Privacy Policy

Introduction

We at Penstricken value your privacy and are committed to protecting your personal information. This privacy policy explains how we collect, use, and share information about you when you visit our website and when you submit work for our magazine.

Our contact details  

Name: Mr. Andrew Ferguson 

Email: admin@penstricken.com 

The type of personal information we collect  

We currently collect and process the following information: 

• Our website uses cookies and similar tracking technologies to collect information about your interactions with our website. We may also collect information about your visits to our website, including IP addresses, browser types, and operating systems. This helps us understand usage trends and improve our services. For more details, please refer to the Automattic Cookie Policy. 
• Details of payments/donations made to Penstricken via PayPal, including your name, e-mail address and transaction ID. For more details, please information to the PayPal Privacy Statement.  
• Personal identifiers, contacts and characteristics (for example, name and contact details). We also ask authors who are submitting to our magazine to include a brief 3^rd person biography.  

How we get the personal information and why we have it 

Most of the personal information we process is provided to us directly by you for one of the following reasons: 

• You are an author who is making a submission to our magazine. 
• You have made a donation or paid a submission fee (for competition entries, critiques, etc.). 
• You have contacted us by e-mail.  

We also receive personal information indirectly, from the following sources in the following scenarios: 

• We use Jetpack (Automattic) for website analytics and services. 
• When we receive a donation/payment via PayPal, the name and e-mail address of the payer is included in the transaction information which is visible to us.  

We use the information that you have given us in the following ways:  

• To review, edit, and publish submitted work. 
• To communicate with authors regarding their submissions and the publication process. 
• To keep track of which submissions we have reviewed and have responded to. 
• To make payment (where appropriate) to authors for published work. 
• To analyse website usage and improve our content and services. 
• To provide a consistent and efficient experience for visitors 

Under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the lawful bases we rely on for processing this information are:  

(a) Your consent. You are able to remove your consent at any time. You can do this by contacting admin@penstricken.com.  

By submitting your work and personal information, you consent to our use of your data as outlined in this privacy policy. 

(b) We have a legitimate interest. 

We have a legitimate interest in processing your personal information to review and manage submissions, improve our website and services, and communicate with you regarding your submissions. 

We will not sell your personal information to third parties; however, we do rely on third party service providers who may have access to some of your personal information as necessary to perform their services: 

• We use Jetpack (Automattic) for website analytics and services. 
• We use Zoho for managing email communications and responses. Click here to view Zoho’s privacy policy.  
• We use Google Forms for collecting submission data, Google Sheets for collating the information, and Google Drive for storing the actual submissions. Click here to view Google’s Privacy Policy.  

How we store your personal information  

Information related to magazine submissions (including competition entries) is stored securely using Google Drive and Google Sheets, which provide robust security features. We keep details of submissions for no longer than the duration of the submission period (approximately 3 months from the date submissions open until the relevant issue is ready for publication). We then dispose your information by deleting both the Google Sheets document we use for tracking submissions and deleting all submission manuscripts we are holding in Google Drive. 

We keep e-mails we receive until your query has been resolved. We will then dispose of your information by deleting messages stored in our inbox/sent box. We regularly empty our deleted items folder. 

For information on how our third party service providers store and dispose of personal information, please refer to the relevant privacy policy.  

Your data protection rights 

Under data protection law, you have rights including: 

Your right of access – You have the right to ask us for copies of your personal information.  

Your right to rectification – You have the right to ask us to rectify personal information you think is inaccurate. You also have the right to ask us to complete information you think is incomplete.  

Your right to erasure – You have the right to ask us to erase your personal information in certain circumstances.  

Your right to restriction of processing – You have the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.  

Your right to object to processing – You have the the right to object to the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances. 

Your right to data portability – You have the right to ask that we transfer the personal information you gave us to another organisation, or to you, in certain circumstances. 

You are not required to pay any charge for exercising your rights. If you make a request, we have one month to respond to you. 

Please contact us at admin@penstricken.com if you wish to make a request. 

How to complain 

If you have any concerns about our use of your personal information, you can make a complaint to us by e-mailing admin@penstricken.com.  

You can also complain to the ICO if you are unhappy with how we have used your data. 

The ICO’s address:             

Information Commissioner’s Office 
Wycliffe House 
Water Lane 
Wilmslow 
Cheshire 
SK9 5AF 

Helpline number: 0303 123 1113 

ICO website: https://www.ico.org.uk