Privacy policy

Who we are

Darling Reasons is a trading name of Sharon Abraham, a sole trader in the United Kingdom, who is responsible for your information (the “controller”). Contact us at hello@darlingreasons.com or by post at 78 Marco Polo Tower, 6 Bonnet Street, London E16 2BN, United Kingdom.

What we collect and why

The free reasons generator. The name and answers you type are sent to Anthropic, whose AI model drafts your reasons. We show them to you and don't save them. We use this information only because you asked us to draft reasons.

Making your characters and book. Your character choices and your draft are saved in your own browser, on your device. They don't reach us unless you have your characters illustrated, save your book's link or order. Clearing this site's data in your browser deletes them.

Saving your book's link. When you save your book, we store its names, words and illustrations with Cloudflare so you can open it at its own link. Anyone you give the link to can read it, but nothing lists saved books, the link is too long to guess, and we ask search engines not to show it. Only the browser that saved the book can change it. We keep it because you asked us to.

Group books. When you make a group book, we store who it's for, your name, your note and its cover with Cloudflare, so the people you send its link to can see what they're adding to. When someone adds reasons at that link, we store their name and their reasons, and only the browser that made the link can read them. Whoever makes the book chooses which reasons go in it, signed with the names they were sent with.

Open-when letters. When you write open-when letters, the notes you give us for each one go to Anthropic, whose model drafts the letters, and aren't kept after that. Once a set of letters is paid for, we note when each letter is first opened at its link, so it stays open on any device and the person who sent them can see which ones have been opened. The letters' page says so.

Illustrating your characters. When you ask us to illustrate them, we send a sketch of your characters and a written description of them to OpenAI or Google, whose image models illustrate them, and to Anthropic, whose model checks the illustration matches your choices. Descriptions can say something about someone's appearance, faith or health, such as a head covering or a wheelchair. We use them only to draw your characters, and only when you ask.

Keeping the free tools fair. Illustrations and drafting cost us money, so we limit how often each visitor can use them. To count uses, we keep a scrambled form of your internet (IP) address for that day only. Before we illustrate, Cloudflare Turnstile checks that a person, not a program, is asking, usually without you seeing anything, and a cookie remembers the check for half an hour.

Confirming your email for more illustrations. After the first three illustrations each day, we ask you to confirm your email address with a code, which we send through Cloudflare. A cookie remembers that you confirmed it for 30 days, and we count your illustrations against a scrambled form of the address, for that day only. We use these because you asked for more illustrations. If you also tick “Send me ideas and offers”, your address goes on our list (see Emails you ask for, below).

Orders. When you buy, we need your name, email address, the delivery address and your book, and for a printed book a phone number for the courier. Stripe takes payment, so we never see your card details. Lulu prints and delivers printed books, and Prodigi printed open-when letters, so the printer receives the delivery address, the phone number and the book or letters. Before a book is printed, its illustrations go to Replicate, which sharpens them for print and deletes them within an hour. We use this to fulfil your order, which is our contract with you. We also note when a paid book is first opened at its link and when its PDF is first downloaded, so we can show it was delivered if a payment is ever disputed.

Etsy orders. If you bought your book in our Etsy shop, we read that order from Etsy: what you bought, the name and delivery address on it, and whether it's paid. We use it to check the order is yours, with the order number and postcode you give us, and to send your book to that address. A cookie remembers the order in your browser for 30 days, and we keep the order number with your book's order.

Emails about your order. We email you the receipt, when your book is complete, and when a printed copy is on its way, to fulfil your order. About a week after a printed copy is posted, we email once to ask how it went and whether you'd leave a review; we have a legitimate interest in hearing from customers, and you can unsubscribe from it. We send order emails through Cloudflare, and the review request through Resend.

Emails you ask for. If you ask us to email your ten reasons from the generator, or a link back to the book you're making, we send that one email and don't keep your address. If you tick a box or press a button asking for more, we keep your address on our own list, with what you asked for, where and when: reminders to finish your book (an hour and a day after you save it), reminders before the last day to order for Christmas or Valentine's Day (five days and one day before, for where your book is going), or ideas and offers now and then, such as money off another book after an order. We use your address for these because you agreed, and we keep a note of each reminder or offer we send, so none goes twice. Every one of these emails has a link to unsubscribe in one click, which stops them all. We send them through Resend, which also keeps the addresses of people who said yes to ideas and offers, for our newsletters.

Running the website. Every visit passes through Cloudflare, which hosts the site, resizes its images and protects it from attacks. Cloudflare keeps short-term technical logs, including IP addresses, and may set a cookie that's strictly needed for security. We have a legitimate interest in keeping the site safe and working.

Counting visits. Cloudflare Web Analytics tells us how many people visit, which pages they read, which sites sent them and roughly which country they're in, so we can see what's useful. It doesn't use cookies or follow you across other websites, and we never see who you are. We also count, each day, how many visits reach each step of making a book (a book's page, illustrating, the questions, paying) and whether the visit began at one of our ads, pins or emails. That count is only numbers: no cookie, and nothing about you or your device. We have a legitimate interest in knowing how the site is used.

Google Analytics, if you say yes. If you tap Accept on the cookie bar, Google Analytics sets cookies (their names start with _ga) that tell us how people move around the site, such as which pages lead to a finished book. Google receives your IP address and details of your browser and device. We've turned off Google Analytics' advertising features, so it isn't used for ads. Until you accept, Google Analytics doesn't load and sets no cookie. We rely on your consent, and you can change your mind at any time here.

Meta's pixel, if you say yes. We advertise on Facebook and Instagram. If you accept advertising cookies on the cookie bar, Meta's pixel sets cookies (_fbp, and _fbc when you came from one of our ads) that tell us which ads led to a visit, a finished book or an order, and help Meta show our ads to people likely to want one. Meta receives your IP address, details of your browser and the pages you visit here. When you order, we also send Meta the order's value, what you bought, your country and a scrambled (hashed) copy of your email address, so it can match the order to the ad. Meta uses this under its own privacy policy as well. Until you accept, nothing loads from Meta, no cookie is set and nothing about your order is sent. We rely on your consent, and you can change your mind at any time here.

Google Ads, if you say yes. We also advertise on Google search. If you accept advertising cookies on the cookie bar, Google's tag sets cookies (their names start with _gcl) that note when you came from one of our Google ads, and when you order it tells Google the order's value and number, so Google can count which ads led to a book. Google receives your IP address and details of your browser, and uses this under its own privacy policy as well. We don't let Google use it to choose the ads you see. Until you accept, Google's advertising tag doesn't load and sets no cookie. We rely on your consent, and you can change your mind at any time here.

Which page you started from. When you start a book, we note the first page you visited on our site, the page you were on when you started, the website that sent you, such as Google, and any tags on the link that brought you, such as the name of one of our ads or emails. If that link carried an ad company's click code, we note only whose it was, such as Meta's, never the code itself, and if you opened our site inside an app, such as Instagram, we note which app. It stays with your book on your device and goes with your order, and Stripe sees it with your payment, so we can see which pages and ads help people find the right book. We don't use cookies for it and we don't share it with anyone else. We have a legitimate interest in knowing which pages and ads are useful.

Who helps us

We share information only with companies that help run Darling Reasons, under contracts that limit how they use it:

• Cloudflare (hosting, security, images, the person check, counting visits and sending order emails)
• Resend (sending reminders, offers and newsletters to people who asked for them)
• Anthropic (drafting reasons and checking illustrations)
• OpenAI and Google (illustrating characters)
• Google Analytics (counting visits, only if you accept its cookies)
• Meta (measuring our Facebook and Instagram ads, only if you accept its cookies)
• Google Ads (measuring our Google search ads, only if you accept its cookies)
• Stripe (payments)
• Lulu (printing and delivery)
• Prodigi (printing and delivering open-when letters)
• Replicate (sharpening illustrations for print)

Some of these companies handle information outside the UK, including in the United States. When they do, the transfer is protected by safeguards UK law recognises, such as the UK-US data bridge or the UK's standard contract terms. Under their business terms, Anthropic and OpenAI don't use what we send them to train their AI models.

How long we keep it

• Generator answers: not kept after your reasons are drafted.
• Drafts in your browser: until you clear them.
• Saved books and their illustrations: until you ask us to delete them.
• Group book links and the reasons people add at them: until the book's maker or the person who added them asks us to delete them.
• When each open-when letter was opened: as long as the letters themselves.
• When your book was first opened and its PDF first downloaded: as long as the order.
• Scrambled IP and email addresses for limits: until the end of the day.
• The person check's cookie: half an hour. The confirmed-email cookie and the Etsy order cookie: 30 days.
• Google Analytics cookies: 13 months, unless you turn them off or clear them. Google keeps the detailed visit records for two months.
• Meta's cookies: up to 90 days, unless you turn them off or clear them.
• Google Ads cookies: up to 90 days, unless you turn them off or clear them.
• Your email address on our list, with what you asked for and the emails we've sent from it: until you unsubscribe. After that we keep the record of what you agreed to and when you unsubscribed, to show we had your agreement and so we don't email you again.
• Your finished book: two years after your order, so you can reorder it, unless you ask us to delete it sooner.
• Order and payment records: as long as UK tax law requires, currently six years.

Your rights

You can ask for a copy of the information we hold about you, and ask us to correct it, delete it, limit how we use it, or send it to you in a portable format. You can also object to us using it. Email hello@darlingreasons.com and we'll reply within a month. If you're unhappy with how we handle your information, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.

Children

Darling Reasons is for adults. If you're under 18, please ask a parent or guardian to order for you.

Changes

If we change how we handle your information, we'll update this page and its date. See also our terms.