Privacy Policy

A short summary

If you only read one paragraph: we collect the information required to sell you a book and deliver it. That is your name, email address, and billing details. We do not run behavioural advertising, we do not maintain analytics dashboards about you, and we do not sell reader data to anyone. Payments are handled by Shopify and Stripe; we never see your card number.

Who we are

Northoward, LLC is an independent editorial imprint registered in the United States, publishing short guides for adult readers on attention, habit, decisions, and quiet productivity. For the purposes of data protection law, Northoward is the data controller for the small amount of reader information described below. Our editorial and business contact is hello@northoward.com.

What we collect

We keep this list short because the list is short.

Order data (via Shopify checkout)

When you buy a title, our checkout provider records your name, email address, billing address, the items ordered, and the amount paid. Card details are captured directly by our payment processor and are not stored on our servers.

Email address (from the purchase)

We use the email you provide at checkout to deliver your files, send a receipt, and — occasionally — write to you about a new title in the same pillar. You can ask us to stop at any time; every email includes a way to do so.

Correspondence

If you write to us at hello@northoward.com, we keep the thread for as long as it takes to answer you properly, plus a reasonable window in case you write again.

Basic server logs

Our host keeps standard access logs (IP address, page requested, timestamp, user agent) for a short period, for security and troubleshooting. We do not build reader profiles from these logs.

We do not collect: browsing history across other sites, precise location, contacts, phone numbers, or any category of sensitive personal information such as health, biometric, or political data.

How we use it

• To sell you the guide you asked for and to deliver the files.
• To send you a receipt and any post-purchase note related to the specific order (a corrected file, for example).
• To answer messages you send to our editorial or press addresses.
• To send infrequent notes about new titles from the same imprint, only where the law allows and only until you tell us to stop.
• To meet tax and accounting obligations that come with running a US publishing business.
• To keep the site itself running: security, backups, and the odd bug fix.

Under GDPR terms, the lawful bases for the above are: performance of a contract (delivering the book you purchased), legitimate interest (running the imprint, keeping the site secure, writing back when you write to us), and legal obligation (tax, accounting). Marketing emails are sent on the basis of your relationship with us as a paying reader, with a clear way to opt out at any time.

Third parties

We work with a small number of service providers who handle specific parts of the operation. We share only what they need to do their piece of the work.

Shopify Inc.

Our checkout, order records, and digital file delivery run on Shopify. Purchase details are stored on Shopify's infrastructure under their own privacy terms. Shopify is a data processor acting on our instructions.

Stripe, Inc.

Card payments are processed by Stripe. Card details are entered on Stripe's own hosted fields and are not transmitted through our servers. Stripe is an independent controller for the payment data it collects.

Our email provider

Receipts and the occasional editorial note are sent through a reputable transactional email provider. It sees the email address, the message, and delivery metadata. It is a processor acting on our instructions.

Our hosting provider

The pages you are reading are served from a US hosting account. The host has access to the raw server logs described above.

Our accountants

Aggregate sales figures and invoices are shared with our bookkeeper and, at year end, our tax accountant. They see order totals, not reading habits.

We do not run Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, TikTok Pixel, or any other advertising or behavioural tracking service on this site. If that ever changes, we will update this page first and be honest about it.

Cookies

The Northoward site itself sets a small number of strictly functional cookies — enough to remember whether you have closed a notice, and enough for the checkout to work. We do not set advertising cookies or cross-site trackers.

Once you reach the Shopify-hosted checkout, Shopify sets its own cookies to keep your cart and session together. Those are governed by Shopify's cookie notice, which is linked from the checkout footer.

Most browsers let you refuse cookies, clear them, or be warned before one is set. Doing so will not stop you from reading the pages; it may make the checkout misbehave.

Your rights

Depending on where you live, you have several rights over the information we hold about you. We honour these regardless of jurisdiction, because it is the right way to run a small press.

Under the GDPR (European Economic Area, United Kingdom)

• The right to know what we hold about you and to receive a copy.
• The right to have inaccurate information corrected.
• The right to have your information deleted, subject to any records we must keep for tax or accounting purposes.
• The right to restrict or object to certain uses, including marketing emails.
• The right to receive your data in a portable format.
• The right to complain to your local data protection authority.

Under the CCPA and CPRA (California)

• The right to know what categories of personal information we collect and why.
• The right to request a copy of the specific pieces of personal information we hold.
• The right to request deletion, subject to legal exceptions.
• The right to correct inaccurate information.
• The right not to be discriminated against for exercising any of the above.
• The right to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information. We do not sell or share personal information for cross-context behavioural advertising, so there is nothing to opt out of. If that ever changes, we will publish a clear opt-out first.

To exercise any of these rights, write to hello@northoward.com with the email address you used at checkout. We will respond within thirty days. We may ask a question or two to make sure we are handing the right file to the right reader.

Data retention

We keep information only as long as it earns its place on the shelf.

• Order records — for as long as US tax and accounting law require, typically seven years, then deleted on our next annual clean-out.
• Email address for editorial notes — until you ask us to stop, or until an email has been undeliverable for a while.
• Correspondence — for up to twenty-four months after the last message, unless we agree with you to keep a thread longer.
• Server logs — a rolling window, typically thirty days.

Children

Northoward publishes for adult readers. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under sixteen. If you believe a child has provided us with information, please write to us and we will remove it.

Security

We keep our systems patched, our accounts protected with strong authentication, and the amount of data we hold small enough to keep an eye on. Payment card data lives with Stripe, under PCI-DSS controls. That said, no system is perfect; if we ever discover a breach that affects you, we will write to you and to any regulator we must.

International readers

Northoward is based in the United States. If you buy from Europe, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, or anywhere else, your order details will be processed on servers located in the US and other countries where our providers operate. Where required, our providers rely on Standard Contractual Clauses or equivalent safeguards for international transfers.

Changes to this policy

If we change this page in a way that meaningfully affects your rights, we will update the “last reviewed” date at the top and — where we have your email address as a customer — write to tell you what changed. Small edits for clarity we make quietly, the way an editor does.