Privacy & Data

How we handle your information

If you join the Candlemount mailing list, you trust us with your email address. This page explains what we do with it, what we don’t, and how to get it back or removed at any time. It is written to be read, not to be got around.

Who we are

Candlemount is the publishing project of the author writing as Min Walkerdine. For anything to do with your data — questions, corrections, or a request to be removed — write to privacy [at] candlemount.com. We are the “data controller” for the mailing list, which means we are responsible for how your information is handled.

What we collect

Only your email address, and only when you type it into the sign-up form yourself. We do not ask for your name, and we do not buy, rent, or import lists from anywhere else. When you use the site, our host and our analytics may record ordinary technical information (such as the pages requested and, briefly, an IP address in server logs) — we do not use this to identify you.

Why we hold it, and on what basis

We hold your email address for one reason: to send you occasional news about the Candlemount books and related writing, because you asked us to. The lawful basis is your consent, given when you confirm your sign-up. You are never added without that confirmation (this is “double opt-in”: you enter your address, then click a link in a confirmation email before anything else is sent).

Who else touches it

We use two services to run the list and the site. They act on our instructions and only for our purposes:

• EmailOctopus (a United Kingdom company) stores the list and sends the emails on our behalf.
• Vercel hosts the website. Vercel is based in the United States; where any data is transferred outside the UK, it is protected by appropriate safeguards under UK data protection law.

We do not sell or share your address with anyone else, ever.

How long we keep it

Until you ask us to stop. Your address stays on the list until you unsubscribe or ask to be removed; after that we delete it, keeping only what we’re legally required to (for example, a record that you unsubscribed, so we don’t contact you again by mistake).

Your rights

Under UK data protection law you can, at any time:

• ask what we hold about you, and get a copy;
• have it corrected if it’s wrong;
• have it deleted;
• withdraw your consent and unsubscribe — every email has a one-click unsubscribe link, and it takes effect immediately.

To use any of these, write to privacy [at] candlemount.com. If you’re ever unhappy with how we’ve handled your data, you can complain to the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk — though we’d rather you told us first, so we can put it right.

Cookies

The site uses privacy-friendly analytics that do not set advertising or tracking cookies and do not follow you across other sites. The sign-up form is provided by EmailOctopus and may set a cookie needed to make the form work. We do not use cookies to build a profile of you.

Changes

If we change how we handle your data, we’ll update this page and change the date below. If the change is significant and affects the list, we’ll tell subscribers by email.

Last updated: 6 July 2026