Privacy Policy

Last updated: October 3, 2026

1. Who we are

Mara Westford is a publishing pen name used by Paola Paloni. For the purposes of applicable data-protection law, including the EU General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), Paola Paloni is the Data Controller.

Privacy contact: hello@marawestford.com

2. What personal information we collect

When you request a complimentary advance reader copy (“ARC”), join an early-reader list, contact us, or interact with related communications, we may process your first name, email address, form-submission details such as date, source and consent choices, and operational email-delivery information such as delivery status, bounces, unsubscribes and spam complaints.

We deliberately limit the information we collect. We do not ask for or intentionally collect medical or health information, including information about aphasia, stroke history, disability, diagnosis or treatment. Please do not submit medical or health information through our forms or emails.

3. Why we use your information and our legal bases

We process personal information to provide the ARC or other resource you requested, administer that request, respond to you, maintain security and email deliverability, respect unsubscribe requests, and comply with applicable law.

Where appropriate, this processing is based on taking steps at your request or providing the service you requested, our legitimate interests in securely administering the ARC program and maintaining accurate suppression and delivery records, and legal obligations that may apply.

We use your email address for separate promotional communications about related Mara Westford books, resources or future ARC opportunities only where you have given the required consent. You can withdraw that consent at any time.

4. ARC follow-up and reviews

We may send a limited number of messages directly related to the ARC you requested, such as delivery information, a reminder connected with access to the ARC, or a request for voluntary feedback.

Leaving an Amazon rating or review is entirely voluntary. We do not require a review in exchange for an ARC, require proof or a screenshot of a review, provide a reward or benefit conditional on a review, or require a positive review.

5. Email tracking

We do not intentionally use individualized email-open or click tracking for contacts whose tracking consent has not been provided. Our email platform is configured not to individually track contacts whose pixel-tracking consent is unknown. We may still process operational information necessary for email delivery and compliance, such as bounces, unsubscribe requests and spam complaints.

6. Service providers and recipients

We use third-party services to operate the ARC program and related communications. These may include Meta for advertising and Instant Forms, Brevo (Sendinblue SAS) for contact management and email delivery, Cloudflare for domain, DNS and email-routing infrastructure, and Google for administrative email and, where used, file delivery or storage.

These providers may process personal information only to the extent relevant to the services they provide. When you use a third-party platform such as Facebook, Instagram, Google or Amazon, that platform may also process information under its own privacy terms.

7. International data transfers

Some service providers or their subprocessors may process personal information outside the European Economic Area. Where applicable, transfers are made using a lawful transfer mechanism, such as an adequacy decision, Standard Contractual Clauses, or another safeguard recognised by applicable data-protection law.

8. How long we keep information

ARC-program records are generally retained for no longer than 12 months after the last ARC-related interaction unless a longer period is reasonably necessary for legal, security or compliance purposes.

If you separately consent to ongoing promotional communications, we retain the information needed for that purpose until you withdraw consent or until we determine that the information is no longer needed. We normally review inactive marketing contacts after 24 months of no meaningful engagement.

If you unsubscribe, we may retain the minimum information necessary on a suppression list so that your opt-out continues to be respected.

9. Your rights

Where the GDPR or another applicable data-protection law applies, you may have rights including access, rectification, erasure, restriction, data portability, objection, and withdrawal of consent. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a competent data-protection authority.

To exercise your privacy rights, contact hello@marawestford.com. If you are in Italy, you may also contact the Garante per la protezione dei dati personali.

10. Unsubscribing

Marketing emails include an unsubscribe mechanism. Withdrawing consent to optional marketing does not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before withdrawal.

11. Automated decision-making

We do not use the personal information collected through this ARC program to make solely automated decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects about you.

12. Children

This ARC program is intended for adults. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children through this program.

13. Cookies and this website

This website is intended to operate as a simple informational site without advertising or analytics cookies. Essential technical or security functions provided by our hosting and infrastructure providers may operate as necessary. If we later add analytics, advertising technologies or other non-essential tracking, we will update this notice and implement any consent mechanism required by applicable law.

14. Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy when our services, providers or legal obligations change. The current version will display its latest update date.