Legal
Privacy Policy
What this site collects, what I do with it, and what you can make me do about it.
Last updated 2026-09-04
Who this covers
This policy applies to https://ryansmithdds.com and to the email and text messages I send you if you ask me to. It is written for Ryan Smith, DDS.
Two things are deliberately outside it. The Dental Grind newsletter runs on Beehiiv, its own platform, and the courses run on a separate course platform. Each has its own privacy terms. You can subscribe to the newsletter from this site: the address you enter is passed straight to Beehiiv and is governed by its terms from that moment. A plain newsletter signup is not kept here; a resource-library signup is, as the next section explains.
What you give me
If you use the contact form, I receive your name, email address, the topic you picked and the message you wrote.
If you subscribe to The Dental Grind from a form on this site, your email address goes to Beehiiv, the newsletter platform, together with the name of the page you subscribed from. Nothing is stored on this site.
If you open the resource library (the downloadable checklists, worksheets, scripts and protocol cards), I keep your first name, your email address, the role you picked, the page you signed up from, and a record of which resources you download and when. That list is mine and is stored on the site's own database. The same email address is also added to The Dental Grind through Beehiiv, so you get the newsletter as well; you can unsubscribe from it with the link in any issue without losing access to the library.
If you choose to give a mobile number and tick the consent box, I also receive that number, together with a record of when you gave consent and from what page. I keep that record because it is the proof that you agreed, and I am required to be able to produce it.
Giving a phone number is optional. Nothing on this site requires one, and consenting to text messages is never a condition of buying anything.
What is collected automatically
The site is hosted on Vercel, which keeps standard server request logs — IP address, the page requested, the time, the browser's user agent — for security and to keep the site running.
Page views are counted with Vercel Web Analytics. It is first-party and cookieless: it does not set an identifier on your device, does not follow you to other sites, and reports in aggregate. There is no Google Analytics on this site.
Text messages and your mobile number
If you give me a mobile number and tick the consent box, I may send you text messages about the thing you asked about — a course you joined the waitlist for, a coaching conversation you started, or support for something you bought.
Message frequency varies. Message and data rates may apply. Reply STOP to any message to stop them, or HELP for help. Opting out of texts does not opt you out of email, and does not affect anything you have purchased.
No mobile information will be shared with third parties or affiliates for marketing or promotional purposes. All of the categories above exclude text messaging originator opt-in data and consent; this information will not be shared with any third parties.
Information sharing with the vendors who help deliver the messages — the messaging provider that actually sends them — is permitted, and only for that purpose. Those vendors cannot use your number for their own marketing.
The full messaging terms are on the https://ryansmithdds.com/sms-terms page.
What I use it for
- Replying to you, and having the conversation you started.
- Sending you the specific thing you asked for — a waitlist notification, course access, coaching scheduling.
- Supporting you if you have bought something.
- Keeping the site up, secure, and free of abuse.
- Meeting legal and tax obligations.
I do not build advertising profiles from it, and I do not use your message to train a model.
Advertising
This site currently runs no third-party advertising, retargeting or conversion tags. If that changes, this policy will be updated and the date at the top of this page will change with it.
If I do advertise elsewhere, the platform running the ad — a search engine or a social network — collects information under its own privacy policy when you click, and you can control that in your account settings with that platform.
How long it is kept
Contact form messages stay in my email until they are no longer useful to the conversation. Records of text message consent and opt-out are kept for as long as I am sending you messages and for a period afterwards, because I have to be able to show that consent existed and that an opt-out was honoured. Server logs roll off on the host's own schedule.
Ask me to delete something and I will, unless I am required to keep it.
Security
The site is served over HTTPS only, with HSTS and a content security policy. Form submissions are transmitted encrypted. No site can promise perfect security, and I am not going to pretend otherwise, but the information collected here is deliberately minimal, which is the most effective protection available.
Your rights
Wherever you live, you can email me and ask what information I hold about you, ask me to correct it, or ask me to delete it. I will not charge you for it and I will not make the site worse for you because you asked.
You can unsubscribe from the newsletter with the link in any issue, and stop text messages by replying STOP.
If you are in California
The CCPA, as amended by the CPRA, gives you the right to know what personal information is collected and why, to have it deleted, to have it corrected, to opt out of its sale or sharing, and not to be discriminated against for exercising any of those.
I do not sell personal information and I do not share it for cross-context behavioural advertising, so there is no opt-out to operate — but the right stands and you are welcome to test it. In the last twelve months the categories collected were identifiers (name, email, optional phone number, IP address) and your own commercial enquiry. Email the address below and say what you want.
If you are in another US state with a privacy law
Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, Texas, Oregon, Montana and a growing list of others give you broadly the same rights — access, correction, deletion, portability, and an opt-out of targeted advertising and profiling. The same email address handles all of them. If I ever deny a request I will tell you why, and you can appeal by replying.
If you are in the UK or the EEA
The lawful bases are: your consent, where you ticked a box; performance of a contract, where you have bought something; and my legitimate interest in replying to an enquiry you sent me and keeping the site secure. You can withdraw consent at any time without affecting what came before it.
You also have the right to object, the right to restrict processing, the right to portability, and the right to complain to your data protection authority. Information is processed in the United States; transfers rely on the standard contractual clauses my providers operate under.
Children
This site is for dental professionals. It is not directed at children, and I do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18. If you think a child has sent me something, email me and I will delete it.
Do Not Track
There is no industry consensus on what a browser's Do Not Track signal should do, so this site does not respond to one. It also does not track you across sites, which makes the point somewhat academic.
Changes
If this policy changes in a way that matters, the date at the top of the page changes with it. Material changes to how text messages work will be sent to you as a message before they take effect.
How to reach me
Questions about this policy, or about information you have shared, go to support@ryansmithdds.com. I read that address myself.