# Author Forge Privacy Policy **Version:** `author-forge-fresh-privacy-v4` **Operator:** Erikyn Technologies LLC, a Tennessee limited liability company. **Author Forge support and privacy contact:** burkeandshannon@gmail.com. ## Scope and data collected This policy applies to the Author Forge manuscript-report purchase workflow described here. Initial access uses verified email and expiring, revocable, order-specific private report links. This workflow does **not** offer persistent customer registration, passwords, or organization workspaces. If account registration is introduced, this policy will be updated before activation to describe account identifiers, authentication credentials or tokens, organization membership, and access controls. Existing Erikyn product privacy notices may govern those other products separately. For a report request, we collect the customer's email address; uploaded TXT or DOCX manuscript, original filename, parsed word count and cryptographic file hash; quote and order references; accepted policy versions and timestamps; exact price consent; verification and access-token hashes; payment status and Stripe references; support messages; editorial findings and approved HTML report; provider message IDs; and limited technical records needed to operate, secure, and troubleshoot the service. We do not ask the customer to email payment-card details or a manuscript to ordinary support email. The service may record connection metadata and operational logs, including request time, route, and network address. Private token values, manuscript bodies, and report bodies are excluded from application logs. The service does not use advertising or analytics cookies. If future analytics, cookies, or account sessions are introduced, their purposes and controls will be disclosed before use. ## How information is used We use contact and submission information to verify the email address, count words, provide an exact price, create and fulfill the requested order, prepare and deliver an editorial report, respond to support and refund requests, protect the service against abuse, reconcile payment events, comply with law, and keep necessary accounting and security records. We do not publish a manuscript or share it for advertising. We use order email for transactional messages such as verification, receipt/status, and report-ready notice. Marketing messages require a separate lawful basis and are not part of this workflow. ## Manuscript and AI processing The manuscript is staged in private service storage before payment so its actual word count and price can be shown. Access is limited to authorized operators and necessary processors. Automated analysis may help produce editorial findings, which an authorized human reviews before delivery. The current manuscript-report purchase workflow does not transmit customer manuscripts to an external AI provider. Before any customer manuscript is sent to an external AI provider, we will verify and disclose the provider's privacy, data-handling, location, retention, and model-training terms. We will block transmission if those protections cannot be verified. We will not permit model training on a customer manuscript without separate explicit consent. The service is separate from other Erikyn products and uses its own private data directory and order store. A private token limits customer access to an individual order/report, and operator functions require a separate secret through a restricted route. This is not an organization membership model. Shared-machine or email-account compromise can still expose a private link; customers should safeguard their links and report suspected compromise. ## Service providers and payment Stripe processes payment information on its hosted checkout page and returns transaction identifiers and verified payment events. We check the currency and record payment status, amount, order and Stripe references; the service does not receive or store full card numbers. Resend processes the email address and transactional message content to deliver verification, receipt, and report-ready messages. Hosting, backup, support, and any approved AI processing providers may process information only as needed for their roles. We will identify additional material providers, processing countries, and transfer safeguards before they are used for customer manuscripts. ## Retention and deletion Uploaded manuscripts and temporary processing copies are scheduled for deletion **30 days after report delivery**, unless earlier deletion is requested and permitted or a legal hold requires retention. Completed HTML reports remain available for **90 days after delivery** and are then removed from active customer access and storage. The service measures delivery from the first acceptance of the report-ready message by the email provider, after the approved report becomes available. Provider acceptance is not proof of inbox arrival; failed, bounced, or disputed delivery will be investigated and the customer's remedy addressed. The daily cleanup job deletes a standard unpaid quote's staged manuscript once the quote is at least 24 hours old, and a requested custom-quote manuscript once its quote is at least 30 days old. Deletion occurs on the next successful run after the deadline. A confirmed failed payment becomes eligible for cleanup after 24 hours. A payment status under investigation may require the manuscript to be held until the transaction is reconciled. Minimal order, payment, tax/accounting, fraud, consent, and support records may be kept longer when reasonably needed or legally required. Existing application rollback archives contain no customer manuscripts or completed reports, and no scheduled application backup of customer content is enabled for this purchase workflow. Before customer-content backups are introduced, we will update this notice with a verified maximum backup-expiration period and a tested restore process that honors prior deletion and revocation requests. Customer-content backups will not be used for routine report access. ## Access, security, and limitations The service uses separate private storage, restricted file permissions, a backend behind a TLS proxy, hashed private-link tokens, policy-version records, and operator-restricted routes. Payment events must pass signature verification before fulfillment. Sensitive credentials are stored in protected service configuration. We limit access to personnel who need it for fulfillment and support. No method of transmission or storage is perfectly secure; we will investigate suspected unauthorized access and provide legally required notices. ## Requests and rights Customers may request access to their stored order information, correction of contact details, a copy of an available report, earlier deletion where permitted, or information about processing by contacting **burkeandshannon@gmail.com** with the order reference and submission email. We may verify identity before acting, and we may retain records required for law, payment, dispute resolution, or security. If an account feature is introduced, account closure and deletion options will be described at that time. Privacy rights and appeal or complaint procedures vary by location; we will honor applicable rights and explain any lawful exception. Customers can also contact the relevant privacy regulator where the law gives that right. ## Changes and contact We will date and version material changes and require fresh acceptance when a change materially affects an active purchase or new submission. The accepted policy hash and timestamp remain with the order record. Questions and requests go to **burkeandshannon@gmail.com**. Do not send manuscript text, passwords, or card information in ordinary email.