Privacy Policy

Effective Date: 31 March 2026

Last Updated: 31 March 2026

Your privacy matters to us. This Privacy Policy explains what information is collected when you visit this website (the "Site"), how it is used, and the choices you have. We have written it in plain language because we believe you deserve to understand exactly how your information is handled — no legalese, no surprises.

1. Who We Are

This website is operated by Dr. Michael Kellis, author of A Life of Miracles: A Physician's Encounters with the Divine, and founder of The Friends of St. Michael. References to "we," "us," or "our" throughout this Policy refer to Dr. Michael Kellis.

If you have any questions about this Policy, you can reach us through the contact form on this website.

2. What Information We Collect

We collect two types of information: information you give us directly, and information collected automatically when you visit the Site.

Information You Give Us Directly

When you sign up for our newsletter, we collect:

- Your full name
- Your email address

When you submit the contact form, we collect:

- Your full name
- Your email address
- Your inquiry type
- The content of your message

We do not collect payment information, Social Security numbers, medical records, or any other sensitive personal data. We will never ask for it.

Information Collected Automatically

Like most websites, this Site may automatically collect certain technical information when you visit, including:

- Your IP address
- Browser type and version
- Device type (desktop, mobile, tablet)
- Pages visited and time spent on the Site
- Referring website (how you found us)
- General geographic location (country or region level only)

This information is collected through cookies and similar technologies, and through analytics tools such as Google Analytics (see Section 5 for more on cookies).

3. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect only for the following purposes:

Newsletter subscribers:

- To send you updates about the book, author reflections, and news from The Friends of St. Michael
- To communicate any events, speaking engagements, or new publications

Contact form submissions:

- To respond to your inquiry
- To follow up if needed regarding book, media, or speaking requests

Automatically collected data:

- To understand how visitors use the Site so we can improve it
- To monitor Site performance and fix technical issues

We do not use your information for advertising, profiling, or any automated decision-making. We do not sell your data. Ever.

4. How We Share Your Information

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to any third party.

We share your information only in the following limited circumstances:

Email service provider: If you sign up for our newsletter, your name and email address will be stored with our email marketing platform (such as Mailchimp or Squarespace Email Campaigns). These providers are contractually required to keep your data secure and may not use it for their own marketing purposes.

Website hosting: This Site is hosted on Squarespace, which processes certain technical data as part of providing hosting services. Squarespace's privacy policy is available at squarespace.com/privacy.

Legal requirements: We may disclose your information if required to do so by law, or if we believe in good faith that such disclosure is necessary to comply with a legal obligation, protect our rights, or protect the safety of others.

5. Cookies

Cookies are small text files stored on your device when you visit a website. This Site uses cookies for the following purposes:

Essential cookies: Required for the Site to function properly (e.g., remembering your preferences during a session). These cannot be disabled.

Analytics cookies: Help us understand how visitors interact with the Site (e.g., which pages are visited most). We use Google Analytics for this purpose. You can opt out of Google Analytics tracking at any time by installing the Google Analytics Opt-Out Browser Add-On, available at tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

Third-party cookies: Some embedded content or tools (such as social media share buttons or embedded video) may set their own cookies. We do not control these cookies.

Most browsers allow you to control cookies through their settings. If you choose to disable cookies, some features of the Site may not function as intended.

6. Email Communications

If you subscribe to our newsletter, you will receive periodic emails from Dr. Kellis. Every email we send includes an unsubscribe link at the bottom. You can opt out at any time, and we will honor your request promptly — within 10 business days at most, though typically much sooner.

Even after you unsubscribe from marketing emails, we may still contact you if strictly necessary (for example, to confirm your unsubscribe request).

We comply with the CAN-SPAM Act. We do not use deceptive subject lines, we identify every email as coming from Dr. Michael Kellis, and we include our mailing address in every email.

7. Data Retention

We retain your personal information only for as long as necessary for the purposes described in this Policy:

- Newsletter subscriber data is retained until you unsubscribe, at which point it is removed from our active mailing list. We may retain a suppression record (your email address only) to honor your opt-out preference going forward.
- Contact form submissions are retained for a reasonable period to allow us to respond and follow up, and then deleted.
- Automatically collected analytics data is retained per our analytics provider's standard retention settings (typically 26 months for Google Analytics).

8. Your Rights and Choices

Depending on where you live, you may have certain rights regarding your personal information. Regardless of your location, we are committed to honoring the following requests:

- Access: You can ask us what personal information we hold about you.
- Correction: You can ask us to correct inaccurate information.
- Deletion: You can ask us to delete your personal information. We will honor this request unless we are required by law to retain it.
- Opt-out: You can unsubscribe from our newsletter at any time using the link in any email, or by contacting us through the form on this website.

California residents: Under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), you have additional rights, including the right to know what personal information is collected, the right to delete it, and the right to opt out of its sale. We do not sell personal information, so the opt-out right does not apply — but all other rights do. To exercise your rights, contact us through the form on this website.

European residents: If you are located in the European Economic Area (EEA), you have rights under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), including the right to access, rectify, erase, restrict, or object to the processing of your data, and the right to data portability. Our legal basis for processing your data is your consent (for newsletter signup) and our legitimate interest in responding to inquiries (for contact form submissions). To exercise your rights or withdraw consent, contact us through the form on this website.

To submit any privacy request, please use the contact form on this website and select "Other" as the inquiry type. We will respond within 30 days.

9. Children's Privacy

This website is not directed to children under the age of 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has provided us with personal information, please contact us and we will delete it promptly.

10. Links to Other Websites

This Site contains links to third-party websites, including book retailers, the publisher, and partner organizations. This Privacy Policy applies only to this Site. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of any third-party sites you visit, as we have no control over their practices.

11. Security

We take reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect your personal information from unauthorized access, loss, or misuse. However, no method of transmission over the internet or electronic storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

If you have reason to believe your interaction with us is no longer secure, please notify us immediately through the contact form.

12. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or applicable law. When we do, we will update the "Last Updated" date at the top of this page. We encourage you to review this Policy periodically. Your continued use of the Site after any changes constitutes acceptance of the updated Policy.

For significant changes, we will make reasonable efforts to notify newsletter subscribers by email.

13. Contact Us

If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or your personal information, please reach out through the contact form on this website.

Dr. Michael Kellis
Chagrin Falls, Ohio