Privacy Policy
Last Updated: 10/19/2026
About this policy
Write Out Loud Project ("Write Out Loud", "we", "us") runs the Write Out Loud songwriting contest. We're a 501(c)(3) nonprofit registered in Missouri. This policy explains what personal information we collect through writeoutloudcontest.com, how we use it, who we share it with, and the choices you have.
It covers visitors to our website, people who enter the contest (and the co-writers they list), donors, and people who sign up for our emails. Questions about it go to support@writeoutloudcontest.com.
We don't sell or rent your personal information, and we don't use it for targeted advertising.
What we collect
When you enter the contest
For you and for each co-writer you list:
first and last name and email address
city, state or region, and country
Instagram profile, if you give one
pronouns, if you give them, so we refer to you correctly
age group: 13-17 or 18 and over
About your song: its title, a link to it, its style or genre, what it's about, and its lyrics if you include them. You send us a link, not a file, and we don't download your song.
We also record whether you want our newsletter and, if you answer it, how you heard about us. And we record how you found us with your entry: the campaign or website that first brought you to our site in the previous 90 days (its name or web address, the page you arrived on, and whether you came from a Google ad, but never the ad's click ID). We use this only to see which outreach brings in entries. Your browser keeps it until you enter, or for 90 days.
Co-writers
If you list co-writers, you're giving us their details, so please make sure they're happy for you to do so. A co-writer can contact us at any time to see, correct or delete what we hold about them. We email the confirmation of an entry only to the writer who entered it.
Donations and payments
Payments and donations are handled by Stripe on its own secure page. We give Stripe your email address; Stripe collects your card and billing details, and we never see your card number. We record only whether a payment was completed and its amount.
Email signups and messages
If you ask us to email you when contest entries open, we collect your email address for that notice and for occasional news about our albums and concerts. It's kept by our email service, Mailchimp, which first sends you an email to confirm the request. If you email us, we keep your message and address so we can reply.
Automatically, when you visit
Like any website, our server and the services that deliver our fonts and images receive your device's IP address and browser details when you load a page. We don't store your IP address with your entry. We also use cookies and similar tools, described under "Cookies and analytics" below.
How we use it
To run the contest: to confirm your entry, judge it, contact finalists and winners, and answer your questions.
To keep the contest fair: we keep a record of past entries and results, because past winners and some past finalists aren't eligible to enter again.
To send news, only if you ask: we send our newsletter only to people who opt in, and you can unsubscribe from any email.
To improve our outreach and site: we look at how people find us and use the site, in totals rather than by person.
To keep the site working: we use error reports to find and fix problems.
Judging
Judges review your song: its title, link, style, description and lyrics. Guest judges don't see your name or contact details. Write Out Loud's board and administrators can see them, to run the contest and contact entrants.
Our board's assistant
Our board uses an assistant built on Claude, an AI model made by Anthropic, to answer questions about entries and past contests. It can see writers' names and countries, song titles, links and descriptions, and entry history and results. It never opens the link to your song, and never sees contact details or lyrics. Under its terms for business customers, Anthropic doesn't use this information to train its models.
Finalists and winners
If you're a finalist or winner, the contest rules explain how we may publish your name, hometown, photo, biography and song, on our website and elsewhere. We ask you to sign a publicity release first.
Who we share it with
We share personal information only with the services that help us run the contest and this site, and only for that work. We also disclose it if the law requires us to.
Service | What we use it for | What it receives |
|---|---|---|
Mailchimp | Our email list | The name, email, city, state and country of the writer who submits each entry, and the year they entered. Writers who don't opt in are held as non-subscribers and don't get our newsletter. Also the addresses of newsletter and entry-reminder signups. |
Stripe | Entry payments and donations | Your email address, plus the card and billing details you enter on Stripe's page |
Anthropic (Claude) | Our board's assistant | Writers' names and countries, song titles, links and descriptions, and entry history; never contact details or lyrics |
Slack | Our board's messaging | Board discussion of entries, including writers' names and, when a board member looks them up, a writer's email and Instagram |
Amazon Web Services | Storage, encrypted backups, sending email and processing tasks | Everything we store |
DigitalOcean | The server that runs our site and database | Everything we store |
Analytics, Tag Manager, measuring our Google ads, and our own email | How visitors use the site and device details (see below); messages you send us | |
Bugsnag | Error reports | Technical details of the error and the page it happened on. Our server's reports have contact details and lyrics removed. |
Adobe Fonts, rsms.me and Candid | Our fonts and the Candid transparency seal | Your IP address and browser details when your browser loads them |
Our site links to other sites, such as our online store and streaming services. Their own privacy policies apply there.
Cookies and analytics
Cookies the site needs: a session cookie and a security token keep the entry form and sign-in working. They expire within two hours.
Google Analytics: counts visits and shows which pages, and which steps of the entry form, people use. It records actions such as finishing a step of the form or clicking a donate or album link, never anything you type into the form. Google keeps this data for 14 months. We don't use Google's advertising features, and nothing from it personalizes ads.
Google Ads measurement: when you arrive from one of our Google ads, a cookie lets us see whether the visit led to an entry, a donation, a reminder signup or an album stream. We don't use it to show you ads elsewhere.
Browser storage: your browser keeps how you found us (see "When you enter the contest") for 90 days, and our error reporting keeps a random device ID with no personal details in it.
You can block or delete cookies in your browser's settings, though blocking all of them may stop the entry form working. Google offers a browser add-on that opts you out of Google Analytics on every site. Our site doesn't respond to "Do Not Track" browser signals.
How long we keep it
Entries and writers' details form the contest's archive, so we keep them until you ask us to delete them. Other records have set periods:
Information | How long we keep it |
|---|---|
Entries, writers' details and results | Until you ask us to delete them |
A history of changes to writers' details, kept so we can undo mistakes | 365 days |
Encrypted database backups | Up to 2 years |
Google Analytics data | 14 months |
How you found us, stored in your browser | 90 days, or until you enter |
Server logs | 14 days |
Your Mailchimp contact | Until you ask us to delete it. Unsubscribing stops our emails; Mailchimp keeps a record so you aren't emailed again. |
Payment records | Kept by Stripe as financial law requires |
Your choices
Stop our emails: use the unsubscribe link in any email we send.
See or correct your information: email us and we'll send you what we hold, or fix it.
Delete your information: email us and we'll delete your personal information, including your Mailchimp contact and your Stripe customer record. Copies in our encrypted backups are removed as those backups expire, within two years, and a song you co-wrote stays with your name taken off. Stripe keeps payment records as financial law requires.
Send requests to support@writeoutloudcontest.com from the email address you entered with. If you can't, we may ask you to confirm who you are before we act. We'll reply within 30 days.
Entrants under 18
No one under 13 may enter the contest, and we don't knowingly collect information from children under 13. If you think a child under 13 has entered, email us and we'll delete their information.
Entrants aged 13 to 17 need a parent's or guardian's permission to enter, as the contest rules say. We collect and share their information the same way as adults', as this policy describes. A parent or guardian, or the entrant themselves, can ask us at support@writeoutloudcontest.com to see, correct or delete it, or to remove anything they submitted.
Security
Our site uses encrypted connections (HTTPS), and our database backups are encrypted. Only the people who need entrants' contact details to run the contest can see them, and our server's error reports leave out contact details and lyrics. No system is perfectly secure, but we work to protect what you give us.
Where your information is stored
We're based in the United States, and your information is stored and processed in the United States. If you enter from another country, it's transferred here.
Changes to this policy
When we change this policy, we'll post the new version on this page and update the date at the top.
Contact us
Write Out Loud Project, support@writeoutloudcontest.com