Privacy Policy

WICKBORNEWORLD.COM PRIVACY POLICY Version: 1.0 Effective Date: July 23, 2026 Last Updated: July 28, 2026 1. INTRODUCTION WickborneWorld.com is operated by Darien Cruté. This Privacy Policy explains how WickborneWorld.com, referred to in this policy as "WickborneWorld.com," "Wickborne World," the "Site," "we," "us," or "our," collects, uses, stores, shares, and protects information when you visit the Site, create an account, manage a private profile, use the Wickborne calendar and birthday features, complete an Affinity Divination, complete a Soulcandle Awakening, or otherwise use the Site. WickborneWorld.com is an interactive companion site for the Echoes of the Wickborne Flame fictional world. It is separate from DarienCrute.com. This policy applies only to WickborneWorld.com and the features provided directly through this Site. It does not govern DarienCrute.com or third-party websites and services that may be linked from WickborneWorld.com. By creating or using an account, you acknowledge that you have received and reviewed this Privacy Policy. Agreement to the separate Terms of Use is required to create or continue using an account. 2. AGE ELIGIBILITY Accounts on WickborneWorld.com are intended only for individuals who are at least 16 years old. You may not create or use an account if you are under 16. If we learn that an account belongs to someone under 16, we may suspend or close the account and delete its personal information, subject to limited information that must temporarily be retained for security, fraud prevention, legal compliance, or documentation of the deletion. Users who are 16 or 17 may use the Site, but their personal information receives additional protections. We limit the processing of their information to what is reasonably necessary to: - Create, authenticate, and maintain their account; - Provide a feature or service they request; - Maintain Site functionality; - Respond to support or privacy requests; - Prevent fraud, abuse, and security threats; - Enforce Site rules and legal rights; or - Comply with applicable law. We do not sell the personal information of users under 18. We also do not use their personal information for targeted advertising, behavioral advertising, unrelated profiling, or data brokerage. If we introduce a nonessential use of personal information for a known user under 18, we will provide a separate consent request where required. Declining that request will not prevent continued use of unrelated Site features. 3. INFORMATION WE COLLECT 3.1 Account Information When you create or maintain an account, we may collect: - Your chosen username; - Your email address; - Your password in hashed form; - Your birthday as entered during signup; - Your converted Wickborne birthday; - Your account creation and update dates; - Your account access level and account status; - Password-reset and authentication records; - Minor-status and adult-transition records; and - Records showing which versions of the Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, and Data Retention Policy you accepted or acknowledged. Your plaintext password is not stored in the account database. It is processed through a password-hashing system so the Site can authenticate your login. 3.2 Birthday and Age Information The Gregorian birthday entered during signup is used to: - Confirm that you meet the minimum age requirement; - Determine whether additional minor-data protections apply; - Determine when an account reaches the adult-transition process; and - Convert your Gregorian birthday into a Wickborne birthday. The current account database stores the resulting Wickborne birthday, a limited minor-status indicator, and, when applicable, the date on which the account holder turns 18. It is not designed to retain the raw Gregorian birthday as a separate permanent date-of-birth field after the eligibility and conversion process is completed. A Wickborne birthday that includes a birth year may still reveal or allow us to determine your approximate or actual age. We therefore treat it as personal information. 3.3 Private Profile and Calendar Information Your private profile may contain: - Your username; - Your email address; - Your Wickborne birthday; - Your account creation and update dates; - Your Affinity Divination result and Affinity Potentials; - Your Soulcandle result and image; and - Account-management and privacy options. The Site may use your Wickborne birthday to show a personal birthday entry or related age information to you within the Wickborne calendar interface. Profiles are currently private. They are not publicly searchable, publicly shareable, or available through a user directory. The Site does not currently provide private messaging, friend lists, or user-to-user communication. Your personal Wickborne birthday is not currently published to other users through the Site. Authorized administrators may access account and profile information when reasonably necessary for support, administration, security, investigation, legal compliance, or enforcement of the Terms of Use. 3.4 Soulcandle Awakening Information When you voluntarily use Soulcandle Awakening, we may process: - Your answers to the Soulcandle questions; - Your username; - Your Wickborne birthday; - Your Wickborne and Gregorian account-creation dates; - A randomly generated value used to help vary results; - Your acknowledgment of the current Soulcandle Artificial Intelligence Disclosure; and - The resulting Soulcandle text, traits, image, and related generated information. Your raw Soulcandle questionnaire answers are used to generate the requested result and are not intentionally saved as part of your WickborneWorld.com account after the generation request is completed. The resulting Soulcandle description, structured traits, image, generation value, disclosure-acknowledgment evidence, and related generated information are stored and displayed through your private account. For a Soulcandle generated while the Site treats the account as belonging to an adult, WickborneWorld.com may select a limited Promotional Soulcandle Asset consisting only of the artificial-intelligence-generated candle name and candle image. Before placing that asset in a promotional library, we will take reasonable steps to remove usernames, account identifiers, private file paths, embedded metadata, and other information reasonably capable of identifying the user, detach the promotional copy from the account record, and assign a separate non-user identifier where needed. We will not use the user's raw answers, readings, traits, tensions, motifs, descriptions, profile information, birthday information, account dates, personal messages, or other user information in that promotional asset. We will not identify the account holder, attribute the asset to the user, or state or imply that the user endorses WickborneWorld.com, Darien Cruté, or the Echoes of the Wickborne Flame series. A Soulcandle generated while the Site treats an account as belonging to a user under 18 will not be selected or used for promotional purposes unless a separate, optional, and legally sufficient permission is later obtained. Turning 18 or consenting to ordinary adult-account processing does not by itself authorize promotional use of a Soulcandle generated while the user was treated as a minor. 3.5 Affinity Divination Information When your account is created, the Site randomly generates and stores a fictional affinity profile associated with your account. Affinity Divination later reveals that existing result. The stored result may include: - The foundational affinities assigned to your account; - Their recorded order; - Primary, Secondary, and Additional designations; - The Affinity Potential assigned to each affinity; - Your 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 does not use questionnaire answers or artificial intelligence. It is not intended to assess or make factual claims about your real personality, identity, abilities, beliefs, health, behavior, or future. The results are fictional entertainment data generated according to Wickborne World rules and may be similar or identical to results assigned to other users. The result is stored so it can be displayed through your private profile and Affinity Divination page. 3.6 Legal Acceptance and Adult-Transition Information When you accept or acknowledge Site policies, or make an adult-transition privacy choice, we may maintain records such as: - An internal account or pseudonymous subject identifier; - The document names, versions, and cryptographic hashes presented; - The date, time, method, and context of acceptance; - Whether the account was treated as belonging to a minor at the time; - Whether a 16- or 17-year-old user confirmed parent or guardian permission; - A limited cryptographic representation of Internet Protocol or browser information; - Adult-transition notice, consent, decline, or revocation records; and - Account-closure and legal-retention dates. These records are used to document the legal terms and privacy choices associated with the account without retaining more identifying technical information than reasonably necessary. 3.7 Technical and Security Information When you access the Site, our server, hosting provider, email provider, security systems, and essential service providers may automatically receive or generate information such as: - Internet Protocol address; - Browser type and version; - Device and operating-system information; - Requested pages or resources; - Referring page; - Date and time of access; - Session identifiers; - Login and password-reset attempts; - Form-security and rate-limit information; - Error and diagnostic information; and - Records of suspected spam, fraud, abuse, or unauthorized access. Some technical and security information may be processed temporarily rather than permanently stored. 3.8 Support and Account Communications If you contact us by email or through another designated support method, we may collect the information you provide, including your name, email address, username, message, attachments, and related correspondence. Do not send passwords, authentication links, financial information, full government identification numbers, or other unnecessary highly sensitive information through ordinary email. 4. HOW WE USE INFORMATION We use personal information to: - Create, authenticate, and manage accounts; - Confirm age eligibility; - Apply protections for known users under 18; - Maintain private profiles; - Convert birthdays to the Wickborne calendar; - Provide the Wickborne calendar and personal birthday features; - Generate, store, and display Affinity Divination results; - Generate, store, and display Soulcandle results; - Create, deidentify, retain, publish, and use eligible adult Promotional Soulcandle Assets as described in this policy and the Terms of Use; - Record required legal acknowledgments and privacy choices; - Send password-reset, account-security, adult-transition, policy, and service-related emails; - Respond to support, privacy, and account-management requests; - Detect and prevent spam, fraud, abuse, and unauthorized access; - Diagnose technical problems and maintain the Site; - Enforce the Terms of Use; - Protect users, the Site, and our legal rights; - Comply with applicable laws and lawful government requests; and - Establish, exercise, or defend legal claims. We do not currently use account information to operate targeted advertising or create advertising profiles. The limited public use of a deidentified Promotional Soulcandle Asset promotes Wickborne World and related official projects; it is not used to target advertising to the user or to build a profile about the user. 5. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE SERVICE PROVIDER Soulcandle Awakening uses OpenAI through its application programming interface to create the requested fictional Soulcandle text and image. Affinity Divination does not use OpenAI or another artificial-intelligence service. For text generation, the Site currently sends OpenAI: - Your Soulcandle answers; - Your username; - Your Wickborne birthday; - Your Wickborne and Gregorian account-creation dates; - A randomly generated value; and - Instructions needed to produce the fictional result. The Site currently requests text generation with application-state storage disabled. This does not necessarily prevent OpenAI from temporarily retaining content in abuse-monitoring or security logs under its applicable service terms and data controls. For image generation, the Site sends OpenAI the generated fictional candle characteristics needed to create the image. The image request is not designed to include your raw questionnaire answers, username, Wickborne birthday, or account-creation date. OpenAI states that data submitted through its API is not used to train or improve its models by default unless the API customer expressly opts in. Under OpenAI's current default API data controls, certain inputs, outputs, and related information may be retained for up to 30 days for abuse monitoring, security, service delivery, or legal compliance, unless a different approved retention control or legal requirement applies. Users should not place highly sensitive personal information in Soulcandle answers. This includes full legal names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, financial information, medical records, passwords, government identification numbers, confidential information about another person, or information that could create a serious risk of harm if disclosed. Use of Soulcandle Awakening is voluntary. You may maintain an account and use other available Site features without completing an awakening. Additional details appear in the separate Soulcandle Artificial Intelligence Disclosure presented before the questionnaire begins. 6. HOW WE DISCLOSE INFORMATION We may disclose personal information to the following categories of recipients. 6.1 Service Providers We may use service providers that process information on our behalf, including providers of: - Website hosting and server infrastructure; - Email delivery; - Artificial intelligence generation; - Security, spam prevention, and fraud prevention; - Data backup and storage; - Technical support; and - Graphic design, printing, advertising placement, social-media publishing, content delivery, or other promotional production services that receive only the limited Promotional Soulcandle Asset or related non-identifying production information. Service providers may process information only for the authorized service, their legal obligations, or other purposes disclosed in their applicable agreements and policies. Where required for information belonging to a known minor, we will seek appropriate contractual or written protections concerning processing, security, retention, deletion, and use. 6.2 Legal and Safety Disclosures We may disclose information when reasonably necessary to: - Comply with a law, court order, subpoena, or lawful government request; - Investigate or prevent suspected fraud, abuse, security incidents, or illegal activity; - Protect the rights, property, or safety of users, WickborneWorld.com, Darien Cruté, or others; - Enforce the Terms of Use; or - Establish, exercise, or defend a legal claim. 6.3 Business Transfers Information may be transferred as part of a merger, acquisition, restructuring, sale of assets, succession, or transfer of the Site to another operator. Any successor would be expected to handle information consistently with applicable law and the privacy commitments in effect at the time of transfer. 6.4 Public Display of Promotional Soulcandle Assets An eligible adult Promotional Soulcandle Asset may be displayed publicly in websites, official social-media accounts, newsletters, digital or print advertisements, press materials, media kits, presentations, event displays, promotional videos, and other materials promoting WickborneWorld.com, Darien Cruté, or the Echoes of the Wickborne Flame series and related official projects. The publicly displayed asset will consist only of the artificial-intelligence-generated candle name and image, together with Wickborne World or promotional design elements supplied by us. It will not identify the user, reveal the source account, include other Soulcandle text or user data, or be presented as a user testimonial or endorsement. 7. WHAT WE DO NOT CURRENTLY DO WickborneWorld.com does not currently: - Sell personal information; - Sell the personal information of minors; - Make user profiles public or searchable; - Publish personal Wickborne birthdays to other users; - Offer private messaging or direct user-to-user communication; - Use account information for targeted or behavioral advertising; - Build advertising profiles from account activity; - Provide personal information to data brokers; - Save raw Soulcandle questionnaire answers as part of the user's account; - Use raw Soulcandle answers, readings, traits, tensions, motifs, descriptions, profile information, birthdays, account dates, personal messages, or other identifying user information in promotional materials; or - Attribute a Promotional Soulcandle Asset to the account holder or present the asset as that user's testimonial or endorsement; or - Use Affinity Divination results to make factual decisions or assessments about a user's real personality, identity, abilities, beliefs, health, behavior, or future. Before introducing public profiles, user search, messaging, targeted advertising, materially different commercial uses beyond the limited Promotional Soulcandle Asset program, or other materially different processing, we will review the privacy and safety implications and update this Privacy Policy and relevant notices. 8. COOKIES, SESSIONS, AND TRACKING The Site uses essential session technology to keep users logged in, protect account access, remember temporary form information, prevent repeated or fraudulent submissions, and provide requested features. We do not currently use cookies for targeted advertising or cross-site behavioral advertising. Because we do not currently collect personal information for cross-site behavioral tracking, browser "Do Not Track" signals do not materially change the Site's current practices. Where a legally recognized privacy-control signal applies to a future data practice, we will respond as required by applicable law. Third-party websites or services linked from the Site may have their own tracking practices. Their practices are governed by their own privacy policies. 9. DATA RETENTION We retain personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary to: - Maintain an active account; - Provide requested profile, calendar, birthday, Affinity Divination, and Soulcandle features; - Respond to support, privacy, security, or account requests; - Maintain security and fraud-prevention records; - Document policy acceptance and legally relevant privacy choices; - Comply with legal obligations; - Enforce agreements; or - Establish, exercise, or defend legal claims. Specific retention periods and deletion procedures are described in the separate WickborneWorld.com Data Retention Policy. When information is no longer reasonably needed, we will delete, destroy, or deidentify it according to that policy. Information may remain temporarily in restricted backups until the applicable backup cycle expires. 10. SECURITY We use reasonable administrative, technical, and physical measures designed to protect personal information against unauthorized access, acquisition, alteration, disclosure, loss, misuse, or destruction. These measures may include: - Password hashing; - Encrypted network connections; - Session and form-security controls; - Access restrictions; - Login and password-reset rate limiting; - Security logging and monitoring; - Server and software maintenance; - Limited administrative access; - Service-provider review; and - Backup and recovery procedures. No website, transmission method, or storage system can be guaranteed to be completely secure. You are responsible for protecting your credentials and should notify us promptly if you suspect unauthorized access to your account. 11. YOUR CHOICES AND REQUESTS Depending on the request and applicable law, you may ask us to: - Confirm whether we maintain an account associated with you; - Provide access to certain account information; - Correct inaccurate account information; - Correct a Wickborne birthday after appropriate verification; - Delete your account and associated personal information; - Withdraw or revoke consent previously given for nonessential processing; - Explain how particular information is being used; or - Close or deactivate your account. Some information and privacy choices can be reviewed or managed through the profile page. Other requests may be submitted to support@wickborneworld.com. We may request reasonable information to verify the identity of the account holder before fulfilling a request. The adult promotional license described in the Terms of Use is a limited content license governing an eligible generated candle name and image after deidentification. It is separate from adult-transition consent and does not create targeted advertising or an advertising profile. Account deletion, withdrawal of adult-transition consent, or a general privacy request does not revoke that license or require removal of a lawfully selected deidentified promotional asset, except where applicable law requires otherwise. We may retain limited information after a deletion request where reasonably necessary for security, fraud prevention, legal compliance, dispute resolution, enforcement, or documentation that the request was completed. Users aged 16 or 17 may submit privacy requests concerning their own accounts. We will not disclose a user's account information to another person, including someone claiming to be a parent or guardian, without appropriate verification and a valid legal basis. 12. ACCOUNT DELETION A verified account-deletion request will result in deletion or deidentification of the active account and associated personal information, subject to the Data Retention Policy and applicable legal exceptions. Account deletion ordinarily includes, where applicable: - Account credentials and private profile data; - Wickborne birthday and minor-status information; - Affinity Divination records; - Soulcandle database records; - Stored Soulcandle image files; - Active password-reset records; - Active sessions where technically available; and - Other account content that is not required to be retained. Account deletion does not require deletion of a deidentified Promotional Soulcandle Asset that was lawfully selected from an eligible adult account under the Terms of Use. Such a promotional copy may be retained and used independently of the deleted account, and 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. Limited pseudonymous legal-acceptance and consent evidence may be retained for the period described in the Data Retention Policy. Deletion from active systems may occur before deletion from restricted backups. Backup copies will be removed or overwritten through the ordinary backup-retention cycle. Copies of a Soulcandle image or description that you downloaded or independently shared are outside the Site's control and are not deleted when the Site's copy is removed. 13. THIRD-PARTY LINKS AND SERVICES The Site may link to DarienCrute.com, booksellers, social platforms, calendar services, or other third-party websites and services. WickborneWorld.com does not control those services and is not responsible for their privacy, security, content, or data practices. Review a third party's privacy policy before providing information to it. 14. PROCESSING IN THE UNITED STATES WickborneWorld.com is operated from the United States. Information may be stored and processed in the United States and in other locations where our service providers operate. Users accessing the Site from outside the United States understand that their information may be processed under laws that differ from those in their place of residence. 15. CHANGES TO THIS POLICY We may update this Privacy Policy to reflect: - Changes to Site features; - Changes to collected information; - Changes to service providers; - Changes to data practices; - Security developments; or - Changes in applicable law. The effective date and version number will identify the current policy. For material changes, we may provide notice through the Site, the user's account, email, or another reasonable method. Where required, users will be asked to acknowledge the revised policy or provide new consent before the relevant processing begins. Merely continuing to use the Site will not be treated as consent to a new nonessential use of personal information where applicable law requires separate informed consent. 16. CONTACT Questions, concerns, and privacy requests may be directed to: Darien Cruté Website: WickborneWorld.com Email: support@wickborneworld.com Subject Line: Privacy Request Do not send passwords, authentication links, financial information, government identification numbers, or other unnecessary highly sensitive information by email.