Privacy Policy

Effective date: September 30, 2026

This policy explains what The Dads Standard ("we," "us") collects, why, who we give it to, how long we keep it, and what you can do about it.

Plain version: we collect the least we can get away with, we do not sell it, and the financial documents you upload are the most sensitive thing we hold — so they get their own section.

The Dads Standard is not a law firm, does not employ lawyers to advise you, and does not give legal advice. That matters here for one reason: what you send us is not protected by attorney-client privilege. Treat it accordingly.

2.1 What we collect, and why

Email address. Most pages have a signup box offering a free state checklist. If you enter your email, we collect it and use it to send the checklist and, after that, marketing email about our products. Why: to deliver what you asked for, and to market to you. You can unsubscribe at any time — see section 2.6.

Account credentials. If you buy something that creates an account, we collect your email address and a password. Passwords are stored hashed; we cannot read yours. Why: to let you log in and reach what you bought.

The state you select. The site asks which state you are in, so the calculator, the packets, and the checklists show the right jurisdiction. Why: it is the core function of the product.

Saved calculator scenarios. If you save a scenario in the child-support estimator, we store the numbers you entered — incomes, overnights, and the other inputs — and the result. Why: so you can come back to it and compare versions. These are figures you type in; we do not verify them and we do not link them to any court record.

Uploaded financial documents. For one paid service, you upload bank statements, tax returns, and pay stubs. Why: to perform the service you paid for. See section 2.3 — this category is handled differently from everything else.

Purchase and payment records. What you bought, when, for how much, and your subscription status. Card details go to our payment processor, not to us; we do not see or store full card numbers. Why: to fulfill orders, handle refunds, and meet tax and accounting obligations.

Support messages. If you email us, we keep the message. Why: to answer you and to keep a record of what we agreed.

Technical and usage data. Our host records IP address, browser type, device type, pages requested, referring page, and timestamps in its server logs. Why: to keep the site running and to stop abuse. We do not run any analytics service, tracking script, or advertising pixel on this site. What we know about your visit is what is in those server logs.

No account needed for the free tools. The child-support estimator and the affidavit walkthrough can be used without giving us your name or email. The order diagnostic asks for a first name and email before its last six questions; when you finish it, your twelve answers are sent with that address so we can email you the results. If you do not sign up and do not save anything, what we have from your visit is technical data only.

Your court case number and county — for Case Watch only. For Case Watch, we ask for your court case number and county, because the service works by checking your docket — that is the only product that asks for them, and we do not use them for anything else.

What we do not collect. We do not ask for your Social Security number, your date of birth, your driver's license, or your children's names. If you type any of that into a free-text field anyway, please don't — and tell us at support@thedadsstandard.com if you already have, so we can remove it.

2.2 Legal bases (if they apply to you)

Most of our users are in the United States, where this framing is not required. But if you are in a place whose law works this way — the EU, the UK, or a US state that borrows the concept — these are the bases we would rely on:

We do not currently market to or target users outside the United States and the District of Columbia.

2.3 Uploaded financial documents — handled as confidential

Bank statements, tax returns, and pay stubs are the most sensitive thing we hold. Our commitments:

• Purpose limit. We use them only to perform the service you paid for. We do not use them for marketing, for training any model, or for research.
• Access limit. Only the people who need them to do the work can open them — currently one individual. Access is logged.
• No sharing. We do not share them with anyone except Render, the hosting provider whose infrastructure stores them. Render acts on our instructions and cannot use them for anything of its own.
• Storage. They are stored encrypted at rest and transmitted over TLS.
• Retention. We keep uploaded documents for 90 days after the service is delivered. Then they are deleted.
• Delete them sooner. Email support@thedadsstandard.com and ask. We will delete them within 30 days and confirm in writing. If you ask before the work is finished, we cannot finish the work — we will tell you that and the Refund Policy will apply.
• What survives deletion. The finished output we produced for you, and the record that you bought the service. Not the source documents.
• No privilege. Sending us a document does not make it privileged. If the document is subject to a subpoena or court order, we may be legally required to produce it, and we will tell you if we are permitted to.

2.4 Who we share data with

We do not sell your personal information. We do not rent it, and we do not trade it.

We share it with service providers who work for us, under contract, and only for what we hire them to do:

That is the entire list. We use no analytics provider, no advertising network, and no third-party email marketing platform. Signups and customer records sit in the site's own database on Render. If we ever add a provider, we will name it here before it starts receiving anything.

We also disclose information when the law requires it — a subpoena, a court order, or a lawful government request — and when we need to protect our rights, our users, or someone's safety. If the business is sold or merged, information transfers with it, and we will post notice before that happens.

2.5 Cookies and analytics

We use:

• Necessary cookies — to log you in, keep your session, and hold your cart. The site does not work without them.
• Preference cookies — to remember the state you selected.

That is all. The site runs no analytics cookie, no tracking script, no advertising cookie, and no retargeting pixel. Nothing on this site reports your visit to a third party. If that ever changes, we will say so here and provide an opt-out before it starts.

Most browsers let you block or delete cookies. If you block the necessary ones, parts of the site will stop working.

Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control. We honor the Global Privacy Control (GPC) signal where state law requires it, and treat it as an opt-out of sale and targeted advertising. Browsers send "Do Not Track" in too many different ways for us to promise a consistent response, so we do not claim to honor it.

2.6 Email marketing and how to stop it

If you gave us your email for the free checklist, we will also email you about our products. That is the deal, and we say so at the signup box.

Every marketing email has an unsubscribe link at the bottom. One click. It takes effect within 10 business days, usually immediately. You can also email support@thedadsstandard.com and ask.

Unsubscribing stops marketing. It does not stop transactional email — receipts, password resets, delivery links, subscription renewal notices, and changes to these policies. You cannot opt out of those while you have an account or an active order.

2.7 How long we keep things

2.8 Security

We use TLS on the whole site, encryption at rest for uploaded documents, hashed passwords, access controls on the small number of people who can reach customer data, and access logging on uploaded documents.

No system is perfectly secure, and we will not pretend otherwise. If a breach affects your personal information, we will notify you as required by the law of your state, and we will tell you what happened and what to do.

Help us: use a password you do not use anywhere else, and do not share your login.

2.9 Children

This is a service for adults, about children. That distinction matters.

The site is for users 18 and older. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. We do not market to minors, and we do not sell anything to minors.

Our documents are about children — a parenting plan names children, describes their schedules, and states their needs. If you enter information about your own children into a document or a calculator, you are doing so as their parent, in your own case. We do not collect that information from the children, we do not use it for anything other than producing your document, and we do not build profiles of children.

If you believe someone under 18 has given us personal information, email support@thedadsstandard.com and we will delete it.

2.10 Your privacy rights

Texas residents — Texas Data Privacy and Security Act

If you are a Texas resident, the Texas Data Privacy and Security Act (TDPSA) may give you the right to:

• Confirm whether we process your personal data, and access it;
• Correct inaccuracies in it;
• Delete personal data you provided or that we obtained about you;
• Obtain a copy of it in a portable, readable format, where we process it by automated means;
• Opt out of (a) the sale of your personal data, (b) targeted advertising, and (c) profiling that produces legal or similarly significant effects about you.

We do not sell personal data, we do not use it for targeted advertising, and we do not profile in that way. So there is nothing to opt out of — but you may make the request anyway, and we will confirm that in writing.

Sensitive data. Uploaded financial documents are treated as sensitive. We process them only with your consent, which you give when you buy that service and upload a file. You may withdraw consent at any time by emailing support@thedadsstandard.com, and we will delete them (see section 2.3).

Appeals. If we refuse a request, we will tell you why. You may appeal by replying to that decision within 30 days. We will answer the appeal within 60 days. If we deny the appeal, we will give you a link to submit a complaint to the Texas Attorney General.

One note. Whether the TDPSA applies to this business in full depends on its size. We have written this section to give Texas residents these rights regardless.

Your state may give you these rights too

Other states have their own privacy laws — among them California, Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia, Utah, Oregon, Montana, Delaware, Iowa, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Tennessee, Minnesota, Maryland, Indiana, Kentucky, Rhode Island, and others as they take effect. They differ in detail, but most give residents some version of the same rights:

• Know and access — what we hold about you, and a copy of it.
• Correct — fix what is wrong.
• Delete — have it removed, subject to records we must legally keep.
• Portability — get it in a format you can take elsewhere.
• Opt out of sale and targeted advertising — and, in some states, of profiling.
• Non-discrimination — we will not charge you more, or give you less, for exercising a right.

We extend all of these rights to every US customer, in every state, whether or not that state's law requires it. That is simpler than running fifty versions of this page, and it means you do not have to work out whether your state qualifies.

California. California law adds a few specifics. In the last 12 months we have collected the categories described in section 2.1 — identifiers, commercial information, internet activity, and, for the upload service, sensitive personal information (financial account information and tax information). We collected them from you, and from the service providers in section 2.4. We disclosed them for business purposes to those same service providers. We have not sold personal information and have not shared it for cross-context behavioral advertising. We use sensitive personal information only to perform the service you asked for, which is a use that does not require an additional right to limit. California residents also have the right to know, correct, delete, and be free from retaliation, and may use an authorized agent.

This section is written to give California residents these rights whether or not the business meets the revenue and volume thresholds that make the CCPA/CPRA apply to it.

How to exercise any of these rights

Email support@thedadsstandard.com with the subject line "Privacy Request." Tell us what you want and which state you live in.

• We will confirm we received it within 10 days.
• We will answer within 45 days, and may extend once by another 45 days if it is complicated. We will tell you if we extend.
• It is free, unless a request is repetitive or excessive, in which case we may charge a reasonable fee or decline — and we will say why.
• We have to know it is you. We will verify your identity, usually by emailing the address on your account. We will not ask you for a government ID to prove a request. If we cannot verify you, we will tell you rather than guess.
• An authorized agent may submit a request for you with your written permission. We may still contact you to confirm.

2.11 Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we will update the effective date and post the new version. If the change is material — a new category of data, a new recipient, a materially longer retention period — we will notify account holders by email before it takes effect.

2.12 Contact

The Dads Standard
7617 Dunoon Ave, Dallas, Texas 75248
support@thedadsstandard.com — for privacy requests, put Privacy Request in the subject line, and for anything else just write.

We have not appointed a Data Protection Officer, because we are not required to have one. If that changes, the contact will be listed here.