Last updated: [date]
Privacy policy
QueryTrenches is a tracker for writers querying literary agents. Most of the people who use it live in the United States. The company that runs it is based in France, so it is governed by the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the French Data Protection Act, some of the strictest privacy laws in the world, and those protections apply to everyone who uses QueryTrenches, wherever they live. This policy explains what we collect, why, where it is stored, and your rights, including specific rights for US residents. We’ve tried to write it in plain language.
Who we are
QueryTrenches is operated by [Operator legal name], [legal form], registered in France under [SIREN/SIRET], [registered address], France (“we,” “us”). We are the “controller” of your personal data under the GDPR and the “business” under US state privacy laws where they apply. Privacy questions: privacy@querytrenches.com. [If a data protection officer or EU/US representative is appointed, add their contact here.]
The short version
- We collect what’s needed to run your tracker, and nothing for advertising.
- We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for targeted advertising.
- No person reads the emails you forward to us. Rules sort them automatically.
- Nothing you give us is used to train AI models. We never use AI to write anything.
- Your data is stored in North America, with Cloudflare. The GDPR’s protections still apply to it, wherever it is stored.
- You can export everything, or delete your account and all its data, at any time from Settings.
- We use only strictly necessary cookies: no analytics, advertising or tracking cookies.
What we collect, and why
| Information | Why we use it | Legal basis under the GDPR |
|---|---|---|
| Account: name, email address, password (stored only as a salted hash), time zone, region and date preferences | Creating and securing your account, signing you in, account emails (verification, password reset) | Performing our contract with you (art. 6(1)(b)) |
| Your tracking content: books, queries, dates, statuses, notes, materials (query letters, synopses, pages) and their versions | Providing the tracker | Contract (6(1)(b)) |
| Emails you forward to your private QueryTrenches address: sender, recipients, subject, date and the plain-text body (attachments are discarded on arrival) | Recognizing query confirmations and agent replies, and suggesting updates to your sheet | Contract (6(1)(b)) |
| The minimum text of an email the rules couldn’t sort, only if you turn on the optional classifier | Classifying the reply (for example “rejection” or “full request”) | Your consent (6(1)(a)), which you can withdraw at any time in Settings |
| Alerts and email preferences: the agents you watch, the in-app notifications we show you, which emails you want, and a record of each digest we sent you (so it’s never sent twice) | Telling you when agents open or close, and sending the emails you chose | Contract (6(1)(b)) |
| Security data: IP address, sign-in times, rate-limit counters, server logs | Protecting accounts against abuse and keeping the service running | Our legitimate interest in a secure service (6(1)(f)) |
| Billing, if you subscribe to Plus: your plan, subscription status and renewal date, and Stripe’s customer reference. Your card details and billing address are collected and held by Stripe, not by us. | Taking payment, calculating tax, and switching Plus on and off | Contract (6(1)(b)); keeping tax and accounting records is a legal obligation (6(1)(c)) |
| Waitlist: email address | Telling you once when the Plus plan is available | Your consent (6(1)(a)) |
The emails you forward contain messages written by literary agents. We process them only to keep your own tracker up to date, at your direction. Nothing from your emails or queries is added to the shared agent directory or to any statistics shown to other users.
Emails you forward
- Each account has a private address. Mail sent to it is stored against your account only.
- Attachments are removed on arrival and never stored. Very long messages are cut short.
- Messages are sorted by fixed rules (for example, recognizing a QueryManager notification). No employee or contractor reads them. If you report a problem that we can only investigate by looking at a specific message, we’ll ask you first.
- The full text of each email is deleted automatically 30 days after it arrives. The result (agent, status, date), and the sender, subject and date of the email, stay until you delete them. One exception: when you Bcc us a query you sent, the letter itself (with your signature and any quoted text removed) is kept with that query as your record of what you sent, until you delete the query or your account. You can delete your whole inbox at any time.
The optional classifier
If you turn it on, emails the rules can’t sort are reduced to the minimum needed (signatures and quoted earlier messages are removed) and sent to Mistral AI, Paris, France, through its EU-hosted API. It also helps read an agent’s wishlist text that you paste in (email addresses removed first), and every detail it suggests is shown to you before anything is saved. For emails it returns a label and a confidence score, nothing else; for a pasted wishlist, the details it found, which you review before anything is saved. Under our agreement with Mistral AI, data sent through the API is not used to train models. [Confirm current Mistral AI API terms and zero-retention option before launch.] It is off unless you turn it on.
Service providers
| Provider | What for | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Cloudflare, Inc. | Hosting the application and its database (Cloudflare D1), and receiving forwarded email | Database stored in North America (Cloudflare D1). Requests pass through Cloudflare’s global network, which may handle them in the data center nearest you. Transfers of personal data from the EU to the US are covered by the EU-US Data Privacy Framework (Cloudflare is certified) and the EU Standard Contractual Clauses. |
| Brevo (Sendinblue SAS) | Sending emails: account emails (verification, password reset), alerts, the digest and plan reminders you chose | France / EU |
| Stripe Payments Europe, Ltd. and Stripe, Inc. (only if you subscribe) | Payments, tax calculation, invoices and the billing portal | Ireland / EU and the United States. Transfers to the US are covered by the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and the EU Standard Contractual Clauses. |
| Mistral AI SAS (only if you turn the classifier on) | Classifying emails the rules couldn’t sort | France / EU |
These providers process data only on our instructions, under written data processing agreements. We don’t share personal information with anyone else unless the law requires it.
How long we keep it
- Account and tracking content: until you delete it or delete your account.
- Full text of forwarded emails: 30 days. The sorted results: until you delete them.
- Security logs and rate-limit counters: up to [30] days.
- Billing records: as long as tax and accounting law requires (in France, generally 10 years for invoices).
- Waitlist addresses: until Plus launches and we’ve written to you, or until you ask us to remove you.
- When you delete your account, your data is deleted from the live database right away. If you subscribed to Plus, your subscription is cancelled first; Stripe keeps its own billing records (invoices and the customer record) for as long as tax law requires. [State backup retention, for example: copies in backups are overwritten within 30 days.]
Cookies
We set only cookies that are strictly necessary: a session cookie that keeps you signed in, and a short-lived cookie used during sign-in. Under EU rules these need no consent banner. We use no analytics, advertising or third-party tracking cookies, and we don’t track you across other websites. The site also remembers a few display choices in your browser (light or dark theme, notes you’ve dismissed); they stay on your device.
Your rights (everyone)
Wherever you live, you can:
- see the data we hold about you and get a copy (Settings → Export all my data);
- have it corrected;
- have it deleted (Settings → Delete my account);
- receive it in a portable format (the export is CSV and JSON);
- object to processing based on our legitimate interest, and ask us to restrict processing;
- withdraw consent at any time, for example by turning the classifier off, without affecting earlier processing.
Write to privacy@querytrenches.com. We answer within one month (or sooner where your local law requires). If you live in the EU, you can also complain to the French data protection authority, the CNIL (www.cnil.fr), or the authority in your country. French law also lets you give instructions about what happens to your data after your death.
US residents, including California
Several US states, including California (the California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended by the CPRA), give residents specific privacy rights. Whether or not a state law formally applies to a service our size, we extend these rights to all US users.
What we collect (California categories)
- Identifiers: name, email address, IP address.
- Customer records: your account details.
- Internet activity: sign-in times and security logs, used only to keep the service secure.
- Professional information you choose to store: your books, queries, materials and the emails you forward.
- Sensitive personal information: only your account password, which we use solely to sign you in.
We collect this from you directly, and from the emails you choose to forward. We use it only for the purposes described above, and keep it for the periods described above.
No sale, no sharing
We do not sell personal information, and we do not “share” it for cross-context behavioral advertising, as those terms are defined in California law. We have not done so in the past 12 months. We don’t knowingly collect information from anyone under 16. We honor Global Privacy Control (GPC) signals, though since we neither sell nor share data there is nothing for them to switch off.
Your rights
- to know what personal information we collect, use and disclose, and to get a copy;
- to delete it;
- to correct it;
- to limit the use of sensitive personal information (we already use it only to sign you in);
- not to be discriminated against for exercising any of these rights.
Most of these you can do yourself in Settings. Otherwise email privacy@querytrenches.com. We’ll verify your request by confirming it from the email address on your account. You can use an authorized agent; we’ll ask for proof that you authorized them. We respond within 45 days. If we decline a request, you can appeal by replying to our answer, and we’ll respond to the appeal within the time your state law requires.
Security
Connections are encrypted (HTTPS). Passwords are stored only as salted hashes. Every request is checked against the signed-in account, so one account can never see another’s data. Sign-in, sign-up and password reset are rate-limited. If a breach affecting your data ever occurs, we will notify you and the authorities as the law requires.
Age
QueryTrenches is for people aged 16 and over.
Changes
If we change this policy in a way that matters, we’ll email you before the change takes effect. The date at the top shows the current version.