- INTRODUCTION
This Privacy Policy applies to the website, mobile application or other digital service (each a “Digital Service”) linking to this Privacy Policy and owned or operated by Online Fiction Workshop or its affiliates or subsidiaries (“we”, “us”, “our” or “Online Fiction Workshop”).
This Privacy Policy describes how Online Fiction Workshop collects and processes personal information about you, how we use and protect this information and your rights.
This Privacy Policy describes the privacy practices of Online Fiction Workshop only and does not cover the practices of other companies. The Digital Services, including the articles, reports, solutions and other products and services made available through the Digital Services (collectively, the “Materials”), are made available for informational and research purposes and are intended for users acting in a professional capacity.
Please note that access to certain Digital Services may require a subscription, such as to the Online Fiction Workshop paid subscription service, and may be subject to additional terms. Note that different types of data may be obtained depending on the Digital Service or Materials you interact with (e.g., Online Fiction Workshop may obtain information relating to your qualifications and credentials when you apply for a certification through a Online Fiction Workshop Learning Digital Service). Where the practices for a certain Digital Service differ from the general practices, this is called out specifically.
WHAT INFORMATION WE OBTAIN
When you use a Digital Service, we obtain various types of information related to you and your use of the Digital Service or Materials. This data includes information that directly identifies you such as your name, email, or contact information as well as information such as online identifiers or cookie-level data that may indirectly identify you. The information we obtain generally consists of information (1) you provide us about yourself or that we directly collect from you, (2) you provide us about others, (3) automatically collected about your interactions with the Digital Services or Materials, and (4) we get from other sources as described further below.
- Information we obtain directly from you
Online Fiction Workshop asks you to provide information about yourself when you use the Digital Services, including when you create an account, complete a form or subscribe to a mailing list. You may not be able to use certain features if you choose not to submit the requested information.
The information you provide us or that we directly obtain from you includes details such as:
- Contact information (e.g., your name, email address, job title, company name).
- Demographic and interests information (e.g., region, industry sector, preferred language, topics of interest).
- Payment information for purchases made through the Digital Services (e.g., payment card number, expiration date and billing information). This information is used for the limited purposes of processing your transaction, providing you with the Materials and to protect our rights or the rights of others, since we use third-party payment processors as Stripe and PayPal.
- Information you choose to share with us (e.g., when you submit an inquiry through an online form on a Digital Service).
- Transactional and activity information (e.g., requests, searches or orders).
- Information you provide about others
You may provide information about other people, such as the name and email of a contact with whom you want to share our reports, or the name, job title and contact information of a member of staff for whom you are purchasing a training. Do not give us information about others unless you are authorized or have their permission to do so. We will use their information for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy.
- Information automatically collected
The Digital Services automatically log certain information about visits to the Digital Services, such as the number and frequency of visitors, technical information about browsers and devices used to access the Digital Services, and information about crashes or other technical issues. In addition, in accordance with your expressed preferences, we and third parties automatically collect certain information through cookies and similar tools (referred collectively as “Cookies and Similar Technologies”) about your activities over time across the Digital Services as well as across third-party sites, apps or other media. Some Cookies and Similar Technologies assign or collect unique cookie IDs or other identifiers associated with your browser or device. Cookies and Similar Technologies may collect information while you are using the Digital Services or while they are running in the background of your device. More information about the Cookies and Similar Technologies used on the Digital Services, including how to manage your preferences, is set out in the Cookie Policy.
The information automatically collected includes the following:
- Information about your computer, device, browser and operating system (e.g., type, model, or version).
- Internet protocol (IP) address, which is used to derive your general geographic area (e.g., city and country).
- Device identifiers.
- Information about your interactions with the Digital Services, including browsing activities and clickstream data that reflect the Materials you have accessed, clicked on, or viewed.
- Information about how you accessed the Digital Services, including details about websites or apps visited immediately before or after accessing a Digital Service.
- Demographic and interests information (e.g., region, industry sector, preferred language, topics of interest).
- Information about your interactions with email messages and other communications, such as whether you opened or forwarded the email or clicked on links contained in the email.
For more information about the use of automated means in the context of interest-based advertising and how you can limit tracking, see Cookie Policy.
HOW WE USE INFORMATION WE OBTAIN
Online Fiction Workshop uses the information we obtain:
- To provide you with the Digital Services. This service includes:
- Processing your requests regarding the Digital Services and the Materials.
- Providing customer assistance or technical support.
- Customizing the Digital Services and Materials, providing recommendations and enhancing the quality and your overall experience with the Digital Services, including by retaining your user preferences or optimizing the presentation of the Digital Services and Materials based on your industry or interests and for the browser or device you use to access the Digital Services.
- Maintaining, operating, improving and developing the Digital Services, Materials and other Online Fiction Workshop products and services.
- Learning about users of the Digital Services and analyzing how you and others interact with and respond to the Digital Services and Materials, including by measuring and optimizing usage, reliability and performance, conducting market research, performing analytics, and supporting our operations (e.g., for accounting, auditing, financial, legal or other purposes).
- To communicate with you. This activity includes:
- Sending you Materials you have requested or which we believe are of interest to you.
- Sending you informational messages about the Digital Services (e.g., to confirm your access to the relevant Materials or notify you of changes to a Digital Service).
- Delivering marketing or promotional communications.
- Responding to your questions or addressing your requests.
- Providing you with surveys regarding the Digital Services.
- To protect our rights or the rights of others. This protection includes:
- Detecting, preventing and responding to fraud or potentially illegal activities, misuse of the Digital Services, intellectual property infringement or other violations of law, this Privacy Policy, our Terms of Use or other Online Fiction Workshop policies.
- Performing audits, assessments and testing or troubleshooting activities.
- Backing up our systems (including for disaster recovery purposes) and enhancing the overall security of the Digital Services.
- Complying with and enforcing applicable legal requirements (including legal process such as court orders, warrants, regulatory investigations, or subpoenas) and/or fulfilling contractual obligations.
LEGAL BASIS FOR USING THE INFORMATION
We must have a legal basis to process your personal information. The legal basis will be one of the following:
- To honor our contractual obligations to you when we use your information to provide you with the Digital Services or to provide access or a subscription to Materials. For example, when you purchase a subscription from us, it will be necessary to process your payment details and contact details to confirm and provide the subscription. Similarly, when you sign up for a mobile app, we will need to process your registration information so that we can set up your user account and provide the relevant services to you. Failure to provide the information could prevent or delay the fulfillment of the contractual obligations.
- To comply with our legal obligations when we use your information to protect our rights or the rights of others and when we share your information with other parties where required by law or as necessary to protect our rights. We are required to collect certain information from you when processing your subscription payment for tax or financial reporting reasons. Similarly, local tax law will often require us to keep information about contest or promotion participants for audit and taxation purposes.
- To meet our legitimate interests when we use your information to pro- vide you with the Digital Services, to communicate with you and for advertising and marketing purposes, including interest-based advertising or when we share your information with our affiliates and subsidiaries, in the context of a corporate transaction or with our business partners, social media platforms and advertisers. Our legitimate interests include improving the Digital Services, our products and services, understanding how you interact with our Digital Services and publications, deriving knowledge to develop new products and services, and customizing the Digital Services by making them more relevant and interesting to you and others. When we process personal information to meet our legitimate interests, we put in place safeguards to help ensure that your privacy is given due regard.
- We will obtain your consent to collect and use certain types of personal information when we are required to do so by law (for example, in relation to sharing of your information with third parties for their own marketing activities). If we ask for your consent to process your personal information, you can withdraw your consent at any time by contacting us using the details at the end of this Privacy Policy.
Information on our use of cookies and similar technologies
Our Digital Services use Cookies and Similar Technologies to provide our Services, to understand how our Services are used and for advertising purposes as explained in this Privacy Policy. You can read more about the types of Cookies and Similar Technologies we use, why we use them and how you can exercise your choices in our Cookie Policy.
HOW WE SHARE THE INFORMATION
Online Fiction Workshop shares the information we obtain with:
- Affiliates and Subsidiaries. Online Fiction Workshop currently has no affiliates and subsidiaries, but in the future, we may share your information within the Online Fiction Workshop family of companies. For example, we may share your browsing and subscription history on our website with other Online Fiction Workshop companies for marketing purposes and internal reporting. A list of Online Fiction Workshop companies, if any, is available on request.
- Corporate Subscribers. With respect to corporate subscriptions or memberships, we may share (now or in the future) your information with the organization that purchased the subscription or membership.
- Training/Certification Issuers. Where applicable to products or services obtained through the Digital Services, we share your information with professional teaching, education, and/or examining bodies.
- Service Providers. In connection with the operation of the Digital Services and provision of Materials, we engage various third parties to provide services or handle transactions on our behalf. These service providers use the information we provide to them as necessary or appropriate for the performance of their services.
- Advertising- and Marketing-Related Service Providers. We may provide your information to entities that create, deliver and assess our advertising or marketing campaigns.
- Business Partners. We may share your information with business partners, such as when we administer a conference or a course, provide a webinar in conjunction with an industry partner or when we issue a joint publication.
- Social Media Platforms. If you interact with social media widgets on the Digital Services, or share the Materials using social media share buttons, Social Media Platforms may collect information. Online Fiction Workshop does not control this sharing and is not responsible for the privacy practices of the Social Media Platforms with which you engage.
YOUR RIGHTS OVER YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
In certain circumstances, you have a right to access or object to the use of personal information held about you (including in relation to direct marketing and interest-based advertising). You can also ask us to rectify, update, erase, restrict or to share your information in a usable format with another company. Such requests are subject to applicable law.
We encourage you to contact us to update or correct your information if it changes or if the personal information we hold about you is inaccurate.
If you would like to discuss or exercise such rights, please contact us using the details provided in the “Contact Us” section below. We will contact you if we need additional information from you in order to honor your requests.
YOUR CHOICES, INCLUDING OPT-OUTS
Direct Marketing Opt-Outs
You may opt out of receiving marketing or promotional emails (when and if applicable) from us by communicating your intentions sending us an email. Depending on the Digital Service you use, you may also be able to opt out of marketing or promotional emails by logging into your account and managing your email preferences. Please keep in mind that if you opt out of receiving marketing or promotional emails we will still send you transactional emails or other communications relating to your use of the Digital Services or Materials (e.g., to confirm your access to the relevant Materials, to inform you of changes to a Digital Service or in response to your password recovery request). You may request that we stop sending you direct mail marketing communications by notifying by email
HOW WE PROTECT AND STORE YOUR INFORMATION
Online Fiction Workshop uses a variety of security technologies and procedures to help protect information from unauthorized access, use or disclosure. However, please be aware that no security measure is perfect or impenetrable. Therefore, while we make reasonable efforts to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security. If you register an account on the Digital Services, you are responsible for keeping your password secure. Do not share your login credentials with others.
We will keep your personal information for as long as we have a relationship with you. Once our relationship with you has come to an end, we will retain your personal information for a period of time that enables us to:
- Maintain business records for analysis, understanding market trends and/or audit purposes and to improve our Digital Services.
- Comply with record retention requirements under applicable laws or other relevant legal or regulatory requirements.
- Defend, establish, exercise or bring any existing or potential legal claims.
- Carry out fraud detection and prevention.
- Deal with any complaints regarding the Digital Services, our products and services.
We will delete your personal information when it is no longer required for these purposes. If there is any information that we are unable, for technical reasons, to delete from our systems, we will put in place appropriate measures to prevent any further processing or use of the data.
INTERNATIONAL DATA TRANSFER & PRIVACY SHIELD NOTICE
Online Fiction Workshop operates the Digital Services globally, including in the United States. Any information we obtain about you in connection with your use of the Digital Services may be processed and stored in the United States or other countries. The laws of these countries may not provide the same level protection for your personal information as your home country.
When Online Fiction Workshop transfers your personal information from the European Economic Area (EEA) or Switzerland to a non-EEA country, we rely on one or more of the following legal mechanisms: the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield, Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield, Standard Contractual Clauses, or your consent.
CHILDREN’S PRIVACY RIGHTS
The Digital Services are not intended for use by children, especially those under the age of 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 13.
THIRD-PARTY WEBSITES, MOBILE APPS OR OTHER SERVICES
We are not responsible for the privacy practices of any non-Online Fiction Workshop operated websites, mobile apps or other services and channels, and we encourage you to review the privacy policies or notices published by relevant third parties.
CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY
We will update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our privacy practices or applicable laws. In accordance with applicable law, we may make such changes without prior notice. We will publish the updated version on the relevant Digital Services and indicate at the top of the Privacy Policy when it was most recently updated. Your use of the Digital Services will be governed by the then-current version of the Privacy Policy. Where changes to this Privacy Policy have a fundamental impact on the nature of the processing or otherwise have a substantial impact on you and where required by applicable law, we will give you advanced notice so that you have the opportunity to exercise your rights (e.g. to object to the processing).
CONTACT US
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us by email at dave@onlinefictionworkshop.com
Cookie Policy
As already specified in the Privacy Policy, the website uses cookies.
Definition of cookies
A cookie is a small file that is sent to your browser and saved on your device when you visit a website. Cookies allow efficient operation of the Site and improve its performances, provide information to the site owner for statistical or advertising purposes, mainly to customize your browsing experience by re- membering your preferences. The Site uses different types of first-party cookies and third parties (pre- pared and managed by third parties based on its own privacy policy and not under the control of us, here below some explanatory details:
technical cookies (session or navigation): They guarantee the normal navigation and use of the web- site and are therefore aimed at making functional and optimizing the same navigation within the site.
functionality cookies: They are strictly necessary to provide services explicitly requested by the user. analytical first/third-party cookies: They are used and made exclusively to collect information in an aggregate and anonymous form, on the number of users and on how users visit the site.
Enabling and disabling cookies from the Browser
Most browsers are configured to accept, control or possibly disable cookies through settings. We re- mind you, however, that disabling cookies or navigation functions can cause unsatisfactory operation of the site and / or limit the service we offer.
Third Party Cookies
The website currently uses the following third-party resources that use cookies:
- Google Analytics & Tags: We may use these resources to collect and analyze certain metrics data inherently to the user’s session data and logs, such as IP address, duration of the visit, de- vice used for the visit, data inherent to the version of the Web Browser and similar information. This information is collected in a totally anonymous way, since it not gives specific data that directly conducts to a specific user. Google Analytics uses its own Cookies. Place of data processing: U.S., Privacy Policy, Opt-Out.
- Mailchimp: We use this resource to properly manage and elaborate email operations and procedures. Place of data processing: U.S., Privacy Policy.
- HotJar Analytics: We use this resource similarly to Google Analytics purposes. Place of data processing: U.S., Privacy Policy.
Right to deny the cookie usage consent
The user has the opportunity to deny the consent in cookie usage simply visiting the preference panel of the Web Browser used for the website visit. In any case, we clearly state that any potential denial in cookie usage consent by the user may comport a potential limitation during the website use.