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Privacy Policy

Last updated: 03.10.2026

1. Introduction

Welcome to DearComic. DearComic is a service provided by PUNTO ONLINE LTD, a company registered in England and Wales with company number 12396142 and registered office at 32-33 Upper Street, London, England, N1 0PN ("Company", "we", "us", or "our"). We are committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and protect your personal data when you visit our website www.dearcomic.com and use our services, including submitting content for personalized comic creation.

2. Information We Collect

We may collect the following types of personal data:

  • User-Submitted Data: Information you provide directly, such as names, email addresses, story texts, anecdotes, character descriptions and character photos.
  • Usage Data: Automatically collected data like IP address, browser type, device information (e.g., operating system), visited pages, timestamps, and referring URLs. Cookies and similar tracking technologies are also used for OpenAI Ads conversion measurement. The OpenAI Ads Measurement Pixel may set or read the first-party attribution cookies named __oppref and __obref to determine whether visits referred by OpenAI lead to paid Stripe purchases. For this measurement, we send conversion event IDs, purchase amounts, currencies, product contents, source URLs, and these attribution references to OpenAI; we do not send email addresses, IP addresses, shipping addresses, or other customer details.
  • Analytics and Advertising Data: We use analytics and advertising tools (such as Google Analytics, Google Ads and Meta) to understand how visitors use our site and to measure and improve our ads. These tools may use cookies and similar technologies. In the UK, the European Economic Area, Switzerland and Türkiye these tools only run if you accept cookies, and you can change your choice at any time via "Cookie settings" at the bottom of every page.
  • Ad Campaign Attribution: When you reach our site from an ad or a tagged link, we read the campaign details in the link itself (utm tags and ad click IDs such as gclid, gbraid, wbraid or fbclid), the website you came from and the page you first opened. This uses no cookies and stores nothing on your device. If you start an order, we save these details with it so we can see which campaigns lead to purchases; we do not use them to profile you. If you have not accepted cookies, a completed purchase is reported to Google Analytics only as an anonymous count (order value, currency and country), with a random one-time ID and no identifier linked to you.
  • Order and Shipping Data: If you order a printed copy, your name, shipping address and the contact details needed for delivery.
  • Payment Information: Payment details are securely processed by third-party providers (e.g., Stripe, Coinbase). We do not collect or store your full credit card information. We may receive transaction confirmations or partial details from the provider.
  • Communication Data: Information shared when you contact us via email or support channels.

3. How We Use Your Information

We use personal data to:

  • Create and deliver your personalized comic, including previews and free comic strips
  • Process payments and fulfil printed orders
  • Communicate with you about your order, delivery, support or service updates
  • Send you reminder emails if you start an order but do not complete it. These may include a free preview, such as a short comic strip made from your inputs.
  • Send you news and offers about DearComic where the law allows it, or with your consent where the law requires it. Every marketing email includes an unsubscribe link.
  • Operate, test, troubleshoot and improve our service, including our story and image generation. Our team and contractors may review inputs and generated outputs for these purposes.
  • Showcase generated content in our marketing, as described in our Terms of Use
  • Keep our service secure, prevent fraud and abuse, and handle payment disputes
  • Comply with legal obligations and establish, exercise or defend legal claims

4. Legal Basis for Processing (GDPR/KVKK)

We process your personal data based on the following legal grounds:

  • Contract Performance: To provide what you ask for when you upload photos or enter a story: previews, free strips, your comic, printed copies and order-related emails.
  • Legitimate Interests: To send order reminders and previews, send marketing to customers and prospective customers where the law allows it, showcase free comic strips in our marketing as described in our Terms of Use, operate and improve our service, keep it secure, and handle disputes. You can object at any time.
  • Consent: Where the law requires it, for example marketing emails in some countries. You may withdraw your consent at any time.
  • Legal Obligation: When we must comply with applicable laws, such as tax and accounting rules.

5. Data Storage and Retention

Your data is stored in databases hosted on MongoDB Atlas. Uploaded files and generated comics are stored on Amazon Web Services (AWS) S3. We keep personal data only as long as we need it:

  • Unfinished orders: Inputs (photos, names, story) and any previews are kept for up to 30 days after your last activity.
  • Completed orders: Inputs are kept for up to 12 months after delivery so we can handle revisions, remakes, printed reorders, support and payment disputes.
  • Generated comics and free comic strips: Kept for up to 24 months so you can download them again or order prints.
  • Content shared in our marketing: May stay published until you ask us to remove it.
  • Account and order records (name, email, order history, invoices): Kept while your account is active and as long as tax and accounting law requires (in the UK, generally 6 years).
  • Security and system logs: Kept for the limited periods needed for security and troubleshooting.

We may keep anonymized or aggregated data that no longer identifies you without a time limit. You can ask us to delete your photos, stories and comics at any time by emailing hello@dearcomic.com; we will do so, except where we must keep certain records by law.

6. Data Sharing

We do not sell your personal data, and we do not use your photos or stories to train AI models. We share personal data with service providers only as needed to run our service:

  • AI Service Providers: We use the OpenAI API to generate dialogue, narratives, scripts and images based on your inputs. Data sent via the OpenAI API is not used to train their models and is retained temporarily for abuse monitoring (typically up to 30 days).
  • Cloud Storage Providers: We use AWS S3 to store your uploads and generated comics.
  • Database Providers: MongoDB Atlas for storing personal information.
  • Payment Processors: Stripe and Coinbase for secure payment processing.
  • Print and Shipping Partners: If you order a printed copy, we share your order and shipping details with our print partners to print and deliver it.
  • Email Delivery Services: For order emails, reminders, delivering your comic and, where permitted, marketing emails.
  • Analytics and Advertising Providers: Such as Google and Meta, as described in section 2.
  • Legal Authorities: When required by law or official court order.
  • Professional Advisors: Lawyers, accountants, or consultants when necessary for legal, financial, or business support.
  • Business Transfers: If our business is sold or merged, personal data may be transferred to the new owner, who will continue to process it under this policy.

7. International Data Transfers

Some of our service providers (e.g., OpenAI, AWS, MongoDB Atlas) are located outside the UK or EEA. When transferring your data internationally, we ensure appropriate safeguards are in place, such as SCCs or adequacy decisions, as required by law.

8. Data Security

We implement reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect your personal data against unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction. However, no method of transmission over the internet or electronic storage is 100% secure.

9. Your Rights

Depending on your location (notably under GDPR and KVKK), you have the right to:

  • Access the personal data we hold about you
  • Request corrections to inaccurate data
  • Request deletion of your data (subject to retention rules and legal obligations)
  • Restrict processing in certain cases
  • Request data portability in a machine-readable format
  • Object to processing based on legitimate interest
  • Withdraw consent at any time
  • File a complaint with a data protection authority (e.g., KVKK in Türkiye or ICO in the UK)

To exercise your rights, please contact us using the details below.

10. Children's Privacy

Our service is not intended for individuals under the age of 16 (or the age defined by your local law). We do not knowingly collect personal data from children.

11. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Major changes will be announced via update to the "Last updated" date or via a site notification. We recommend reviewing this policy periodically.

12. Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact: PUNTO ONLINE LTD
32-33 Upper Street, London, England, N1 0PN
Company No: 12396142
Email: hello@dearcomic.com