Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how The Brazen Word handles personal information through its website, newsletter sign-up forms, editorial submission and contact forms, and related correspondence. It describes the publication's current practices, not services we might introduce later. Please also read our Terms & Conditions.

1. Publisher and contact details

The Brazen Word is owned and published by Dane Jackman, an individual publisher, not a separately incorporated company. References to “The Brazen Word,” “Brazen,” “we,” “us,” and “our” mean Dane Jackman operating this publication.

Privacy and legal email: hello@brazenword.com
Business mailing address: The Brazen Word, Attn: Dane Jackman, 400 W 41 St, Suite 402, Miami Beach, Florida 33140, United States.

We operate from Florida. The availability of the website elsewhere does not mean that every jurisdiction's privacy statute applies to every interaction. We respect rights and obligations that apply to the circumstances.

2. Information you provide

Newsletter sign-ups. When you join Stay Curious, we collect your email address and record when the sign-up was received. The current website stores sign-ups in its database; it is not connected to a separate email-campaign or newsletter-delivery service.

Contact, corrections, and editorial proposals. Our forms collect your name, email address, inquiry type, message, and submission timestamp. Depending on the form, you may also provide an article title or subject, area of interest, proposal format, explanation of why the idea matters, relevant links, and relevant professional or financial interests.

Correspondence. If you write to us by email or mail, we receive the information you choose to include and any follow-up correspondence. Email you send is handled through the email systems used by you and by the recipient; their operation is separate from the website's forms.

Personal information about others. Only provide another person's information when you have an appropriate reason and authority to do so. Do not submit someone else's private medical records, contact information, or sensitive history without their permission.

The current website does not offer reader accounts, checkout, paid subscriptions, or payment-card collection. There are no public user profiles or automatically published reader comments.

3. Technical information and website delivery

Visiting any website requires your browser to communicate with servers. Our hosting and infrastructure services may receive technical information such as IP address, browser and device information, request time, requested page or resource, referring information, and error or security events. This information helps deliver the website, diagnose failures, maintain availability, and prevent abuse.

The application's own request logs record request identifiers, method, URL path, response status, and response time. Infrastructure providers may maintain additional operational records under their own service arrangements. We do not use these records to infer a reader's diagnosis or create an advertising profile.

The site loads web fonts from Google. When a font is requested, Google receives your IP address and the font-request information needed to provide it. Google says its Fonts API does not set or log cookies and does not use the information it receives to create end-user profiles or for targeted advertising.

4. Sensitive information and medical stories

We publish journalism about medicine, mental health, consciousness, psychedelics, and human experience. A proposal or personal story may contain health information, religious or philosophical views, treatment history, or other sensitive information if you choose to include it.

Please do not send medical records, insurance identifiers, Social Security numbers, financial-account details, precise location histories, or other highly sensitive documents through ordinary website forms or email. An initial proposal should include only the information needed to explain the idea.

We use voluntarily submitted personal stories and testimonials for private editorial consideration and follow-up. All personal stories and testimonials undergo editorial review, and we require separate, documented written consent before publication. Submitting a story, completing a contact form, or corresponding with the publication does not authorize publication of your name, photograph, diagnosis, treatment history, or other identifiable information. Contributors may discuss anonymity, attribution, and the intended scope of publication before providing consent.

You may contact us to withdraw publication consent. Before publication, we will stop publication of material that depends on that consent. After publication, we will review requests to change or remove material in light of the authorization, applicable law, and legitimate editorial obligations. Withdrawal does not affect the lawfulness of processing already carried out and cannot ensure removal of copies held by others; see sections 9 and 15.

The website is an editorial publication, not a clinical service, patient portal, or medical-record system. Contacting us does not create a healthcare relationship. Do not assume that an ordinary message to the publication has the confidentiality or legal protections of a communication with your healthcare provider.

5. How we use information

We use information for purposes connected with the interaction in which it was provided:

Maintaining the newsletter sign-up list and providing editorial updates you requested.
Responding to questions, corrections, contributor inquiries, and proposals.
Evaluating editorial ideas, verifying information, arranging interviews, and documenting publication permissions.
Operating, securing, troubleshooting, and improving the website's reliability.
Handling unsubscribe and privacy requests, keeping necessary consent or suppression records, and preventing repeated unwanted contact.
Complying with applicable law, responding to valid legal process, and protecting lawful rights and safety.

We do not automatically add contact-form users or story submitters to the newsletter. Newsletter participation is optional and separate from submitting an inquiry. We do not use submitted health information to target advertisements or make automated healthcare, insurance, employment, credit, or other similarly significant decisions about you.

6. When information may be disclosed

The Brazen Word operates as an editorial publication separate from the healthcare services offered by Ketamine Lounge and Tristar Wellness. Personal information collected through this website, newsletter registrations, contact forms, editorial submissions, and related correspondence is not shared with either healthcare organization. It is not used for patient recruitment, clinical marketing, or healthcare-related advertising.

We may disclose information only as appropriate for the purposes described here:

Service providers: hosting and database providers process information needed to store, deliver, secure, and operate our website and application. We may also disclose information to infrastructure or communications providers as needed for those purposes and to handle messages.
Editorial work: to an editor, contributor, fact-checker, or professional adviser when reasonably needed for the particular proposal or matter, with access limited to the relevant purpose.
Legal and safety needs: when required by applicable law or valid legal process, or when reasonably necessary to investigate misuse, protect rights, or address a credible safety concern.
An authorized publication: when you separately authorize publication of a submitted personal story or testimonial. Independently reported journalism may involve other lawful editorial grounds; this does not override our written-consent requirement for voluntarily submitted personal stories and testimonials.
A change of ownership: if the publication or its relevant operations are transferred, information may pass to a successor subject to applicable law and appropriate notice. A transfer is not permission for an unrelated use inconsistent with this Policy.

We do not sell personal information, rent our subscriber list, or share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising. We do not currently operate targeted advertising, advertising pixels, session-replay tools, or a separate audience-analytics integration.

7. Cookies, browser storage, and privacy signals

We do not currently use Google Analytics, Meta Pixel, third-party behavioral analytics, advertising trackers, session-recording technologies, or cross-site advertising identifiers. Any cookies or similar technologies used by our hosting infrastructure are limited to operational purposes, where applicable, such as security and request handling. Your browser also caches resources such as images, styles, and fonts.

Before introducing tracking or analytics technologies, we will update this Policy and implement any notices, consent requirements, or opt-out mechanisms required by applicable law.

You can inspect, block, or clear cookies and site storage through your browser and can restrict requests to third-party font services. These settings may affect appearance or functionality. Clearing browser storage does not remove information you previously submitted to our database.

The site does not use a “Do Not Track” signal to change its current processing. Because we do not sell personal information, share it for cross-context behavioral advertising, or conduct targeted advertising, there is no such current activity for a Global Privacy Control signal to opt you out of. If our practices change, we will implement recognition of legally required opt-out signals before conducting the affected processing.

Cookie information is included in this Policy; we do not maintain a separate Cookie Policy for tracking services that are not in use.

Joining Stay Curious requests editorial email updates; it does not authorize unrelated third-party marketing. The current website records sign-ups but does not itself send automated newsletter campaigns. Subscriber information is currently maintained within our website infrastructure.

As our subscriber community grows, we may engage a third-party email marketing provider to manage newsletter delivery, subscriptions, and unsubscribe requests. Before introducing that service, we will update this Policy to describe the provider, the information it processes, and any email tracking features, and provide additional notices or choices required by applicable law. Subscriber information will not be sold or provided to unrelated third parties for their independent marketing purposes.

You can withdraw from the list at any time by emailing hello@brazenword.com from the subscribed address with “Unsubscribe” in the subject or message. You do not need an account, password, fee, explanation, or additional personal information to opt out.

If we send commercial email, it will use accurate sender information and nondeceptive subject lines, identify advertising where required, include a valid business mailing address, and provide a clear way to unsubscribe. The opt-out mechanism will remain available for at least 30 days after the message is sent. We will honor marketing opt-out requests within 10 business days, or sooner where required. An unsubscribe request applies to marketing and newsletter messages; it does not prevent a necessary response to your own inquiry or a legally required notice.

We may retain the minimum information needed to record an opt-out and avoid contacting you again. That suppression information is not used for marketing.

9. Retention and deletion

We retain personal information for as long as reasonably needed for the purpose for which it was provided, applicable legal requirements, legitimate editorial records, security, and the establishment or defense of legal rights.

Newsletter details: while you remain subscribed, unless the list is discontinued or the information is no longer needed. After an opt-out, we stop newsletter use and may retain a minimal suppression record.
Inquiries and unpublished proposals: while the matter is being considered or answered and for a reasonable period needed to document the correspondence, resolve related issues, or comply with legal obligations.
Publication permissions and editorial records: while needed to support an authorized publication, demonstrate permission, maintain a reliable correction history, or address a legal claim.
Technical records and backups: under the operational retention and backup arrangements of the relevant infrastructure services.

You may ask us to delete information we no longer need. We review these requests individually; retention is not governed by a user-facing automatic deletion setting. We may need to preserve information subject to a legal hold, necessary compliance records, an opt-out record, or material covered by applicable journalistic or other legal protections. We will explain a relevant restriction when appropriate.

Deletion from active records may not immediately remove copies in restricted backups. Those copies remain subject to ordinary backup retention and are not intended for continued ordinary use. A deletion request does not necessarily require removal of a lawfully published article or information maintained for a lawful journalistic purpose.

10. Your requests and rights

You can contact hello@brazenword.com to ask what personal information you submitted, request a correction, seek access or a copy, request deletion, withdraw a newsletter request or other consent, or raise a privacy concern.

Identify the relevant email address and the interaction, and describe your request. We may ask for limited verification reasonably necessary to protect information from disclosure to the wrong person. Do not email identity documents, account passwords, or medical records unless we have first agreed on an appropriate process. An authorized representative may be asked to demonstrate authority.

We respond within any period required by an applicable law and explain a lawful extension or reason for refusing a request when required. For requests without a prescribed statutory deadline, we aim to respond within 30 days. Newsletter opt-outs follow the separate deadline in section 8.

Depending on your location and the law's applicability, you may have additional rights, including portability, restriction, objection, an appeal of a decision, or a complaint to a regulator. Where an appeal right applies, email us with “Privacy appeal” and identify the decision; we will apply the relevant legal process and deadline. We do not penalize you for exercising applicable privacy rights.

11. Florida and other jurisdictions

Florida's Digital Bill of Rights has specific applicability requirements; it does not automatically apply to every Florida website or small publisher. We do not represent that The Brazen Word is a covered controller solely because it operates in Florida. If its requirements apply to particular processing, we will honor the corresponding obligations and rights.

Florida's information-security and breach-notification requirements, including Florida Statutes section 501.171, are considered where applicable. Privacy or consumer-protection obligations can also arise under federal law and the laws of other jurisdictions.

For a Florida privacy or consumer-protection concern, you may contact the Florida Attorney General. If a different regulator has jurisdiction, you may contact that authority. Nothing in this Policy removes a right or remedy that applicable law makes nonwaivable.

12. Security and incident response

We use reasonable measures appropriate to the information and risks, including access management, hosted infrastructure protections, and limiting the information requested through public forms. No website, transmission method, or storage system can be guaranteed completely secure.

If we determine that an incident triggers a legal notification duty, we will provide notices to affected people and authorities within the applicable deadlines, subject to lawful exceptions or delays. Not every technical event is a reportable breach; the determination depends on the information, circumstances, and governing law.

Report a suspected website security or privacy incident to hello@brazenword.com. Do not include sensitive records in the initial report.

13. Children and teenagers

The publication is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect their personal information. Children under 13 should not use the newsletter or submission forms or send us personal information.

If you believe a child under 13 has provided personal information, contact us so that we can investigate and remove it as appropriate. We do not use a child's information for advertising or profiling. Teenagers should avoid providing sensitive information and involve a parent or legal guardian before making a personal-story submission; contractual and publication permissions may require adult authorization.

14. International access

We operate from the United States. Our infrastructure and service providers may process information in the United States or other countries where they operate, whose laws may differ from those of your location.

If a law applicable to an international interaction requires a particular processing basis, notice, permission, or transfer safeguard, we must satisfy that requirement for that interaction. Merely visiting the site or agreeing to Terms is not a substitute for a consent or safeguard required by law. We do not claim worldwide compliance simply because the website can be accessed worldwide.

15. External websites and public material

Articles contain links to journals, research, government resources, and other third-party websites. Following a link takes you to a service governed by its own privacy practices. We do not control that service's collection, security, or use of information.

Published stories are public and may be indexed by search engines, quoted, archived, or shared by others. Even where we agree to change or remove material from our site, we cannot guarantee removal of copies controlled by third parties. We discuss identification and sensitive information before publishing an authorized personal story.

16. Changes and further questions

We will post changes to this Policy and update its last-updated date. For a material change affecting information already collected, we will provide an appropriate notice, such as a prominent website notice or direct communication where suitable, and seek consent where required. A new policy does not retroactively authorize a use that requires additional permission.

Send privacy questions, requests, or complaints to hello@brazenword.com, or write to the business mailing address in section 1. Our Contact page is also available for general inquiries, but email is the clearest route for a privacy request.