LEGAL

Privacy Policy

Last updated: October 11, 2026

1: Who we are and what this policy covers

Philosopher by Night is the author website and shop of Pablo Camacho. In this policy, "we," "us," and "our" refer to Pablo Camacho operating Philosopher by Night. We are responsible for deciding how personal information is used for the activities described here and, where applicable, act as its data controller.

This policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and retain personal information when you visit philosopherbynight.com, read our articles, subscribe to the poetry or After Dark mailing lists, request free books or stories, buy products or digital downloads, use a customer account, access Becoming a Poet, or contact us about orders, signed books, wholesale purchases, interviews, or collaborations.

Privacy contact: pablocamacho@philosopherbynight.com. You may use this address for questions, requests, complaints, and accessible copies of this policy.

Independent booksellers and other websites linked from our site have their own privacy practices. This policy covers information we process; it does not replace their notices or limit rights you have under applicable law.

2: Information we collect and where it comes from

We collect information you provide directly, information generated when you interact with our site or emails, and information supplied by providers helping us deliver purchases and services. The information depends on which features you use.

• Contact and correspondence. Your name, email address, optional telephone number, messages, and details you provide about an inquiry, order problem, collaboration, or business purchase. If you email us, we also receive the information included in the email and its attachments.

• Newsletter and free content. Your email address, the list you select, signup and consent records, preferences, and unsubscribe status. Our email service may record delivery, link clicks, and email opens using tracking technologies where enabled and legally permitted. Open information can be inaccurate because of email privacy features.

• Orders and delivery. Purchaser and recipient names, billing and shipping addresses, email address, telephone number if provided, products, sizes or other options, order value, discounts, payment status, transaction references, and delivery or refund information. If you send a gift, provide only the recipient information needed to deliver it and ensure you are entitled to share it.

• Accounts and course activity. Account contact details, sign-in information handled by our account platform, purchases and access entitlements, and course progress or completion information recorded by the learning platform. If you choose to send us creative work or feedback, we receive that content and associated correspondence.

• Device and activity information. IP address, approximate location inferred from it, browser and device characteristics, referring page, pages and products viewed, site searches, clicks, timestamps, and interactions with site features. Cookies, pixels, and similar tools can assign or read browser identifiers. Our providers also process technical logs for hosting, security, and fraud prevention.

• Provider records. Payment confirmations, fulfillment and carrier updates, customer-support records, and analytics or advertising reports from the providers described below. Referral platforms may report activity associated with links we share.

Payment information entered in the payment interface is processed by the payment services offered at checkout. Our ordinary order records contain transaction information rather than full card numbers or card security codes. Please do not send payment-card details, passwords, government identifiers, or sensitive personal information by email.

Our literary content discusses personal experiences, faith, relationships, and wellbeing, but we do not ask you to disclose medical information, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, or other sensitive characteristics to browse or purchase. Messages or creative work you voluntarily send may nevertheless contain sensitive information. Share only what is necessary for your request.

3: How we use information

We use information to operate and secure the website; answer inquiries; administer accounts and course access; process payments, orders, deliveries, refunds, and customer support; provide requested downloads and free content; maintain business records; and comply with legal duties.

We also use information to send newsletters and offers you choose to receive, remember preferences, understand how visitors use the site, evaluate campaigns and referrals, and, where enabled and permitted, deliver or measure advertising. Optional tracking and marketing choices are explained in sections 5 and 6.

Where the EU or UK GDPR applies, our legal bases are:

• Contract or steps you request before a contract: handling purchases, delivering products and downloads, providing paid course access, and answering questions necessary to arrange those services.

• Consent: optional tracking that requires consent, newsletter subscriptions, and any other activity for which we specifically request your permission. You may withdraw consent without affecting the lawfulness of earlier processing.

• Legitimate interests: responding to general correspondence, maintaining and protecting our business and website, preventing misuse, and establishing or defending legal claims, where those interests are not overridden by your rights. This basis does not replace consent where consent is required.

• Legal obligations: accounting and tax records, responding to valid legal demands, and handling privacy or consumer-rights obligations.

You can generally browse without providing contact details. Information needed for a purchase, account, or delivery is required to provide that service. Marketing subscriptions and optional information are voluntary.

4: Who receives information

We disclose information relevant to the particular service or purpose, including to the following recipients:

• Squarespace: website hosting, commerce, customer accounts, course functionality, forms, site analytics, and the email services used with our site. Its own platform-related processing is described in the Squarespace Privacy Policy.

• Payment and fraud-prevention providers: the payment services offered at checkout and their financial partners, to authorize and process transactions, prevent fraud, and manage refunds and disputes. Their notices are available through their payment interfaces.

• Printing, fulfillment, and delivery providers: the print-on-demand partners used for the product you order, their production partners, and carriers. They receive order and recipient details needed to produce, dispatch, and deliver the product and resolve delivery problems.

• Email and business-service providers: providers that deliver messages, maintain our business email and records, or assist with customer support and professional advice, subject to the access needed for their work.

• Analytics, advertising, and media providers: Squarespace, Google Analytics, Google advertising services, Pinterest, and embedded-content providers such as YouTube and Embedly, when their relevant features are active. Section 5 describes the information and choices involved.

• Legal and business recipients: advisers, insurers, public authorities, or other parties when reasonably necessary to meet a legal obligation, address fraud or threats, protect legal rights, or handle a business transfer, with protections required by law.

Some providers process information on our behalf; others, including payment services, carriers, advertising platforms, and independent retailers, may also act for their own purposes under their privacy notices. We remain responsible for obligations that apply to our own collection, use, and disclosure.

5: Cookies, analytics, advertising, and embedded content

Cookies are small files stored on your device. Pixels, tags, local storage, and similar technologies can also collect information about visits and interactions. We use the following categories:

• Necessary technologies: support functions such as secure hosting, authentication, shopping carts, fraud prevention, and remembering privacy choices. They operate when needed to provide the service you request.

• Analytics technologies: Squarespace analytics and Google Analytics help measure visits and interactions. These tools can process device identifiers, IP-derived information, referral information, and site activity.

• Advertising technologies: Google advertising services and the Pinterest tag can process device and browser identifiers, pages visited, interactions, and advertising or conversion events. These services may connect activity on our site with activity on other websites, apps, or their own services to measure campaigns and personalize advertising.

• Embedded content: video and other third-party content can disclose technical information, including your IP address and the page visited, to its provider when loaded. The provider may also use cookies or connect that activity to your account with it.

For optional technologies that require consent, we request permission before activating them. Use Cookie preferences at the bottom of the site to accept, reject, or change optional categories. Rejecting optional technologies should not prevent ordinary browsing or purchases, although some embedded content may need permission to load. Closing a notice or continuing to browse does not, by itself, provide consent.

Some cookies last only for a browser session; others remain until they expire or are deleted. The cookie information accompanying our privacy controls identifies the active optional technologies, their providers, purposes, and durations. Squarespace also publishes information about the cookies its platform uses.

You may block or delete cookies through your browser. Doing so can affect carts, sign-in, and remembered choices. Your preferences may need to be set again when you change devices or browsers or clear site data. Browser controls alone do not necessarily stop every form of information collection.

Read how Google uses information from partner sites and the Pinterest Privacy Policy for their practices and available controls. Advertising partners may collect information about activity over time and across different websites when their features are enabled.

We do not sell our newsletter contact lists for money. Disclosures of identifiers and online activity to advertising partners can nevertheless qualify as a "sale," "sharing," or "targeted advertising" under applicable privacy laws, even without a cash payment. Where those laws apply, you may opt out through our privacy controls or by contacting us. We process legally recognized opt-out preference signals, including Global Privacy Control, where required. A signal generally applies to the browser or device sending it and, where required and identifiable, associated account information.

Our site does not respond separately to the older browser Do Not Track setting. Do Not Track is different from Global Privacy Control and does not replace the rights or choices described above.

6: Newsletters, free gifts, and service messages

When you join a mailing list, we use your information to send the content and updates described at signup. The poetry newsletter and After Dark list are separate choices. Joining one does not automatically subscribe you to the other. Offers for free books, stories, or discount codes explain the subscription involved at the point of signup.

You can unsubscribe using the link in a marketing email or by emailing our privacy contact. Tell us if you want to leave one list or all marketing lists. We process opt-out requests promptly and within applicable legal deadlines. We keep limited suppression information where needed to respect your choice.

Buying a product or opening an account does not require you to subscribe to marketing. Unsubscribing does not prevent messages reasonably necessary to complete an order, deliver requested content, administer course access, address security, or meet legal duties. We do not treat marketing messages as necessary service messages merely because you are a customer.

Where email tracking requires consent, we obtain it before using that tracking. You may also block remote images in your email app, although this may not prevent every measurement method.

7: How long we keep information

We keep personal information only for as long as reasonably needed for its purpose and applicable obligations. The criteria differ by record:

• Orders, payments, and tax records: for fulfillment and support, followed by the applicable accounting, tax, chargeback, warranty, and legal-claim periods.

• Accounts and course records: while needed to provide the access you purchased or requested, and afterwards only for a justified legal or administrative purpose. Closing an account may affect access and does not require deletion of records we must retain by law.

• Inquiries and correspondence: until the matter is resolved and any proportionate follow-up, dispute, or legal-claim period has ended.

• Marketing records: while you remain subscribed or another lawful basis permits the communication. We retain the minimum consent and suppression records needed to demonstrate and honor your choices.

• Analytics, advertising, and technical records: for the configured measurement or security period, with cookie expiry and provider retention settings taken into account. Information genuinely anonymized so it is no longer personal information may be retained longer.

When information is no longer needed, we delete or anonymize it, subject to lawful holds and backup cycles. Where deletion from a backup cannot occur immediately, retained copies remain protected and are not restored for ordinary use without honoring applicable deletion requests. Contact us for information about the retention period relevant to your records.

8: Security

We use technical and organizational measures designed to protect personal information against unauthorized access, loss, and misuse. The site uses HTTPS, and hosting, account, payment, and other providers supply security measures for their services. No website, email system, or storage method can be guaranteed completely secure.

Please use a unique password for your account and tell us promptly if you suspect unauthorized access involving our services. We address security incidents and provide notices to affected people or authorities when required by law. This section does not waive our legal obligations or your rights.

9: International processing

We operate in the United States. Our service providers may process information in the United States and other countries, whose privacy laws may differ from those where you live.

For transfers subject to EU, UK, or other international-transfer restrictions, we use a transfer mechanism permitted by the relevant law. Depending on the provider and transfer, this may be a valid adequacy decision or appropriate contractual safeguards, such as European Commission Standard Contractual Clauses and applicable UK arrangements. Any reliance on a data privacy framework depends on the recipient's current certification and the transfer being covered.

You can contact us for information about the safeguards used for a relevant transfer and, where applicable, a copy, with necessary redactions to protect confidential information. Visiting the site is not, by itself, consent to an international transfer.

10: Your privacy choices and requests

Email pablocamacho@philosopherbynight.com to ask about your information, update it, request deletion, or exercise applicable rights. You do not need to create an account to make a request. Include enough information to help us locate your records, such as the email address used with us and the nature of your request. Do not email passwords or identity documents unless we arrange a suitable secure method and the information is necessary.

We verify identity proportionately when needed to protect information. An authorized representative may make a request where permitted; we may need to verify their authority and your identity. We do not require identity verification merely to apply a browser-based advertising opt-out when the law does not allow it.

Depending on your location and the law's application to our processing, your rights may include access or confirmation, a copy of your information, correction, deletion, portability, restriction, objection, withdrawal of consent, and opt-outs from sale, sharing, targeted advertising, or certain profiling. You may also have rights concerning sensitive information or decisions based solely on automated processing that have legal or similarly significant effects.

Rights have exceptions, including information needed for legal obligations and certain security or legal-claim purposes. We explain any refusal and available review options. Requests are generally free; a fee or refusal is used only when the applicable law allows it, with an explanation.

We respond within the applicable legal timeframe, generally one month for EU or UK requests and generally 45 days for requests covered by many US state privacy laws, unless a different deadline or permitted extension applies. We notify you of an extension where required. Where an appeal is available, email the same address with "Privacy appeal" and explain the decision you want reviewed. You can also complain to the appropriate regulator.

11: Additional information for US residents

US state privacy rights depend on your residence, the type of information, and whether the relevant law covers our business and processing. Where applicable, these may include the rights described in section 10 and the right not to receive unlawful discrimination for exercising them. We do not require a waiver of statutory privacy rights to make an ordinary purchase.

Sections 2 through 7 describe the categories of information, sources, purposes, recipients, advertising disclosures, and retention criteria. Our privacy controls and email contact are available for requests and applicable advertising opt-outs. An advertising opt-out does not stop necessary order fulfillment or all advertising; it limits the processing covered by that choice.

California residents may also request information about disclosures for third parties' own direct marketing under California's Shine the Light law, to the extent that law applies. Send a request to our privacy contact identifying it as a California direct-marketing disclosure request.

12: Additional information for people in Europe and the United Kingdom

Where EU or UK data protection law applies, you may exercise the relevant rights in section 10. You may object at any time to processing for direct marketing, including related profiling. For other processing based on legitimate interests, you may object for reasons connected with your situation. The purposes and legal bases are described in section 3.

You may complain to the data protection authority in the relevant EEA country or to the UK Information Commissioner's Office. The European Data Protection Board lists EEA supervisory authorities. You do not have to contact us before using a regulator's complaint process.

13: Children and younger visitors

Our services are intended for a general audience and are not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect their personal information. If you believe a child under 13 has provided information, contact us so we can investigate and delete it where required.

Where a higher age or parental authorization is required by applicable law for a particular service or consent, we follow that requirement. A general age statement does not replace protections required when we have knowledge that a user is a child. We do not knowingly sell or share children's information for targeted advertising. Some fiction and After Dark content contains mature themes and is not suitable for all ages.

14: External links, public content, and affiliate relationships

Our site links to booksellers, Books2Read, social networks, review sites, and other external services. Following a link takes you to a service with its own privacy notice and controls. An affiliate link may contain a referral identifier and allow its provider to associate a visit or purchase with our recommendation. This does not mean that we receive your complete customer account or payment information from the external seller.

Some links earn us a commission if you make a qualifying purchase. Relevant commercial relationships are disclosed with the content. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

If you post a comment, review, or other material through a public feature, that material and your display name may be visible to others. Please avoid including private information in public submissions. We seek any permission required before using privately submitted work, correspondence, or identifying information in promotional materials.

15: Changes to this policy

We update this policy when our practices or legal obligations change and show the revised date above. For material changes, we provide an appropriate additional notice, such as a prominent website notice or an email, where required. If a new use requires consent, we obtain it before making that use. Continued browsing is not treated as consent to a new activity requiring your permission.

For questions or help exercising your choices, contact pablocamacho@philosopherbynight.com.

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