Privacy Notice
How Peak Sovereign Systems collects, uses and protects personal data, and the rights you have over it.
1. Who we are
Peak Sovereign Systems is the trading name of Adam Sterling, a sole trader based in England, at 20 Mount Pleasant, Cockfosters, Barnet, EN4 9HH, United Kingdom. We are the controller of the personal data described in this notice, and you can reach us at adam@peaksovereignsystems.com.
When we process data about a client's staff or contacts on that client's behalf, we act as its processor under a written data processing agreement, and the client's own privacy notice also applies.
2. What we collect, and why
| Who you are | What we collect and why |
|---|---|
| Visitors to this website | Our hosting provider receives technical data such as your IP address and browser type to deliver the site securely. Figures you enter into the calculators are kept in your own browser, not sent to us. |
| Founders who apply | Your name, company, email, mobile number (optional), and your answers to the application, such as revenue range, team size, timing and the challenges you describe. We use them to review your application, reply to you and, if you are invited, prepare for our conversation. |
| Founders who send a brief for a sample diagnostic | Your name, email and the voice note or written description you send. We use them to prepare and send your diagnostic. |
| Founders who take the Founder Dependency Check | Your answers stay in your browser. Only if you tick the box to contribute are they sent to us: your ten answers, your score and, if you choose, your revenue range. No name, email or other identifying detail is collected, and contributions are used only, in aggregate, for our quarterly report. |
| Founders who ask for their check result by email | Your email address, your answers and your score, to send you your result and our quarterly report, The State of Founder Dependency, with your consent. Every email lets you unsubscribe in one click. |
| Readers who opt in to our insights | Your name and email, to send occasional letters on founder-dependent companies. You can unsubscribe at any time. |
| Clients | Your contact and billing details, and everything you share during the engagement: briefs and voice notes, check-ins, audits, decisions, reports and, only if you choose, recovery readings such as sleep quality. We use them to deliver the service you have engaged us for. |
| Business contacts we approach | Your name, role, company and work email, taken from professional sources such as company websites and LinkedIn, to introduce our work in a way relevant to your role. Every such email lets you opt out. |
3. Our lawful bases
- Contract: to deliver the service to clients, and to take the steps you ask for before an engagement, such as reviewing your application.
- Legitimate interests: to run and secure our business, reply to enquiries and introduce our work to relevant business contacts. We weigh these interests against your rights, and you can object at any time.
- Consent: for insight letters and for optional recovery readings. You can withdraw consent at any time.
- Legal obligation: to keep financial records for tax purposes.
4. How decisions are made
Every application, diagnostic and reply is reviewed personally by our Principal Architect before it reaches you. We do not make decisions about you based solely on automated processing.
5. Who we share it with
We never sell your data. We share it only with the service providers who help us run the business, under contracts that protect it:
| Provider | What they do for us |
|---|---|
| Supabase | Hosting of our database and secure file storage |
| Cloudflare | Delivery and security of this website and the client platform |
| Resend | Sending our emails |
| Stripe | Payments and billing |
| Telegram | The private messaging channel clients use to send briefs |
| OpenAI and Anthropic | Transcription of voice notes and drafting support. Their output is always reviewed by our Principal Architect, and where they offer the option, we instruct them not to use your data to train their models. |
| Google Fonts and public code libraries | Fonts and page components that load with this website, which receive your IP address |
We may also disclose data where the law requires it, or to a company we incorporate to carry on this business, which would continue to protect it under this notice.
6. International transfers
Some of these providers process data outside the UK, including in the United States. Where they do, we rely on UK adequacy regulations or on safeguards such as the UK International Data Transfer Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses.
7. How long we keep it
- Applications and sample diagnostics: up to 120 days, then deleted, unless you become a client or ask us to keep in touch.
- Insight letters: until you unsubscribe.
- Anonymous check contributions: kept for up to three years to show trends, and never linked to a person.
- Client data: for the engagement, then a 30-day window for you to export it, after which it is deleted within a further 30 days.
- Invoices and payment records: six years, as UK tax law requires.
8. Your rights
You have the right to access your data, to have it corrected or deleted, to restrict or object to its use, to receive it in a portable form, and to withdraw consent at any time. Email adam@peaksovereignsystems.com and we will reply within one month.
If you are unhappy with how we handle your data, please tell us first. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.
9. Security
Access to personal data is limited to the people who need it and protected by multi-factor authentication. Data is encrypted in transit and at rest, and each client can see only its own records.
10. Cookies and browser storage
This website sets no advertising or tracking cookies. It stores your calculator figures and progress in your own browser, so they are there when you return. You can clear them at any time in your browser settings.
11. Changes to this notice
We will update this page when our practices change, and show the date of the latest version at the top.