Privacy Policy

Last updated: 15 August 2026

This policy explains what personal information I collect through beytalfalak.com and through my astrology and tarot work, why I collect it, and what you can ask me to do with it.

Who I am

Beyt al Falak Astrology is run by Hollie Ghandour, based in Lisbon, Portugal. I am the data controller for the information described here. You can reach me at hollie@beytalfalak.com about anything on this page.

What I collect

What you give me. Your name and email address, and any phone number, country or time zone you choose to share. For a reading, your date, time and place of birth, which are needed to cast a chart. If you give me someone else's birth details for a relationship or family reading, you confirm that you are entitled to share them. During a consultation, the questions you bring and the context you share with me. When you book, the service, date and time of your appointment. If you tick the box when booking, your email address also joins my mailing list for monthly updates about my work, and you can unsubscribe from any email.

Payments. Payments are handled by Stripe, who process your card details directly. I never see or store your full card number, only the record that a payment was made.

Correspondence. Anything you send me by email, through the contact form, by WhatsApp, or by Instagram message.

Automatically. When you visit the site, standard technical information is collected through cookies: your IP address, browser and device type, which pages you view, and where you arrived from. I use this in aggregate, to understand how the site is working.

Sensitive subjects. Consultations sometimes touch on health, relationships, family, faith or sexuality. Data protection law treats this as special category information and asks for particular care. I only ever process it because you have chosen to share it in the course of a reading you asked for, and I treat it as confidential. Please share only as much as feels needed for the work.

Why I use it

  • To prepare and deliver the reading or consultation you booked, because we have an agreement
  • To answer your enquiries and arrange appointments, because you asked me to
  • To take payment and keep invoices, because we have an agreement and because tax law requires records
  • To send my monthly updates to people who asked for them, on the website or when booking, because you consented, and you can withdraw that at any time
  • To keep the website working, secure and useful, which is my legitimate interest in running my practice, and your consent in the case of non-essential cookies

What I don't do

I don't sell, rent or trade your information. I don't share your chart, your reading or your story publicly, not on Instagram, not in the newsletter, not anywhere, without asking you first and receiving a clear yes. I don't use your information to make automated decisions about you.

Who else handles it

A small number of providers process information on my behalf, under contract and on my instructions:

  • Squarespace, for website hosting, contact forms and email campaigns
  • Acuity Scheduling, a Squarespace company, for appointment booking
  • Stripe, for payment processing
  • WATI, which runs the chat button on this site and delivers your messages to my WhatsApp
  • Google, for my email, for Google Meet, for the reCAPTCHA that protects my sign-up form, and for the site analytics
  • Weglot, which translates the site into other languages
  • My accountant, for invoices and tax records

If you message me on WhatsApp or Instagram, those conversations also sit on Meta's own systems, under their policies rather than mine. The site loads fonts from Adobe and a small moon-phase widget from astro-charts.com; both see your IP address, and neither sees anything you have told me.

I may also disclose information where the law requires it.

Some of these providers are based in the United States or store data there. Where that happens, transfers are covered by appropriate safeguards, either the EU-US Data Privacy Framework or the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses. Ask me if you would like the details.

How long I keep it

  • Enquiries that don't become bookings: kept in my email and not routinely deleted. You can ask me to delete yours at any time
  • Client records, birth data and reading notes: kept indefinitely, so that I can pick up where we left off if you come back to me years later. You can ask me to delete yours at any time and I will
  • Recordings: only made with your agreement, shared with you, and deleted from my own storage within one week
  • Invoices and payment records: 10 years, as Portuguese tax law requires
  • Newsletter subscription: until you unsubscribe

Your rights

You have the right to see the information I hold about you and to receive a copy; to correct anything inaccurate, including a birth time you have since had confirmed; to have your information deleted where there is no overriding reason for me to keep it; to restrict or object to how I use it; to receive it in a portable format; and to withdraw consent at any time, including by clicking unsubscribe in any newsletter.

Email me at hollie@beytalfalak.com and I will respond within one month. There is no charge.

If you are unhappy with how I have handled your information, you can complain to the Portuguese data protection authority, the Comissão Nacional de Proteção de Dados (www.cnpd.pt), or to the supervisory authority in your own country.

Cookies

This site uses cookies that are necessary for it to function, and analytics cookies that help me understand how it is being used. You can accept or decline non-essential cookies through the banner when you arrive, and you can clear or block cookies at any time in your browser settings. The analytics are Google Analytics. It stays switched off unless you accept: if you decline, or simply ignore the banner, no analytics cookies are set.

Security

I take reasonable steps to protect your information, including limiting who can access it and working with established providers. No transmission over the internet is ever completely secure, but I take the confidentiality of client material seriously. Client records, birth data and charts live in astrology software on my own devices, not in a shared cloud service.

Children

My services are intended for adults. I do not knowingly collect information from children. If you share a child's birth details for a family reading, you confirm that you have parental responsibility for that child.

A note on confidentiality

Beyond what the law requires: what you bring to a reading stays between us. I do not discuss clients, and I do not repeat what is said in a session.

Changes to this policy

If I change how I handle information, I will update this page and the date at the top. If a change is significant, I will let subscribers know by email.