privacy policy

The Slow Burn Reader ("we," "us," or "our") is committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your personal information when you visit or make a purchase from theslowburnreader.com, including all related pages, features, and services (collectively, the "Platform").

Please read this Privacy Policy carefully. By accessing or using the Platform, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agree to the practices described herein. If you do not agree with the terms of this Privacy Policy, please discontinue use of the Platform immediately.

This Privacy Policy is incorporated into and forms part of our Terms and Conditions. Capitalized terms not defined here have the meanings given to them in the Terms and Conditions.

We reserve the right to update this Privacy Policy at any time. When we do, we will revise the "Last Updated" date above. Material changes will be communicated to registered users via email or a prominent notice on the Platform. Your continued use of the Platform after any update constitutes your acceptance of the revised policy.

We collect information in three ways: information you provide directly, information collected automatically, and information received from third parties.

2.1 Information You Provide Directly

We collect information you voluntarily provide when you:

(a) Create an account, including your name, email address, and password.

(b) Make a purchase, including your name, billing address, shipping address, email address, and payment information. Note that full payment card details are processed and stored by our third-party payment processor and are not retained on our servers.

(c) Enroll in a Membership or Loyalty Program, including your name, email address, and payment information associated with recurring billing.

(d) Register as a Seller or Author, including your name, email address, payment details for commission disbursement, and any business or tax identification information required for compliance purposes.

(e) Subscribe to our email list or newsletter, including your name and email address.

(f) Submit User Content, including reviews, discussion comments, ratings, and any other content you post on the Platform, along with any personal information contained within that content.

(g) Complete a reader quiz or survey, including preferences, reading habits, and any other responses you provide.

(h) Contact us directly, including the content of your message and any personal information you include.

2.2 Information Collected Automatically

When you access or use the Platform, certain information is collected automatically through cookies, pixels, and similar tracking technologies, including:

(a) Device and browser information, such as IP address, browser type and version, operating system, device identifiers, and screen resolution.

(b) Usage data, such as pages visited, time spent on pages, links clicked, referring URLs, and navigation paths through the Platform.

(c) Transaction data, such as products viewed, items added to cart, purchases completed, and order history.

(d) Session data, such as session duration and interaction patterns.

This information is collected using the technologies described in Section 4 below.

2.3 Information Received from Third Parties

We may receive information about you from third-party sources, including:

(a) Payment processors, who confirm transaction status and may provide fraud risk signals.

(b) Fulfillment partners, including print-on-demand and dropship suppliers, who may provide delivery confirmation and shipping status information.

(c) Analytics and marketing platforms, which may provide aggregated or enriched data about user behavior and demographics.

(d) Social media platforms, if you interact with our content on those platforms or use social login features, subject to those platforms' own privacy policies.

We use the information we collect for the following purposes:

(a) To process and fulfill orders, including coordinating with fulfillment partners and communicating order status to you.

(b) To manage your account, including authentication, account security, and providing access to account features.

(c) To operate and administer Membership and Loyalty Programs, including billing, benefit delivery, and program communications.

(d) To process Seller registrations and commission payments, including identity verification and tax compliance where required.

(e) To send transactional communications, including order confirmations, shipping notifications, delivery updates, and account-related notices. These communications are not optional as they are necessary to fulfill your orders and maintain your account.

(f) To send marketing communications, including newsletters, editorial content, promotional offers, and program updates, where you have opted in to receive them. You may opt out at any time as described in Section 7.

(g) To personalize your experience, including displaying relevant product recommendations, content, and offers based on your browsing and purchase history.

(h) To operate and improve the Platform, including diagnosing technical issues, analyzing usage patterns, testing new features, and optimizing platform performance.

(i) To prevent fraud and maintain security, including detecting and investigating suspicious activity, verifying identities, and protecting the integrity of the Platform and its users.

(j) To comply with legal obligations, including responding to lawful requests from government authorities, enforcing our Terms and Conditions, and resolving disputes.

(k) To communicate with you, including responding to inquiries, support requests, and feedback you submit.

4.1 What We Use

We and our third-party service providers use cookies, pixel tags, web beacons, and similar tracking technologies to collect and store information about your interactions with the Platform. These technologies help us operate the Platform, remember your preferences, analyze usage, and deliver relevant communications.

4.2 Types of Cookies We Use

(a) Strictly Necessary Cookies are required for the Platform to function. They enable core features such as shopping cart functionality, session management, and secure login. These cookies cannot be disabled without impairing Platform functionality.

(b) Functional Cookies allow the Platform to remember choices you make, such as your language preference or saved items, to provide a more personalized experience.

(c) Analytics Cookies help us understand how visitors interact with the Platform. We use PostHog for product analytics, which collects behavioral and session data to help us improve the Platform. [FLAG: If you add Google Analytics or any other analytics tool in the future, add it here by name.]

(d) Marketing and Communication Cookies are used to support our email marketing through Klaviyo, enabling us to track email engagement and connect your on-site behavior to your email profile where you have subscribed to our communications.

(e) Third-Party App Cookies may be set by third-party applications integrated into the Platform, including our membership management, loyalty program, review, and customer account tools. These third parties' use of cookies is governed by their own privacy policies.

4.3 Managing Cookies

Most browsers allow you to control cookie settings through their preferences or settings menus. You may disable or delete cookies through your browser settings at any time; however, doing so may impair the functionality of the Platform, including your ability to complete purchases or access your account.

We do not sell your personal information to third parties. We do not rent or trade your personal information for third-party marketing purposes. We share information only in the following circumstances:

5.1 With Sellers for Order Fulfillment

When you purchase a product from an independent Seller on the Platform, we share the information necessary to fulfill your order with that Seller, including your name, shipping address, and order details. Sellers are required to use this information solely for the purpose of fulfilling your order and are prohibited from using it for any other purpose. Sellers' handling of your information is governed by their own privacy practices, which we encourage you to review.

5.2 With Fulfillment and Service Partners

We share order and shipping information with third-party fulfillment partners — including print-on-demand providers, dropship suppliers, and shipping carriers — as necessary to deliver your order. These partners are authorized to use your information only to the extent necessary to provide their services to us.

5.3 With Payment Processors

Payment information is transmitted directly to and processed by our third-party payment processor. We share the transaction details necessary to process your payment and prevent fraud. We do not store full payment card numbers on our servers.

5.4 With Email and Marketing Platforms

We share your name and email address with Klaviyo, our email marketing platform, for the purpose of sending transactional and, where applicable, marketing communications. Klaviyo's use of your data is governed by Klaviyo's Privacy Policy.

5.5 With Analytics Providers

We share usage and behavioral data with PostHog for the purpose of product analytics and Platform improvement. PostHog's use of this data is governed by PostHog's Privacy Policy.

5.6 With Technology and Platform Providers

We share information as necessary with our core technology providers, including Shopify (our e-commerce platform), and our installed applications, including membership management, loyalty program, digital download delivery, and customer account tools. Each provider's use of your data is governed by their own privacy policy.

5.7 For Legal Compliance and Protection

We may disclose your information if we believe in good faith that such disclosure is necessary to: (a) comply with a legal obligation, court order, or valid governmental request; (b) enforce our Terms and Conditions or other agreements; (c) protect the rights, property, or safety of The Slow Burn Reader, our users, or the public; or (d) detect, prevent, or address fraud, security, or technical issues.

5.8 In Connection with a Business Transfer

If The Slow Burn Reader is involved in a merger, acquisition, asset sale, reorganization, or other business transition, your information may be transferred as part of that transaction. We will notify you via email or a prominent notice on the Platform if such a transfer occurs and your information becomes subject to a different privacy policy.

5.9 With Your Consent

We may share your information with third parties in ways not described above when we have obtained your explicit consent to do so.

We retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes described in this Privacy Policy, unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law.

Specifically:

(a) Account information is retained for the duration of your account and for a reasonable period thereafter in case of disputes or legal obligations.

(b) Order and transaction records are retained for a minimum of seven (7) years for tax, accounting, and legal compliance purposes.

(c) Email marketing data is retained until you unsubscribe or request deletion, subject to any legal retention obligations.

(d) Analytics data is retained in accordance with our analytics providers' data retention settings and policies.

(e) Seller records, including payment and tax information, are retained for the period required by applicable tax and financial regulations.

When information is no longer required, we take reasonable steps to securely delete or anonymize it.

7.1 Marketing Communications

You may opt out of receiving marketing emails from us at any time by clicking the "unsubscribe" link in any marketing email or by contacting us at hello@theslowburnreader.com. Please note that even if you opt out of marketing communications, you will continue to receive transactional emails related to your account and orders.

7.2 Account Information

You may review and update your account information at any time by logging into your account on the Platform. If you need assistance updating or correcting your information, contact us at hello@theslowburnreader.com.

7.3 Account Deletion

You may request deletion of your account by contacting us at hello@theslowburnreader.com. We will process your request within a reasonable timeframe. Please note that we may retain certain information after account deletion as required by law or for legitimate business purposes, including transaction records for tax and accounting compliance.

7.4 Cookies

You may manage cookie preferences through your browser settings as described in Section 4.3.

7.5 California Residents — Your Rights Under the CCPA

If you are a California resident, you have the following rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act ("CCPA"), as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act ("CPRA"):

(a) Right to Know. You have the right to request that we disclose the categories and specific pieces of personal information we have collected about you, the categories of sources from which it was collected, the business or commercial purpose for collecting it, and the categories of third parties with whom we share it.

(b) Right to Delete. You have the right to request deletion of personal information we have collected from you, subject to certain exceptions permitted by law.

(c) Right to Correct. You have the right to request correction of inaccurate personal information we hold about you.

(d) Right to Opt Out of Sale or Sharing. We do not sell or share your personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising. If this practice changes, we will update this policy and provide a "Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information" mechanism.

(e) Right to Non-Discrimination. We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your rights under the CCPA.

To exercise any of the above rights, submit a request to hello@theslowburnreader.com. We will verify your identity before processing your request and will respond within 45 days, with an extension of up to an additional 45 days where reasonably necessary.

7.6 Other U.S. State Privacy Rights

Residents of certain other states, including Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, Texas, and others with enacted consumer privacy laws, may have similar rights to those described in Section 7.5. We will honor verifiable requests from residents of any state with applicable privacy rights legislation to the extent required by law. Contact us at hello@theslowburnreader.com to submit a request.

The Platform is intended solely for users who are 18 years of age or older. We do not knowingly collect, solicit, or use personal information from individuals under the age of 18. If we become aware that we have inadvertently collected personal information from a person under 18 without verified parental consent, we will take prompt steps to delete that information from our records.

If you believe we may have collected information from or about a minor, please contact us immediately at hello@theslowburnreader.com.

We implement commercially reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards designed to protect your personal information from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, alteration, and destruction. These measures include secure transmission protocols (SSL/TLS), access controls, and reliance on industry-standard security practices from our core platform and service providers.

However, no method of transmission over the internet and no method of electronic storage is completely secure. We cannot guarantee absolute security of your information. In the event of a data breach that affects your rights or freedoms, we will notify affected users as required by applicable law.

You are responsible for maintaining the security of your account credentials. We are not liable for any unauthorized access to your account resulting from your failure to protect your login information.

The Platform is operated in the United States. If you are accessing the Platform from outside the United States, please be aware that your information will be transferred to, stored, and processed in the United States, where data protection laws may differ from those in your country of residence.

By using the Platform, you consent to the transfer of your information to the United States and its processing in accordance with this Privacy Policy. 

This Privacy Policy applies only to the Platform. It does not apply to any third-party websites, applications, or services linked to or integrated with the Platform. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of third parties, and we encourage you to review the privacy policies of any third-party services you access through or in connection with the Platform.

Key third-party services used by the Platform with their own governing privacy policies include:

• Shopify — e-commerce platform
• Klaviyo — email marketing
• PostHog — product analytics
• Appstle — membership and loyalty program management
• LDT Digital Downloads — digital product delivery

If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or our privacy practices, please contact us:

The Slow Burn Reader Email: hello@theslowburnreader.com

We will respond to all inquiries within a reasonable timeframe.

This Privacy Policy was last updated on 6/8/2026.