Introduction
Herix Studios (“Herix Studios,” “Herix,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) runs herixstudios.com, a platform for original fiction from real writers. This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect when you use Herix, why we collect it, who can see it, which service providers handle it for us, how long we keep it, and the choices you have.
By using Herix Studios, you acknowledge the practices described in this Privacy Policy.
The short version
- We collect what we need to run your account, publish your writing, and keep the site safe.
- We do not sell your personal information or use it for targeted advertising.
- Google Analytics only runs if you agree to analytics cookies.
- Your date of birth and email address are never shown to other users.
- You can download your data or delete your account yourself, from your settings.
Part 1 / What We Collect
01Information You Give Us
Your account
- Email address
- Username
- Password (handled by our authentication provider; we never see or store it in readable form)
- Date of birth, used to enforce our minimum age and kept private
- Two-factor authentication setup, if you turn it on
Your profile
Display name, avatar, bio, and any other profile details you add. You don't have to use your real name.
What you post and do on Herix
- Stories, volumes, chapters, character and extras pages, author's notes, and the images in them
- Comments, replies, reviews, star ratings, and writer updates
- Likes, saves, favorites, follows, blocks, bookmarks, and votes on comments and updates
Your settings
Reading preferences (font, size, spacing, alignment), content-rating filters, accent color, language, notification preferences, and privacy settings.
Writer applications
Your answers to the application questions, the contact email you give, and your writing sample. See Writer Applications.
Messages and reports
What you send through the contact form or by email (your name, email address, and message), and the reports you file about comments or users, including any reason you give.
02Information Collected Automatically
Reading activity
When you're signed in, we record which chapters you open and how far you've read. This powers your library, “continue reading,” reading achievements, and recommendations. Writers see how many times their chapters are read as totals in their dashboard, never who read them.
If you're not signed in, a cookie in your browser remembers which chapters you've opened, so we can offer two free chapters of each story before asking you to create an account. That record stays in your browser; we don't store it.
Sign-ins and sessions
Each time you sign in, we record the time and your browser and device details. You can see this history, and the devices currently signed in to your account, under Settings → Privacy → Security, and sign out any session from there.
Technical and security information
Like most websites, Herix and its providers receive your IP address, browser and device information, the pages you request, and the time of each request, so the site can be delivered and protected from abuse. To limit repeated sign-in attempts, verification codes, contact messages, and applications, we count attempts by IP address and by account. Those counts are deleted within about a day.
Analytics
If you agree to analytics cookies, Google Analytics collects information about how you use the site, such as the pages you visit, how long you stay, and general device and location information. See Cookies and Browser Storage.
Part 2 / How It's Used and Shared
04How We Use Information
We use information to:
- Create and run your account, and sign you in securely
- Publish your profile, stories, and posts, and show them to the right audience
- Remember your reading progress, library, and preferences
- Send notifications and emails about your account and activity
- Review writer applications
- Check uploaded images and files before they are published or opened
- Moderate the platform, investigate reports, and enforce the Community Guidelines
- Prevent spam, abuse, fraud, and unauthorized access
- Answer your messages and support requests
- Show writers totals for how their stories are being read
- Understand how the site is used and improve it
- Comply with legal obligations
We won't use personal information for purposes unrelated to these without giving notice where required.
05What Other People Can See
Herix is a publishing community, so some information is public by design.
Always visible
Your username, display name, avatar, and profile card appear wherever you post, so they stay visible whatever your settings. So does anything you publish publicly: stories, comments, replies, reviews, ratings, and writer updates.
Controlled by your profile visibility
Under Settings → Privacy → Privacy, choose whether your profile is visible to Everyone, Herix Users (signed-in people only), or Followers. That setting controls your bio, your favorites and saved stories, your followers and following lists, and your reading stats and achievements.
On the same page you can stop people finding you by your username. Writers can also hide their public statistics and follower counts, and keep their stories out of search, recommendations, or Herix features.
Never shown to other users
Your email address, date of birth, reading history, sign-in history, settings, blocks, and anything you send to staff.
Think carefully about what you include in anything you publish.
06Service Providers
Herix relies on these providers to run the site. Each one processes information on our behalf, only as needed to provide its service.
- Amazon Web Services (AWS): our backend database. Almost everything described in this policy is stored here.
- Cloudflare: domain, content delivery, and security services that every visit passes through, and routing for email sent to our herixstudios.com addresses.
- OpenAI: checks each uploaded image for prohibited content before it is published. It receives the image itself, not your name or account details.
- Sightengine: estimates how likely an uploaded cover or story image is to be AI-generated. It receives the image itself, not your name or account details.
- Google Analytics: website analytics, only if you accept analytics cookies.
We do not sell personal information to these providers or anyone else.
We may also disclose information if required by law, to respond to valid legal requests, or to protect the safety of our users, the public, or Herix.
07Emails We Send
We send emails that are needed to run your account, including:
- The code that confirms your email address when you sign up
- Confirmation when you change your email address
- Confirmation that your writer application arrived, and its decision
- Important notices about your account or the platform
Choose which activity emails you receive under Settings → Account → Email & Notifications. Herix doesn't currently send newsletters or promotional emails. If we start, they will be optional and you will be able to turn them off on that page. Emails needed for your account's security may still be sent.
Part 3 / Specific Features
08Writer Applications
To publish on Herix, you apply with answers about your writing, a contact email, and a writing sample (PDF, DOCX, or plain text).
- Your sample is uploaded to a private holding area, checked automatically for unsafe content such as scripts or macros, and then stored privately. It is never public.
- Your full application, with the sample attached, is emailed to Herix's applications inbox so staff can review it. Applications are only seen by authorized staff.
- Your application and its decision are kept with your account, so staff can see your history and you can reapply after a rejection. Staff may delete rejected applications.
- Deleting your account deletes your application and stored samples. To have emailed copies deleted too, send a privacy request.
09Images and Uploaded Files
You can upload images for your avatar, story and volume covers, character and extras pages, and inside chapters. Images must be PNG or JPEG.
Each image goes to a private holding area first and is checked for prohibited content (see OpenAI above) before it is published. An image that needs a closer look, or that is blocked as clearly prohibited, stays private until a staff member reviews it: it is published only if they approve it, and deleted if they reject it. An image that appears to sexualize a minor is deleted immediately and never kept. We keep a record of each check's outcome.
Covers, character and extras images, and chapter images are also checked for signs of AI generation (see Sightengine above), since AI-generated artwork is not permitted there. An image that looks AI-generated, or one that could not be checked, stays private until a staff member reviews it. Avatars and profile banners are not checked for this.
Published images are public, like the stories they belong to. You are responsible for having the rights to anything you upload.
Writing samples for applications are the only documents Herix accepts. The writing platform does not accept other files such as PDFs or Word documents.
10Messages, Reports, and Moderation
Messages sent through the contact form go to the team inbox for the inquiry type you choose, and are also filed in Herix's internal staff tracker so they can be followed up. Only staff can see them.
Reports you file are seen only by staff. The person you report isn't told who reported them.
Staff can see the content and account information needed to moderate the platform, including hidden and deleted comments. Every action taken through the staff tools is recorded internally, so decisions can be reviewed.
11Your Stories and Content
Except where separate contractual terms apply, such as the Herix Studios Partner Program1, Herix Studios does not claim ownership of the stories or other original content you publish. Publishing on Herix does not, by itself, transfer ownership to Herix.
By publishing content meant to be public, you understand that it will be shown to other people as part of the platform.
Part 4 / Keeping and Deleting
12Security
We use reasonable administrative, technical, and organizational measures to protect your information, including:
- Optional two-factor authentication, enforced on every request once it is turned on
- Limits on repeated sign-in and verification attempts
- A sign-in history and session list you can review, with the ability to sign out other sessions
- Database rules that control who can read and change each piece of information
- Private storage for application samples and for images awaiting review
- Staff tools kept on a separate, access-controlled site, with every action recorded
No internet service can guarantee that information will always stay secure. If a security incident requires notification under applicable law, we will provide notice as required.
13How Long We Keep Information
We keep information only as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes in this policy, unless the law requires or permits longer.
- Your account and content: while your account exists.
- Stories you delete: removed permanently, with their volumes and chapters.
- Comments you delete: shown to everyone else as a deleted placeholder. The original text stays visible to you, the story's writer, and staff until your account is deleted.
- Sign-in history: while your account exists.
- Attempt counts used for rate limiting: about a day.
- Writer applications: see Writer Applications above.
- Contact messages and staff tickets: until staff close and delete them, or you ask us to delete them.
- Reports, image check results, and staff action records: as long as needed for moderation, safety, and enforcement, which can be after the account involved is deleted.
- Backups: copies may remain in our providers' backups until those backups expire or are overwritten.
14Deleting Your Account
Delete your account at any time under Settings → Privacy → Security → Delete account. You'll be asked to type your username and confirm your password.
Deletion takes effect immediately and permanently removes from the active platform:
- Your account, profile, and settings
- Your stories, volumes, chapters, and every image you uploaded
- Your comments, replies, reviews, ratings, and writer updates
- Your likes, saves, favorites, follows, blocks, bookmarks, and reading history
- Your notifications, sign-in history, and writer application with its samples
Some information may remain as described in How Long We Keep Information: backups, moderation and security records, and messages you sent to staff. Deletion can't reach copies that other people have already made, quoted, or archived elsewhere.
Deletion cannot be undone, so download your data first if you want a copy.
15Downloading Your Data
Under Settings → Privacy → Security → Download my data, you can download a copy of your account information and content as a JSON file, including your profile, stories, comments, reviews, ratings, follows, saved stories, and blocks. For anything not in that file, send a privacy request.
Part 5 / Your Rights
16Age Requirements and Children's Privacy
Herix Studios is intended for people who are 13 or older. You give your date of birth when you create an account, and accounts can't be created for anyone younger.
Herix does not knowingly allow anyone under 13 to have an account.
If we learn that an account belongs to someone under 13, the account may be removed and its information deleted, except what we must keep for legal, security, or enforcement reasons. Parents or guardians who believe a child under 13 has an account can contact us at [email protected].
17Your Privacy Rights
Depending on where you live and which laws apply to you, you may have the right to:
- Access the personal information we hold about you
- Correct inaccurate information
- Delete personal information
- Receive your information in a portable format
- Opt out of certain types of processing
- Learn how your personal information is processed
- Appeal a decision about a privacy request
Many of these you can do yourself: edit your profile and settings, download your data, or delete your account. Some rights have legal exceptions or limits.
Florida residents may have additional rights under applicable Florida privacy law, including rights concerning access, correction, deletion, portability, certain opt-outs, and appeals, subject to that law's applicability and exceptions.
We will not discriminate against you for exercising your privacy rights.
18Making a Privacy Request
Email [email protected], or use the contact form with the inquiry type set to Privacy & Data Requests. Tell us what you are asking for and which account it concerns.
We may need to confirm that a request comes from the account holder before acting on it, and may ask for more information where reasonably necessary to protect against unauthorized requests.
We will respond to valid requests within the time required by applicable law. If you disagree with our decision and the law gives you a right to appeal, you can appeal by contacting the same address.
19What We Do Not Do
- Herix does not sell personal information.
- Herix does not use personal information for targeted advertising.
- Herix does not show advertising or use advertising cookies.
If any of this changes, we will update this policy first and provide any notice or choice the law requires.
Part 6 / About This Policy
20Where Information Is Processed
Herix Studios is based in the United States. Our service providers may process and store information in the United States and in other countries where they operate.
21Changes to This Policy
We update this policy when the site changes how it handles information. The “Last updated” date at the top shows when it last changed.
For significant changes, we may also give notice on Herix or by other appropriate means. We encourage you to review this policy from time to time.
22Contact Herix Studios
For questions, concerns, or requests about this policy or your personal information:
1. The Herix Studios Partner Program is a separate, contract-based program for selected writers. See the Community Guidelines and the Partner Program page for details. ←