Privacy Policy

Welcome to Chapter Chronicles!

This Privacy Policy explains how Chapter Chronicles (“Chapter Chronicles,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) collects, uses, shares, and protects your personal information when you use our platform, including our website, APIs, and mobile applications (collectively, the “Services”).

By using Chapter Chronicles, you agree to the collection and use of information in accordance with this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with our policies and practices, please do not use our Services.

Table of Contents

• 1. Information You Provide to Chapter Chronicles
• 2. Information We Collect Automatically
• 3. Cookies and Tracking Technologies
• 4. How We Use Your Information
• 5. Legal Bases for Processing (GDPR)
• 6. How We Share Your Information
• 7. Third-Party Services
• 8. Public Information and User-Generated Content
• 9. Information for Creators (Authors)
• 10. Your Privacy Rights
• 11. Data Retention
• 12. International Data Transfers
• 13. Security
• 14. Children's Privacy
• 15. Do Not Track Signals
• 16. Third-Party Links
• 17. Business Transfers
• 18. Changes to This Privacy Policy
• 19. Contact Us

1. Information You Provide to Chapter Chronicles

When using Chapter Chronicles, you may provide personal information, such as:

Account Information

• Registration: First name, last name, email address, username, and password

• Profile Details: Biography, profile picture, social media links, and other optional profile information

• Preferences: Reading preferences, notification settings, privacy settings

Billing and Payment Information

• Payment Processing: Payment details are securely processed through Stripe. Chapter Chronicles does not store your full payment card number or complete banking details.

• Transaction Metadata: We store subscription start/end dates, payment amounts, subscription status, and transaction IDs.

• For more information, refer to Stripe's Privacy Policy.

Creator Information

• Tax Information: W-9 forms, Employer Identification Numbers (EINs), Social Security Numbers (SSNs), or other tax identification numbers as required by the IRS for 1099 reporting

• Payout Details: Bank account information collected via Stripe Connect for author payouts

• Business Information: Business names, addresses, and other details required for compliance with local regulations

Content and Communications

• User-Generated Content: Stories, chapters, comments, reviews, and other content you create or post on the platform

• Communications: Messages you send to us, feedback, support requests, and survey responses

2. Information We Collect Automatically

When you interact with Chapter Chronicles, we automatically collect certain information, including:

Device and Browser Information

• IP address and approximate geographic location

• Browser type and version

• Device type, operating system, and screen resolution

• Language preferences and time zone

Usage and Analytics Data

• Reading Activity: Chapters read, reading time, reading progress, completion rates

• Engagement: Comments posted, stories followed, authors followed, likes and reactions

• Clickstream Data: Pages visited, buttons clicked, navigation patterns, referral sources

• Performance Data: Page load times, error rates, API response times

• Search Queries: Keywords and filters used when searching for stories or authors

This data helps us improve your experience, personalize content recommendations, provide analytics to creators, and secure the platform.

3. Cookies and Tracking Technologies

We use cookies and similar tracking technologies to enhance your experience and collect usage data. Cookies are small text files stored on your device that help us recognize you and remember your preferences.

Types of Cookies We Use

• Essential Cookies: Required for authentication and session management (express-session with Redis storage). These cookies are necessary for the platform to function properly.

• Analytics Cookies: We use Google Analytics to understand how you use the platform, which pages are most popular, and how we can improve our Services. You can opt out of Google Analytics by installing the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on.

• Functional Cookies: Remember your preferences such as reading settings, theme choices, and language preferences.

• Performance Cookies: Track reading progress, chapter view counts, and platform performance metrics.

Managing Cookies

You can control cookies through your browser settings. Most browsers allow you to refuse cookies or delete existing cookies. Please note that disabling essential cookies will impact platform functionality, including your ability to log in and access subscriber-only content.

For more information on managing cookies, visit www.allaboutcookies.org.

4. How We Use Your Information

We use your information to:

• Provide and Improve Services: Deliver content, process subscriptions, track reading progress, and continuously improve platform functionality

• Process Payments: Facilitate subscriptions, transactions, and author payouts through Stripe and Stripe Connect

• Personalization: Recommend stories and authors based on your reading history and preferences

• Communications: Send you transactional emails (account verification, subscription confirmations, receipts), product updates, and marketing communications (with your consent)

• Creator Analytics: Provide creators with analytics about their audience, including subscriber counts, story views, chapter engagement, and revenue metrics (in aggregate or anonymized form where appropriate)

• Security and Fraud Prevention: Detect and prevent fraud, unauthorized access, spam, and other malicious activity

• Legal Compliance: Comply with legal obligations, including tax reporting (1099s for US creators), DMCA takedown requests, and responses to lawful requests from authorities

• Platform Integrity: Enforce our Terms of Service, investigate violations, and maintain community guidelines

• Research and Development: Analyze usage patterns to develop new features and improve existing ones

What We Do NOT Use Your Information For

Chapter Chronicles is committed to protecting author creative works. We do NOT use your information for the following purposes:

• AI Training on Creative Content: We do NOT use stories, chapters, or other creative works written by authors to train artificial intelligence models, large language models (LLMs), machine learning algorithms, or similar technologies

• Selling Content to Third Parties: We do NOT sell, license, or provide author creative content to third parties for AI training or any other purpose without your explicit consent

• Automated Content Generation: We do NOT use your stories to generate derivative works or train AI systems to write in your style

Note on Platform Analytics: While we protect your creative content from AI training, we may use non-creative platform data (such as aggregated usage patterns, click behavior, and performance metrics) to improve our Services through machine learning techniques. This analysis does not include your stories, chapters, or creative writing—only anonymized behavioral data about how the platform is used.

5. Legal Bases for Processing (GDPR)

If you are located in the European Economic Area (EEA), United Kingdom, or Switzerland, we process your personal data based on the following legal grounds under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR):

• Contract Performance: Processing necessary to provide the Services you've subscribed to, including account creation, content delivery, subscription management, and payments (GDPR Article 6(1)(b))

• Legitimate Interests: Processing necessary for our legitimate business interests, including platform security, fraud prevention, analytics, service improvement, and direct marketing to existing customers (GDPR Article 6(1)(f)). We balance these interests against your privacy rights.

• Legal Obligation: Processing necessary to comply with legal requirements, including tax reporting, DMCA compliance, and responses to lawful requests (GDPR Article 6(1)(c))

• Consent: Processing based on your explicit consent, such as marketing emails to non-customers or optional analytics. You can withdraw consent at any time (GDPR Article 6(1)(a))

6. How We Share Your Information

We share your information in the following circumstances:

With Creators (Authors)

When you subscribe to a creator's membership or interact with their content, we share:

• Your profile information (name, email address, username)

• Subscription details (tier, start date, status, renewal date)

• Engagement data (chapters read, comments posted, time spent on their content)

Creators are responsible for handling this information in accordance with applicable privacy laws.

With Service Providers

We work with trusted third-party service providers who help us operate the platform. These providers have access to your information only to perform specific tasks on our behalf and are obligated to protect your data. See Section 7 for details.

With Other Users (Public Information)

Certain information is publicly visible on the platform, including author profiles, published stories, chapters, and comments. See Section 8 for details on what information is public.

For Legal and Safety Reasons

• Legal Compliance: When required by law, subpoena, court order, or other legal process

• Safety and Security: To protect the rights, property, or safety of Chapter Chronicles, our users, or the public

• Fraud Prevention: To detect, prevent, or address fraud, security issues, or technical problems

• Enforcement: To enforce our Terms of Service and investigate violations

Aggregate and Anonymized Data

We may share aggregate or anonymized data that cannot reasonably be used to identify you, such as overall platform statistics, trends in reader behavior, or industry research.

Chapter Chronicles does not sell your personal information to third parties for monetary compensation.

7. Third-Party Services

We use the following third-party services to operate our platform. Each service has its own privacy policy governing how they handle your data:

• Stripe: Payment processing for subscriptions and Stripe Connect for creator payouts. Stripe handles sensitive payment information and complies with PCI DSS standards. Stripe Privacy Policy

• Vercel Blob: Cloud storage for images (cover art, profile pictures) and other uploaded files. Vercel Privacy Policy

• SendGrid: Email delivery service for transactional and marketing emails (account verification, notifications, receipts, password resets). SendGrid Privacy Policy

• Google Analytics: Web analytics service to analyze platform usage, user behavior, and traffic patterns. Google may use this data in accordance with their privacy policy. Google Privacy Policy

• Redis Labs: Session storage and caching for platform performance

• Cloud Infrastructure: Hosting and infrastructure services for reliable platform operation

We conduct due diligence to ensure that our third-party service providers maintain appropriate data protection standards and comply with applicable privacy laws.

8. Public Information and User-Generated Content

Certain information on Chapter Chronicles is publicly visible and can be accessed by anyone, including:

• Author Profiles: Display name, username, biography, profile picture, social media links, and other information you choose to make public

• Published Stories and Chapters: Titles, descriptions, cover images, tags, publication dates, and content marked as “public”

• Comments and Reviews: Comments you post on stories, chapters, or community discussions

• Author Membership Tiers: Membership tier names, descriptions, and pricing (subscriber lists are NOT public)

• Public Activity: Stories you follow, authors you follow (if you choose to make this visible in your privacy settings)

You can control what information is public by adjusting your privacy settings in your account. Please be cautious about sharing personal information in public comments or content, as this information may be indexed by search engines and accessible indefinitely.

9. Information for Creators (Authors)

If you create content on Chapter Chronicles as an author, we collect and process additional information:

Creator-Specific Data

• Tax Information: W-9 forms, Employer Identification Numbers (EINs), Social Security Numbers (SSNs), or equivalent tax identification as required by the IRS for 1099 reporting and compliance with local tax laws

• Payout Information: Bank account details collected via Stripe Connect to facilitate monthly payouts

• Subscriber Data: Names, email addresses, subscription tiers, subscription status, and subscription start/end dates of your subscribers

• Revenue Data: Subscription revenue, platform fees, net earnings, payout history, and refund information

• Content Analytics: Story views, chapter engagement, reading completion rates, subscriber growth, retention metrics, and audience demographics (in aggregate)

Creator Responsibilities

As a creator, you are responsible for:

• Complying with applicable privacy laws when accessing and using subscriber information

• Not using subscriber email addresses for unauthorized marketing or sharing with third parties

• Protecting the confidentiality of subscriber information you access through the platform

• Providing accurate tax information and complying with tax obligations in your jurisdiction

• Ensuring your content complies with our Terms of Service and applicable laws

Revenue Sharing

When a subscriber pays for your membership:

• Stripe processes the payment on behalf of Chapter Chronicles

• Chapter Chronicles retains a platform fee (as specified in the Terms of Service)

• The remaining revenue is transferred to you via Stripe Connect according to the payout schedule

• We share transaction metadata (subscription amounts, dates, status) with you for transparency and record-keeping

10. Your Privacy Rights

You have control over your personal information. Depending on your location, you may have specific rights under privacy laws such as GDPR (for EU users) or CCPA (for California users).

Rights for EU Users (GDPR)

If you are located in the European Economic Area, United Kingdom, or Switzerland, you have the following rights:

• Right to Access: Request a copy of the personal data we hold about you

• Right to Rectification: Request correction of inaccurate or incomplete personal data

• Right to Erasure: Request deletion of your personal data (“right to be forgotten”), subject to legal retention requirements

• Right to Restriction of Processing: Request that we limit how we use your personal data

• Right to Data Portability: Receive your personal data in a structured, machine-readable format

• Right to Object: Object to processing based on legitimate interests, including direct marketing

• Right to Withdraw Consent: Withdraw consent for processing based on consent (e.g., marketing emails) at any time

• Right to Lodge a Complaint: File a complaint with your local data protection authority if you believe we have violated your privacy rights

Rights for California Users (CCPA)

If you are a California resident, you have the following rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act:

• Right to Know: Request disclosure of the categories and specific pieces of personal information we have collected about you in the past 12 months

• Right to Delete: Request deletion of your personal information, subject to certain exceptions

• Right to Opt-Out of Sale: We do not sell your personal information to third parties for monetary compensation

• Right to Non-Discrimination: We will not discriminate against you for exercising your CCPA rights

How to Exercise Your Rights

To exercise any of these rights:

• Email us at privacy@chapterchronicles.com

• Adjust your account settings directly (for certain preferences and data management)

• Use the account deletion feature in your settings (for account deletion requests)

We will respond to your request within 30 days (or as required by applicable law). We may need to verify your identity before processing certain requests.

Marketing Communications

You can opt out of marketing emails at any time by:

• Clicking “unsubscribe” in any marketing email

• Adjusting your email preferences in your account settings

• Contacting us at privacy@chapterchronicles.com

Please note that you cannot opt out of essential transactional emails (account verification, subscription confirmations, receipts) as these are necessary for the Services to function.

11. Data Retention

We retain your personal information for as long as necessary to provide our Services, comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements. Specific retention periods include:

• Account Information: Retained while your account is active and for 30 days after account deletion to allow for account recovery

• Payment and Tax Records: Retained for 7 years after the last transaction to comply with tax regulations and financial record-keeping requirements

• Reading Analytics: Retained for 2 years for platform improvement and creator analytics

• Published Content: Retained while your account is active or until you delete the content. Soft-deleted content is permanently removed after 90 days.

• Comments and Public Posts: May be retained indefinitely or until you delete them, as they contribute to public discussions

• Session Data: Retained for the duration of your session plus 30 days

• Backup Copies: Personal data in system backups is deleted within 90 days

After the retention period expires, we securely delete or anonymize your personal information.

12. International Data Transfers

Chapter Chronicles is based in the United States. If you access our Services from outside the United States, your information will be transferred to, stored, and processed in the United States and other countries where our service providers operate.

For users in the European Economic Area, United Kingdom, or Switzerland, we ensure appropriate safeguards are in place for international data transfers, including:

• Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs): We use Standard Contractual Clauses approved by the European Commission for transfers from the EEA to third countries

• Service Provider Agreements: Our contracts with third-party service providers require them to protect your data in accordance with applicable privacy laws

By using Chapter Chronicles, you acknowledge and consent to the transfer of your information to the United States and other countries as described in this Privacy Policy.

13. Security

We take the security of your personal information seriously and implement industry-standard security measures to protect your data, including:

• Data Encryption: HTTPS/TLS encryption for data in transit and encryption at rest for sensitive data such as passwords and payment information

• Access Controls: Role-based access controls, principle of least privilege, and multi-factor authentication for administrative access

• Payment Security: PCI DSS compliance through Stripe. We do not store full credit card numbers or complete banking information.

• Session Management: Secure session cookies with HttpOnly, Secure, and SameSite flags to prevent cross-site scripting and session hijacking

• Password Security: Passwords are hashed and salted using industry-standard algorithms (bcrypt)

• Regular Security Audits: Periodic security assessments, vulnerability scanning, and code reviews

• Incident Response: Procedures for detecting, responding to, and notifying you of data breaches as required by law

However, no system is completely secure. While we strive to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee absolute security. Please take steps to protect your account credentials:

• Use a strong, unique password

• Do not share your password with others

• Log out after using shared devices

• Report suspicious activity immediately to security@chapterchronicles.com

14. Children's Privacy

Chapter Chronicles is not directed to children under 13 years of age, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If we learn that we have collected personal information from a child under 13, we will delete that information promptly.

Users between the ages of 13 and 17 may use the platform, but parental or guardian consent may be required to:

• Create an author account

• Subscribe to paid memberships

• Access content marked as mature or adult-oriented

If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child under 13 has provided us with personal information, please contact us at privacy@chapterchronicles.com so we can delete the information.

15. Do Not Track Signals

Some web browsers transmit “Do Not Track” (DNT) signals to websites. Chapter Chronicles does not currently respond to Do Not Track signals because there is no universally accepted standard for how to interpret or respond to them.

We will update this Privacy Policy if we implement support for Do Not Track signals in the future. You can still control cookies and tracking through your browser settings as described in Section 3.

16. Third-Party Links

Our platform may contain links to third-party websites, including author social media profiles, external resources, and partner sites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of these third-party sites.

When you click on a third-party link and leave Chapter Chronicles, you are subject to the privacy policy and terms of service of that third-party site. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of any third-party sites you visit.

17. Business Transfers

If Chapter Chronicles is involved in a merger, acquisition, asset sale, bankruptcy, or other business transaction, your personal information may be transferred to the acquiring entity as part of that transaction.

We will notify you via email and/or a prominent notice on our website before your personal information becomes subject to a different privacy policy. You will have the opportunity to delete your account before the transfer if you do not wish your information to be transferred.

18. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technology, legal requirements, or other factors. We will notify you of material changes by:

• Sending an email to the email address associated with your account

• Posting a prominent notice on the Chapter Chronicles platform

• Updating the “Effective Date” at the top of this policy

Material changes will be communicated at least 30 days before they take effect (or as required by law). Your continued use of Chapter Chronicles after the effective date of the updated Privacy Policy constitutes your acceptance of the changes.

If you do not agree with the updated Privacy Policy, you may delete your account as described in Section 10.

19. Contact Us

If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or our privacy practices, please contact us:

We will respond to your inquiry within 30 days.