Effective date: October 1, 2026
Who this covers: engineeredprep.com and the tools and services offered there (the "Service"), operated by Engineered Preparedness LLC ("Engineered Preparedness," "we," "us").
Privacy isn't a setting here — it's the architecture. We built the Service so that the sensitive details of your preparedness primarily live on your own device, not on our servers.
Further details are below.
Information you give us
Information stored on your device (local-first)
Information processed but not stored
Information collected automatically
We do not collect or read: your precise location (a home location you save stays inside your zero-knowledge vault, encrypted with a key only you hold), the contents of your encrypted vault, biometric data, or data we'd have no reason to hold.
We do not use your data to serve ads, and we do not sell or rent it.
All data is local-first. Plans, ratings, inventories and tool results are stored in your browser on the machine you made them on. If you use the site without an account, or with a free account, that is the whole story — there is nothing of yours on our servers to read, leak or hand over.
Syncing between devices is a paid feature, and it is opt-in by being one. Only when you have a paid membership does your work travel between your devices, and it is encrypted before it leaves the one you are on. Only ciphertext is stored on our servers so it is unreadable by anyone but you.
If you install the app (a paid feature), downloads stay on your device. Maps, county data and the app itself are downloaded to your browser's storage. We do not receive a list of what you downloaded, and the areas you choose say nothing to us about where you live.
End-to-end encrypted. If you are an account holder, everything is encrypted on your device with a key only you hold (zero-knowledge). We store only ciphertext we can't read. The trade-off: we can't reset it for you — your only way back in is the recovery key you download when you created your account.
Two honest consequences of zero-knowledge:
We use only what's needed to run the site: essential cookies for sign-in and security, and our first-party analytics. We do not use third-party advertising or cross-site tracking cookies. You can block cookies in your browser; some features (like staying signed in) may not work without the essential ones.
Some articles include videos hosted on YouTube. We load them in a privacy-preserving way: nothing loads from YouTube until you actually click play — no video player, no cookies, no tracking scripts, and not even the preview thumbnail (we host that ourselves). Your IP address is never shared with YouTube unless and until you choose to watch. When you do click play, the video loads through YouTube's no-cookie mode, and from that point Google/YouTube's own terms and data practices apply.
We share limited data with a small set of vendors strictly to run the Service, each handling only what their function requires:
We require these providers to protect your data and use it only to provide their service to us. A current list of subprocessors is available on request at [email protected]. We do not sell data to anyone.
We may produce aggregate, de-identified statistics (for example, an annual "State of Preparedness" report). Any such aggregation is strictly opt-in, off by default, and is coarsened and k-anonymized so it cannot reasonably be tied back to you. We never include your raw data, and never your encrypted vault contents.
If you subscribe to Blueprints, we use your address only to send it (and related Service updates). Every email includes a one-click unsubscribe, and our list runs on our own self-hosted system. We comply with applicable anti-spam law (e.g., CAN-SPAM).
Depending on where you live (e.g., under the CCPA/CPRA in California, or comparable laws), you may have the right to:
To exercise any of these, email [email protected]. We will not discriminate against you for exercising your rights. (Note: we cannot decrypt or recover zero-knowledge data on your behalf.)
We keep personal information only as long as needed for the purpose it was collected — for the life of your account, plus what we must retain for legal, tax, security, or fraud-prevention reasons. Short-lived logs are rotated on a regular schedule. Delete your account and we remove associated personal data, except where retention is legally required.
We design for data minimization and defense in depth. No system is perfectly secure, but we hold the data we do keep to strong standards and store as little of it as possible. See our security practices (and the "No-Tracking Promise") for more.
The Service is intended for adults 18 and older. It is not directed to children, and we do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 18. If you believe a child has provided us data, contact us and we'll delete it.
We operate from the United States, and the Service is offered to U.S. users. If you access it from elsewhere, you do so on your own initiative and are responsible for local law.
We may update this policy as the Service evolves. We'll post the new effective date here and, for material changes, give reasonable notice. Continued use after an update means you accept the revised policy.
Questions about privacy? Email [email protected], or write to Engineered Preparedness LLC, 117 South Lexington Street Ste 100, Harrisonville, MO 64701.
