Privacy policy.

Effect Group is a journalist research desk based in London. We run the site at effect.group so reporters can confirm a person, then request a person profile from enriched data and additional sources.

Questions about this policy, your account, or your data go to the owner at [email protected]. You can also use the site chat or the contact page.

If you create an account we store:

• Your name and email address.
• The newsroom or organisation you type in, if you give one.
• A hashed password. We do not keep the password itself.
• The searches you run: the identifiers you typed, the person profiles returned, any confirmation you make, and any enriched data or additional sources you request.
• Billing details if you pay — pack or subscription, credits granted, and the payment records Stripe sends us. We do not store your full card number.
• Support messages you send through the site chat or by email, so we can reply about credits, a stuck search, or access.
• Prompts and replies if you use Uncensored AI. Those stay on the owner’s admin desk. They are not shown back to you as a history list.

If you were on the old Effect Group site we may also hold your email and name on a welcome-back list so we can tell you the desk is open again. That list is separate from a live account.

We use this information to:

• Run the desk — sign you in, keep your searches, and show a person profile.
• Spend and grant search credits, including signup credits and paid packs.
• Take payment and fulfil a subscription through Stripe.
• Answer support, refund a wasted search, or grant Uncensored AI.
• Send password-reset mail and, where we have a lawful reason, welcome-back mail.
• Watch for abuse and keep the service working.

We do not sell your account details to data brokers or advertisers.

The desk cannot run on our servers alone. We pass what we need to the following kinds of processor:

• Stripe — card payments and subscriptions. The pricing page already sends you there to pay.
• Vercel — hosts the site and records basic analytics and speed data.
• Email — welcome-back letters go out from [email protected] (Resend). Replies and password resets use [email protected].
• Site chat — the widget in the corner, so you can reach the owner without a separate inbox login.
• Research sources — when you search, we send the identifiers you typed to the initial data source. If you confirm a person and spend a credit, we send that identity to enriched data and additional sources so we can deepen the person profile. We do not name those providers here.

Those processors only get what they need to do that job. Uncensored AI prompts leave our app only to generate a reply.

Account details and stored searches stay while the account is open. If you ask us to delete the account we remove the login, the search history on that account, and the Uncensored AI log tied to it, unless we have to keep a slice for a legal claim or a payment dispute.

Stripe billing records and credit ledgers may stay longer because we need them for accounting and chargebacks. Welcome-back addresses stay until you unsubscribe, the campaign ends, or you ask us to take you off.

We set a signed, HTTP-only session cookie so you stay signed in for about a week. We also set a signed cookie that mirrors your credit balance so the desk can show it quickly after a purchase.

The site chat and Vercel analytics may set their own cookies. We do not run advertising pixels and we do not use cookies to follow you around the web.

If you block cookies you can still read the public pages. You will not stay signed in, and checkout may not complete cleanly.

You can ask for a copy of what we hold, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete the account. Email [email protected] from the address on the account. We will need to confirm it is you.

If you are in the UK you also have rights under UK data protection law, including the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office. We would rather fix the problem first — write to us and we will answer.

If you used the old Effect Group site we may email you once the new desk is open. That letter offers free searches and a signup link. It is not an invoice. Every welcome-back mail includes an unsubscribe link. You can also open /unsubscribe from that link, or email [email protected] and ask to be taken off.

We send transactional mail when you reset a password or we need to talk about a payment. That is not marketing and it does not use the welcome-back unsubscribe list.

This page explains how the desk handles personal data in plain English. It is not a contract and it is not legal advice. If we change the practice we will update this page and the date at the top.

Last updated 4 September 2026.

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