Privacy Policy

Garland Press ("we", "us") is a sole trader business run by Tom Bennet, trading as Garland Press. This policy explains what personal data we collect when you use garlandpress.com and the book editor and contributor tools that sit behind it, why we collect it, and what rights you have over it.

We're a small operation - this is written in plain language rather than boilerplate, and it describes what the product actually does. If anything here is unclear, email us at hello@garlandpress.com.

What we collect

If you create a book (editor). Your email address, used to sign you in via a one-time magic link - we never set or store a password unless you add one yourself. If you send invites, we also ask for your name, so contributors know who invited them. Everything you put into the book itself - recipient’s first name, birthday age, delivery date, title, subtitle, foreword, cover choices, the shipping address and phone number you give at checkout - is stored against your account.

If you contribute to someone else's book. We store your name and email, either provided by the organiser for a named invitation or by you when you join through the group link. Your personal link lets you return to your draft without an account or password. Opening it, saving a draft or submitting records your progress so the organiser can see who has written. Your answer, optional title suggestion, and any optional photo and caption are stored for the book. The organiser decides which entries to print. Photos are stripped of location and camera metadata in your browser before they're uploaded to us, so we never receive or store that data even transiently.

If you pay for a book. Checkout, including your card details, is handled entirely by Stripe on their own hosted page - we never see or store your card number. Stripe passes us your shipping address, phone number and the amount paid, which we need to print and post the book.

Technical information. Our hosting provider processes request information, including IP addresses, browser details and URLs, to serve the site and diagnose errors. Request URLs in private server logs can include personal access tokens. Rate-limit records use IP addresses to stop abuse. Plausible counts visits on the public marketing pages and the page where you start a book; it is not loaded anywhere else in the organiser or contributor tools.

How we use it

• To run the editor and contributor flow - saving drafts, sending invite emails, and rendering your book.
• To take payment and get the finished book printed, bound and shipped to you.
• To email you things you've asked for: magic links, personal writing links and order confirmations.
• To stop abuse of the sign-in and invite systems (rate limiting, keyed on IP address).
• To understand traffic in aggregate, and to find out about errors before you tell us.

We don’t sell personal data or use book content for advertising. Contributing does not sign you up for marketing. Any marketing email to a contributor would require a separate, explicit opt-in, whatever their age; nothing optional is switched on by default.

Why we can use this information

We use organisers’ account and order details to provide the service they request and fulfil their purchase (contract). We use contributors’ names, emails, writing and photos to run the book they choose to take part in, and technical information to keep the service secure (legitimate interests). We keep payment records where required by law (legal obligation). A separate optional marketing use would rely on consent, which could be withdrawn.

Who sees a contribution

The organiser can see your name, email, progress, writing and any photo and caption. Entries they include are shared with the recipient and anyone who receives or reads a printed copy, including extra copies. Your email is not printed in the book. The book’s content is not published on a public web page. Treat your personal writing link as private: anyone who has it can access your draft while the link works.

Who we share it with

We use a small number of specialist providers to run the service. Each only receives the data it needs to do its job:

Some providers process data outside the UK. We use their data-processing agreements and applicable transfer safeguards for those services. Contact us if you would like details of the arrangements for your data. We do not give these providers permission to use book content for their own marketing.

Analytics

We use Plausible Analytics, a privacy-focused analytics tool that doesn't use cookies and doesn't track you across devices or sites. It counts page views, traffic sources and books started on the public marketing pages and the page where you start a book. The service processes your IP address and browser information to count visits, and gives us aggregate reports rather than a named visitor history. We do not send names, email addresses, contributions or personal writing-link URLs to Plausible.

If you reach us through a link tagged with a campaign name, such as an advert, your browser keeps that tag in its local storage for 30 days, and we keep it with any book you start, so we can tell which campaigns lead to books. It holds nothing else, and clearing this site's data in your browser removes it.

Cookies

We use necessary session and sign-in cookies to remember a book started before sign-in and to keep organisers signed in. They are used to provide those features, not for advertising. Contributors use personal access links rather than sign-in accounts. A campaign link leaves its tag in your browser's local storage, as described under Analytics. We do not set advertising or cross-site tracking cookies.

How long we keep it

• Contributor invite links expire after 60 days whether or not they're used.
• Book content, drafts and contributor details remain stored until the book or related data is deleted. We do not currently have automatic deletion after a fixed period. You can ask us to delete your data; we may need to retain order and payment records to fulfil an order or meet legal obligations.
• After printing, book files remain stored for fulfilment queries and possible reprints. Deleting digital data cannot remove writing from copies already printed or given to other people.
• Organisers can delete an unpaid book in the book tools. For account deletion, paid books or a particular contribution, email us. Contributors do not need an account to make a data request.

A note if you're writing about someone else

Most books on Garland Press are gifts: contributors write about, and often upload a photo of, someone who isn't the one using the site. If that's you, please only include what you'd be comfortable the subject of the book seeing, and be thoughtful about anyone else's information you include in your entry (including other people mentioned or pictured). We treat what you submit as content for the book the editor has set up, not as a separate account for the person it's about.

Your rights

Under UK GDPR, you can ask us to: tell you what data we hold about you, correct it, delete it, restrict how we use it, give you a copy in a portable format, or stop using it for a particular purpose. Email hello@garlandpress.com and we’ll normally respond within a month. If a request is complex and we need more time, we’ll explain why. If you're not satisfied with how we handle your data, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office.

Children

People under 18 are welcome to contribute. We use the same privacy defaults for everyone: we ask for a name and email so you can write and return to your draft; a photo and caption are optional. We do not ask contributors for their date of birth, address or phone number. We do not use contributions to profile people, and we do not switch optional marketing on by default.

If you’re writing, the organiser will be able to read your entry and see your name and email. The birthday person and anyone with a printed copy can read entries included in the book. Only share words or photos you’re comfortable with those people seeing. Ask a parent or another trusted adult if you’re unsure what to include or need help asking us about your data.

These defaults follow the ICO Children’s code principles of collecting only what is needed and protecting privacy by default.

Changes to this policy

If we change what we collect or why, we'll update this page and move the date at the top. For anything significant, we'll also email editors with an active account.

Contact

Garland Press is operated by Tom Bennet as a sole trader, trading as Garland Press, garlandpress.com. For anything in this policy, email hello@garlandpress.com.