COMPREHENSIVE PRIVACY POLICY

1. GENERAL PRINCIPLES & CONSENT Framework

2. THE MINIMAL DATA WE COLLECT

• Identity Indicators: Your real name, professional pen name, or creative moniker.
• Digital Coordinates: Your email address, social media handles, and active digital footprint.
• Geographic Context: Your country of residence or active time zone.
• Creative Assets: Manuscripts, raw files, portfolio graphics, audio clips, and text submissions voluntarily transmitted for publication review across our 20+ library shelves.
• Correspondence History: Deep-dive direct messages, email exchanges, and forum comments concerning the work you submit or collaborate on.
• Note: We never request, extract, or store highly sensitive data blocks, such as national identification numbers, financial records, or private biometric profiles.

3. HOW WE UTILIZE YOUR DATA

• Evaluating creative pitches, manuscript submissions, and community applications for A Hand To Hold Publishing or The Prism Forum.
• Fulfilling custom programmatic commitments, processing onboarding details, and communicating with members of The Premium Patron Invitation, The Literary Partner Program, and The Bridge Licences. Data collected from our patrons and literary partners is utilized strictly and exclusively for the specific purpose requested and authorized by the participant.
• Communicating editorial decisions, custom proofing steps, and multi-layered layout updates.
• Providing proper public credit and transparent attribution to contributors (with prior consent) across our printed collections, digital imprints, and visual trailers.
• Maintaining long-term author records to verify copyright provenance, historical print runs, and archival shelf references.
• Distributing occasional, opt-in notifications concerning new creative opportunities, literary expansions, or news updates from The Derecho.
• Restricted Actions: We never utilize your personal data for automated tracking, invasive behavioral retargeting ads, cold marketing sweeps, or commercial data broker resale.

4. COOKIES, WEB ANALYTICS, & SUBSTACK TRACKING

• Website Analytics: Our WordPress and Wix websites utilize basic functional cookies and platform analytical tools (such as WordPress stats or native site indicators) to analyze macro-level traffic—such as page popularity and average reading duration.
• Substack Infrastructure: For our newsletter hub, The Identity Tree on Substack, processing is managed directly via the Substack Privacy Architecture. Substack automatically tracks basic analytical metrics, including email open rates and click-through data, to help optimize subscriber delivery.
• User Control: We do not track your behavioral footprint across the broader internet. You can alter or completely disable cookies within your personal browser configurations at any time without losing access to our core literary content.

5. REVENUE OUTLETS, MERCHANDISE, & THIRD-PARTY TOOLS

• File Transfer Protocols: During editorial or design phases, raw files and large graphic packages are transmitted via secure third-party platforms, including Google Drive, Dropbox, and WeTransfer. These platforms maintain independent security barriers outside our immediate control.
• Passive Sales Infrastructure: For physical print-on-demand fulfillment, passive design distribution, or bookstore cataloging, our networks link out to external platforms, including Amazon (via Amazon Associates links), Lulu, and IngramSpark.
• Data Isolation: While these digital storefronts process limited transaction data (such as purchase coordinates or billing details) to deliver physical volumes, IGP does not harvest, access, or store your personal banking codes or shipping data. We select third-party integrations that align with our baseline ethical standards, and encourage you to review their specific privacy structures before execution.

6. DATA RETENTION & THE EVIDENTIARY EXCEPTIONS

• Standard Archives: Contributor records, master manuscript files, provided author biographies, and layout variations are retained safely within our secure cloud servers to defend your copyright history and verify publication lines within the IGP Library.
• The Evidentiary Exception Clause: In direct alignment with our IP Manifesto and Master Terms of Service, if an individual is discovered to have engaged in bad-faith creative theft, digital sabotage, plagiarism, corporate defamation, or harassment campaigns targeting our authors or imprints, the standard data deletion protocols are immediately suspended. IGP retains all relevant communication logs, IP addresses, submission files, and behavioral evidence indefinitely within our Evidentiary Ledger as binding evidence for judicial enforcement actions.

7. DOMESTIC & INTERNATIONAL COMPLIANCE (DPDP, GDPR, & CCPA)

• The Right to Know & Access: You can request a clear, comprehensive breakdown of what personal data our system holds concerning you.
• The Right to Rectification: You can modify, adjust, or correct any inaccuracies within your personal records or author bios.
• The Right to Erasure (The Path to Anonymization): You have the legal right to withdraw your consent and request the total erasure or complete anonymization of your data profiles across our databases. We will execute your request within a reasonable, compliant timeframe, provided it does not conflict with our active archival obligations or the Evidentiary Exception parameters noted above.

8. INTEGRAL MINOR PROTECTION

• Users must be 18 years or older to independently utilize our interactive modules or open active profiles inside The Prism Forum.
• Teen creators aged 12 to 17 are strictly barred from transmitting personal coordinates or submitting creative assets without providing verifiable parental or legal guardian consent.
• If a minor bypasses our self-certification filters without an adult’s recorded approval, we reserve the right to permanently erase the minor’s data records and unpublished entries immediately and without prior notice.

9. CYBERSECURITY SYSTEMS

10. SYSTEM MODIFICATIONS & COMPLIANCE AMENDMENTS

11. REGULATORY CONTACT & DATA GRIEVANCES