Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

Hero & Ink is run by Z Pixel Labs, LLC, 2810 N Church St STE 88974, Wilmington, DE 19802, USA. This policy explains what we collect when you use heroandink.com or order from us, how we use it, and the choices you have.

2. What we collect

• Your email address, and the details you give us for your comic: names, city, occasion and the story you write.
• The photos you upload of the people in your comic.
• For printed books, the shipping name, address and phone number. If you send a book to someone else, you confirm that you may give us their address.
• Payment details, which Stripe handles. We never see your full card number; we keep your billing country and card country for tax records.
• Technical data: IP address, browser and device type, the page that sent you, and the pages you visit.
• How you heard about us, if you choose to tell us after your order, so we know which channels bring customers.

3. How we use it

We use your information to make and deliver your comic and printed book, to email you about your order, to take payment and prevent fraud, to answer your questions, to keep the site secure, to meet legal and tax obligations, and to improve our work, including by looking at how past orders turned out. Where the law asks for a legal basis, we rely on providing what you ordered or asked for, on our legal obligations, and on our legitimate interest in running and improving our service. Outside the United States, we rely on your consent for measurement cookies and reminder emails.

4. Your photos

We use your photos to make your comic, your free preview and any revision, and to check our work. The outside services that write the story and draw the pictures receive them for that purpose only. We never use your photos in advertising, never publish them without your permission, and never use them to train AI models.

We delete your photos 90 days after your comic is delivered. Photos from orders that were never finished are deleted 30 days after your last visit. Backup copies clear within 30 days after that. You can ask us to delete your photos sooner at any time.

5. Who helps us

We share information only with the companies that help us run Hero & Ink, and only what each needs: our payment processor (Stripe); website, database and server hosting; the services that write and draw your comic; our printer (print files and shipping details, for printed books only); email delivery; error monitoring; Trustpilot (your email address and order number, so it can invite you to review us and mark your review as verified); and the advertising partners described below. Each works under our instructions and its own privacy policy. We do not sell your personal information.

6. Emails

We email you about your order. After your order, we may invite you once to review us on Trustpilot. If you ask us to email your free preview or save your order, we send it with a link back. If you start an order and don't finish it, we may send you up to two reminders: in the United States automatically, elsewhere only if you tick the box asking for them. If you asked us to tell you when printed books launched, we send that one announcement and delete your address within 30 days. Every promotional email has an unsubscribe link.

7. Cookies and advertising

We use essential cookies to run the site, plus Google Analytics, the Meta pixel, a cookieless page counter from our hosting provider and our own measurement, to see how the site is used and whether our ads work. Google and Meta may collect information about your visit through these tools, as described in their own policies.

When you arrive from one of our ads, or buy, our site and server tell the ad platform involved (Meta, Google or OpenAI) about the visit or purchase and its value, so we can see whether the ad worked. Meta also receives your IP address and browser type. No ad platform ever receives your photos, your story, the names in your comic or how you told us you heard about us. We do not share your information for advertising that follows you across other companies' sites, and we do not build advertising audiences.

In the United States, measurement is on by default; you can turn it off at any time with Privacy choices in the footer, and we treat the Global Privacy Control signal the same way. We do not respond to Do Not Track signals, because there is no common standard for them. Outside the United States, measurement cookies and advertising tools run only after you accept them.

8. How long we keep things

• Photos: 90 days after delivery; unfinished orders, 30 days after your last visit.
• Website measurement records, including IP address: 90 days. Advertising details on an order: 30 days.
• Orders, payments, shipping details and tax records (such as billing and card country): as long as tax and accounting rules require.

9. Your rights

You can ask for a copy of your information, ask us to correct or delete it, or ask us to stop using it for a purpose, and you can withdraw any consent you gave. Email support@heroandink.com and we will reply within 30 days. If you are in the EU or UK and unhappy with our answer, you can complain to your data protection authority.

10. Children

Hero & Ink is for adults. We do not knowingly collect information from children under 13. Parents and guardians may upload photos of their child to make a comic for them.

11. Where we process information, and security

We and the companies that help us process information in the United States and the European Union; printed books are printed in the country they are delivered to (the United States, the United Kingdom or Canada). We protect your information with encryption in transit, encrypted cloud storage and limited access to our servers, and we will tell you and the authorities about any breach as the law requires.

12. Changes and contact

If we change this policy, we post the new version here with a new effective date. Questions and requests: support@heroandink.com, or Z Pixel Labs, LLC, 2810 N Church St STE 88974, Wilmington, DE 19802.