Privacy Policy

To coach you, to run the engagement, to invoice, and to meet legal and accounting obligations.

We do not sell your information, and we do not use it for any purpose you would not expect from a coaching engagement. designCEO sends occasional writing and news to people it has worked with; you can opt out at any time, and the coaching does not depend on it.

Yes. What is said in a coaching conversation is not shared with your organisation, your board or anyone else without your agreement, except where the law requires it or where there is a serious risk to someone's safety.

When an organisation engages designCEO on your behalf, it receives only what is agreed in writing at the start of the engagement, and you will know what that is before the coaching begins. Ordinarily, it is attendance and progress against agreed goals, not the content of conversations.

What you say in the room is heard by the others in the room.

designCEO asks every participant to keep it there and not share it beyond the group. From time to time, a guest speaker, or a member of designCEO's team, sits in on a session. You will know when that is the case, and they are bound to keep what they hear in the room in the same way. When a program runs on an online platform (UpCoach), that platform holds your login and the material you post under its terms.

The pages on design.ceo where you write ('Your Philosophy', 'The Promise', 'The Pulse' and the others) are built so that what you write stays on your computer.

designCEO does not receive, store or see the content of your work unless you send it. No account exists behind the pages, and no database stores your work. The page keeps a copy of your work in your browser so it is there when you return, and you keep the work as a file on your own computer using Save. That file is yours: where it lives, who sees it, whether it comes into a coaching conversation, and when it is deleted are your decisions. Because designCEO never holds it, it is not personal information designCEO collects.

Nothing you write reaches designCEO unless you send it. You choose what to send, when, and in what form (the file or a PDF), and you can keep any page to yourself. Once sent, it becomes coaching material, and the confidentiality answer above applies.

The copy in your browser is only as private as the computer and the browser. On a shared or work computer, anyone who uses that browser could open the page and see it. If that matters, use New to clear the page when you finish, keep the file somewhere private, and rely on the file.

Two things, and only when you press them.

'Ask Coach Schwabby' sends the words on the page to Anthropic's Claude to produce a reply, through a relay that designCEO runs on Cloudflare. The relay passes the request through and does not store your words; designCEO does not keep the request or the reply. Anthropic handles what it receives under its own terms and privacy policy, published at anthropic.com. Cloudflare keeps ordinary technical logs of requests for a limited time under its terms. If your organisation has rules and regulations about using AI tools, they apply to 'Ask Coach Schwabby'; the rest of the page stays on your computer.

'Speak your thoughts' turns your voice into text using your browser's speech service (Google in Chrome, Apple in Safari, Microsoft in Edge). The text lands on the page. designCEO never receives the audio or the text. The browser maker handles the audio under its own terms.

Nothing else on the pages sends your work anywhere. Save as PDF uses your browser's print function on your computer.

In two ways: on the pages of ‘The Practice’, only when you press a button, and in the ordinary business software designCEO runs on.

On the pages, ‘Ask Coach Schwabby’ sends the words on the page to Anthropic’s Claude and brings back a reply. The reply is generated; it is not Cameron Schwab. designCEO does not store what is sent or what comes back, and Anthropic’s commercial terms do not use it to train its models. ‘Speak your thoughts’ uses your browser’s speech service. Neither happens unless you press it.

The software designCEO runs on (Notion, Zoom, Microsoft, Google, HubSpot, Asana, Xero and Noteshelf) now includes AI features from those providers, such as meeting summaries, transcripts and drafting help. Where those features are on, they process what is in that tool under the provider’s own terms. designCEO does not put coaching notes, recordings or anything the confidentiality answer covers into an AI tool to be analysed or summarised without your agreement, and you can say no without it affecting the coaching.

They run on other companies' platforms, and your answers are held there. For the ECR and Spotlight, the provider holds them under its own privacy policy; for Natural Gifts, the platform holds them for designCEO.

RocheMartin provides the Emotional Capital Report (ECR): you complete it on RocheMartin's system, which stores your responses and produces the report, under RocheMartin's privacy policy. Spotlight, the behavioural profile from Mindflick, works the same way: you complete it on Mindflick's system under Mindflick's privacy policy. Natural Gifts runs on SmartRubic Core, a platform provided to designCEO under licence by Pinemarten Education Ltd in the United Kingdom: you complete it there, and Pinemarten holds your answers on designCEO's behalf and on its instructions, under UK data-protection law, with designCEO responsible for them. You complete the assessment knowing that your answers and the report are seen by Cameron Schwab and by designCEO's Business Manager, who manages the practice's accounts on those platforms; no one else on the team sees them. designCEO holds the report as coaching material under the confidentiality answer above. You are told before an assessment is set up what it measures, who will see the result and where it is stored, and you can decline it.

designCEO is a small team, and each person sees what their role needs. Cameron Schwab, as coach and principal, has access to everything designCEO holds.

What you write in 'The Practice' is not among it: it stays on your computer unless you choose to send it.

The Business Manager runs the practice's accounts, email, scheduling, and invoicing, so they see the emails between you and designCEO, your contact details, and the engagement paperwork; emails often confirm what was discussed in a coaching conversation, so the Business Manager will see that too. The Business Development and Community Manager sees contact details, proposals, and the record of dealings with you and your organisation; they run the group programs and the platform they sit on, and they see who is in a program and what is posted there. Everyone on the team is bound in writing to the same confidentiality as Cameron Schwab.

The coaching notes themselves are seen by Cameron Schwab only.

designCEO runs on ordinary business software. Each product holds part of your information on its provider's systems, under that provider's terms.

Notion holds coaching notes and program material. It is the most sensitive store designCEO keeps; only Cameron Schwab can see the coaching notes in it.

Noteshelf holds handwritten notes taken on an iPad during and after conversations, kept on the device and in its cloud backup.

HubSpot holds contact details and a record of dealings with you (emails, meetings, proposals), and sends designCEO's occasional writing and news, which you can opt out of at any time. Cameron Schwab and the Business Development and Community Manager use it.

Proposify holds proposals sent to you or your organisation: names, roles, scope of work, and fees.

Asana holds the tasks behind an engagement, which may carry your name, the organisation and dates.

UpCoach is the platform group programs run on; it holds your login, session material, tasks, and what you post, and others in your program can see what you post when the program is set up as a group. The Business Development and Community Manager runs it.

Xero holds invoices and payment records, with your name or your organisation's name, as required by law for accounting.

Microsoft and Google provide email, calendar, video calls, and file storage; emails between you and designCEO, meeting invitations, and files you share are held there.

Zoom hosts online coaching sessions and group programs. A session is recorded only where you have agreed to it, and the recording is held in Zoom's cloud until it is moved to designCEO's file storage or deleted.

designCEO also uses AI tools to help draft, organise and prepare its own work, and some client information (a proposal, an engagement summary, notes to prepare for a conversation) may be processed by Anthropic's Claude in doing so. This is under Anthropic's commercial terms, which do not use the material to train its models. Nothing is put into an AI tool that the confidentiality answer above would keep from a third party, unless you have agreed.

Most of these providers store data outside Australia: Notion, HubSpot, Asana, Xero, Microsoft, Google, Zoom, UpCoach, Cloudflare and Anthropic in the United States; Proposify in Canada; Mindflick (Spotlight) and Pinemarten Education (Natural Gifts) in the United Kingdom; RocheMartin in Australia; Noteshelf's backup in the cloud service the device uses. Overseas providers are not bound by the Australian Privacy Principles, and their own laws and terms apply. designCEO chooses established providers with published privacy commitments and takes reasonable steps to ensure they handle your information carefully; by engaging designCEO, you consent to your information being held by these providers in those countries.

design.ceo is hosted on Squarespace.

Like any website, it records ordinary technical information about visits (such as IP address, browser type, pages viewed and the time of the visit), and Squarespace's analytics summarise this for designCEO. Squarespace's privacy policy governs how it handles that information.

If you have a member login for 'The Practice', Squarespace holds your login details (name, email address and password) so you can sign in; designCEO can see who has an account, not what you write on the pages.

The site uses cookies for login and for Squarespace's analytics. You can block cookies in your browser; the member area will not work without the login cookie. You can read designCEO's writing and attend public events without giving your name; coaching, programs and assessments need it.

Occasional writing and news are sent through HubSpot to people designCEO has worked with.

Every email carries an unsubscribe link and says who it is from; one click and they stop.

designCEO takes reasonable steps to keep information secure: passwords and two-factor login on every tool, access limited by role, devices encrypted and locked, and files shared by link only when needed and only with the people who need them.

We keep information as long as the engagement and the law require. We keep coaching notes and engagement records for seven years after an engagement ends, in line with the limitation periods that apply to professional services, then delete them. We keep accounting records for seven years, as required by law. We keep contact details in HubSpot until you ask us to remove them or unsubscribe, and we keep them only for that purpose. When we no longer need information, we delete or de-identify it.

If designCEO becomes aware that your information has been lost or accessed without authority in a way likely to cause you serious harm, you will be told what happened and what to do. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner will be notified, as required by the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme.

Email cameron@designceo.com.au.

You can ask what information designCEO holds about you, ask for a copy, ask for it to be corrected, or ask for it to be deleted. designCEO will respond within 30 days, at no charge. If a request cannot be met in full (for example, because accounting records must be kept), you will be told why. If you believe designCEO has handled your information in a way that breaches this notice or the Australian Privacy Principles, write to the same address; designCEO will acknowledge the complaint within seven days and respond within 30 days. If you are not satisfied with the response, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at oaic.gov.au or on 1300 363 992.

It may, as 'The Practice' and its tools change.

The date at the top shows when it was last updated, and pages in 'The Practice' include a note on when your work handling has changed. Earlier versions are available on request.

Cameron Schwab, designCEO, Lambeau Pty Ltd. cameron@designceo.com.au.

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