Privacy Policy

What we collect: names and contact information (email or phone) for organizers and contributors; organizer account details (name, email address, and a password, which is stored in a protected form rather than as plain text); the photos, written memories, and voice/video recordings contributed to a book; and payment information, which is handled directly by our payment processor and never stored by us.

Why we collect it: to build and personalize your book, to send reminders and the optional finished-book preview, and to process payment.

Who we share it with: the service providers who make Love Gathered work — our payment processor, our email/text provider, our printing partners, and the network provider that securely delivers our site to your browser — solely to perform those functions, never for their own marketing; and, on our public pages only, our website analytics service (Microsoft Clarity), which may also use what it collects as described below.

Text messages: Text messages are optional. Contributors may provide their mobile number and select a separate, unchecked checkbox to receive reminders to add their memory and, if they have separately requested it, a link to the finished book.

Organizers cannot enroll contributors in text messages, and phone numbers supplied by organizers are not treated as consent.

We use a messaging service provider to process mobile numbers and deliver text messages solely on our behalf. We do not sell or share mobile information with third parties or affiliates for marketing or promotional purposes. All the above categories exclude text messaging originator opt-in data and consent; this information will not be shared with any third parties.

To stop receiving text messages, reply STOP or turn off text-message consent under “Your info” using your personal contributor link. Reply HELP for assistance, or visit our Contact page.

Mobile numbers and associated consent records are deleted with other contributor contact information 90 days after the book is delivered, except for limited information retained as necessary to honor previous opt-out requests.

Shipping the book: when you approve a book, you give the recipient's name, shipping address, and phone number. These are shared with our printing and shipping partners to fulfill and deliver the order. The phone number is used only for shipping and delivery, never for marketing.

Ordering a copy: anyone who orders a copy of a finished book gives their name, email, shipping address and a phone number for delivery. We use them only to fulfill and deliver that order and to email its progress; the address and phone go to our printing and shipping partners. The phone number is erased 90 days after delivery. We never use them for marketing.

Recordings and their links: each voice or video recording is reached through a private link, printed in the book as a QR code. Anyone who has the book or the link can play the recording and save a copy. We don't list these links or make them searchable.

Cookies: we use a sign-in cookie to keep you signed in, and a preference cookie to remember whether you chose light or dark mode. If you add a memory from a shared link, a cookie on that phone or computer remembers your own link for 180 days, so you can pick up where you left off. Cloudflare, the network provider that delivers our site, sets its own security cookies to protect the site from abuse, and its Turnstile check on our contact form and on account sign-up makes sure a person, not a program, is using them. We don't use advertising or tracking cookies. Microsoft Clarity, described below, runs without cookies.

Website analytics (Microsoft Clarity): to understand how our public pages are used and make them easier to use, we use Microsoft Clarity, a service from Microsoft, on our home page, our styles and sample book, pricing, FAQs and our other information pages. On those pages it records how the page is used: clicks and taps, scrolling and mouse movement, and the pages visited, along with general details such as the type of device and browser, screen size and approximate location (country). From this we see heatmaps and replays of how pages were used. Clarity is set to mask what you type into forms, so it isn't shown in recordings.

We've set Clarity to run without cookies, so it doesn't recognize you from one page or visit to the next. While a page is open, it keeps a temporary identifier in that browser tab, which is removed when you close the tab.

Clarity never runs on the pages for creating or managing a book, adding a memory, playing a recording, viewing a finished book, ordering a copy, or your account, so it never sees memories, photos, recordings, contributors' details or payment details.

How Microsoft uses this information: we use Clarity only to improve our website, never for advertising. Microsoft receives what Clarity collects and states that it may also use it for its own purposes, including improving its products and Microsoft Advertising, as described in the Microsoft Privacy Statement. Microsoft states that it keeps recordings for up to 30 days.

How long we keep things:

• A book setup that was never paid for is deleted 90 days after it was last changed, with any cover photos.
• When a book is canceled, its memories, photos, recordings and contributors' details are deleted 90 days later. The record of the payment and any refund is kept.
• Contributors' email addresses and phone numbers are erased 90 days after the book is delivered. Their names stay in the book.
• The recipient's phone number is erased 90 days after the book is delivered. The shipping address stays with the book.
• Our record of the emails we've sent is deleted after 180 days.
• Messages you send through our contact form are deleted from our site after 90 days. Our support inbox may keep a copy for up to a year, and you can ask us to delete it sooner at any time.
• A finished book's photos and recordings are kept, so the QR codes printed in it keep working.
• Your account is kept until you ask us to delete it.

Asking us to delete things: you can ask us to delete your account or a book through our contact form. Before we delete anything, we reply to the email address on the account to make sure the request really comes from you. We'll delete your account within 30 days; if you change your mind in the first 14 days, we can restore it. Deleting a book is permanent, and the QR codes printed in it stop working for good.

When we delete your account: we delete your name, email address, password and sign-in details, and every book that hasn't been printed yet, with its memories, photos, recordings and contributors' contact details. The QR codes in a book that has already been printed keep working: we keep only what those pages need (the recordings, the names shown with them and the book's style) and delete everything else. We keep the record of your orders and payments (amount, date and edition, never photos, memories or recordings) for as long as accounting and tax rules require, a note that the deletion happened, and, if you asked us to stop contacting you, your email address or number so we never contact you again. Our payment processor and printing partners keep their own records of the transaction. Deleted information can stay in our backups for up to 90 days, until they're replaced.

What we don't do: we don't sell your information, and we don't use contributors' contact information for marketing.

Contact: questions about your data can be sent through our contact form, and we'll reply by email.