Privacy Policy

Section 1 – Introduction & Scope

Welcome to Poetree Club ("Poetree," "we," "us," or "our"). We operate the poetry community platform available at poetree.club (the "Platform"). This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your personal information when you visit or use our Platform, including any related mobile applications, APIs, or services we offer (collectively, the "Services").

This Policy applies to all users of our Services worldwide. By accessing or using Poetree, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agree to the practices described in this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with the terms of this Privacy Policy, please discontinue use of our Services immediately.

We are committed to protecting your privacy and handling your personal data in an open and transparent manner. This Privacy Policy is designed to comply with applicable data protection laws, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for users in the European Economic Area (EEA), the UK GDPR for users in the United Kingdom, and other applicable privacy laws.

Last updated: May 8, 2026.

Section 2 – Information We Collect

We collect several categories of information to provide and improve our Services. The information we collect depends on how you interact with our Platform.

2.1 Information You Provide Directly

• Account Registration Data: When you create an account, we collect your email address, username, and password (stored in hashed form). You may also provide your full name or display name.
• Profile Information: You may choose to provide additional profile details such as a biography, profile picture, location (city or country), preferred language, favorite poetry styles, and links to external websites or social media profiles.
• Content You Submit: We collect the poems, comments, reviews, messages, and other content you create and share on the Platform.
• Communications: When you contact us via email or through our support channels, we retain the content of those communications along with your contact details.
• Payment Information: If you subscribe to premium features or make purchases, payment processing is handled by our third-party payment processors. We do not store full credit card numbers; we may retain transaction identifiers and billing records.

2.2 Information Collected Automatically

• IP Address: We automatically collect your Internet Protocol (IP) address when you connect to our Services. This helps us detect abuse, enforce geographic restrictions where applicable, and perform analytics.
• Usage Data: We collect information about your interactions with the Platform, including pages visited, features used, search queries entered, poems read or liked, time spent on each page, and actions taken (such as following other users or sharing content).
• Device Information: We collect information about the device you use to access the Platform, including device type (desktop, mobile, tablet), operating system and version, browser type and version, screen resolution, and unique device identifiers.
• Log Data: Our servers automatically record log data including timestamps, referring URLs, error logs, and other diagnostic information. Log data is retained for up to 12 months.
• Cookies and Tracking Technologies: We use cookies, web beacons, pixel tags, and similar technologies as described in Section 5 of this Policy.

2.3 Information from Third Parties

• Social Login Providers: If you choose to register or log in using a third-party service (such as Google or Facebook), we receive certain information from that provider, such as your name, email address, and profile picture, in accordance with the permissions you grant.
• Analytics Providers: We may receive aggregated or anonymized analytics data from third-party analytics services to better understand user behavior on our Platform.

Section 3 – How We Use Your Information

We use the personal information we collect for the following purposes:

3.1 Service Delivery

• To create and maintain your account and authenticate your identity.
• To provide access to the Platform's features, including reading, writing, and sharing poetry.
• To process transactions and manage subscriptions or premium memberships.
• To respond to your inquiries, support requests, and feedback.

3.2 Personalization

• To tailor your experience on the Platform, such as recommending poems, poets, or collections that may interest you based on your reading and interaction history.
• To remember your preferences and settings, such as language selection and display preferences.
• To show you content from poets you follow or topics you have indicated interest in.

3.3 Analytics and Platform Improvement

• To understand how users interact with our Platform in aggregate, identify popular features, and detect bugs or performance issues.
• To conduct internal research and development to improve our Services and develop new features.
• To measure the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns and promotional efforts.

3.4 Communications

• To send you transactional emails, such as account confirmation, password reset instructions, and notifications about activity related to your content (e.g., new comments or likes on your poems).
• To send you newsletters, community updates, and promotional materials about Poetree features and events, where you have given your consent or where we have a legitimate interest and you have not opted out.
• To notify you of changes to our Terms of Service or Privacy Policy.

3.5 Safety and Security

• To detect, investigate, and prevent fraudulent transactions, abuse, harassment, spam, and other harmful activities on our Platform.
• To enforce our Terms of Service and Community Guidelines.
• To comply with legal obligations and respond to lawful requests from law enforcement or regulatory authorities.

3.6 Legal Bases for Processing (GDPR)

For users in the EEA and UK, our legal bases for processing personal data are:

• Contract Performance: Processing necessary to provide the Services you have requested.
• Legitimate Interests: Processing for our legitimate business interests, including security, fraud prevention, and service improvement, where these interests are not overridden by your rights.
• Consent: Where we rely on your consent, such as for optional marketing communications, you may withdraw consent at any time.
• Legal Obligation: Processing required to comply with applicable laws.

Section 4 – Sharing Personal Information

We do not sell your personal information to third parties. We may share your information in the following circumstances:

4.1 Service Providers

We engage trusted third-party companies and individuals to perform services on our behalf, including hosting and infrastructure providers, email delivery services, payment processors, analytics providers, customer support tools, and content delivery networks. These service providers access your personal information only to perform these tasks on our behalf and are obligated not to disclose or use it for any other purpose.

4.2 Legal Requirements

We may disclose your personal information if required to do so by law, or in the good-faith belief that such action is necessary to: (a) comply with a legal obligation or valid legal process; (b) protect and defend the rights or property of Poetree Club; (c) prevent or investigate possible wrongdoing in connection with the Services; (d) protect the personal safety of users of the Services or the public; or (e) protect against legal liability.

4.3 Business Transfers

In the event of a merger, acquisition, reorganization, bankruptcy, or sale of all or a portion of our assets, your personal information may be transferred as part of that transaction. We will notify you via email and/or a prominent notice on our Platform of any change in ownership or uses of your personal information, as well as any choices you may have regarding your personal information.

4.4 Public Profile and User-Generated Content

Information you include in your public profile (such as your username, biography, and profile picture) and content you post publicly (such as poems, comments, and reviews) is visible to other users of the Platform and may be indexed by search engines. Please exercise caution about the personal information you choose to include in your public content.

4.5 Aggregated or Anonymized Data

We may share aggregated or de-identified information, which cannot reasonably be used to identify you, with third parties for research, marketing, analytics, and other purposes.

Section 5 – Cookies & Tracking Technologies

We use cookies and similar tracking technologies to enhance your experience on our Platform. This section explains what these technologies are and how we use them.

5.1 What Are Cookies?

Cookies are small text files that are placed on your device when you visit a website. They allow the website to recognize your device and remember certain information about your visit, such as your preferences and login status.

5.2 Types of Cookies We Use

• Essential / Session Cookies: These cookies are strictly necessary for the operation of our Platform. They enable core functionality such as user authentication (keeping you logged in), maintaining your session across pages, and securing the Platform against cross-site request forgery. Without these cookies, the Services cannot function properly, and they cannot be disabled.
• Preference Cookies: These cookies remember your settings and preferences, such as language selection, display theme, and other customization options, so you do not have to re-enter them on each visit.
• Analytics Cookies: We use analytics cookies (including those from third-party providers such as Google Analytics or similar services) to collect information about how users interact with our Platform, including which pages are visited most frequently and how users navigate between pages. This information helps us improve the structure and content of our Platform. Analytics data is collected in aggregate and is generally not linked to your personal identity.
• Marketing Cookies: Where you have consented, we or our advertising partners may place marketing cookies to track your interests and show you relevant advertising on or off our Platform.

5.3 Third-Party Tracking

Some third-party services we use may set their own cookies on your device. We do not control these cookies and they are subject to the privacy policies of the respective third parties.

5.4 Your Cookie Choices

You have the right to opt out of non-essential cookies. You can do this through our cookie consent banner when you first visit the Platform. You can also manage cookies through your browser settings — most browsers allow you to refuse or delete cookies. Note that disabling certain cookies may affect the functionality of our Services. Additionally, you can opt out of Google Analytics by installing the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on available at tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

Section 6 – Data Retention

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.

• Account Data: We retain your account data (including your email address, profile information, and content) for as long as your account remains active. If you delete your account, we will delete or anonymize your personal information within 30 days, except as noted below.
• Content: Poems and other content you have published publicly may remain visible on the Platform after account deletion if they have been incorporated into community collections or if removal would harm other users' experience; in such cases, your identifying information will be removed and the content attributed to "Anonymous" or deleted per your request.
• Log Data: Server logs and access logs are retained for up to 12 months for security, debugging, and fraud prevention purposes, after which they are deleted or anonymized.
• Financial Records: Transaction and billing records are retained for the period required by applicable tax and financial regulations, typically 5–7 years.
• Legal Holds: If we are involved in litigation or receive a legal obligation to preserve data, we may retain relevant information beyond the standard retention periods until the legal matter is resolved.

Section 7 – Your Rights

Depending on your location, you may have certain rights regarding your personal information. Users in the EEA, UK, and other jurisdictions with applicable data protection laws have the following rights:

• Right of Access: You have the right to request a copy of the personal information we hold about you, along with information about how we process it.
• Right to Rectification: You have the right to request that we correct any inaccurate or incomplete personal information we hold about you.
• Right to Erasure ("Right to be Forgotten"): You have the right to request that we delete your personal information in certain circumstances, such as when the information is no longer necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, or when you withdraw consent and there is no other legal basis for processing.
• Right to Data Portability: You have the right to receive your personal information in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format, and to transmit that information to another controller where technically feasible.
• Right to Object: You have the right to object to our processing of your personal information where we rely on legitimate interests as our legal basis, or where we process your data for direct marketing purposes.
• Right to Restriction of Processing: You have the right to request that we restrict the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances, such as while a dispute about accuracy is being resolved.
• Right to Withdraw Consent: Where we rely on your consent to process personal information, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. Withdrawal of consent does not affect the lawfulness of processing that occurred before the withdrawal.
• Right to Lodge a Complaint: If you believe we have not handled your personal information in accordance with applicable law, you have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority (DPA). For users in the EU, you can find your local DPA at edpb.europa.eu/about-edpb/about-edpb/members_en.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at [email protected]. We will respond to your request within 30 days (or within the timeframe required by applicable law). We may need to verify your identity before processing your request.

Section 8 – Security

We take the security of your personal information seriously and implement a variety of technical and organizational measures to protect it against unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction.

• Encryption: Data transmitted between your browser and our servers is encrypted using Transport Layer Security (TLS). Passwords are stored using strong one-way hashing algorithms.
• Access Controls: Access to personal data within our organization is restricted to employees and contractors who need it to perform their job functions and who are bound by confidentiality obligations.
• Security Monitoring: We monitor our systems for potential vulnerabilities and attacks, and conduct periodic security reviews and penetration testing.
• Incident Response: In the event of a data breach, we have procedures in place to notify affected users and relevant authorities as required by applicable law.

However, no method of transmission over the Internet or method of electronic storage is 100% secure. While we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials and for any activities that occur under your account.

Section 9 – Children's Privacy

Our Services are not directed to children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 years of age. If you are a parent or guardian and believe that your child under 13 has provided us with personal information, please contact us immediately at [email protected]. Upon notification, we will take steps to delete such information from our systems promptly.

If you are between 13 and 18 years of age (or the age of majority in your jurisdiction), you should review this Privacy Policy with a parent or guardian to ensure they understand and agree to our data practices on your behalf.

Section 10 – Age of Consent

By using our Services, you represent that you are at least 13 years old. In jurisdictions where the minimum age for data processing consent is higher (for example, 16 years in certain EU member states), we require parental or guardian consent for users below that age to use our Services and consent to data processing. It is your responsibility to check and comply with the applicable age requirements in your jurisdiction.

For users in the EEA, the age at which a child can give their own consent to information society services varies by member state, ranging from 13 to 16 years of age. Where a child's age is below the threshold set by their member state, we require verifiable parental consent before collecting or processing personal data from that child.

Section 11 – International Data Transfers

Poetree Club is operated from servers located in various regions. If you are accessing our Services from outside the country where our servers are located, your personal information may be transferred across international borders.

For users in the European Economic Area (EEA) or the United Kingdom, we ensure that transfers of personal data to countries outside the EEA or UK that do not have an adequate level of data protection are subject to appropriate safeguards, including:

• Adequacy Decisions: Where the European Commission has issued an adequacy decision recognizing that the destination country provides an equivalent level of protection to that of the EU.
• Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs): Where no adequacy decision applies, we use the Standard Contractual Clauses approved by the European Commission, which impose data protection obligations on the parties to the transfer.
• Other Appropriate Safeguards: In limited circumstances, we may rely on other appropriate safeguards such as binding corporate rules, approved codes of conduct, or certification mechanisms.

By using our Services, you acknowledge and agree that your personal information may be transferred to and processed in countries outside your country of residence, including countries that may have different data protection rules than those of your country.

Section 12 – Changes to this Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technology, legal requirements, or other factors. We will notify you of any material changes by:

• Sending an email notification to the email address associated with your account.
• Posting a prominent notice on our Platform prior to the change becoming effective.
• Updating the "Last updated" date at the top of this Privacy Policy.

For non-material changes, we may simply update the Privacy Policy and change the "Last updated" date. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we are protecting the personal information we collect.

Your continued use of the Services after the effective date of any changes constitutes your acceptance of the updated Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to the changes, you should stop using the Services and may request deletion of your account.

Section 13 – Contact Us

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

• Email: [email protected]
• Company: Poetree Club

We take privacy inquiries seriously and will endeavor to respond to your inquiry within 30 days of receipt. If you are in the EEA and believe we have not addressed your concerns adequately, you have the right to contact your local data protection authority.