Data Retention Policy

WICKBORNEWORLD.COM DATA RETENTION POLICY Version: 1.0 Effective Date: July 23, 2026 Last Updated: July 28, 2026 1. PURPOSE This Data Retention Policy explains how WickborneWorld.com determines how long personal information and related records are kept, when information is deleted or deidentified, how deletion requests are handled, and what limited circumstances may require information to be retained longer. WickborneWorld.com is operated by Darien Cruté. In this policy, "WickborneWorld.com," "Wickborne World," the "Site," "we," "us," and "our" refer to the Site and its operator. This policy supplements the WickborneWorld.com Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. If this policy conflicts with a legal obligation, court order, or valid preservation requirement, the applicable legal requirement controls. 2. SCOPE This policy applies to personal information and related records maintained through WickborneWorld.com, including: - User account information; - Authentication and password-reset information; - Birthday and age-eligibility information; - Private profile information; - Wickborne birthday and personal calendar information; - Affinity Divination results, Affinity Potentials, designations, recorded order, calculation versions, and related records; - Soulcandle descriptions, traits, images, and related records; - Eligible adult Promotional Soulcandle Assets consisting only of generated candle names and images; - Soulcandle artificial-intelligence disclosure acknowledgments; - Adult-transition notices, choices, and revocations; - Privacy, support, and account-management requests; - Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, and Data Retention Policy acceptance records; - Technical and security logs; - Fraud, abuse, and moderation records; - Security-incident and breach-response records; - Backup copies; and - Related administrative records. This policy applies regardless of whether information is stored in a database, file system, server log, email system, backup, service-provider system, or another authorized location. This policy does not require deletion of non-personal creative, literary, technical, or business content merely because it has existed for a particular period. Fictional lore, calendar systems, public Site content, source code, and similar materials may be retained for as long as they remain useful or legally protected. 3. RETENTION PRINCIPLES WickborneWorld.com follows these general principles: - Collect only information reasonably necessary for a defined purpose; - Retain information only while that purpose continues or another legitimate reason applies; - Use shorter retention periods for sensitive or temporary information; - Avoid retaining raw information when a less identifying form will serve the same purpose; - Restrict access according to operational need; - Delete, destroy, or deidentify information when its retention period ends; - Apply heightened care to information belonging to known users under 18; - Suspend ordinary deletion when a valid legal or security preservation requirement applies; and - Review retention periods as the Site, technology, and law change. Information will not be retained indefinitely merely because storage is available. 4. RETENTION PERIOD DEFINITIONS For purposes of this policy: "Account closure" means the date an account is permanently deleted or otherwise closed for ordinary use. "Active system" means a production database, active file system, administrator interface, or other system used in the regular operation of the Site. "Deletion" means removal from active use and destruction or erasure through reasonable technical methods. "Deidentification" means modifying information so that it cannot reasonably be linked to an identifiable user without additional information that is maintained separately and protected. "Legal hold" means a documented suspension of ordinary deletion because information may be relevant to litigation, an investigation, a government request, a security incident, a contractual dispute, or another legal obligation. "Service provider" means an outside provider that processes information on behalf of WickborneWorld.com, such as a hosting, email, backup, security, artificial-intelligence, graphic-design, printing, advertising-placement, or promotional-publishing provider. "Promotional Soulcandle Asset" means a promotional copy consisting only of an artificial-intelligence-generated Soulcandle name and image that has been selected from an eligible adult account and detached from identifying account information as described in Section 9.4. 5. USER ACCOUNTS 5.1 Active Accounts The following information may be retained while an account remains active: - Username; - Email address; - Password hash; - Access level; - Account status; - Wickborne birthday; - Minor-status and adult-transition information; - Account creation and update dates; - Private profile information; - Affinity Divination result and related records; - Soulcandle result and image; - Authentication and account-management records; - Soulcandle disclosure-acknowledgment evidence; and - Current legal-policy acceptance and consent records. This information is retained because it is necessary to provide and administer the account and its requested features. 5.2 Inactive Accounts An account that has not been accessed for five consecutive years may be scheduled for deletion. Before deleting an inactive account, we will make a reasonable effort to send notice to the email address associated with the account at least 60 days before the scheduled deletion. Logging into the account or responding to the notice may cancel the scheduled deletion. We may delete an inactive account without the full notice period when: - The email address is invalid or undeliverable; - The account was created fraudulently; - The account violates the Terms of Use; - The account presents a security risk; - The user is ineligible to maintain an account; - Continued retention is unlawful; or - Immediate action is otherwise reasonably necessary. 5.3 Account Closure or Deletion Following a verified account-deletion request or final administrative account deletion: - The account will be disabled promptly; - Active account data will ordinarily be deleted within 30 days; - Wickborne birthday and private profile information will ordinarily be deleted; - Affinity Divination records associated with the account will ordinarily be deleted; - The Soulcandle database record will be deleted; - The associated private-account Soulcandle image file will be deleted from active storage; - Active password-reset credentials will be invalidated; - Active sessions will be invalidated where technically available; and - Information remaining in restricted backups will expire through the normal backup cycle, ordinarily within 90 days. Limited pseudonymous legal-acceptance and consent records may be retained longer under Section 11 and the other exceptions described in this policy. A deidentified Promotional Soulcandle Asset lawfully selected from an eligible adult account is maintained independently of the private account and is not required to be deleted merely because the source account or private Soulcandle record is deleted. 6. PASSWORDS, AUTHENTICATION, AND SESSION INFORMATION 6.1 Passwords WickborneWorld.com does not retain plaintext account passwords. A password hash is retained while the account remains active and is deleted from active systems as part of account deletion. Old password hashes should not be retained after a password is successfully changed unless a temporary security need requires otherwise. 6.2 Password-Reset Tokens Raw password-reset tokens are not stored in the account database. A hashed reset token and related timestamps may be retained while the reset request remains active. A password-reset link ordinarily expires 30 minutes after issuance and may be used only once. Expired or used reset-token hashes should be deleted or invalidated within 24 hours after expiration or successful use. Limited event metadata may be retained in security logs for up to 12 months. 6.3 Sessions and Form-Security Information Session information is retained only for the duration reasonably necessary to maintain the login session, provide requested features, or investigate a security issue. A session may end through: - Logout; - Expiration; - Password change; - Account deactivation; - Account deletion; - Administrative security action; or - Invalidated authentication credentials. Temporary form-security tokens, honeypot values, timing checks, and rate-limit counters are retained only for their operational windows and are not intended to create permanent user histories. 7. BIRTHDAY, AGE-ELIGIBILITY, AND ADULT-TRANSITION INFORMATION The Gregorian birthday entered during signup is used to: - Confirm that the user is at least 16; - Determine whether the user is under 18; - Determine when the user reaches age 18; and - Convert the birthday to the Wickborne calendar. The raw Gregorian birthday is not intended to be permanently stored in the account database after the conversion and eligibility process is completed. The resulting Wickborne birthday may be retained while the account is active because it is a requested profile and calendar feature. A limited minor-status indicator and, when applicable, the date the user turns 18 may be retained while needed to apply age-related protections and initiate the adult-transition process. Adult-transition records may include: - Transition status; - Required, notice, acceptance, decline, or revocation dates; - A date before which the Site will not automatically request consent again; - Whether minor-data protections remain applied; and - Related legal-acceptance or consent evidence. Information belonging to a known user aged 16 or 17 will not be retained for a new or unrelated purpose merely because the information is already available. 8. PRIVATE PROFILE AND CALENDAR INFORMATION Private profile information may be retained while the account remains active to display the user's account identity, Wickborne birthday, account dates, Affinity Divination result, Soulcandle result, and account-management options. Personal calendar information derived from the user's Wickborne birthday may be generated dynamically or retained only as part of the account's Wickborne birthday fields. The Site is not intended to maintain a separate public birthday directory. When the account is deleted, the private profile and personal birthday information will ordinarily be removed from active systems within 30 days. Public fictional calendar content, character birthdays, holidays, observances, and lore are not personal user information and may be retained indefinitely. 8.1 AFFINITY DIVINATION RECORDS Affinity Divination results may be retained while the associated account remains active so they can be displayed through the user's private profile and Affinity Divination page. Stored records may include: - The foundational affinities assigned to the account; - Their recorded order; - Primary, Secondary, and Additional designations; - The Affinity Potential assigned to each affinity; - The calculated average Affinity Potential; - Distribution, calculation, or generation versions; - A non-user-facing randomization or selection value; and - Creation, divination, and update timestamps. Affinity Divination results are generated randomly according to fictional Wickborne World rules. The feature does not use questionnaire answers or artificial-intelligence processing and is not intended to assess the user's real personality, identity, abilities, beliefs, health, behavior, or future. When the associated account is deleted, active Affinity Divination records will ordinarily be deleted within 30 days. Copies remaining in restricted backups will expire through the normal backup cycle, ordinarily within 90 days. 9. SOULCANDLE INFORMATION 9.1 Questionnaire Answers Soulcandle questionnaire answers are processed to create the requested fictional result. WickborneWorld.com does not intentionally save the raw questionnaire answers as part of the user's account after the generation request is completed. Temporary application memory, request data, technical logs, or service-provider systems may process the answers for the time reasonably necessary to complete, secure, or troubleshoot the request. The Site currently requests text generation from OpenAI with application-state storage disabled. OpenAI's default API abuse-monitoring systems may nevertheless retain certain inputs, outputs, and related information for up to 30 days, unless a different approved retention control, safety need, or legal requirement applies. 9.2 Generated Soulcandle Records The following may be retained while the account remains active: - Candle name; - Epithet; - Colors; - Shape; - Wax and flame descriptions; - Surface and motion details; - Orbit behavior; - Traits; - Tensions; - Motifs; - Full and short readings; - Image path; - Generated image; - Generation seed or variation value; - Artificial-intelligence disclosure version and cryptographic hash; - Disclosure acknowledgment date, method, and minor status; and - Creation and update dates. These records are retained to display the result on the user's private profile and Soulcandle page and to document that the disclosure was acknowledged before generation. 9.3 Soulcandle Deletion When a Soulcandle or its associated account is deleted: - The active private-account database record will ordinarily be deleted within 30 days; - The associated private-account image will be removed from active file storage within 30 days; - Links to the deleted private-account image will be invalidated where technically possible; and - Backup copies of the private-account record and image will expire through the normal backup cycle, ordinarily within 90 days. A user who downloads or independently shares an image or description creates copies outside WickborneWorld.com's control. Deleting the Site's private-account copy does not delete copies saved by the user or shared through a third-party service. Deletion also does not require deletion of a deidentified Promotional Soulcandle Asset that was lawfully selected from an eligible adult account under the Terms of Use. Previously published, printed, distributed, archived, scheduled, or incorporated promotional materials are not required to be recalled, destroyed, revised, or removed, except where applicable law requires otherwise. 9.4 Promotional Soulcandle Assets For a Soulcandle generated while the Site treats the account as belonging to a person who is at least 18 years old, WickborneWorld.com may select a Promotional Soulcandle Asset consisting only of: - The artificial-intelligence-generated candle name; and - The artificial-intelligence-generated candle image. Before the promotional copy is placed in a promotional library, WickborneWorld.com will take reasonable steps to: - Exclude all raw questionnaire answers and all generated readings, traits, tensions, motifs, descriptions, and other Soulcandle text; - Exclude usernames, email addresses, birthdays, account dates, account identifiers, profile information, technical information, and personal messages; - Remove private file paths, embedded metadata, and other information reasonably capable of identifying the user; - Detach the promotional copy from the private account record; and - Assign a separate random or non-user promotional identifier where an identifier is needed. A promotional-library record may retain: - The generated candle name; - The generated candle image or approved promotional derivatives; - A non-user promotional identifier; - File-format and technical production information; - Selection, publication, revision, and archival dates; - The applicable Terms and disclosure version or a non-identifying eligibility record; and - Records reasonably necessary to document use, licensing, production, or legal compliance. The promotional record should not retain a direct link to the source account after deidentification is completed. Promotional Soulcandle Assets may be retained for as long as they remain useful for lawful promotion, documentation, archival reference, or the establishment, exercise, or defense of legal rights. An unused asset may be deleted when it is no longer reasonably useful. A Soulcandle generated while the account is treated as belonging to a user under 18 will not be placed in the promotional library unless a separate, optional, and legally sufficient permission is obtained. Turning 18 or consenting to ordinary adult-account processing does not automatically make a Soulcandle generated while the user was treated as a minor eligible for promotional use. 10. SUPPORT, PRIVACY, SECURITY, AND ACCOUNT REQUESTS Records of support, access, correction, birthday-correction, consent-withdrawal, security, and account-deletion requests may be retained for three years after the request is closed. The retained record should be limited to information reasonably necessary to document: - The nature of the request; - Identity-verification steps; - Actions taken; - Dates of relevant actions; - Communications with the requester; and - The final outcome. Passwords, authentication links, and unnecessary copies of identity documents must not be included in the retained request record. When practical, completed request records should be minimized or pseudonymized. Birthday-verification documents, if requested for a correction, should be used only for verification and deleted promptly after the request is resolved unless a legal or security reason requires temporary retention. 11. POLICY ACCEPTANCE, DISCLOSURE, AND CONSENT RECORDS Records showing acceptance of the Terms of Use, acknowledgment of the Privacy Policy and Data Retention Policy, acknowledgment of the Soulcandle Artificial Intelligence Disclosure, and legally relevant adult-transition choices may be retained: - While the account remains active; and - For seven years after account closure or the user's final interaction governed by the record. Such records may include: - Account or internal user identifier; - Random event or subject identifier; - Document name, version, and cryptographic hash; - Date and time of acceptance or acknowledgment; - Acceptance method and context; - Limited cryptographic representations of Internet Protocol or browser information; - Whether the user was treated as a minor; - Whether a 16- or 17-year-old user confirmed parent or guardian permission; - Whether a Soulcandle disclosure was acknowledged while the user was a minor; - Adult-transition notice, acceptance, decline, or revocation information; and - Account-closure, retention-expiration, and legal-hold information. After account deletion, these records should be detached from the identifying account and retained under a pseudonymous subject identifier where practical while preserving their evidentiary value. A legal acceptance or consent record subject to a valid legal hold may be retained until the hold is released. 12. TECHNICAL, SECURITY, AND ABUSE-PREVENTION RECORDS 12.1 Routine Technical Logs Routine server, access, diagnostic, login, authentication, email-delivery, rate-limit, and security logs may be retained for up to 12 months. Shorter periods should be used when the information is no longer useful for: - Security monitoring; - Troubleshooting; - Fraud prevention; - Service reliability; - Abuse prevention; or - Investigation of unauthorized access. 12.2 Abuse and Enforcement Records Records concerning spam, fraudulent accounts, threats, harassment, repeated Terms violations, artificial-intelligence misuse, scraping, or attempted security abuse may be retained for up to three years after the matter is closed. Records may be retained longer when the conduct is serious, repeated, subject to legal proceedings, or reasonably likely to create an ongoing safety or security risk. 12.3 Security Incidents and Breach Records Security-incident and breach-response records may be retained for seven years after the incident is closed. These records may include: - Incident reports; - Investigation notes; - System evidence; - Notifications; - Risk assessments; - Remediation records; - Communications with service providers; - Communications with affected users; - Reports to government agencies; and - Written determinations concerning whether notification was required. Access to incident records will be restricted according to role and need. 13. EMAIL RECORDS Transactional email content and delivery records may be retained only as long as reasonably necessary to: - Deliver the message; - Confirm delivery; - Troubleshoot failures; - Respond to a user; - Investigate account security; - Document a policy or adult-transition notice; - Establish that a request was completed; or - Meet a legal obligation. Ordinary delivery metadata may be retained for up to 12 months. Copies held by an email service provider may be subject to the provider's own retention schedule and contractual obligations. WickborneWorld.com does not use account email records to build advertising profiles. 14. BACKUPS Backups may contain copies of information that has been deleted from active systems. Restricted backups will be maintained for disaster recovery, system restoration, security, and business-continuity purposes. Unless a legal hold or exceptional recovery need applies: - Backup copies containing deleted personal information will ordinarily be overwritten or expire within 90 days; - Deleted information in backups will not be restored to ordinary active use; - If a backup restoration reintroduces previously deleted information, the deletion will be reapplied within a reasonable period; and - Access to backups will be limited to authorized persons and systems. Backups are not to be used as permanent archives of deleted user information. 15. SERVICE PROVIDERS Service providers may retain information for periods established by: - Their service function; - WickborneWorld.com's configuration; - Contractual requirements; - Security and abuse-monitoring needs; - Backup cycles; or - Applicable law. WickborneWorld.com will make reasonable efforts to: - Select service providers with appropriate retention and deletion practices; - Configure provider retention settings consistently with this policy where available; - Limit the information transmitted to providers; - Require deletion or return of information when services end, where appropriate; - Review material changes to provider practices; and - Apply appropriate protections when a provider processes information belonging to a known user under 18. A provider may retain limited information after WickborneWorld.com requests deletion when independently required by law or permitted under an applicable agreement and disclosed policy. 16. LEGAL HOLDS AND EXTENDED RETENTION Information scheduled for deletion may be retained longer when reasonably necessary to: - Comply with a court order, subpoena, warrant, or other lawful request; - Preserve evidence relating to threatened or pending litigation; - Investigate fraud, abuse, unauthorized access, or a security incident; - Protect the rights, safety, or property of users or others; - Enforce the Terms of Use; - Resolve a copyright, privacy, contract, or other legal dispute; - Meet tax, accounting, insurance, or business-record obligations; - Demonstrate legal or regulatory compliance; or - Establish, exercise, or defend a legal claim. A legal hold must be limited to information reasonably related to the matter. When the reason for extended retention ends, the information will return to its ordinary retention schedule and be deleted, destroyed, or deidentified within a reasonable period. 17. DELETION AND DISPOSAL METHODS Depending on the system and record type, deletion may include: - Deleting a database record; - Removing a generated image file; - Invalidating a token or session; - Removing information from an administrator interface; - Overwriting a backup through its normal cycle; - Securely erasing electronic media; - Cryptographically destroying access to encrypted information; - Deidentifying or aggregating a record; - Shredding a paper record; or - Instructing a service provider to delete or return information. Deletion methods should be reasonable in light of: - The sensitivity of the information; - The available technology; - The cost and feasibility of deletion; - The risk of reconstruction; - The system involved; and - Applicable legal requirements. Information will not be represented as fully deleted while it remains knowingly available for ordinary active use. 18. DEIDENTIFIED AND AGGREGATED INFORMATION WickborneWorld.com may retain information that has been deidentified or aggregated so that it cannot reasonably be linked to an identifiable user. Examples may include: - Total numbers of accounts; - General feature-usage counts; - Soulcandle completion counts; - Affinity Divination completion counts; - Error-frequency statistics; - Non-identifying performance measurements; - General security trends; and - Eligible adult Promotional Soulcandle Assets that have been detached from identifying account information. Deidentified information must not be intentionally reidentified except when necessary to test whether the deidentification process remains effective or when required by law. 19. USERS AGED 16 OR 17 Information belonging to a known user aged 16 or 17 will follow the same maximum retention periods stated in this policy, but shorter retention will be used when the information is no longer strictly necessary for the requested service, security, legal compliance, or another permitted purpose. WickborneWorld.com will not extend the retention of a minor user's information for advertising, unrelated profiling, data brokerage, or another nonessential purpose. A Soulcandle generated while the account is treated as belonging to a user under 18 will not be selected, copied, retained in a promotional library, or used for advertising or promotional purposes unless a separate, optional, and legally sufficient permission is obtained. A user's information does not lose its protected history merely because the user later turns 18. Personal information collected while the user was a minor will not be processed under ordinary adult-account practices until the Site has provided the required notice and obtained any informed consent required for that processing. If the user declines or revokes such consent, the Site will continue applying its minor-data protections to covered account information and will not automatically request the same consent again during the following calendar year. 20. RETENTION RESPONSIBILITY AND REVIEW Darien Cruté is responsible for overseeing this policy unless responsibility is formally assigned to another authorized person. Retention practices will be reviewed: - At least annually; - When a material Site feature is introduced; - When a new category of personal information is collected; - When a new service provider is adopted; - After a significant security incident; - When applicable law materially changes; or - When existing periods no longer reflect operational needs. The review should evaluate: - What information is being collected; - Where it is stored; - Who can access it; - Why it is retained; - Whether the retention period remains necessary; - Whether deletion procedures work as intended; and - Whether the public Privacy Policy remains accurate. 21. CHANGES TO THIS POLICY We may update this Data Retention Policy to reflect: - Changes to Site features; - Changes to collected information; - Changes to service providers; - Improved deletion capabilities; - Security developments; - Operational changes; or - Changes in applicable law. The version number, effective date, and last-updated date will identify the current policy. Material changes that significantly extend retention or change how user information is handled may be communicated through the Site, account notices, email, or another reasonable method. Where required, a new consent or acknowledgment will be obtained before information is retained for a materially different nonessential purpose. 22. CONTACT Questions or requests concerning data retention or deletion may be directed to: Darien Cruté Website: WickborneWorld.com Email: support@wickborneworld.com Subject Line: Data Retention Request Do not send passwords, authentication links, financial information, government identification numbers, or other unnecessary highly sensitive information by email.