The short version. I collect as little as I can. If you subscribe, I keep your email address until you unsubscribe. If you allow analytics cookies, Google Analytics tells me which pages people read. I don't sell data, I don't run ads, and I don't build profiles on anyone. Everything below is the detail.

Who is responsible

Alina, working as Stitching Stories by Alina — an independent designer based in Ukraine.

For any question or request about your data, write to contact@stitch-stories.com. It comes straight to me.

What I collect and why

Newsletter

If you subscribe, I collect your email address — nothing else. The address is saved when you submit the form. The newsletter has not started yet: right now I am only collecting addresses so I can write to you when the first letter is ready. You can ask to be removed at any time, before a single email is sent.

  • What I use it for: letting you know about new patterns, sending free patterns, and occasional stitching tips.
  • Legal basis: your consent.
  • Unsubscribing: every email has an unsubscribe link. One click, no questions, no "are you sure". You can also write to me and I'll remove you.
  • Where it's kept: in the website's own system. I don't use an external mailing service, so your address isn't passed to a third-party platform.
  • How long: until you unsubscribe. After that the address is deleted.

Analytics

The site uses Google Analytics 4, and only after you've agreed to analytics cookies. It records which pages are opened, roughly where visitors are (country and city level), what device and browser they use, which site they arrived from, and an anonymous identifier stored in a cookie.

Your IP address is used to work out approximate location and is not stored by Google Analytics. What I see are aggregate reports — "this article was read 400 times", not who read it. I cannot identify you from them.

  • Provider: Google Ireland Limited / Google LLC, acting as my processor.
  • Legal basis: your consent, which you can withdraw at any time in Cookie settings.

Google Search Console

I use it to see aggregated statistics about search queries that lead to the site. It contains no personal data and no individual visitors.

Messages you send me

Whatever you write to me — by email, in an Etsy message or in an Instagram DM — I keep for as long as I need it to answer you and to have a record of the conversation if a question comes up later.

Server logs

The website does not keep server logs with IP addresses.

Purchases

On Etsy

When you buy through Etsy, Etsy is an independent data controller for that transaction and its own privacy policy applies. Etsy handles the payment — I never see your card details.

In Etsy's seller interface I can see your name or Etsy username, the order itself, and any message you send me. I don't copy that into a separate database, and I never add buyers to the newsletter — subscribing is something you have to do yourself.

Etsy's privacy policy: etsy.com/legal/privacy

On Instagram

If you order through Instagram, the conversation happens inside Instagram and Meta's privacy policy applies to it. I keep the message thread and a record of the file I sent you.

On this website

Direct sales on this website are not available yet. When they open, this policy will be updated before the first order is taken.

Where your data is stored

The website and the subscriber list run on hosting from a provider registered in Ukraine, with servers located in the United States. Google Analytics data is processed by Google in the United States.

This means your data is stored outside the European Economic Area, in countries that are not covered by a general EU adequacy decision (Google participates in the EU–US Data Privacy Framework). Because of that, I deliberately keep the amount of data to an absolute minimum — an email address and nothing more — and you can have it deleted the moment you ask.

How long data is kept

  • Newsletter address: until you unsubscribe.
  • Analytics: retained by Google under its own retention setting, up to 14 months for visitor-level data.
  • Messages: as long as they're useful for answering you, then deleted.

Who else sees your data

Google (analytics), the hosting provider (storage), and — for purchases made there — Etsy and Meta. That's the whole list.

Your data is never sold, rented, traded or handed over for advertising purposes. It's disclosed to anyone else only if the law obliges me to.

Your rights

If you are in the EEA or the UK, the GDPR gives you the right to:

  • ask what data I hold about you and get a copy of it
  • have inaccurate data corrected
  • have your data deleted
  • restrict or object to how it's used
  • receive your data in a portable format
  • withdraw your consent at any time, which doesn't affect anything done before you withdrew it

Write to contact@stitch-stories.com and I'll deal with it within 30 days. No fee, no forms to fill in.

You also have the right to complain to a supervisory authority — the data protection authority in your country, or, in Ukraine, the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights.

Children

This website isn't aimed at children and I don't knowingly collect data from anyone under 16. If you're a parent and believe your child has subscribed, write to me and I'll delete the address straight away.

Security

The site runs over an encrypted connection (HTTPS), and access to the subscriber list is limited to me. No system is perfect, but the safest data is the data that was never collected — which is why there is so little of it here.

Embedded content

At the moment the site doesn't embed YouTube videos, maps or an Instagram feed. If that changes, they'll be listed on the Cookies page and loaded only after you've agreed.

Changes to this policy

I'll update this page whenever something actually changes — a new tool, a new sales channel, a different place where data is stored. The version published here is the one that applies.

Contact

contact@stitch-stories.com — I reply within 48–72 hours.

See also: Cookies · Terms of Use · Returns & Refunds