There are two parts to this privacy policy. The first covers your personal data, like your name, email address, and your writings on the Self Authoring exercises. The second part concerns anonymous analytical data that we use to help us determine the effectiveness of our advertising efforts.

Your Personal Data

We understand that you may be writing about personal matters that must remain private. We understand that any use of that information would rapidly invalidate the utility of our exercises, and we will not use that information in any way.

We retain what you write while you are completing the exercises on our servers, so that you can return to the exercises when you wish to. We do not read or review what you have written, or subject it to any kind of statistical or content analysis. We do not use what you have written for any purposes other than retaining it for you so that you can review/edit it.

We do not retain your credit card information, which is processed directly by PayPal or Stripe, two of the most frequently used online payment systems.

When you make a purchase, you provide your name and/or email address, along with your credit card information, directly to Paypal or Stripe. Beyond this, we do not share your name or email address with anyone.

We will not contact you in the future, except to inform you of important changes or updates to the site. If you want to opt out of any potential future communications, merely email us with that request.

You can delete what you have written at any time. You can also delete your account, and all of your Self Authoring data, at will, by logging into your account and using the Delete Account link at the bottom of your My Work page.

Anonymous Marketing Analytics

We use two types of "pixel" based analytics to help us measure the effectiveness of our marketing efforts: a Facebook pixel, and a Google Analytics pixel.

Facebook (Visitor Action Pixel)

We use the “visitor action pixels” from Facebook Inc (1 Hacker Way, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA, or, if you are based in the EU, Facebook Ireland Ltd., 4 Grand Canal Square, Grand Canal Harbour, Dublin 2, Ireland (“Facebook”)) on our website.

This allows user behavior to be tracked after they have been redirected to the provider’s website by clicking on a Facebook ad. This enables us to measure the effectiveness of Facebook ads for statistical and market research purposes. The data collected in this way is anonymous to us, i.e. we do not see the personal data of individual users. However, this data is stored and processed by Facebook, which is why we are informing you, based on our knowledge of the situation. Facebook may link this information to your Facebook account and also use it for its own promotional purposes, in accordance with Facebook’s Data Usage Policy https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/. You can allow Facebook and its partners to place ads on and off Facebook. A cookie may also be stored on your computer for these purposes.

The legal basis for the use of this service in the EU is Art. 6 paragraph 1 sentence 1 letter f GDPR. You can object to the collection of your data by Facebook pixel, or to the use of your data for the purpose of displaying Facebook ads by contacting Facebook.

Facebook is certified under the Privacy Shield Agreement and thus guarantees compliance with European data protection legislation.

Google Analytics

We use the Google Analytics service from Google Ireland Limited (Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland; “Google”) to analyze our website visitors. Google uses cookies. The information generated by the cookie about the use of the online product or service by users is generally transferred to a Google server in the USA and stored there. Google will use this information on our behalf to evaluate the use of our online products and services by users, to compile reports on the activities within these online products and services and to provide us with further services associated with the use of these online products and services and the use of the internet. Pseudonymous user profiles can be created from the processed data.

We use Google Analytics only with IP anonymization enabled. This means that Google will truncate the IP address of users within Member States of the European Union or in other states that are party to the Agreement on the European Economic Area. Only in exceptional cases will the full IP address be transmitted to a Google server in the USA and truncated there.

The IP address transmitted by the user’s browser is not merged with other Google data. Users can prevent cookies from being stored by adjusting the settings to their browser software accordingly.

The legal basis for the use of this service in the EU is Art. 6 paragraph 1 sentence 1 letter f GDPR. Users can prevent the collection of data generated by cookies by downloading and installing the browser plug-in that is available here.

A transmission of your data to the USA cannot be excluded.

Google is certified under the Privacy Shield Agreement and thus guarantees compliance with European data protection legislation.