How we handle your story
You’re being asked to tell us something difficult. Here is exactly what happens to it, in plain language. If anything here isn’t clear, email mark@603circle.com and ask.
Version 2.0 · August 2026
The short version
- A real person reads every story before anything is published. Nothing goes public automatically.
- If we publish yours, it’s anonymous by default. Two boxes on the form — your first name and initial, and your county — start checked. Leave them and they run with your story; uncheck either to keep it private.
- We never publish your last name, your email, or how to reach you. Those stay with us.
- You can change your mind. Email us and we’ll hide your name or county, or remove your story entirely going forward.
- We never give your story to a government agency, a benefits office, or anyone deciding what you qualify for. Not on request. Not under any circumstances short of a court order we’re legally required to obey.
- We don’t sell anything to anyone, ever. No lists, no data, no contacts.
What we ask for, and what we deliberately don’t
We ask for: what happened, which system was involved, roughly when, your town, whether anyone in the household was working, what it cost you, and how to reach you.
We deliberately do not ask for: your street address, your date of birth, any diagnosis or medical detail, your income, your Social Security number, any benefit or case number, or your children’s names.
Some of those would make our research easier. We don’t ask anyway. The less we hold, the less there is to protect and the less you’re risking by telling us.
If you choose to include something in your own words that we didn’t ask for, we’ll still keep your name and county private unless you left those boxes checked — but you’re never required to add anything extra.
What you control
When you submit, you’re giving us your story for the research and — if a person reviews it and decides it should be told — for possible publication, anonymously by default. Two checkboxes on the form decide what that anonymous version leaves out:
- ✓ Show my first name and initial. Checked to start. Leave it and a published story reads “— Rory R.” Uncheck it and no name appears.
- ✓ Show my county. Checked to start. Leave it and your county appears; uncheck it and your location is hidden everywhere — including the county filter, so no one can surface your story by picking your county.
Uncheck both and your story, if it’s ever published, appears as “A New Hampshire family” with no location. We never publish more than the boxes you leave checked, and we never publish your last name or contact details at all.
Want to be counted but never published? Say so in the story box or email us, and we’ll keep your story in the research only.
If we publish your words
We may shorten your story, or fix spelling and punctuation. We will not change what you said or what it means, and we won’t add detail you didn’t give us.
If your story would be published with your name on it, we’ll send you the exact text first. You can correct it, cut it, or pull it entirely at that point.
Who actually sees your story
Inside 603 Circle: Mark Marquis reads every submission. 603 Circle is a small operation; there is no team of reviewers.
Never, under any circumstances
- Any government agency, benefits office, caseworker, or anyone involved in deciding what you or your family qualify for
- Any employer, landlord, school, or insurer
- Advertisers, data brokers, or anyone buying access
- Any organization we partner with — partnership does not include access to your story
Sometimes, only within what you left checked: published research on this site, materials given to legislators or business groups, or press coverage. Never more than the name and county boxes you left on — and if your name is on it, you’ll have seen the text first.
One honest exception: if we were served a valid court order or subpoena, we would have to comply with the law. We would tell you if we’re permitted to.
Changing your mind
Email mark@603circle.com. You can:
- Hide your name or your county at any time
- Withdraw your story entirely, which removes it from our records and from anything we publish going forward
- Ask what we hold about you, and we’ll send it
What we can honestly promise: we’ll act on it, and we’ll remove your story from this website and from anything we publish afterward.
What we can’t: unring a bell. If your story already appeared in a printed document, a legislative record, or a news article, we can’t retrieve those copies. Anything already counted in an aggregate statistic stays counted, because pulling it would misstate the research. That’s why the count-only option exists — a story we only ever counted has nothing to retract.
How long we keep it
Stories are kept as long as the research they support is active, and reviewed periodically. Contact information is deleted when a story is withdrawn or when you ask us to.
We’d rather tell you the truth than invent a tidy number: there is no automatic deletion date. If you want yours gone, ask, and it’s gone.
How it’s stored
Submissions land in a private, non-public area of this website. Nothing publishes automatically — every story sits unpublished until a person reviews it, and a story kept as count-only never publishes at all.
We’re a small operation and we won’t pretend to bank-grade security. What we can tell you is that we hold as little as possible, we don’t ask for the things that would hurt most if they leaked, and nothing goes public without a human decision.
About children
Please don’t submit a story on behalf of someone under 18 who isn’t your own child, and don’t send us children’s names. If your story is about your family, tell it as yours.
We don’t knowingly collect information from anyone under 18.
Who’s asking
603 Circle LLC is a New Hampshire company based in Windham, founded and run by Mark Marquis. It’s a for-profit business, and we’d rather say that plainly than let you find out later. It accepts grants and funding; no funder sets what we research or what we publish.
We use the ALICE framework — the national research standard for measuring households that work and still can’t afford the basics. We are not a United For ALICE partner and we don’t speak for them. New Hampshire is not among the states that have adopted the measure, which is a large part of why we’re collecting this ourselves.
Questions
mark@603circle.com · (603) 896-4295 · Windham, New Hampshire