Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how SANDIEGOPRESSRELEASES.COM, operating San Diego Press Releases, (“we”, “us”, “our”) handles personal data when you visit the site, create an account, submit a press release, contact us, or pay for a publishing plan. It should be read with our Terms of Service and Refund Policy.

1. Who is responsible

We are the controller of account, contact-form, and press-release data we store on our systems. Card payments are processed by Dodo Payments as merchant of record. Dodo Payments is an independent controller (or processor, as applicable) of the payment data you give them at checkout. We do not receive or store your full card number.

2. Information we collect

We collect:

• Account data: name, email, password (stored hashed), optional job title and author bio, and account status (including deactivation).
• Press-release data: headline, summary, body, images, company name, category, location, source links, and media contact name, email, and phone that you choose to publish.
• Billing data: order and invoice records, amounts, plan names, payment status, Dodo Payments transaction identifiers, and wallet balance and top-up history. We do not store card PANs or CVV.
• Contact-form data: name, email, topic, message, and optional press-release ID.
• Technical data: IP address, browser type, and session cookies needed to keep you signed in and to protect forms (including a hidden honeypot field that should be left empty).

We do not require you to provide special-category data (health, religion, etc.). Please do not include that in submissions unless it is necessary and lawful for the announcement.

3. How we use information

We use personal data to:

• Create and secure your account and author page.
• Review, publish, edit, categorize, and archive press releases.
• Process paid plans and wallet credits, send receipts, and handle refunds with Dodo Payments.
• Answer support, billing, restore, and refund requests.
• Detect spam, fraud, and abuse, and to comply with law and payment-processor rules.
• Operate the public site, sitemap, and search-engine metadata for published releases.

Legal bases (where a privacy law such as GDPR applies) are typically: performance of a contract (account and publication), legitimate interests (security, public archive, improving the newsroom), consent where we ask for it, and legal obligation (tax and accounting records).

4. Public press contacts

Media contact name, email, phone, company name, and the release itself are intended for public publication once approved. Journalists, readers, search engines, and aggregators can see and copy that information. Do not put a private address or a personal email in a release if you do not want it public. Unpublishing a release does not guarantee that third parties will delete their copies.

5. Payments and Dodo Payments

When you pay, you are directed to Dodo Payments checkout. Dodo Payments collects payment-method details, billing identity, and tax information under Dodo Payments. We receive confirmation of payment, customer and transaction IDs, and enough information to fulfill the order and issue invoices. Refunds, where due, are returned through Dodo Payments to the original payment method as described in our Refund Policy.

6. Cookies

We use essential cookies and similar storage to keep your session, remember that you are signed in, and protect against cross-site request forgery. These are required for the site to work. We do not currently use advertising cookies or a third-party ad network on this site. You can block cookies in your browser; the public pages will still load, but accounts, checkout, and forms may not work.

7. Who we share data with

We share personal data only as needed:

• The public: published releases and the media contacts included in them.
• Dodo Payments: payment processing, tax invoicing, fraud checks, and refunds.
• Hosting, email, and infrastructure providers that run the website, store files, and deliver transactional email, under contracts that require them to protect the data.
• Authorities when required by law or to protect rights, safety, or the integrity of the payment system.

We do not sell your account email or private profile data to data brokers or unrelated advertisers.

8. How long we keep data

Account data is kept while the account is open and for a reasonable period after deletion or deactivation so we can complete refunds, resolve disputes, and meet tax and bookkeeping rules (typically up to seven years for invoices). Published press releases and their public contacts stay in the archive unless we unpublish or legally must remove them. Contact-form messages are kept long enough to handle the inquiry and for a limited record of abuse.

9. Security

We use HTTPS, hashed passwords, signed payment webhooks, and access controls for the admin newsroom. No method of transmission or storage is perfectly secure. Tell us promptly if you think your account was misused.

10. Your choices and rights

You can update profile details in account settings, deactivate or delete your account, and ask us to correct inaccurate private account data. Depending on where you live, you may also have rights to access, delete, restrict, or export personal data, or to object to certain processing. Those rights do not always extend to information you asked us to publish as a press release.

To make a privacy request, use the contact form or email us. We may need to verify that the request comes from the account holder. If you are in the EEA or UK and we cannot resolve a complaint, you may contact your local data-protection authority.

11. Children

The service is not directed at children under 18, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from them. If you believe a child provided personal data, contact us and we will delete it from private account records where required.

12. International transfers

We and our processors may store or access data in the United States and other countries. Dodo Payments and hosting providers may process data in the locations they disclose in their own policies. If you access the site from outside the US, you understand that your information may be processed in the US.

13. Changes

We may update this Privacy Policy by posting a new version here with a new “Last updated” date. Material changes that affect how we use personal data will be reflected on this page before they apply to future collection.

14. Contact

Privacy questions and data requests:

• Controller: SANDIEGOPRESSRELEASES.COM (San Diego Press Releases)
• Email:[email protected]
• Contact form