Postloop is built around communities and the people behind them. That means we need to process some personal information to run the platform, track contributions, handle payments and keep Postloop safe.
This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, why we collect it, how we use it, and the choices and rights you have.
The business operating Postloop, as identified in our Legal Notice, is the controller of the personal data described in this policy.
If you have a question about your privacy or want to exercise one of your rights, you can contact us at [email protected].
1. Who this policy applies to
This policy applies when you:
visit Postloop;
create or use a Postloop account;
participate as a writer;
add or manage a community;
purchase credits;
request a payout;
contact our support team;
use a Postloop integration;
participate in our referral or promotional programs; or
otherwise interact with Postloop.
External forums, blogs and communities have their own privacy practices. Their collection and use of information is controlled by their respective owners and is not covered by this Privacy Policy.
2. Information you give us
The information we collect depends on how you use Postloop.
Account information
When you create and manage an account, we may collect information such as:
your email address;
username or display name;
password in securely hashed form;
profile information;
country or region;
communication preferences; and
other information you choose to add to your profile.
We use this information to create and manage your account, allow you to sign in, communicate with you and provide the Postloop service.
Writer information
If you participate as a writer, we may process information connected to your writing activity, including:
your writer profile;
interests and preferred subjects;
trial contributions;
submitted contributions;
links to your posts;
contribution dates and activity;
ratings and reviews;
quality assessments;
reputation information;
earned credits;
disputes, revisions and appeals; and
your history of completed work.
We use this information to operate the writer program, verify contributions, calculate credits, maintain writer reputation and help community owners find suitable contributors.
Community owner information
If you add a website or community to Postloop, we may collect:
the community name;
website address;
description;
categories or subjects;
community software and version;
posting requirements;
integration status;
credit budgets and limits; and
information about your activity as the person managing that community.
Some information about listed communities is intended to be visible to writers or other Postloop users.
Information used for payouts
If you request a payout, we may need additional information to process it and meet financial, accounting, fraud-prevention or legal requirements.
Depending on the payment method and circumstances, this may include:
your legal name;
address;
country;
payment account details;
payment provider information;
transaction identifiers;
payout history; and
identity or verification information where required.
We only request information that is reasonably necessary for the payout or related legal requirements.
Payment providers may collect additional information directly from you under their own privacy policies.
3. Information collected from connected communities
Postloop may receive information through an official integration installed on a participating forum or community.
This can include information such as:
your username on that community;
your user ID;
the Postloop account associated with that username;
contribution or post identifiers;
URLs of eligible contributions;
timestamps;
contribution counts;
whether content was edited or removed; and
other technical information necessary to verify activity.
We use this information to connect your Postloop activity with your activity on the participating community, verify eligible contributions and calculate credits.
We do not require a participating community to send us information that is unrelated to operating Postloop's contribution system.
The community itself remains responsible for information it collects independently through its own website.
4. Information collected automatically
Like most online services, Postloop receives certain technical information when you use the platform.
This may include:
your IP address;
browser and device information;
operating system;
pages visited;
dates and times of requests;
referring pages;
session information;
authentication events;
error and diagnostic information; and
security-related activity.
We use this information to operate Postloop, diagnose technical problems, protect accounts, prevent abuse and understand how the service is being used.
We do not use technical information to secretly identify you outside the purposes described in this policy.
5. Payments and purchases
When you purchase credits or make another payment, the transaction may be processed by an external payment provider.
Postloop may receive and retain information such as:
the amount paid;
currency;
payment status;
date and time;
transaction identifier;
payment method type;
billing information made available to us by the provider; and
information needed for refunds, accounting or disputes.
We generally do not need to receive or store your complete payment card details when those details are handled directly by the payment provider.
Payment providers process certain information under their own terms and privacy policies.
6. Support and communication
If you contact us, we may retain the communication and information associated with it.
This can include support requests, emails, reports, complaints, appeals and other correspondence.
We use these records to respond to you, investigate problems, keep track of previous decisions and improve the service.
We may also send you important service messages, such as:
account or security notices;
payment and payout information;
contribution or review notifications;
important changes to Postloop;
changes to our Terms or policies; and
messages needed to operate your account.
These operational messages are part of providing Postloop and may still be sent when you have opted out of promotional communication.
7. Marketing and optional messages
We may occasionally offer newsletters, product updates or other optional communications.
Where consent is required, we will only send these messages after you have chosen to receive them.
You can unsubscribe from promotional messages at any time.
Unsubscribing from marketing does not prevent us from sending messages that are necessary to operate your account or complete a transaction.
8. Why we use your information
Under European data protection law, we need a valid reason to process personal data.
Depending on the situation, Postloop relies on the following legal bases.
To perform our agreement with you
We process information when it is necessary to provide the Postloop service you have requested.
This includes things such as:
creating and managing your account;
tracking eligible contributions;
awarding and spending credits;
managing community listings;
processing purchases;
processing payout requests; and
providing account support.
Our legitimate interests
We may process information where it is reasonably necessary for the legitimate operation and protection of Postloop and where those interests are not overridden by your rights.
This can include:
preventing fraud and platform abuse;
protecting accounts and infrastructure;
investigating suspicious activity;
improving Postloop;
diagnosing technical problems;
keeping reasonable records of disputes;
enforcing our Terms of Service; and
understanding the general performance and use of the service.
Where required, we balance these interests against the impact on your privacy.
Legal obligations
Some information must be processed or retained because the law requires it.
This can include information needed for:
accounting and taxation;
responding to lawful requests from authorities;
financial records;
fraud prevention where legally required; and
establishing, exercising or defending legal claims.
Consent
Where the law requires consent, we will ask for it before processing your information.
This may apply, for example, to certain marketing communications or non-essential cookies and tracking technologies.
You may withdraw your consent at any time. Withdrawing consent does not make processing that already took place while your consent was valid unlawful.
9. Reviews, ratings and reputation
Postloop uses ratings, reviews and contribution history to help maintain the quality of the platform.
Information such as your writer rating, reputation level, contribution history or selected profile information may be shown to community owners where necessary for them to decide who they want to work with.
Similarly, information about a participating community may be shown to writers.
We do not make your private account, payment or identity-verification information publicly available as part of your reputation profile.
Postloop may use automated calculations to help determine things such as a rating, reputation score or eligibility for particular opportunities. Where important account decisions require investigation, we may also review the underlying information manually.
We do not intend to make decisions producing legal or similarly significant effects about you solely through automated processing without the safeguards required by law.
10. Fraud and security
We may process account, payment, device, network and contribution information to detect and prevent:
duplicate accounts;
payment fraud;
manipulated contributions;
artificial credit generation;
abuse of referrals or promotions;
account takeovers;
spam;
automated activity;
security attacks; and
other violations of our Terms.
Where suspicious activity is detected, information may be reviewed by Postloop staff.
We may retain relevant records where reasonably necessary to prevent repeated abuse, resolve disputes or protect Postloop and its users.
11. Who we share information with
We do not sell your personal data.
We may share limited personal information with organisations that help us operate Postloop.
These may include providers responsible for:
website and application hosting;
infrastructure and content delivery;
email delivery;
payment processing;
payout processing;
fraud prevention;
security and monitoring;
error reporting;
customer support;
analytics, where permitted; and
professional accounting or legal services.
These providers receive only the information reasonably necessary for the service they provide and are required to handle it appropriately.
Community owners and writers
Certain information has to be shared between users for Postloop to work.
For example, a community owner may see information about a writer's reputation, contribution or review history. A writer may see information about a community, its requirements and its owner where appropriate.
We try to limit this information to what is useful for the interaction.
Legal requirements
We may disclose information where we reasonably believe disclosure is required by law, a valid legal process or an order from an authority with the power to require it.
We may also disclose information where necessary to establish, exercise or defend legal claims or to protect Postloop, our users or others against serious fraud, abuse or security threats.
12. Public information
Some parts of Postloop are intended to be public.
Depending on the features you use, public information may include:
your display name;
profile information you choose to publish;
public ratings or reputation;
reviews;
community names and descriptions;
community URLs; and
other information clearly identified as public when you submit it.
Please keep this in mind when deciding what to publish.
Information made public may be copied, indexed or stored by third parties outside Postloop. We cannot control what independent third parties do with information that was legitimately made public.
13. Cookies and similar technologies
Postloop may use cookies and similar technologies to keep the service working.
Strictly necessary cookies may be used for things such as:
signing you in;
keeping your session secure;
remembering essential preferences;
protecting forms and accounts;
processing requests; and
remembering your privacy choices.
These cookies are necessary for the service to function and do not require consent where the applicable law provides an exemption for strictly necessary technologies.
If Postloop uses non-essential cookies or similar technologies, including certain analytics or advertising technologies, we will ask for your consent where required before using them.
You can change or withdraw your cookie choices through the controls provided on Postloop.
More detailed information about individual cookies and their purposes may be provided through our cookie settings or a separate Cookie Policy.
14. International data transfers
Some companies that provide technology or payment services to Postloop may process information outside Belgium or elsewhere outside the European Economic Area.
Where personal data is transferred to a country that does not provide an adequate level of protection under European data protection law, we use an appropriate legal mechanism where required.
This may include recognised adequacy decisions, approved contractual safeguards such as Standard Contractual Clauses, or another legally permitted transfer mechanism.
15. How long we keep information
We do not keep personal information forever simply because we can.
How long information is retained depends on why we collected it and whether we continue to need it.
In general:
account information is kept while your account is active and for a reasonable period afterwards where necessary;
contribution, credit and transaction records may be retained to maintain accurate platform and financial history;
payment and accounting records are kept for the period required by applicable accounting and tax law;
payout and verification records may be retained where required for financial, fraud-prevention or legal purposes;
support and dispute records may be retained for as long as reasonably necessary to deal with the issue and establish a history of relevant decisions;
technical and security logs are normally retained for a limited period unless they are required to investigate abuse or a security incident; and
information connected to fraud or serious platform abuse may be retained where reasonably necessary to prevent the same behaviour from recurring.
When information is no longer required, we delete it, anonymise it or otherwise remove it from active use, subject to technical backup cycles and legal retention requirements.
16. Closing your account
You can request that your Postloop account be closed.
Closing an account does not necessarily mean that every piece of information associated with it can immediately be deleted.
We may still need to retain certain information where necessary for:
accounting or tax obligations;
completed payments and payouts;
fraud prevention;
dispute resolution;
enforcing legal rights;
security records; or
another legal obligation.
Information that does not need to be retained will be deleted or anonymised in accordance with our retention practices.
17. Your privacy rights
If the GDPR or similar data protection law applies to you, you may have the right to:
access personal data we hold about you;
correct inaccurate or incomplete information;
request deletion of personal data in certain circumstances;
restrict processing in certain circumstances;
object to processing based on our legitimate interests;
object to direct marketing at any time;
receive certain information in a portable format where the right to data portability applies;
withdraw consent where processing is based on your consent; and
raise concerns about certain automated decisions where applicable.
These rights are not absolute. For example, we may need to retain information despite a deletion request when we have a legal obligation to keep it or need it to establish or defend a legal claim.
To exercise a privacy right, contact [email protected].
We may need to confirm your identity before giving access to personal information or making certain changes.
We will respond within the period required by applicable data protection law.
18. Complaints
If you have a concern about how Postloop handles your personal data, we encourage you to contact us first so that we can investigate it.
You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a competent data protection authority.
Because Postloop is operated from Belgium, this includes the Belgian Data Protection Authority, also known as the Gegevensbeschermingsautoriteit (GBA) or Autorité de protection des données (APD).
If you live elsewhere in the European Economic Area, you may also be entitled to contact the supervisory authority in your own country.
19. Security
We use appropriate technical and organisational measures intended to protect personal information against unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, loss or misuse.
No online service can guarantee absolute security.
You are also responsible for keeping your Postloop password secure and should contact us if you believe someone has gained unauthorized access to your account.
20. Children
Postloop is intended for adults.
You must be at least 18 years old to create a Postloop account.
We do not knowingly allow children to participate as writers or community owners. If we discover that an account belongs to someone under 18, we may close the account and remove associated personal information where we are not required to retain it.
21. Changes to this Privacy Policy
Postloop will continue to develop, and this Privacy Policy may occasionally change with it.
Minor changes or clarifications may be published directly on this page.
If we make a material change to how we use personal information, we will provide reasonable notice where appropriate or legally required.
The date at the top of this page shows when the policy was last updated.
22. Contact us
For questions about this Privacy Policy, how your information is handled, or a request concerning your personal data, contact:
Postloop
Email: [email protected]
Our full legal business name, business address, registration information and other required details are available in our Legal Notice.