Privacy Policy

Privacy matters. Here's the honest truth about your data.

We collect information to provide Inside Story, keep it reliable and secure, and support the optional measurement purposes you choose.

This policy explains exactly what data we collect, why we need it, and how we protect it.

1. Who We Are

Data Controller: Rachel Graham (trading as Inside Story)
Contact: [email protected]

2. What Information We Collect

Information You Give Us Directly

Information We Collect Automatically

3. How We Use Your Information

We use your data to:

• Provide the Service: Create accounts, deliver books, display profiles, send magic links
• Personalize Your Experience: Recommend books, track reading progress
• Connect Authors & Readers: Match books with interested readers, distribute beta reads/ARCs/reader magnets
• Process Payments: Handle subscriptions through Stripe
• Send Important Updates: Account notifications, new features, system messages
• Maintain reliability: Record minimal technical fault signals to investigate failures and maintain a reliable service
• Improve Inside Story: Measure feature use, how people find Inside Story and conversion journeys using pseudonymous identifiers, where you allow analytics
• Prevent Abuse: Stop spam, detect fraud, enforce our terms
• Provide Support: Help when you contact us with questions
• Marketing & Promotion: Use reader reviews/feedback in testimonials (with permission), showcase platform features with user content examples (with permission for extensive use)

4. Who We Share Your Information With

We share information with service providers for the purposes described here. Optional advertising measurement is controlled separately.

Here's Who Can See Your Data:

Other Users (Limited):

• Campaign organisers and authors see the signup details you provide, such as your name and email, and campaign-related reading progress, questionnaire responses and feedback for their campaigns
• When you subscribe to an author newsletter, the author and their configured mailing providers, such as MailerLite or Kit, may receive your email address and the name you provide to manage that subscription. Newsletter subscription is separate from optional analytics or advertising permission.
• Readers see author profiles and book information
• You control what's visible on your public profile

Stripe (Payment Processor):

• Securely handles payment information
• We receive transaction, subscription and customer details needed for billing, fulfilment and support; full card details remain with Stripe
• See Stripe's Privacy Policy. Where an author offers PayPal checkout, PayPal processes that payment and we receive the transaction details needed to record and fulfil the order.

Author mailbox messages:When you email an author through Inside Story, we process and store the message and its attachments to deliver it to their mailbox. If the author has configured forwarding, we send a copy to that address. Larger attachments remain in the private mailbox and the forwarded copy provides a sign-in link. If an attachment cannot be saved, we deliver the message without it and include an omission notice. Forwarded copies do not use open or click tracking. Delivery and bounce records help us diagnose mail failures. If an email is too large to receive normally, we may recover the available text without attachments and include a warning that it may be incomplete. Temporary support attachment recovery copies are normally removed after seven days by scheduled cleanup; author mailbox attachments follow the message's retention and are removed from storage by scheduled cleanup after the message or account is permanently deleted. Hosting and mail providers have separate operational retention.

Service Providers:

• Vercel for website hosting and delivery
• Supabase for authentication, database services and file storage
• Cloudflare R2 for file and media storage used by relevant features
• Postmark for transactional email, newsletters and related delivery processing
• Shotstack for creating marketing videos when you use our video-rendering features. It receives the media and editing instructions needed to create the video, which may include selected book excerpts, review quotes and displayed names within the video artwork. Shotstack privacy notice.
• These companies only access data needed to provide their service

Measurement and diagnostic providers:

• PostHog: product analytics controlled by your analytics choice; minimal server fault monitoring only if separately approved for that purpose. PostHog privacy notice.
• Google Analytics: selected public marketing-page measurement when you allow analytics. Google privacy notice.
• Meta: advertising conversion measurement when you allow advertising, including the matching information described below. Meta privacy notice.

Legal Obligations:

• If required by law, court order, or to protect safety
• To enforce our Terms & Conditions

5. How We Protect Your Data

We take security seriously:

• Encryption: Passwords are securely hashed and data is transmitted over HTTPS
• Magic Link Security: Temporary, expiring links for passwordless authentication
• Access Controls: Limited team access to user data
• Regular Updates: We keep our systems patched and secure
• Monitoring: We watch for suspicious activity
• Secure Hosting: Your data is stored with reputable providers

However:No system is 100% secure. While we do our best, we can't guarantee absolute security. Use a strong password (if using password auth) or keep your email account secure (if using magic links), and don't share your login credentials.

6. Cookies & Tracking

• Essential cookies: Keep you signed in and remember settings and privacy choices.
• Security and support: We record IP addresses and relevant request details to protect accounts and book downloads, verify access and prevent spam. Download records and trusted-address lists may be linked to a campaign participant. Feedback reports store the submitted message, page address, contact details, IP address and browser information. Support emails include the message and contact/page details, but omit the IP address. These service and security records are separate from optional analytics. Our minimal technical fault reports use fixed error categories and incident references. Richer diagnostics, browser crash reporting and PostHog fault-report delivery are disabled by default. Hosting providers also process connection information to deliver and protect the service.
• Optional analytics: With your permission, PostHog measures feature use and conversion journeys using pseudonymous account or browser identifiers. We also record available referral sources and approved campaign labels, which may be linked to your account in our first-party signup and subscription reports. Google Analytics measures selected public marketing pages, general link interactions and limited confirmed signup and checkout-start events. We do not send Google account, book, author or campaign-reader identities or private page addresses. Analytics reports exclude contact details, credentials, manuscript text, questionnaire answers and other private content. Connections to these providers disclose technical connection information. Session replay, Google advertising signals and personalised Google advertising are disabled.
• Author website statistics: Author websites on Inside Story subdomains and custom domains use basic page-view and link counts only where permitted; unknown or unapproved jurisdictions do not collect. No consent popup is shown. These counts use no analytics cookies, persistent visitor IDs, unique-visitor estimates or cross-site tracking, and are not used for advertising or account-linked marketing. They record broad page types, available traffic sources and relevant books or retailers, without retaining full referring or destination addresses; tracking requests omit the referrer header. Small source breakdowns are grouped to reduce identification risks, although counts do not guarantee anonymity. The website privacy link explains the counts and lets you object; an objection cookie remembers this choice for 180 days. Google Analytics and PostHog do not run on these websites. Our author-websites homepage uses only a total page-view counter under the same rules.
• Author reports: Authors see aggregate statistics for books they are authorised to manage. Retailer clicks are not purchases. Shop sales, campaign signups and newsletter figures use actual service records; we do not invent purchases or sources that those records cannot establish. Operational records remain separate from optional marketing reports.
• Optional Meta ad measurement: This requires separate advertising permission and a recognised paid Facebook or Instagram ad visit, identified by paid-ad tags and a Meta click marker. An ordinary social link or analytics permission alone does not enable it. If you later arrive through a qualifying ad, we may ask about ad measurement while keeping your analytics choice. Depending on the event, Meta may receive hashed email addresses, names or account IDs, purchase value and currency, product or subscription details, IP address, browser information and available Meta click/browser identifiers. Hashed information is still personal data. This sharing may count as targeted-advertising sharing under applicable law. The browser Meta pixel is disabled; permitted conversions are sent from our servers.
• Your choices: Use Help & more → Privacy choices on ordinary Inside Story pages to change your preferences. Optional analytics and advertising start only after opt-in, and Global Privacy Control prevents advertising permission. Full-screen reader and website-editor pages omit the floating controls. Withdrawal stops optional browser measurement immediately. If account synchronisation fails, background server events may use your previous saved permission until the update succeeds or expires. We remember your browser choice and retry when you return signed in using that browser; clearing or blocking cookies can prevent this. Withdrawal removes new first-party account-linked marketing records once synchronised, but does not automatically delete previous provider reports; contact us about deletion. Inside Story subdomains share preferences; unrelated custom domains keep their own website-statistics objection choice.

Purposes and legal bases

Where EU or UK law applies, we rely on contractual necessity for requested services, legal obligations where applicable, and legitimate interests for proportionate security and reliability monitoring. Optional product/Google analytics and advertising rely on consent. Basic author-website measurement runs only where the method meets applicable consent-exemption requirements and any personal-data processing has a lawful basis. Legitimate interests does not replace consent where device storage or access requires it. You can withdraw consent, object to processing based on legitimate interests, or complain to the privacy regulator relevant to you.

You can also manage cookies in your browser. Blocking sign-in cookies can prevent account features from working.

7. Your Rights & Choices

Access Your Data

You can view most of your data in your account settings. For a complete data export, email us at [email protected].

Update Your Data

Edit your profile, bio, preferences, and uploaded content anytime through your account.

Delete Your Data

You can delete your account through settings. When you do:

• Your profile becomes inaccessible immediately
• Your books and campaigns are removed
• Some records must be retained for applicable legal, accounting or security obligations; payment records may require longer retention
• Aggregated statistics may remain; pseudonymous activity is treated as personal data, subject to applicable retention and deletion requirements

Opt Out of Emails

You can unsubscribe from marketing emails anytime. We'll still send essential account emails (password resets, magic links, billing notices).

Download Your Data

Request a copy of your data in a portable format. We respond within applicable legal timeframes and may need to verify your identity.

Object to Processing

If you believe we're using your data inappropriately, contact us and we'll review your concerns.

8. How Long We Keep Your Data

9. Children's Privacy

Inside Story is for users aged 16 and older. We don't knowingly collect data from anyone under 16.

If we discover a user is under 16, we'll delete their account and data immediately.

If you're a parent and believe your child has created an account, contact us at [email protected].

10. International Users

Inside Story serves users worldwide. Our primary database is hosted in the United States. Information may also be processed in other countries where our providers operate or where we provide support, including New Zealand, where Inside Story is operated.

We assess our providers and use safeguards required by applicable privacy law, including appropriate contractual safeguards for relevant international transfers. Using Inside Story does not itself give consent to overseas processing. Contact us for details about processing locations and the safeguards that apply to your information.

11. Third-Party Links

Inside Story may contain links to other websites (like author social media or book retailers). We're not responsible for their privacy practices.

When you leave Inside Story, read the privacy policy of the site you're visiting.

12. Changes to This Policy

We'll update this policy occasionally as Inside Story evolves. When we do:

• We'll update the "Last Updated" date at the top
• For significant changes, we'll email you
• We explain when material changes take effect and request fresh permission before starting a new optional measurement purpose

We encourage you to review this policy periodically.

13. Your Privacy Rights

Depending on where you live, you may have additional rights including:

• Right to know what personal information we collect and how we use it
• Right to access, correct, or delete your personal information
• Right to opt out of sale or sharing where applicable, including advertising measurement through Privacy preferences and Global Privacy Control
• Right to data portability
• Right to object to certain data processing
• Right to withdraw consent

To exercise any privacy rights, email us at [email protected] with "Privacy Request" in the subject line.

If you're in the EU/EEA, you also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority.

14. Data Breaches

In the unlikely event of a data breach that affects your personal information:

• We'll investigate immediately
• We'll notify affected people and regulators when required, within the timeframes applicable to the incident
• We'll explain what happened, what data was affected, and what we're doing about it
• We'll report to relevant authorities as required by law

15. Contact Us About Privacy

Questions, concerns, or requests about your privacy?
Email: [email protected]
Subject Line: "Privacy Request"

We'll respond within 5 business days.