Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

This Privacy Policy explains how Story Czar (the personal storytelling site of Thomas McFadden, "we," "us," or "our") collects, uses, and shares information when you visit thestoryczar.com. By using the site, you agree to the practices described here.

2. Information We Collect

• Contact form: when you submit the Contact form, we collect your name, email address, the topic you select, and your message. It is delivered to us by Web3Forms, a third-party form-delivery service, and is not stored in a database on this site.
• Donations: if you make a contribution on the Support page, the payment is processed by PayPal (including Venmo, Pay Later, and debit or credit card through PayPal). PayPal shares with us your name, email address, the amount, and a transaction ID. We never see or store your full card number, bank details, or PayPal login.
• Automatic technical data: our hosting provider, Vercel, automatically logs basic technical information such as your IP address, browser type, and the pages you visit, for security and performance.
• Embedded content: some pages include embedded videos and posts from YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram. When those load, the platform can receive technical information about your visit (such as your IP address and device details) and may set its own cookies.
• We do not offer user accounts, we do not collect or store passwords, and we do not accept file uploads.

3. How We Use Information

We use the information described above to respond to your messages, evaluate consulting and pitch deck requests, process and record donations, prevent spam, fraud, and abuse, and keep the site secure and working well. We do not use your information for advertising or to build a profile of you.

4. Third Parties That Receive Data

These services receive or process information when you use the site. Each handles your information under its own privacy policy.

• Vercel hosts the site and logs basic technical data.
• Web3Forms processes and delivers Contact form submissions.
• PayPal (including Venmo) processes donations on the Support page.
• Google Fonts serves the site's typefaces, which means Google receives your IP address when a page loads.
• YouTube (Google), TikTok, and Instagram (Meta) provide the embedded videos and social posts.

The site also links out to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, IngramSpark (our "Buy Direct" links), Steam, the App Store, Google Play, and IMDb. Anything you do on those sites, including purchases and payment details, is handled by them, not us.

5. Use of Artificial Intelligence

We do not use artificial intelligence to process, analyze, or make decisions about your personal information, and we do not send your information to AI services. Some site content was created with the help of AI tools. For example, the "Listen to this page" narration uses an AI-generated voice. The site has no AI chatbot.

6. Cookies

We do not set our own cookies, and we do not use analytics, advertising, or tracking cookies. Third-party services may set their own cookies when you interact with them: PayPal on the Support donation page (to process payments and prevent fraud), and YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram when their embedded content loads. You can block or clear cookies in your browser settings. If we add analytics in the future, we will update this policy first.

7. Data Retention

We keep Contact form messages only as long as needed to respond and follow up with you. We keep donation records as long as needed for accounting, tax, and legal purposes. Because the site does not accept uploads or host user files, there is no stored user content to retain or delete.

8. Security

The site is served over an encrypted (HTTPS) connection, and we rely on established providers for form delivery and payments rather than storing that information ourselves. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, but we take reasonable steps to protect the information you share.

9. We Do Not Sell Your Information

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for targeted or cross-context behavioral advertising, as those terms are defined under California and other U.S. state privacy laws.

10. Your Rights and Choices

You can ask us to tell you what personal information we have about you, correct it, or delete it by reaching out through the Contact page. Depending on where you live, you may have additional rights under local law, and we will honor requests as required. We may need to keep certain donation records where the law requires it.

11. Children's Privacy

This site is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect information from children under 13. If you believe a child has sent us personal information, contact us and we will delete it.

12. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The "Last updated" date above reflects the most recent revision.

13. Contact

Questions or requests about this policy can be sent through the Contact page.