Privacy Policy

ZinesForever is a place to make zines, sell them, buy them, and follow the people who create them. It's operated by ZinesForever LLC, a Colorado company. This policy explains what information we collect, why we collect it, and who we share it with. We've tried to keep it short and honest — we don't run ads and we don't sell your data to anyone.

Questions? Email us at hi@zinesforever.com.

What we collect

Account information. When you sign up we collect your email address and name. You can sign in with a magic link sent to your email or with your Google account — we never see or store a password. If you sign in with Google, Google shares your name, email address, and profile picture with us.

Profile information. Your username, display name, bio, avatar, and banner image. These are public — that's the point of a profile. We also ask for your date of birth when you sign up, solely to confirm you're old enough to use ZinesForever. Your birthday stays private, is never shown to anyone, and isn't used for anything else.

Your zines. Everything you create in the editor — pages, drawings, images, titles, descriptions, tags. Drafts are private to you (and anyone you share an edit link with). Published zines are visible according to the visibility setting you choose.

Purchase information. When you buy a zine we keep a record of the order: what you bought, when, and how much you paid. If your order includes a printed zine, we also collect the shipping name and address you enter at checkout. Payment is handled entirely by Stripe — your card number never touches our servers and we never store it.

Seller information. If you sell on ZinesForever, payouts run through Stripe. Stripe collects the identity and bank details it needs to pay you; we store only your Stripe account ID and its onboarding status, never your banking information.

Activity. Who you follow and which zines you like.

Technical information. When you sign in, we record the IP address and browser of the session so sessions can be reviewed and expired. We also use PostHog, an analytics service, to understand how ZinesForever gets used — which pages get visited, and when key things happen, like a zine being created, published, or bought. When you're signed in, this activity is linked to your account so we can see how creators and readers actually use the site and make it better. We don't use any of it to build advertising profiles.

What's public

ZinesForever is a social platform, so some things are visible to everyone, including people without an account:

• Your profile: username, display name, bio, avatar, and banner.
• Your published zines, unless you set them to unlisted or private.
• Your follower and following lists.
• Like counts on zines (but not a list of who liked what).

Setting your profile to private hides your zines from public listings, search, and your profile page — but your profile itself (bio, avatar, follower counts) stays visible. Your purchases, library, orders, and email address are never public.

How we use your information

• To run the service: hosting your zines, processing orders, paying sellers, and keeping you signed in.
• To send you email — see "Email" below for what and how to opt out.
• To power search: zine titles, descriptions, and tags are indexed so people can find them.
• To keep the platform safe: investigating fraud, abuse, and security issues.
• To meet legal obligations, like tax records for marketplace sales.

Who we share it with

We don't sell your data, and we don't share it with advertisers. We share information with a small number of service providers who help us run ZinesForever, and only what each one needs:

• Stripe processes payments, calculates sales tax, and pays sellers. At checkout, Stripe receives your email, what you're buying, and (for print orders) your shipping address. Sellers onboard with Stripe directly for payouts.
• Google Cloud stores uploaded images and zine files, and handles "Sign in with Google" if you use it. Avatars and zine covers are served from public URLs; purchased zine files are only accessible through short-lived links tied to your purchase.
• Resend delivers our email (sign-in links, order confirmations, notifications).
• OpenAI powers part of our search. The public text of zine listings (titles, descriptions, tags) and the search terms you type are sent to OpenAI to be converted into search indexes. Your account information is never included.
• PostHog collects usage analytics for us: pages visited, device type, approximate location from IP, and events like signing up, publishing a zine, or buying one. If you're signed in, these are tied to your account. PostHog stores this data in the US and only uses it to provide analytics to us. Blocking it with a browser tracker-blocker works, and the site works exactly the same.

Sellers see your shipping details. When you buy a printed zine that the creator ships themselves, we share your shipping name and address with that seller so they can mail it to you. Sellers may only use this information to fulfill your order.

We may also disclose information if required by law, or to protect the rights and safety of ZinesForever and its users.

Cookies

We use essential cookies to keep you signed in, and PostHog cookies to measure site usage. There are no advertising cookies.

Email

We send three kinds of email:

• Transactional — sign-in links, order confirmations, shipping updates, refund and payout notices. These are part of using the service and can't be turned off.
• Notifications — things like "someone followed you" or "someone liked your zine." On by default; turn any of them off in notification settings.
• Marketing — news and updates from us. Off by default; we only send these if you opt in.

Keeping and deleting your data

We keep your information for as long as you have an account. You can delete your account yourself at any time from account settings. When you do:

• Your name, email, and profile (including avatar, bio, follows, and likes) are removed.
• Your zines are taken down from every public page. People who already bought them keep access to what they paid for.
• Your own library access ends, since it's tied to your account.
• Records of orders and sales are retained because we're legally required to keep financial and tax records, but they're no longer connected to an identifiable profile.
• If you sold on ZinesForever, your Stripe account is yours and remains under Stripe's own terms and privacy policy.

Your rights

You can see and edit most of your information directly in settings. Depending on where you live, you may also have legal rights to access, correct, export, or delete your personal information, or to object to certain uses of it. To exercise any of these, email hi@zinesforever.com and we'll handle it. We won't treat you differently for exercising your rights.

Children

You must be at least 13 years old to use ZinesForever — we ask for your date of birth at sign-up to enforce this. We don't knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has an account, contact us at hi@zinesforever.com and we'll delete it.

Where your data lives

ZinesForever is operated from the United States and our service providers store data there. If you use ZinesForever from elsewhere, your information will be transferred to and processed in the US.

Changes to this policy

If we make meaningful changes — like adding a new service provider or collecting something new — we'll update this page and change the date at the top. For significant changes we'll also email you.