1. Who we are
Story Staffers is operated by 11 O’Clock Press. This policy covers our website, private-preview accounts, workspaces, surveys, invitations, professional-contact directories and waitlists. It also describes 11 O’Clock Press newsletter subscription records.
We determine how information is used for account administration, platform security, our waitlist and shared platform services. For independently created surveys and projects, the organizer or account owner decides the research purpose, content, audience and use of responses. Our role depends on the activity; providing software does not remove our own privacy responsibilities.
The organizer is responsible for explaining their research and intended use of answers. Contact them using the organizer contact link or Reply-To address in the invitation. This policy does not replace their survey-specific privacy notice.
2. Information we handle
- Accounts: names, emails, password hashes, permissions, invitation codes and email-verification records. Passwords are stored as hashes, not readable passwords.
- Your work: documents, models, images, project briefs, revisions, comments, staffer conversations, shared material and work journals. Connected email and calendar information is processed for the features you use.
- Surveys: answers, response progress, survey version, timestamps, language preferences, access requests, and email or demographic information collected by the organizer.
- Invitations and contacts: names, professional emails, organizations, roles, public source pages, professional locations where found, delivery and participation status, survey-link visits and opt-outs.
- Waitlists and newsletters: submitted name and email, signup source, consent/subscription status and interest categories. Our research-preview waitlist uses the internal label “science potential”; that is an interest category, not verification of professional qualifications.
- Technical information: session identifiers, browser-language preferences, IP addresses used for security and rate limiting, request/error logs and service-usage records.
Sources include you, authorized organizers or collaborators, services you connect, and publicly accessible professional sources. Authors can also enter contacts manually. A public email address or a contact-list entry is not, by itself, proof of consent to every kind of message.
3. Surveys and invitations
Organizers can open surveys publicly or require a personal invitation. Uninvited visitors can request access using fields selected by the organizer. Approval adds the person to that survey’s contact list; sending an invitation is separate.
A survey may require email, ask optionally, or not ask for it. When email is attached to a response, the organizer and authorized reviewers may see it with the answers. Omitting an email field does not necessarily make participation anonymous: technical/session information may still be processed. Read the organizer’s notice, especially for sensitive questions.
Progress is saved so you can continue later. Invitation links contain an opaque token rather than your email in the URL. They can prefill an invited address and start a new response. Restoring existing answers from another browser or emailing an answer copy may require email verification. Treat personal invitation links as private.
Delivery history helps prevent duplicate invitations. We record loads of the survey page from personal invitation links, not proof that an email was read or a person carefully reviewed a page. Organizers may configure reminders based on whether a survey was opened, started or completed. Completion, opt-outs, follow-up permissions and reminder limits affect eligibility.
Shared professional directory: discovered public professional contacts can be saved to a survey-local list or to a directory available to other authors. Discovery checks the source page for the address; it does not prove mailbox ownership or permission to contact the person. Basic engagement records are used across surveys to limit repeated unanswered invitations. Five expired unanswered survey invitations can mark a contact inactive. The directory does not disclose individual survey answers or response text.
Invitation footers offer survey-specific and sender-wide unsubscribe choices. A sender-wide opt-out concerns that sender, not every unrelated organizer. Contact us about broader platform contact concerns. Draft-preview responses are test data, separate from real results, and are cleared when the survey is published. Closing a survey does not delete live responses.
4. Why information is used
We process information to provide accounts and workspaces; deliver invitations and requested messages; save and restore progress; support collaboration, analysis and translation; manage the waitlist; honor opt-outs; prevent abuse; troubleshoot; and meet legal obligations.
Where a legal basis is required, it depends on the activity. Providing requested services may be necessary for our service relationship; optional communications may rely on consent; security and administration may involve legitimate interests subject to applicable requirements; and some records are needed to comply with law. Organizers must determine and explain the basis for their own research and outreach. Public availability alone does not make every use lawful.
5. AI and service providers
AI-assisted features may send relevant content to an AI provider to generate or edit text and images, translate surveys and answers, check answer relevance, discover professional contacts, or assist analysis and project work. Human staffers and reviewers may process material shared with them. AI outputs can be inaccurate and need human judgment.
Free-text answers are kept in their original language; an English translation may also be stored for analysis. Survey and invitation translations are cached by version/content and language. Relevance checks may ask respondents to clarify answers. Demographic weighting, when configured by the organizer, changes summaries; it does not establish that an answer is true.
Current integrations use OpenAI for AI features and Resend for email delivery. Hosting, storage and infrastructure providers process information necessary to run the service. Connected email/calendar providers have their own policies. Information sent depends on the feature and configuration; we do not promise that providers never retain information or process it under their applicable policies.
Providers and collaborators may process information outside your country. Applicable safeguards depend on the provider, location and activity. Contact us for information about a particular provider relationship or international transfer.
7. Retention and security
Records remain stored as needed for the service and the organizer’s management of the work. There is no single automatic deletion period for all content. Closing a survey does not erase it; trashing or excluding a response is not necessarily permanent erasure. Contact the organizer or us about specific retention and deletion requests.
Limited consent, invitation, audit, security and suppression records may be retained to honor preferences, prevent repeated contact, resolve disputes or meet legal obligations. Copies may remain in backups or provider systems after removal from active views, subject to retention processes and applicable requirements. Ask us about the arrangements for a particular record.
We use access controls, session protections, password hashing and other safeguards. No website, email or storage system is completely secure. Do not submit confidential, classified, regulated or highly sensitive material unless the particular use and protections have been agreed and are appropriate.
9. Your choices and rights
You can decline surveys, leave optional questions unanswered, use unsubscribe links, and manage available sharing and connection settings. Surveys support downloading answers and requesting emailed copies when email is supplied; verification may be needed before private answers are emailed. Joining a waitlist does not create an account or guarantee access.
Depending on applicable law, you may have rights to request access, correction, deletion, restriction, portability, objection to certain processing, or withdrawal of consent. Contact the organizer about their research use, or [email protected] about platform-held information and help directing a request. We may need to verify your identity and authority. Legal obligations, other people’s rights and necessary retained records may limit some requests.
You may be entitled to complain to the data-protection authority in your jurisdiction. Please contact us with concerns so we can investigate. Do not include passwords, invitation tokens or sensitive answers in an initial inquiry.
11. Contact and policy updates
Privacy questions and requests can be sent to 11 O’Clock Press, operator of Story Staffers, at [email protected]. Include the relevant survey title or account email where appropriate, but no password or confidential answer content.
We may update this policy as the service and its practices change. The date above identifies the latest version. Where required, we will provide additional notice or obtain consent. This policy does not waive our obligations or limit rights that cannot be excluded by law.