Plain English
Privacy.
What this website collects, why, and what you can do about it. Last updated August 12, 2026.
What this covers
This policy is about this website — what gets collected when you read a page, sign up for the newsletter, or book a call.
It is not about data we handle inside a client engagement. If we're working together and your business data sits in a system we built or operate, that's governed by the agreement covering that engagement — including its confidentiality terms and, where relevant, a separate data processing agreement. Different document, different rules. This one only describes the website.
Group 18 Consulting is based in Austin, Texas. You can reach us any time at kevin@group18.co.
What we collect
Five things, and that's the whole list.
Analytics — only if you allow it.
We use Google Analytics to see which pages people actually read. It collects your IP address, rough location, device and browser, which pages you visited and in what order, and how you arrived — a search, a link, or typing the address directly.
It does not run until you say yes. No analytics cookie is set and no request reaches Google until you choose "Allow" on the banner. Decline, or simply ignore it, and nothing loads. If your browser sends a Global Privacy Control or Do Not Track signal, we treat that as a decline and never ask.
We don't run advertising, and we don't use analytics to follow you across other websites.
The newsletter.
If you sign up for The Catalyst, we collect your email address. It's handled by our email platform. We use it to send the newsletter — nothing else. Every issue has an unsubscribe link, and unsubscribing removes you.
Separately, the images on newsletter pages are served from our email platform's content delivery network. Loading one sends your IP address and browser type to that provider, the same way any image hosted elsewhere would. No cookie is set and you don't have to be a subscriber for it to happen — it's a consequence of where the images live.
Booking a conversation.
The scheduling links on this site hand you off to a third-party booking tool. You give them your name, email, and whatever you write in the context question; they pass the booking to us. Once you're on their page you're on their service, under their privacy policy — but we receive what you submit, and we use it to prepare for and hold the conversation.
Email.
If you email us, we have your email. We keep the correspondence so we can pick up a conversation where it left off.
Server logs.
The site is hosted by a third-party hosting provider, which keeps standard access logs — IP address, time, page requested. This is automatic, applies to every website you visit anywhere, and is used to serve pages and stop abuse.
Cookies
This site sets no cookies at all unless you allow analytics. There is no advertising pixel, no social media tracker, no session cookie for browsing.
Allow analytics and Google sets its own cookies to recognise a returning visitor and group your page views into one visit. Your choice itself is remembered in your browser's local storage, not in a cookie, so we're not asking every time.
Change your mind
Withdrawing is as easy as agreeing. This clears your saved choice and reloads the page — analytics stops immediately and you'll be asked again.
Clearing your browser's site data for group18.co does the same thing.
Who else sees it
We don't sell your data, and we don't share it for advertising. We have no interest in doing either.
The data described above reaches four service providers, because they run the tools this site is built on. Each holds it under its own privacy policy:
- Google — analytics, and only with your consent
- Our email platform — newsletter subscriptions, and the images on newsletter pages
- Our scheduling tool — call bookings
- Our hosting provider — serving the site, and server logs
We name Google because you're being asked to consent to it specifically, and that choice is meaningless if you don't know who you're agreeing to. The others are described by role rather than by name for a plain reason: we change tools occasionally, and a page naming a vendor we no longer use is simply inaccurate. Describing the role keeps this page true. If you want to know exactly who they are today, email us and we'll tell you — we're not hiding them, and all four are visible to anyone who inspects the site.
Beyond those, we'd only hand anything over if the law required it.
How long we keep it
Newsletter subscriptions last until you unsubscribe. Email correspondence and booking details we keep while there's an active or plausible working relationship, and clear out when there isn't.
Analytics data is held by Google on a schedule we set: event data for two months — the page views themselves — and user-level data for fourteen months. That second clock currently restarts each time you visit, so for a regular reader the record is refreshed rather than aging out. Once a window closes without a return visit, Google deletes it.
Server logs rotate on our host's standard schedule.
Your choices
You can decline analytics, or change that choice later, using the button above. You can unsubscribe from the newsletter with the link in any issue.
Depending on where you live, you may also have the right to ask what personal data we hold about you, to have it corrected, to have it deleted, or to receive a copy. Email kevin@group18.co and ask — we'd rather just handle it than make you invoke a statute. We'll respond within 30 days.
Changes
If we add a tool that collects something new, this page changes first. The date at the top tells you when it last did.
Questions about any of this go to kevin@group18.co.