Privacy Policy

This notice explains what we do with your personal data. Please read it alongside our Terms of Service and Cookie Policy.

1. Who we are

This community is operated by [COMPANY LEGAL NAME], registered at [REGISTERED ADDRESS]. We are the "controller" of the personal data described below, which means we decide why and how it is used.

For anything to do with your data, including the requests described in section 7, contact us at [DATA PROTECTION CONTACT EMAIL].

2. What we collect

• Account details — your name, username, email address and password. Passwords are stored only as a one-way hash; nobody here can read them.
• Profile information you choose to add — avatar, cover image, bio, location, website and birthday. Everything in this group is optional and you can clear it at any time.
• Things you post — activity posts, forum topics and replies, comments, group memberships, reactions, private messages and any files you attach to them.
• Membership and payment records — which plan you are on, your orders, invoices, coupon use and the payment reference returned by the payment provider. We never see or store your full card number. Card details are entered on Stripe's or PayPal's own systems.
• Technical data — IP address, browser and device information, and the pages you request, recorded in server and security logs.
• Contact you send us — support emails and anything you report to moderators.

3. Why we use it, and our lawful basis

• To run your account and the community — creating your profile, showing your posts to other members, delivering messages and notifications. Lawful basis: performance of our contract with you.
• To take payment and manage memberships — processing orders, renewals, cancellations and refunds. Lawful basis: performance of our contract, and legal obligation for tax and accounting records.
• To keep the site safe — rate limiting, spam and abuse prevention, moderation and investigating breaches of the rules. Lawful basis: legitimate interests in protecting our members and our service.
• To contact you about the service — password resets, receipts, renewal reminders and important changes. Lawful basis: performance of our contract.
• To send optional updates and marketing, where we offer them. Lawful basis: your consent, which you can withdraw at any time from your notification settings or the unsubscribe link.

4. Payment providers

We take payment through Stripe and PayPal. When you pay, you are handed to the provider you chose and enter your card or account details on their systems, under their own privacy policies. They return to us a transaction reference, the amount, the currency and the result — enough to give you access and to answer a billing question — and nothing more.

5. Who else sees your data

We do not sell your personal data and we do not share it for anyone else's advertising. We do share it with the suppliers who make the service work, and only as far as they need it: our hosting provider, our email delivery provider, the payment providers above, and our professional advisers. Each of them acts on our instructions under a contract.

We will also disclose data where the law requires it, or to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

Anything you post in a public area of the community — your profile, posts, topics, replies and comments — is visible to other people. Please treat it as public.

6. How long we keep it

• Account and profile data — for as long as your account is open, and up to [RETENTION PERIOD, e.g. 30 days] after you delete it, so an accidental deletion can be undone.
• Payment and order records — for as long as tax law in [JURISDICTION] requires, typically six years.
• Security and server logs — a short rolling window, typically no more than 90 days.
• Moderation records — for as long as needed to enforce our rules consistently.

When you delete your account we remove or anonymise your profile. Posts and replies may remain where removing them would break a conversation other members took part in; tell us if you need those removed too and we will consider the request.

7. Your rights

Subject to the conditions in data protection law, you have the right to:

• ask for a copy of the personal data we hold about you;
• have inaccurate data corrected — most of it you can edit yourself in your account settings;
• ask us to delete your data;
• receive your data in a portable, machine-readable format;
• ask us to restrict how we use your data, or object to use based on legitimate interests;
• withdraw consent at any time, where we relied on consent.

Email [DATA PROTECTION CONTACT EMAIL] and we will respond within one month. There is no charge for a reasonable request.

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your data you can complain to the supervisory authority in [JURISDICTION] — in the United Kingdom that is the Information Commissioner's Office.

8. Cookies

We use only the cookies the site needs to work. There is no advertising or analytics tracking here. See our Cookie Policy for the full list.

9. Where your data is held

Our servers and our suppliers may be located outside [JURISDICTION]. Where data is transferred abroad we rely on an adequacy decision or on standard contractual clauses to keep the same level of protection.

10. Security

Passwords are hashed, traffic is encrypted in transit, message attachments are held on private storage behind an access check, and administrative access is limited to the people who need it. No system is perfectly secure, but if a breach affects your rights we will tell you and the regulator as the law requires.

11. Children

This community is not intended for children under [MINIMUM AGE, e.g. 16]. If you believe a child has given us personal data, contact us and we will delete it.

12. Changes to this notice

We may update this notice. The date at the top of the page shows when it last changed, and we will tell you about anything significant before it takes effect.