Privacy Policy

Last updated · April 13, 2026

AfterDarkStory ("we", "us") takes your privacy seriously — particularly because the content you read here is personal. This policy describes what we collect, what we don't, and how to reach us if you want any of it changed or deleted.

The short version

• We collect the minimum personal data needed to run your membership.
• We do not sell your data to anyone, ever.
• We do not store your payment card number — Stripe does.
• We do not publish your reading history anywhere, to anyone.
• You can ask us to delete your account and all associated data at any time.

Information We Collect

Account data. Email address, hashed password, plan type, subscription status, chosen starting city, account creation date. Optional: display name.

Billing data. Handled entirely by Stripe. We receive only an opaque customer ID, subscription status, last four digits of card, and card brand — never the full number.

Reading activity. Which episodes you've opened and how far you've scrolled, used exclusively to mark your place and improve our release schedule. This data is never shared.

Technical data. IP address, user-agent string, and approximate country/region, used for security (fraud prevention) and for serving the correct content delivery endpoint.

Information We Do Not Collect

• We do not run cross-site ad trackers. We do not embed Facebook Pixel, TikTok pixel, or any third-party advertising tag.
• We do not access your contacts, photos, camera, microphone, or location.
• We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal data to any third party.

How We Use Your Data

• To provide the Service — authenticate you, deliver content, process payments.
• To communicate with you about releases, account changes, and service issues.
• To detect and prevent fraud, abuse, and unauthorized account sharing.
• To improve the product — aggregate, de-identified analytics only.

Sub-processors

We use the following vendors to run the service. Each is contractually bound to handle your data securely.

• Stripe — payment processing
• Postmark — transactional email
• Cloudflare — DNS and content delivery
• Hetzner / RackNerd — hosting infrastructure

Cookies & Local Storage

We use a single essential cookie for authentication, and local storage for remembering your age-gate confirmation and reading position. We do not use analytics cookies or advertising cookies.

Your Rights

Wherever you live, you may request access to the data we hold about you, corrections to it, or its deletion. Email [email protected] and we will respond within 30 days. EU/UK residents have rights under GDPR; California residents have rights under the CCPA/CPRA; we honour both.

Data Retention

Account data is retained while your account is active and for up to 12 months after deletion, after which it is purged (except where tax law requires us to keep billing records longer).

Children

The Service is not directed at persons under 18. We do not knowingly collect data from minors. If you believe a minor has created an account, contact us immediately.

Contact

Privacy questions: [email protected].
General contact: [email protected].