Policies

Who We Are

NorthShadow (northshadow.com) is a book and training site from Ryan M. Cleckner. In these policies, “NorthShadow,” “we,” and “us” mean Cleckner, LLC. “You” means anyone who visits or uses the site.

Accepting These Terms

By using northshadow.com, signing up for Field Notes, or using anything we offer here, you agree to these terms and to our Privacy Policy. If you don’t agree, please don’t use the site.

If you’re under 18, use the site only with a parent or guardian who agrees to these terms for you.

Firearms Safety and Educational Use

Shooting, hunting, and backcountry travel carry real risks, including serious injury and death. If you act on anything you learn here, you do so at your own risk, and you are responsible for:

• Following safe gun handling at all times: treat every firearm as if it is loaded, never point a muzzle at anything you aren’t willing to destroy, keep your finger off the trigger until you are ready to fire, and be sure of your target and what is beyond it.
• Knowing and following every federal, state, and local law that applies to you, including laws on buying, owning, carrying, transporting, and shooting firearms, and hunting regulations.
• Using proper eye and ear protection, shooting only where it is safe and legal, and using equipment and ammunition as their manufacturers intend.
• Judging your own skill, fitness, gear, weather, and terrain before you train or head into the backcountry.

Nothing on this site is legal advice, and using the site does not create an attorney-client relationship with anyone.

To the fullest extent the law allows, NorthShadow and Ryan Cleckner are not responsible for any injury, death, property damage, or legal consequence that results from using or misusing information from this site, our books, or our training.

Our Content and Intellectual Property

The text, photos, videos, graphics, book content, and the NorthShadow name and logo belong to us or the people who licensed them to us, and they are protected by copyright and trademark law.

You’re welcome to read, print, or save pages for your own personal use, and to share links or short quotes with credit to NorthShadow. Please don’t copy, republish, sell, or use our material to teach a class or build a product without our written permission.

Using the Site

Please use the site lawfully and respectfully. Don’t try to break or overload it, get around its security, scrape it in bulk, or send spam through its forms.

Books, Purchases, and Training

We don’t sell anything directly on northshadow.com. Signed copies of Ryan’s books are sold through our shop at shop.ryancleckner.com, which runs on Shopify and has its own terms of service and privacy policy. Books bought on Amazon are sold by Amazon under Amazon’s terms.

Online courses and live training are coming soon. When they launch, the price, what’s included, and the refund terms will be shown before you pay. See Training and Courses below.

NorthShadow promotes Ryan’s own books, so we benefit when you buy them. Our Amazon links are plain product links and do not include affiliate tracking.

Links to Other Sites

We link to other sites, including Amazon, our Shopify shop, ryancleckner.com, and social media. We don’t control those sites and aren’t responsible for their content, products, or privacy practices. Their own terms and policies apply when you use them.

No Warranties

We work hard to keep our information accurate and useful, but the site and everything on it are provided “as is” and “as available.” We don’t promise that the content is complete, current, or error-free, or that the site will always be available.

Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent the law allows, NorthShadow, Ryan Cleckner, and the people who work with us are not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for lost profits or data, that come from your use of the site or its content.

If we are found liable to you anyway, our total liability is limited to the greater of the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the claim or $100.

Some places don’t allow certain limits on liability, so some of these limits may not apply to you.

Your Responsibility

If your use of the site, or your breaking these terms or the law, leads to a claim against us, you agree to cover our reasonable losses and costs from that claim, including reasonable attorneys’ fees.

Governing Law

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Arizona, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. Any dispute will be handled in the state or federal courts located in Coconino County, Arizona, and you agree to those courts’ jurisdiction.

If any part of these terms can’t be enforced, the rest still applies. If we don’t enforce a part right away, we haven’t given up the right to enforce it later.

Changes to These Terms

We may update these terms from time to time. When we do, we’ll change the “Last updated” date at the top of this page. If you keep using the site after an update, the updated terms apply.

Back to Contents ↑

The Short Version

Information We Collect

Information you give us.

• Your email address, if you sign up for our Field Notes email or ask us to notify you when something new is ready (for example, the Land Navigation Handbook).
• Whatever you include if you email us, such as your name, email address, and message.

Information collected automatically. When you visit, Google Analytics collects standard usage information: the pages you view, how you got here (for example, a search engine or a link), your browser and device type, general location based on your IP address, and actions on the page, such as clicking a “Buy on Amazon” button. Our web host also keeps standard server logs, which include IP addresses.

Purchases. We don’t take payments on northshadow.com. If you buy a signed book, the order is handled on shop.ryancleckner.com by Shopify, and that store’s privacy policy applies to your order details. Purchases on Amazon are covered by Amazon’s privacy notice.

How We Use It

• To send you the emails you signed up for, and to tell you about new books, lessons, and training.
• To answer your questions.
• To understand which pages and lessons are useful, so we can make the site better.
• To keep the site secure and working, and to prevent spam and abuse.
• To follow the law and protect our rights.

We don’t use your information to make automated decisions that have legal or similarly significant effects on you.

Cookies and Analytics

Cookies are small files a website stores in your browser. We use Google Analytics, which sets the _ga and _ga_XREMN5GV5E cookies to tell visits apart and count return visits. By default, these can last up to two years. Google Analytics and related Google measurement tools may process this data under their own terms; see how Google uses information from sites that use its services. You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings, or install Google’s Analytics opt-out add-on.

Our pages also load fonts from Google Fonts, so Google receives your IP address when a page loads.

We may use advertising pixels, such as the Meta Pixel, in the future to measure how well our ads work and to show our ads to people who have visited the site. If we add them, we’ll update this policy first and give you a way to opt out where the law requires.

How We Share Information

We don’t sell your personal information. We share it only:

• With service providers that help us run the site, such as our web host, Google (for analytics and fonts), and our email provider Kit (ConvertKit). They may use it only to provide their services to us.
• If the law requires it, or to protect the safety, rights, or property of our users, the public, or us.
• If NorthShadow is ever sold or merged, as part of that transaction. This policy would still apply to your information.

How Long We Keep It

We keep your email address until you unsubscribe or ask us to delete it. We keep emails you send us as long as we need them to help you and keep reasonable records. Google Analytics data is retained according to our Google Analytics settings.

Your Choices and Rights

Every Field Notes email includes an unsubscribe link. You can also email us to be removed.

Depending on where you live (for example, California and other U.S. states with privacy laws, or the EU and UK), you may have the right to know what personal information we have about you, get a copy of it, correct it, delete it, and object to or limit how we use it. You may also have the right to opt out of the “sale” or “sharing” of personal information or targeted advertising, to withdraw consent at any time, and to complain to your local data protection authority. Where the GDPR applies, we rely on your consent to send emails and on our legitimate interests to run analytics and keep the site secure. To make a request, email info@northshadow.com. We may need to confirm your identity first, and we won’t treat you differently for using your rights.

Children’s Privacy

NorthShadow is not meant for children under 13, and we don’t knowingly collect personal information from them. If you think a child has given us information, email info@northshadow.com and we’ll delete it.

Security and Where Data Is Stored

We use reasonable measures to protect your information, but no website or email system is perfectly secure. The site is run from the United States, and our service providers may process information in the United States and other countries.

Changes to This Policy

If we change how we handle personal information, we’ll update this policy and the “Last updated” date at the top of this page. If a change is significant, we’ll make that clear on the site or by email.

Back to Contents ↑

Signed Books from Our Shop

Signed books are sold through shop.ryancleckner.com. That store’s refund policy is the official policy for those orders, and it controls if anything here is different. In short:

• You have 30 days after you receive your order to request a return.
• The item must be in the same condition you received it, unused, in its original packaging, with your receipt or proof of purchase.
• To start a return, email the shop at info@ryancleckner.com first. Items sent back without an approved return request won’t be accepted. If your return is approved, the shop will send you a return shipping label and instructions.
• If your order arrives damaged or defective, or you receive the wrong item, contact the shop right away so they can make it right.
• Signed copies, including autographed copies that are not custom-inscribed, are returnable under the shop’s 30-day policy. Custom-inscribed or personalized copies can’t be returned unless they are damaged, defective, or wrong. Sale items and gift cards can’t be returned.
• For an exchange, return the original item and place a new order once the return is accepted.
• Orders shipped to the European Union can be canceled or returned within 14 days for any reason, in the same condition described above.
• Approved refunds go back to your original payment method within 10 business days. Your bank may take a little longer to post it. If more than 15 business days have passed since approval, email the shop.

Books Bought on Amazon

Books bought on Amazon are sold by Amazon (or the seller listed on your order), so we can’t process those returns. They follow Amazon’s return policy, which generally allows returns within 30 days of delivery. Start a return from Your Orders on Amazon.

Training and Courses

Online courses and live training are coming soon. Refund and cancellation terms for each course or event will be clearly stated at the time of purchase, before you pay.

Free Content

Field Notes and our articles are free, so there’s nothing to refund. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Back to Contents ↑

Questions about these policies, a privacy request, or a problem with an order? Email info@northshadow.com for legal and privacy requests or use our Contact page. For shop orders, you can also email info@ryancleckner.com.

Mail: Cleckner, LLC, 2217 East Cedar Avenue, Flagstaff, AZ 86004

Back to Contents ↑