Privacy policy

Last updated 26 September 2026.

Who we are

Explain a Paper is provided by Digital Tactics Ltd. When this policy says "we" or "us", it means Digital Tactics Ltd. For the information you give us, and for your account, we decide how it is used, which makes us the data controller under UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.

Company: Digital Tactics Ltd., a private limited company registered in England and Wales
Company number: 07666910
Registered office: Ground Floor, 19 New Road, Brighton, East Sussex BN1 1UF, United Kingdom
ICO registration: Z2807798

What this site does today

Explain a Paper is opening in stages. While this notice says "coming soon" on the home page, the site has no accounts, forms or payments: the only information we receive is what you choose to send us by email. The rest of this policy describes how we will handle information once ordering opens, so you can see it before you use it. We will update the date above when anything changes.

What we collect

When you email us: your name, email address and whatever you write.
When you create an account: your name, email address, optional organisation, and a record of your sign-ins.
When you order a film: the paper, white paper or report you upload, the instructions you give (audience, length, emphasis, style), your feedback on each draft and iteration, and the film, captions and transcript we produce.
If you connect a YouTube channel: the information described under YouTube below.

Your payment is handled by Stripe on its own hosted checkout. Card details never reach this site or our servers.

Why we hold it, and on what basis

We use your information to provide the service you asked for: to make, revise and deliver your film, and to answer your messages. The lawful basis is the contract with you, or the steps you asked us to take before one. We keep a record of each sale because UK accounting and tax law requires it. We have a legitimate interest in keeping the site secure and free of abuse.

We do not sell your information, share it for anyone else's marketing, or use your papers, feedback or films to train any AI model, ours or anybody else's. We make no decisions about you by automated means alone.

Papers and files you upload

A paper you upload is used to make your film and for nothing else. Papers can contain personal data about other people, such as author names and affiliations, and occasionally information about study participants. For that content you remain responsible, and we process it only on your instructions, to make your film. Please do not upload a paper containing identifiable information about research participants unless we have agreed it with you in advance.

If a paper is unpublished, under embargo or confidential, tell us when you order. We keep it confidential and do not publish anything from it until you say so.

We keep your paper and working files while the order is open and for 90 days after final delivery, so we can answer questions and make any fixes, and then delete them. The finished film, captions and transcript stay available in your account until you delete them or close the account.

How your film is made, and who is involved

A language model helps draft the script from your paper, and you review and approve it before anything is rendered; if you choose human review, one of our editors also checks it against the paper. The pictures are drawn by our own software, and the narration is produced by an openly licensed voice model running on our own machines. Your paper is therefore seen by our staff, by our own rendering systems, and by the AI model provider named below.

These organisations process information for us, only for the purposes above:

Cloudflare hosts this site and stores accounts, uploaded papers, orders and finished films.
AI model providers run the language models that help draft scripts, under business terms that do not allow your material to be used to train their models or be kept beyond the processing.
Our email provider sends account, order and delivery emails.
Stripe processes payments and issues receipts and VAT invoices. Stripe also uses payment information for its own fraud prevention and legal obligations, under its own privacy policy.
Google (YouTube), only if you connect a channel, as described below.

We will name each provider here before ordering opens. Some of them are based in, or use infrastructure in, the United States and other countries outside the UK. Where your information is transferred outside the UK, it is protected by the safeguards UK law provides: an adequacy decision such as the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, or the International Data Transfer Agreement or Addendum approved by the Information Commissioner.

YouTube

Connecting a YouTube channel is optional. If you connect one, you sign in with Google and grant Explain a Paper permission to upload videos to that channel. We use that permission only to upload the films you ask us to publish, with the title, description, captions and privacy setting you have reviewed. We store the access token Google gives us, encrypted, so we can publish when you ask; we do not read, change or delete anything else on your channel.

Explain a Paper's use and transfer of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. We do not use it for advertising, do not sell it, and do not use it to train AI models.

Publishing uses YouTube API Services. By connecting a channel you agree to the YouTube Terms of Service, and Google's handling of your information is governed by the Google Privacy Policy. You can disconnect your channel at any time from your account, which deletes the stored token, or revoke our access in your Google account security settings.

How long we keep it

Emails and enquiries: twelve months after our last exchange with you.
Uploaded papers and working files: 90 days after final delivery.
Your account and finished films: until you delete them or close your account.
YouTube access tokens: until you disconnect the channel or close your account.
Records of each sale (name, email, organisation, what you bought, the amount and the date): six years, as UK accounting and tax law requires.

Cookies

This site sets no cookies of its own for analytics, advertising or tracking. Once accounts open, a strictly necessary cookie will keep you signed in. Our hosting provider, Cloudflare, may use a strictly necessary cookie or similar storage to protect the site from automated abuse. When you pay, you do so on Stripe's checkout page, which uses cookies for fraud prevention under Stripe's cookie policy. Strictly necessary cookies do not need your consent, which is why this site does not ask for it.

Your rights

You can ask us for a copy of what we hold about you, ask us to correct it, delete it, restrict or object to how we use it, or give it to you in a portable form. Email [email protected] or write to the address below, and we will respond within one month. Deleting material we hold for an open order may mean we cannot finish it; we will tell you before acting.

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk, though we would rather you raised it with us first so we can put it right.

Contact

Email [email protected], or write to us at our trading address:
Digital Tactics
5 Boundary Road
Hove
East Sussex BN3 4EH
United Kingdom