Privacy policy

Who runs this site

This website is run by After Tea Media Ltd, which publishes Ruby Pemberton’s books. After Tea Media Ltd is responsible for the personal information described in this policy: in the law’s words, it is the data controller.

What this website collects

Very little. This website counts visits with Google Analytics, described under Analytics below, and that is all. It contains no adverts and no social media plugins. The icons at the bottom of the home page are plain links: nothing on the page tells Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok, Substack or YouTube that you visited.

Nothing you type on this website is sent anywhere. Every sign-up happens on the sign-up service’s own page, described below.

Analytics

We use Google Analytics to understand how this website is used: how many people visit, which pages and links they use, how they found the site (from Instagram or a search, for example), what kind of device and browser they use, and roughly where they are, to the level of a country or city. We use it only to see what is working and to improve the site. It is not used for advertising, and we do not use it to identify you or build a profile of you.

To do this, Google Analytics sets two cookies on your device, _ga and one starting _ga_, which last up to two months. They let it tell a returning visitor from a new one. Google handles this information on our behalf and on our instructions, and may not use it for its own purposes: we have switched off Google signals, every advertising feature and every setting that would pass the information to Google for its own use. Google may process the information in the United States, relying on the UK–US data bridge. We keep it for two months, the shortest period Google Analytics allows, and look only at totals.

UK law allows analytics used only for this purpose without asking you first, provided you are told about it and can easily object. To turn it off, choose “Cookie settings” at the bottom of any page, then “Turn off”. Analytics stops and its cookies are deleted. Your choice is remembered in your browser’s storage on this device, under the name analytics-choice, so that we do not ask again. If your browser sends a Global Privacy Control signal, we treat that as turning analytics off, and with JavaScript switched off analytics never runs at all.

The law calls our reason for this our legitimate interest in understanding and improving our website.

The quiz

The 14 Years Later quiz runs entirely in your browser. Your answers, your result and anything you write in your Reclaim List stay on your device: they are never sent to us or to anyone else, and they are not saved. Close the page and they are gone.

Your result is added to the end of the page’s address, after the “#”, so that it is still there if you reload the page. That part of an address is never sent to any website. It stays in your browser’s history, like any page you visit, until you clear it.

The quiz does not ask for your email address. If you choose to send the quiz to a friend, your phone or your email app sends it, and only the quiz’s address goes with it.

If analytics is on, it counts that the quiz was started or finished. It never records your answers or your result.

Like any website, the service that hosts these pages has to receive your device’s internet address in order to send the pages to it. We do not use it to identify you, and we do not keep logs of visits.

When you sign up

Your email address is collected only when you choose to sign up for something, and only by the service you sign up with:

• Little Joys, the free book. The sign-up page is run by Kit, the email service we use. Kit sends you the book and, while you stay subscribed, Ruby’s emails.
• The Lipstick Stories, and Ruby’s newsletter. These are published on Substack, and you subscribe on Substack’s own website.

We receive your email address, and anything else the sign-up form asks for that you choose to give, such as your first name.

Like most email services, Kit and Substack record whether an email is opened and which of its links are clicked, and show us that. We use it only to see which emails people find worthwhile.

Why we use it

To send you what you signed up for: Little Joys, and Ruby’s emails. Nothing else. The law calls this consent. You gave it by signing up, and you can take it back at any time by unsubscribing.

Where it is kept

Your email address is held by Kit, if you signed up for Little Joys, or by Substack, if you subscribed to the newsletter, and nowhere else. Both companies are based in the United States, so your details may be stored there. Each explains in its own privacy policy how it protects personal information, including when it is moved outside the UK: Kit’s privacy policy (opens in a new tab) and Substack’s privacy policy (opens in a new tab).

If you subscribe on Substack, Substack’s own privacy policy applies as well as this one, because your subscription is held in an account with Substack.

Never sold, never shared

We never sell your email address, and we never give it to anyone else to use. The only companies that hold it are the two that send the emails: Kit, on our behalf, and Substack, under its own privacy policy as described above.

Unsubscribing

Every email has an unsubscribe link at the bottom. One click, and you will not hear from us again. If you would rather, email support@rubypemberton.com and we will unsubscribe you ourselves.

Your information, and your rights

You can ask us at any time for a copy of the personal information we hold about you, to correct it, or to delete it altogether, and you can object to how we use it. Email support@rubypemberton.com.

We keep your email address for as long as you stay subscribed. When you unsubscribe, the emails stop straight away; if you would also like the address deleted completely, just ask.

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office, the UK’s data protection regulator, at ico.org.uk (opens in a new tab).

Cookies

This website sets only the two Google Analytics cookies described under Analytics, and you can turn them off at any time. It sets no others. The sign-up pages run by Kit and Substack are on their own websites and may use cookies of their own; their privacy policies explain them.

Links to other websites

The links on this site take you to Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok, Substack, YouTube and Kit. They open in a new tab, and once you are there, that website’s own privacy policy applies.

Children

This website and Ruby’s emails are written for adults, and are not intended for children.

Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we will update the date at the top of this page. If a change affects how your information is used, we will say so here rather than changing the wording quietly.