What we collect, why we collect it, and what you can ask us to do with it.
Breath and Words is a small independent magazine. We collect very little, we do not sell anything to anyone, and we do not track you around the internet. This page says exactly what happens to what you send us.
Who we are
Breath and Words is published by Sharyn with a Why, a sole trader based in the United Kingdom. She is the data controller, which means she decides what happens to the information on this site and she is responsible for it.
Write to her at hello@breathandwords.com about anything on this page.
If you send us an article or an event
The submission form asks for your name, your email address, your website, your social handle, your training and who you trained with, any accreditation you hold, a short bio in your own words, and whatever you are sending us. You can attach a document and a photograph of yourself.
What happens to it. It arrives by email to Sharyn and it is also stored on this website so that nothing gets lost between the form and the inbox. She reads it and replies to you.
Why we are allowed to hold it. You sent it to us so that we would consider publishing it, and holding it is the only way we can. That is what the law calls legitimate interests. Publishing your name, photograph, bio and credentials is separate, and that only happens because you ticked the box saying you are happy to be named and profiled. That tick is consent, and you can withdraw it.
How long we keep it. If we publish your piece, we keep your details for as long as it stays on the site, because your name is attached to your words and your profile page is part of what you were offered. If we do not publish it, we keep the submission for a year and then delete it, so that we have a record of what was sent and what was said if it comes up again.
We keep a record of your consent. When you agree to be named and profiled, we record the date. That record exists to protect you as much as us: it means nobody is ever published who did not say yes.
If you have a profile page here
Your profile shows your name, your photograph, your bio, your training and accreditation, and links to your website and social accounts. All of it is information you gave us and agreed to have published, and all of it is visible to anyone, including search engines.
Ask us and we will change any of it, or take the whole profile down. If you want your published articles removed as well, say so and we will discuss it. We would usually rather keep the piece and remove your details than lose the work, but it is your call, not ours.
If you sign up for the monthly letter
We keep your email address and your name so we can send it to you. That is it. The basis is your consent, given when you signed up.
Every letter has an unsubscribe link at the bottom and it works immediately. Signing up for the letter is separate from sending us an article, and neither one signs you up for the other.
Who else sees your information
Nobody buys it, because we do not sell it. A few companies handle it because they run the machinery this site sits on.
- Host100 hosts this website and runs the email that comes with it, so anything you send through the form passes through their servers.
- MailerLite sends the monthly letter and holds the list of people who asked for it.
- Cloudflare runs the check on our submission form that tells a person from a bot. It sees your IP address and some basic information about your browser while the check runs.
Both are bound by contracts that only let them use your information to provide the service to us. Neither can use it for anything of their own. If we change supplier we will update this page.
Cookies and tracking
Reading this site sets no cookies and runs no tracking. There are no advertising pixels, no social media trackers and no third-party fonts.
Fonts are served from this site rather than from Google. Comments are switched off everywhere.
One thing does happen. The submission form runs a check from Cloudflare called Turnstile, which confirms you are a person and not an automated system. It may set a short-lived cookie while it does that. It does not follow you anywhere, and it only runs on pages with a form on them.
What you can ask us to do
Under UK data protection law you can ask us to show you what we hold about you, correct anything wrong, delete it, stop using it in a particular way, or hand it over in a portable form. Where we are relying on your consent, you can withdraw it at any time, and withdrawing it does not undo anything that was lawful before.
Email hello@breathandwords.com and we will answer within a month, usually much sooner. There is nothing to pay and you do not need a reason.
If you are unhappy with how we have handled it, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk (opens in a new tab). We would rather you told us first so we can put it right.
Children
This site is for adults and we do not knowingly collect anything about children. If you think a child has sent us something, tell us and we will delete it.
Changes to this page
If we change how any of this works, we will update this page and change the date at the top. If the change matters to people who have already written for us, we will email them rather than leaving them to notice.