandorBrief release service only when an administrator chooses that action. It does not run automatically, in the background, on page load, or through WordPress cron.

The release check sends the installed CandorBrief Free and Pro version numbers, WordPress version, PHP version, and site locale. It does not send the site’s URL, administrator identity, license data, activation token, profile content, or visitor data. Like any network request, the release service and its infrastructure may receive ordinary technical request metadata, including the requesting server’s IP address and request time, for security and operational purposes.

7. Retention of Information

We retain information for as long as reasonably necessary to:

fulfill and support your order or license
respond to your inquiries and provide follow-up support
maintain business, support, legal, and operational records
operate and secure the Site
comply with legal obligations (for example, tax and accounting recordkeeping)
resolve disputes and enforce agreements

Retention periods vary depending on the type of information, how it was collected, and our legal or operational needs.

8. Data Security

We use reasonable administrative, technical, and organizational measures intended to help protect information collected through the Site. The Licensing Server’s own database never stores raw license keys, only a securely hashed record; the email delivery service used to send activation-key emails may temporarily retain a copy of that email, including the license key. We never store full payment card numbers, and we use a payment processor (Stripe) that maintains its own industry security certifications. However, no website, network, server, storage system, or internet transmission method is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

This section concerns candorbrief.com and the services HighTechDad operates. It does not describe or guarantee the security of a customer’s separate WordPress installation, host, theme, plugins, administrator accounts, mail provider, backups, or network. Those systems are selected and controlled by the customer site administrator.

You should also take care when deciding what information to send through forms, email, or support communications.

9. Your Choices and Requests

You may choose not to provide personal information through the Site, but doing so may limit our ability to process your order or respond to you.

Depending on the circumstances, you may also:

control cookies through your browser settings
stop using the Site at any time
contact us to request access to, correction of, or deletion of information you previously sent to us, subject to legal, business, fraud-prevention, and record-retention needs (for example, we may need to retain order records for tax purposes even after a deletion request)

10. California Privacy Notice

California residents may have privacy rights under California law (such as the CCPA/CPRA), depending on the nature of the information collected and whether applicable legal thresholds are met.

At this time, candorbrief.com is a small commerce and support site. We do not sell or “share” (as that term is defined under California law) personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising. If our data practices, traffic profile, or legal obligations change, we will provide a more detailed California-specific notice and any required opt-out mechanism.

To make a California privacy request, contact us using the information in Section 15.

11. Notice for EU/UK/EEA Visitors

If you are located in the European Union, the United Kingdom, or the European Economic Area, the following additional information applies.

Legal basis for processing. We process your information based on: performance of a contract (fulfilling your CandorBrief Pro order and administering your license), our legitimate interests (operating and securing the Site, preventing abuse, responding to inquiries), and your consent where we ask for it (for example, optional cookies, if introduced).

Your rights. Subject to applicable law, you may have the right to access, correct, delete, restrict, or object to our processing of your personal data, and the right to data portability. To exercise these rights, contact us using the information in Section 15.

International transfer. Because HighTechDad and its service providers (including Stripe and our hosting provider) operate in the United States, your information may be transferred to and processed in the United States or other countries outside your own, using safeguards those providers make available.

Complaints. You have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection supervisory authority if you believe we have not handled your information properly.

We have not appointed a formal EU representative or Data Protection Officer at this time, reflecting the current scale of the Site; this may change as the business grows.

12. Do Not Track

Some browsers offer a “Do Not Track” (“DNT”) setting. Because there is not a consistent industry standard for recognizing or honoring DNT signals, the Site does not currently respond to DNT browser signals in a standardized way.

13. Children’s Privacy

The Site is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 through the Site. If you are under 18, you should use the Site only with the involvement of a parent or legal guardian. If you believe a child under 13 has submitted personal information through the Site, please contact us so we can review the situation and delete the information if appropriate.

14. Third-Party Links and Services

The Site may contain links to or integrations with third-party websites or services, including payment processors, hosting providers, embedded content providers, social platforms, and support tools. We are not responsible for the privacy, security, or content practices of those third parties.

15. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. If we make changes, we will update the “Last updated” date, post the revised version on the Site, or provide another form of notice where appropriate.

16. Contact

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or our privacy practices, please contact: legal@candorbrief.com