Structured Collaboration

Collaboration by design, not by default

Privacy

Privacy policy

This site is run by Alex McDonnell. This page explains what happens to your details when you sign up for the free guides, book a call or create an account for the free online tools.

Last updated: 9 November 2026. Interim notice: a full notice covering every product will replace it.

What I collect

Your email address, the form you used and when you signed up. The email service also records whether my emails are delivered, opened and clicked.

Why

To send you the guides you asked for, and my newsletter, Managing for Simplicity. The sign-up form tells you this before you subscribe, and I rely on your consent.

Who handles it

Emails are sent through beehiiv, which stores your details on my behalf. If you book a call, Microsoft Bookings handles the appointment. I don’t sell or share your details with anyone else.

Website statistics

I measure how this site is used with Plausible Analytics, which reports totals such as pages viewed, where visitors came from, country, device type, files downloaded and forms completed. Plausible uses no cookies and stores nothing on your device. To count unique visitors without identifying them, it uses a coded form of your IP address and browser details that changes every day; your IP address itself is not kept. It does not follow you across other websites. I do this because I have a legitimate interest in running and improving this site.

How long I keep it

Until you unsubscribe. Every email has an unsubscribe link, and when you use it you stop receiving emails from me.

Your rights

You can ask to see, correct or delete the details I hold about you, or withdraw your consent at any time. Email alex@alexmcdonnell.com. If you’re unhappy with how your details have been handled, you can complain to your local data protection authority.

The free online tools

Your account for the tools

What we collect

When you create a free account: your name, work email address, organisation, your role if you give it, whether you asked for the newsletter, the partner site you came through (if any), when you created the account and when you last signed in. If your company already has an organisation here, you join it as a member and its administrators are told. Nothing is stored until you confirm your email.

Your work in the free tools (matrices, A3s and the like) stays in your own browser and in files you save. It is not sent to us.

Why

To give you access to the free tools across structuredcollaboration.com, to keep them secure, and to understand which organisations use them so we can improve them. Our legal basis is our legitimate interest in providing free tools to professional users with an account. Contact about our services is made only if you ask for it. We also keep a record of your account in our customer records (Pipedrive), so we can see which organisations use the tools and follow up when you ask us to. Being in our customer records never adds you to a mailing list.

The newsletter is separate and optional. It is sent only if you tick the box when creating your account, and only after you confirm your subscription by email.

Emails

Your account sends you only sign-in links (each works once, within 30 minutes) and, if an administrator of your organisation invites you, an invitation. They come from no-reply@structuredcollaboration.com and contain no marketing. Using the tools does not add you to a mailing list.

Cookie

When you sign in, one cookie (sc_session) keeps you signed in across the tools on structuredcollaboration.com for up to 30 days, renewed while you use them. Signing out removes it, and Your account can sign you out on every device. It is needed for the tools to work and is not used for advertising or analytics.

Who handles it

Hostinger hosts the tools and their database in the United States and the accounts, and sends the account emails. If you ask for the newsletter, your email address is passed to beehiiv, which runs it. Pipedrive (Pipedrive OÜ), hosted in the United States, keeps our customer records: when you create an account, or send us an enquiry, your name, work email, organisation, job title, the tool you started in, the partner site you came through (if any), whether you asked for the newsletter and the date you registered are copied there. We do not sell or share your details with anyone else. Where your details are transferred from the EU or UK to the US, they are protected by our providers’ data processing terms, including the Standard Contractual Clauses.

Work your organisation keeps on the platform. If your organisation chooses to keep its work on the platform rather than in files, the canvases, models, storyboards and other work saved from the tools are stored on our servers, provided by Hostinger in the United States. With each version we record who saved it and when; we keep the last 50 versions. Your organisation decides who can open and change each item, through its organisation chart. The work stays your organisation’s: we do not read it except to keep the service running or when your organisation asks us to help, and we never use it to train AI. It is kept until your organisation deletes it or closes its account, and then as set out under how long we keep information. An administrator can switch back to files at any time; work already saved can be downloaded as files.

How long we keep it

Accounts are deleted 24 months after you last sign in, or sooner if you ask. When an account is deleted, an organisation with no one else in it is deleted with it. Its record in our customer records is then marked as deleted, and removed entirely if you ask.

Your rights

You can see and correct your details, and delete your account, yourself at accounts.structuredcollaboration.com/account. You can also ask us to see, correct, export or delete your details, or object to how we use them, or ask us to remove your details from our customer records without closing your account, at any time: email support@structuredcollaboration.com, and we will reply within one month. If you are unhappy with our answer, you can complain to your data protection authority; in Ireland, that is the Data Protection Commission.

The courses

Your learning

What we collect

When you use a course, we keep your notes (your “Pause and think” answers), which lessons you have marked complete, and your check scores. Without an account, they stay in your browser on that device and are never sent to us. When you are signed in, they are also kept with your account, so they follow you to other devices.

For a seat on the Practitioner or Senior teams course, which is free during the beta, we record which course it is, which organisation holds the seat, when it was given and when your access ends.

Who sees it

Your notes are private to you. Nobody else can read them, including your organisation.

If you have a course seat, your organisation’s administrators can see your progress: lessons completed, checks completed, when you were last active and when your access ends. They never see your notes, your answers or your individual scores. During the beta, a free seat is placed on your own organisation the first time you open a lesson, so its administrators can see that you hold it.

Why

To give you the course and keep your place. For seats, it also lets the organisation that provides your seat see that its people are using it. Our legal basis is providing the service you asked for and, for the progress view, the organisation’s legitimate interest in following the training it provides.

How long we keep it

Your notes and progress are kept while your account is open. They are deleted with your account, and accounts are deleted 24 months after your last sign-in. You can also delete them yourself at any time, from My course notes, with “Delete my notes and progress”. A seat record stays in your organisation’s order history for as long as the organisation exists.

Your rights

The same as for your account, above.