Privacy
Draft, 4 November 2026. Not yet checked by a solicitor.
In short
Your photographs stay on your computer while you design; we never see them unless you share spreads to the Shelf. We keep only what we need to run your account, sell your PDF and reply to you. We don’t sell your information, and we only email you news if you ask us to.
1. Who is responsible for your information
[Legal name of the business], [postal address], is the controller of your personal information. Contact us about privacy at [email address]. [ICO registration number. Most businesses that handle personal information must pay the ICO’s data protection fee. Check whether it applies.]
2. What stays on your computer
The studio keeps your photographs and projects in your browser’s storage, on your own computer. They aren’t uploaded while you work, and we can’t see them. A project file you save stays wherever you save it.
The one exception is the Shelf. If you share a zine there, small preview images of the spreads you choose are uploaded so others can see them.
3. What we collect, and why
| What | Why | Legal basis |
|---|---|---|
| Your email address, when you make an account | To sign you in and send you your receipt and messages about your zines | Contract |
| A record of which zines you’ve paid for | So you can download them again | Contract |
| Payment details: name, email, country, amount | Collected by our payment provider, which sends us a record of the sale. We never see your card details. | Contract, and legal obligation (tax records) |
| Shelf entries: preview images, title, name, words and links you add | To show your zine on the Shelf | Consent. You can remove an entry at any time. |
| Messages you send through Help or Custom zines | To reply to you | Legitimate interest |
| Newsletter sign-ups | To send the newsletter you asked for | Consent. Unsubscribe from any email. |
| Site statistics: pages visited, rough location by country, type of device | To see which pages help people, and improve them. Collected without cookies and without identifying you. | Legitimate interest |
| Error reports from the studio: what went wrong, browser and device type | To find and fix problems. They don’t include your photographs. [Confirm once the error-report service is set up.] | Legitimate interest |
We don’t use your information for advertising, and we don’t sell it.
4. Who we share it with
We use a few services to run Zine House. Each handles your information only on our instructions:
- website and studio hosting [Netlify];
- accounts, database and Shelf images [Supabase];
- payments, as merchant of record [Paddle]. For your payment, [Paddle] is also responsible for your information in its own right, under its own privacy notice;
- sign-in and account emails [Resend];
- the newsletter [MailerLite];
- site statistics [Plausible];
- error reports [Sentry].
[The final page must name each service.]
We’ll share information if the law requires it, for example with HMRC.
5. Information sent outside the UK
Some of these services store information outside the UK, for example in the EU or the US. Where they do, we rely on [UK adequacy regulations, or the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or Addendum]. Messages about Hong Kong projects are read by our partner in Hong Kong. [Solicitor to advise on transfers to Hong Kong, which has no UK adequacy decision.]
6. How long we keep it
- Account: until you delete it.
- Payment records: as long as tax law requires us to keep them. [Confirm the period with the accountant.]
- Shelf entries: until you remove them or delete your account.
- Messages: [two years] after our last reply, unless they become a custom project.
- Newsletter: until you unsubscribe.
- Error reports: [90 days].
7. Your rights
You can ask us for a copy of your information, ask us to correct or delete it, object to how we use it, or withdraw your consent. Email [email address] and we’ll reply within a month. If you’re not happy with our answer, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk.
8. Changes
We’ll update this page when anything changes and show the date at the top.