Privacy

This notice explains what Dawnchild Books keeps when you visit, buy a book, join the letter, suggest a book, leave a memory, ask the books a question or write to us; why; who handles it; and for how long. Dawnchild Books is a trading name of Focal Point International LLC, 701 Tillery St, Unit 12-2475, Austin, TX 78702, United States, the controller of your information. Write to hello@dawnchild.com about anything here.

On the site

The site sets no cookies and runs no advertising trackers. We count visits with Umami, which runs on our own server: it notes the page, the site you came from and your browser’s screen size and language, sets no cookie, keeps no internet address and cannot follow you to other sites. It does not count you if your browser asks sites not to track it, and you can switch it off for this browser here: We count visits because we have a legitimate interest in knowing which pages are read.

Your browser keeps a few things for you, on your device, not on our server: your basket (dc-basket), currency (dc-cur, first guessed from your time zone), delivery country and speed (dc-country, dc-ship), a discount code you entered (dc-code), that you closed the letter box (dc-slip), if you use the switch above that this browser is not counted (umami.disabled) and, until you close the tab, that you put the opening notice away (dc-notice). They are needed for the basket and the choices you made; clear your browser’s data for this site to remove them.

Our server and Cloudflare process the technical details of each request, such as your internet address and browser, to deliver and protect the pages; that is our legitimate interest in running a secure site. Server logs are deleted after seven days.

When you buy

Stripe takes your payment on its own page; we never see your card. We receive your name, email, delivery address and order, and use them to make and post your books, send your ebook links and confirmation, and answer questions. BookVault, our printer in the United Kingdom, receives your name and delivery address to print and post printed books. To take an order we need your name and email and, for printed books, a delivery address; without them we cannot take it. The lawful basis is the contract with you. We keep order records for six years because tax law requires it. If you start a checkout and do not finish it, we delete what it held after ninety days.

The letter

If you ask for the letter, we send a confirmation email first and write only once you confirm; an address that is never confirmed is deleted after thirty days. Every letter has a one-click way out, and we stop at once if you use it. The lawful basis is your consent, which you can withdraw at any time. When you leave, we keep your address only on a list of people we must not write to, so that you are never added again by mistake. Records of bounced or refused mail are kept for ninety days, and a record of which letters went to which address for a year.

Suggestions, memories, questions and enquiries

We read suggestions and memories because we have a legitimate interest in knowing which books readers want and remember; we quote a memory only if you tick the box that allows it, which is your consent, and we take it down if you ask. We keep them for three years. An enquiry is used to reply, and we delete it two years after it arrives. Questions typed into Ask the archive are answered on our own server and logged, without your internet address, for seven days so that we can fix problems; please do not type personal details there. If you are under 13, please ask a parent before sending us anything.

To slow down misuse, the forms keep a keyed hash of your internet address for thirty days; it cannot be turned back into your address without our key. The notices we send ourselves when an order or message arrives carry a number, not your details. No decision about you is made by software alone.

Who handles it, and where

• Hetzner Online, which hosts our server in Germany.
• Cloudflare, Inc., which carries the site’s traffic and protects it.
• Stripe (payments) and Postmark (our emails), each only for its part of an order or a message.
• BookVault (printing and post), in the United Kingdom.
• Email to hello@dawnchild.com and trade@dawnchild.com is forwarded by Cloudflare’s email routing to our mailbox at Proton AG in Switzerland, a country the UK recognises as protecting personal data adequately.

Focal Point International LLC is a United States company. Cloudflare, Stripe and Postmark may also process information in the United States. Each does so under data-processing terms that include the UK International Data Transfer Addendum and the EU standard contractual clauses. We do not sell your information or pass it to anyone else, except where the law requires it.

The databases are copied every night. Copies on our server are kept for thirty days, and a further copy is kept on a backup machine we own. Something we have deleted can survive for a time in a backup; we do not use it from there, and would restore it only to recover from a failure.

Your rights

You can ask for a copy of what we hold about you, ask us to correct or delete it, object to or restrict how we use it, or ask for it in a portable form; you can withdraw consent at any time. Write to hello@dawnchild.com. We acknowledge a request or complaint within two working days and answer within one month. If you are unhappy with our answer you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk, or to the data protection authority where you live.

Updated 21 October 2026.