Privacy Notice

1. Who we are

1.1 The Company (company, we, us, our) referred to in this Privacy Notice, including as Data Controller, is as follows:

Storyfire Ltd. 

Registered address: 
Carmelite House 
50 Victoria Embankment 
London EC4Y 0DZ 
 
Registration number: 07893911 

VAT number: 205505305  

Telephone Number: +44 20 3122 6444 

Email: enquiries@hachette.co.uk 
 
Storyfire Ltd. is part of the Hachette UK Group of companies. 

1.2 We are the data controller in respect of your personal information. This privacy notice (Privacy Notice), together with our Cookie Policy, sets out ways in which we collect, use and share your personal data (your information) in connection with our publishing business. It also explains what right you have to access or change your personal data.  

1.3 This Privacy Notice applies to anyone visiting the PageOne website and, includes website visitors, customers, tutors, contributors and guest speakers. Please read our Privacy Notice carefully to understand our practices regarding your personal information and how it will be treated. 

2. Contact Information

2.1 For any queries about your personal data and how it is processed you can contact us at:  

Legal Department (DPO)
Hachette UK Limited
Carmelite House
50 Victoria Embankment
London
EC4Y 0DZ
UK  

3. Children

Our website, courses and forums are intended for adults. If you are under 13 you will need to have a parent or guardian sign up for any newsletters. Our courses are only available for purchase by individuals aged 18 or over. We do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under the age of 13. 

4. What information we collect about you

4.1 Information you provide:
4.1.1 The information you provide to us might include: your name, postal address, email address, phone number, social media handle or profile, gender, date of birth and your marketing preferences. If you’re creating an account you will provide a username and password and if you are ordering courses/masterclasses/events you will provide your payment details. You may be required to submit written assignments including synopses, chapter plans, sample chapters and scenes for assessment by tutors or peers. Your information includes anything which identifies you so if you contribute to the community or course forums it may include personal information.

4.1.2 If we ask you to provide us with more sensitive information this is known as Special Category (“sensitive”) information and may include details about a person’s racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious, philosophical or similar beliefs, trade union membership, genetics, biometrics, health, sexual life, sexual orientation or about criminal offences or proceedings. This type of information will be treated differently, and we will explain why we are collecting it. Sensitive data will generally only be used with your explicit consent. However, we may collect sensitive data for example, to help us ensure equality of opportunity or treatment in our business or where it is necessary for things like public health. 
4.2 We collect your information when you: 

 4.2.1 interact or correspond with us by phone, by email, through our website, via online events or webinars, or via any of our social media accounts or apps; 

4.2.2 visit our offices; 

4.2.3 register for or attend online events we hold (including if your badge is scanned at one of our events); 

4.2.4 enter into a contract with us; 

4.2.5 visit our website (including when registering on our site, leaving any reviews or comments, or filling in forms on our site, such as when you sign up for newsletters or enter a competition); 

4.2.6 create an account on our website; 

4.2.7 contact us with queries about your use of our website or apps; 

4.2.8 subscribe to our mailing list or newsletter; 

4.2.9 submit assignments required for a course to us by via our website; 

4.2.10 buy courses/masterclasses from our website; 

4.2.11 enrol in a course and progress through the lessons; 

4.2.12 receive one-to-one support when you purchase a masterclass or coaching session, receive feedback or schedule video call with tutors; 
4.2.13 submit a review of, or provide feedback about, one of our courses or other students' work; 

4.2.14 complete a task using interactive h5p content; 

4.2.15 enter a competition or prize draw or take part in other promotions; 

4.2.16 complete contact forms on our websites; 

4.2.17 update your account details or profile or change your preferences; 

4.2.18 contribute to the community forum or course forum; 

4.2.19 provide us with biographical information about you e.g. by completing a questionnaire; 

4.2.20 participate in our customer satisfaction surveys or other market research, feedback and survey responses; 

4.2.21 participate in recorded video conferences; and 

4.2.22 communicate with us via social networking websites, third party apps or similar technologies. 
4.3 Information about how you use our website and apps: 

4.3.1 We will also collect certain information about how you use our website and app and the devices that you use to access them. This includes your IP address, geographical location, device information (such as your hardware model, mobile network information, unique device identifiers), browser type, referral source, length of visit to the website, number of page views, the search queries you make on the website and similar information. This information is collected by Google Analytics on our behalf and may also be collected by third parties (such as Meta, Amazon or TikTok) using cookies and similar technology on our website. To opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics across all websites, visit http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout. For more information on cookies please read our Cookie Policy.  

We will collect information on your course progress including enrolment status, enrolment and completion dates, percentage of course completion, time spent in the course, number of times each lesson or video was accessed, interactions with course assessments, download history for course materials, course space participation and last activity date. 

We also use technology built into our website when you visit course pages or subscribe to one of our newsletters, to record information linked to the pages you have viewed. The information is additional to any preferences you may indicate when subscribing via the sign-up form itself. If you have signed up for email marketing and we hold a record for you in our CRM this further information is added to your record in our CRM so that we can provide more tailored marketing to you.. 

4.3.2 Our website may include third party plug-ins and apps and links to third party websites. We are not responsible for and cannot control the privacy polices of third parties. Please ensure that you read the privacy notices on any such external websites and relevant third parties.  

4.3.3 E-commerce: We record order history and collect interests in our courses on the basis of your use of our website. If you purchase any course directly from us via our website you will be required to submit your name, address, email address and payment details. We and our payment service provider (Stripe) will use this information to process your order and your payment. Your name and email address will be processed to facilitate your continued access to your purchased courses. The personal data Stripe collects may include transactional data and identifying information about devices that connect to its services. Stripe uses this information to operate and improve the services it provides to us, including for fraud detection, loss prevention, authentication, and analytics related to the performance of its services. 
4.3.4 Information we receive from third parties: 
In certain circumstances, we will receive information about you from third parties. For example,  
  • If your writing group has submitted your information; 
  • If another student has submitted your information for a promotional referral code; 
  • If you have been gifted a course; 
  • As part of the peer review process, students may comment on or re-share your written course assignments; 

5. How we process your personal information

5.1 We use your information lawfully. We do not sell your information to third parties. However we use information we collect, across our group companies from you (using technologies such as Meta and Google conversion tracking, as well as information you provide directly when you sign up to receive direct marketing from us or buy one of our courses) to create a profile of you to help us provide more relevant advertising of our courses to you and to analyse customer marketing and purchase behaviour. We may also share your information in other ways as set out in the section When We Share Your Information. The details of how we use your information and the legal bases for our use are set out below. 
5.2 We may process your information to: 

5.2.1 process your requests to purchase our courses from our website or app; 

5.2.2 administer your account with us; 

5.2.3 provide customer service support; 

5.2.4 respond to your queries and correspondence; 

5.2.5 deliver the content of a course to you; 

5.2.6 contact you about content you provided to us in a course; 

5.2.7 keep in contact with you and provide you with marketing communications about our news, courses or events that we believe may interest you; 

5.2.8 for system administration purposes and for internal operations, including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research, statistical and survey purposes; 

5.2.9 tell you about new website features or services; 

5.2.10 send you newsletters; 

5.2.11 send you automated system notifications about upcoming lessons, assignment deadlines, or course expiration dates; 

5.2.12 measure course progress by monitoring engagement metrics like video completion rates, time spent on lessons and quiz attempts, to improve course design and to ensure an optimal learning experience; 

5.2.13 generate individual learning progress reports for students or aggregated reports for course improvement; 

5.2.14 process information to group students and co-ordinate synchronised learning activities; 

5.2.15 share your information with third parties such as LearnWorlds or marketing partners so that they can contact you with information that might interest you (as described in the section When We Share Your Information); 

5.2.16 measure or understand the effectiveness of advertising; 

5.2.17 deliver relevant advertising (including via social media and other online platforms) and make relevant recommendations and suggestions to you about our courses; 

5.2.18 monitor your use of our website and app and your responses to our communications; 

5.2.19 personalise, enhance, modify or otherwise improve the services and/or communications that we provide to you; 

5.2.20 process course refund applications in accordance with our refund policy; 

5.2.21 facilitate student discussions and improve features in community and course spaces; 

5.2.22 if you are filmed, photographed or recorded as part of any activities or events, your image or likeness may be used in promotional material, sponsor, exhibitor and media partner coverage in print, online and on broadcast television; 

5.2.23 if you are a speaker, to administer your contract including promoting and invoicing for your services, negotiating contracts on your behalf and making payments to you; 

5.2.24 for security and fraud prevention; 

5.2.25 to invoice for services provided, to process payments, content moderation processes such as reviewing or editing, website and app development, providing training; 

5.2.26 to ensure that our website is safe and secure; and 

5.2.27 to comply with applicable laws and regulations. 

6. Legal basis for processing your personal information

We will only process your personal information where we have a legal basis to do so. The legal basis will depend on the purposes for which we have collected and used your personal information. In almost every case the legal basis will be one of the following: 

6.1 Consent: For example where you have provided your consent to receive certain marketing from us. You can withdraw your consent at any time, including by clicking on the “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of any marketing email we send you.

6.2 Performance of a contract with you: for example, where you have purchased a course from us and we need to use your contact details and payment information in order to process your order and send/provide the course to you. This legal base also applies where you are an author, illustrator, speaker or other licensor and we require your personal information to administer your contract.

6.3 Our ‘legitimate business interests’. Where it is necessary for us to understand our customers, promote our services and operate effectively, provided in each case that this is done in a legitimate way which does not unduly affect your privacy and other rights.

6.4 Compliance with law: we may process your personal information where we are subject to a legal obligation and need to use your personal information in order to comply with that obligation.

6.5 Manifestly made public: where you have submitted personal data including special category data in the community forums, course spaces or included in course assignments or uploaded to the PageOne site. 

7. Who processes your information for us 

Your information may be processed by our staff or by the staff of third parties we work with to deliver our business. Processing can mean any activity that involves the use of information about someone that can identify them. All uses, for example, obtaining, recording, storing, disclosing, organising, retrieving, deleting and destroying are types of data processing. We take measures to ensure that third parties processing your information on our behalf are acting lawfully in accordance with our instructions and are subject to appropriate confidentiality requirements. We also have adequate technical and organisational safeguards in place in our company and with third party processors to protect your information. Third party processors of your information include:  
  • LearnWorlds and their sub-processors (see Clause 10 of LearnWorlds’ Data Processing Agreement for a complete list of sub-processors); 
  • website host (Kinsta), IT support providers, database operators, site analytics providers and software developers;  
  • marketing or publicity service providers (e.g. surveys, quizzes, competitions and newsletter providers such as Shortstack);  
  • social media and other online platforms to send you targeted advertising based on your preferences and other information we hold about you;  
  • events organisers and events platform service providers;  
  • video-conferencing service providers, including Zoom and Riverside;  
  • e-commerce provider and connected service providers (e.g. payment service provider);  
  • our royalty system software provider;  
  • our financial services and payment service provider;  
  • our auditors, technical consultants and legal advisors;  
  • our fraud detection services. 

8. When we share your information 

We share your information within the companies that make up the Hachette UK group of companies as well as with our parent company and their parent company and as set out below. Where we share your information with third parties it is subject to usual requirements listed in the earlier sections of this Privacy Notice. 
8.2 We will share your information with the following third parties: 

8.2.1 selected learning design and educational partners;  

8.2.2 selected marketing partners;  

8.2.3 any prospective seller or buyer of businesses or assets, only in the event that we decide to acquire, transfer or sell any business or assets;  

8.2.4 any other third parties (including legal or other advisors, regulatory authorities, courts and government agencies) where necessary to enable us to enforce our legal rights, or to protect the rights, property or safety of our employees or where such disclosure may be permitted or required by law or where we have a legal obligation to do so. 

9. How we look after your information

We look for opportunities to minimise the amount of personal information we hold about you. Where appropriate we anonymise and pseudonymise your information. We use appropriate technological and operational security measures to protect your information against any unauthorised access or unlawful use, such as:  
  • ensuring the physical security of our offices, warehouses or other sites;  
  • ensuring the physical and digital security of our equipment and devices by using appropriate password protection and encryption;  
  • maintaining a data protection policy for, and delivering data protection training to, our employees;  
  • limiting access to your personal information to those in our company who need to use it in the course of their work. 

10. How long we keep your information

We will retain your information for as long as is necessary to provide you with the services that you have requested from us or for as long as we reasonably require to retain the information for our legitimate interests, such as for the purposes of exercising our legal rights or where we are permitted to do so for purposes of academic, literary expression and research purposes. After this period it will be deleted or in some cases anonymised. We operate a data retention policy and look to find ways to reduce the amount of information we hold about you and the length of time that we need to keep it. For example, 
  • we archive our email correspondence regularly and destroy unnecessary information;  
  • we operate a best practice email retention policy and protected shared drives to provide restricted access to information;  
  • deleted emails are auto-deleted periodically;  
  • we conduct regular access reviews to keep access profiles and policies up to date;  
  • we conduct periodic review and purge cycles of documents in accordance with our document retention policy;  
  • we retain information relating to orders, refunds and customer queries for approximately 7 years;  
  • we retain information relating to commercial contracts for approximately 7 years after expiration or termination whichever is the sooner;  
  • we maintain a suppression list of email addresses of individuals who no longer wish to be contacted by us. So that we can comply with their wishes we must store this information permanently; and  
  • we process requests to unsubscribe from our marketing lists promptly. 

Once your course access has expired, your account will exist in an inactive form and your account data, alongside any content you have posted in community or course spaces will remain visible. You may choose to delete or anonymise your account at any time, or request that we do this on your behalf. Deleting or anonymising your account will not remove any posts you have made in the community or course spaces. If you want to have these removed, you will be prompted to manually delete your posts before confirming your account deletion. 

11. International transfers of data 

11.1 Our company is located in the UK. 

11.2 Whenever we transfer your personal information out of the UK or the European Economic Area (EEA) we will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that it is adequately protected and processed and that your personal data has the same protection it has in the UK and EEA. If you are located in the UK or the EEA, you may contact us for a copy of the safeguards which we have put in place to protect your personal information and privacy rights in these circumstances. 

12. Security and passwords 

12.1 You must keep your password and any other authentication information for our website confidential. If you know or suspect that anyone other than you knows your password or any other authentication information, you must promptly notify us using the contact details below.  

12.2 Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of your information transmitted during your use of our website. 

13. Your Rights and Choices 

13.1 You have certain rights in relation to your personal information. These include: the right to object to the processing of your information for certain purposes, the right to access your personal information, and the ability to erase, restrict or receive a machine-readable copy of your personal information.  

13.2 We will handle any request to exercise your rights in accordance with applicable law and any relevant legal exemptions. If you wish to exercise any of these rights please contact us using the contact details above.  

13.3 Please contact us if you have any questions or are unhappy about the way your information is used. We hope we will be able to resolve any problems or issues you may.  

13.4 You also have the right to lodge a complaint about us and our use of your information to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office or the relevant authority in your country of work or residence. 

14. Amazon Affiliate Disclaimer

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases when you buy a product from a link on this website or from our social media profiles. 

15. Changes to this Privacy Notice 

We may make changes to this Privacy Notice from time to time. We will post any changes to our site. 

This Privacy Notice was updated in December 2025.