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Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how we use information you provide us with or that we collect about you. It also includes information about cookies. We take your privacy extremely seriously, and will store all your personal information securely and in line with applicable data protection laws.

LAST UPDATED: 2 FEBRUARY 2016

This Privacy Policy is part of the Terms, of using storyplanner.com (our "Website") so please read it carefully. If you'd like to know more about data protection generally, read this guide from the UK Information Commissioner.

We reserve the right to change or modify this Privacy Policy from time to time, and in our sole discretion. We encourage you to frequently check this Privacy Policy for any changes. Your continued use of this Website after any change in this Privacy Policy will constitute your acceptance of such change.

1. INFORMATION WE MAY COLLECT

  1. The laws you are protected by: As we are a UK company, you are protected by UK and European data protection laws, specifically the Data Protection Act 1998.
  2. Information we gather about you: We always aim to gather only the information we need in order to provide you with the service you are using. This may include the following:
    1. Information you give us: At registration, you provide us with information about yourself such as your name and email address. We also receive information from you when you pay for a subscription, leave a comment on our blog, get in contact with us, and sometimes if you reply to a survey;
    2. Information you choose to share: If you create content on the website, we also receive that information. This may include personal information about you and other people. However, please note that we will never publish your content or promote it, or share or reveal this work to others, unless you expressly give us permission to do so;
    3. Information other people share about you: We may also receive information about you from other users of the service, for example if they write an email that relate to you; and
    4. Other information we receive about you: When you use our services, we receive information about what you do during your visit, such as when you click links, upload content, or buy things. We also receive some information about the device you use to access our service, your IP (Internet Protocol) address, the browser you use, your location, how big your screen is, or the pages you visit. We may also receive information from other websites, such as Facebook, if you sign in using them or otherwise use them within our service (for example to share or like something on the Website).

2. HOW WE USE YOUR INFORMATION

  1. We may use your information, as set out above:
    1. to manage the Website (including your account) and providing features to you;
    2. to provide advanced website features to you and others;
    3. to understand your needs to help us improve the website or the way we do business; and
    4. to communicate with you, including sending you emails.
    You give us permission to use your information for these purposes and also to provide you with new services in future.

3. HOW WE KEEP YOUR INFORMATION SAFE

  1. We use high quality security technology and processes: We keep your details safe when you sign in or pay by using encryption. We always use up-to-date technology security standards and make every effort to keep our systems as secure as they can reasonably be. Please be aware that although our systems are secure, your information might be intercepted on its way to us via the internet, although it is extremely uncommon for this to happen. 
  2. Who we share information with and disclose it to: We will not, sell, rent, trade or otherwise disclose your personal information to any other third party other than as set out in this policy.  If we run a promotion or competition where your information would be shared with a third party for marketing purposes, we will make that very clear and will ask your permission first. If we do share your information it will be for the following reasons:
    1. Companies working on our behalf to provide a service: we work with companies who will need to store and use your personal information on our behalf, for example payment providers who process your payments to us. We have contracts in place with them to control their use of your data and make sure they only use your information for the purposes allowed;
    2. Selling our business: If we sell Story Planner, or a substantial part of our assets, your personal information will be transferred to the new owner; and/or
    3. Requirement to disclose by law: We reserve the right to access and disclose individually identifiable information to comply with any legal obligation or governmental request, to enforce or apply our Terms and Conditions, or to protect our rights, property or safety.
  3. We don't store your payment card information: When we take a payment from you, we use a secure third party service to process the payment and do not keep a record of your credit or debit card details in our systems. This means that even if someone broke into our systems, your payment details would not be available for them to steal.
  4. Where your information is stored: The vast majority of your information is stored securely on our servers in the UK. Some of our third party partners use servers in the United States.
  5. When we can delete your information: If your account is inactive for two or more years and you do not have an active subscription or Premium Membership account, we reserve the right to delete your information, although we'll try to contact you first. If you have an active subscription or Premium Membership account, we won't delete your information unless our Terms allow this for a different reason.

4. INFORMATION WE MAY SEND YOU

  1. Emails we send you: We try only to send you emails which are relevant. There are some emails which we send you only if we have your permission (marketing emails). There are some emails which we send you even if we don't have your permission (service emails) - we send these to administer the service. Each is explained below:
    1. Marketing emails: These emails include our regular newsletter, emails which help you use the service, special offers and market research emails.
    2. Unsubscribing from marketing emails: We make it easy for you to do this: there are instructions on every email we send.
    3. Service emails: Service emails include registration and payment confirmations, warnings that we are about to charge you or that your subscription or credits are about to expire, and welcome emails that provide useful information about how to use a service or feature when you sign up or start using it. Also, if we make a fundamental change to the website or our Terms & Conditions that we think we need to make you aware of (for legal or simply for courtesy reasons), we may send you a service email. Because of the nature of these emails, we don't allow you to unsubscribe, but we can switch off your account if you are no longer interested in using the website. Contact our Customer Support team to do this.

5. COOKIES

  1. Our use of cookies: This Website uses cookies. Cookies are small text files that are placed on your browsing device, e.g. smartphone or computer, by websites that you visit. We use these cookies to enhance your experience of our service as follows:
    1. To sign you in automatically if you request this. This option can be turned off by signing out, and unticking the "Remember me" option when you next sign in;
    2. To help improve each visit you make by using a temporary "session" cookie. These cookies disappear when your browser session ends, or when you click the "Log out" link on the website homepage; and
    3. To help us recognise you when you return using a "persistent" cookie to identify you.
  2. Anonymous cookies: We use cookies and similar analytical tools to compile anonymous, aggregated statistics that allow us to understand how users use our service and to help us improve the structure of our website. The data collected is not personal data, and we cannot identify you from it.
  3. Third party cookies: Some of our marketing partners may also place permanent cookies on your device when you visit. These are used for tracking the success of advertising campaigns.
  4. Disabling cookies: You can find out more on how to disable cookies via the following link. Certain features on our website will only work with a cookie so, if you do not accept certain cookies, our website might not work properly, and particular features of this website may not be available to you.

6. GENERAL

  1. Seeing what information we hold on you: If you want to know what personal information we hold on you, get in contact and we'll be happy to supply you with it. There is a £10 administration charge to cover the cost of pulling it together.
  2. Updating your personal information: If the information we hold about you is no longer correct, please update your details in the 'my account' area or contact us and we will update our records. In certain situations, we may choose not to change your personal information. In this event, we will include an appropriate statement or note about it with your information.
  3. Changes to this Privacy Policy: We might make changes to this Privacy Policy from time to time – check back here to stay up to date. If we make a major change to it, we'll send you a service email describing the change and what it means for you.