Privacy Policy
This policy explains what personal data Transmuter collects, why, and what your rights are. It applies to transmuter.thevinculum.net and is written under UK data protection law (UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018).
Who we are
Transmuter is operated by Olu Falade, trading as The Vinculum, based in the UK. If you have questions about this policy or your data, contact: privacy@thevinculum.net.
What we collect
- Account data: the email address you register with, and a securely hashed password (we never store your password in readable form).
- Billing data: a record of credit top-ups you make, including the amount and a PayPal transaction reference. We do not store your card or PayPal account details — PayPal handles and stores that themselves; we only receive confirmation that a payment was made.
- Content you submit: the source text, scripts, and settings you provide when creating a render, and the resulting output files (audio, video, images, text) that Transmuter generates for you.
- Basic technical data: login session information (so you stay signed in) and standard server logs (e.g. IP address, timestamps) kept briefly for security and troubleshooting.
Why we collect it, and our legal basis
| Data | Purpose | Legal basis |
|---|---|---|
| Account data | Let you log in and use the service | Performance of a contract with you |
| Billing data | Process top-ups, prevent duplicate charges, refunds | Performance of a contract with you |
| Content you submit | Generate the outputs you request | Performance of a contract with you |
| Technical/session data | Keep you logged in, keep the service secure | Legitimate interest (running the service safely) |
We do not use your data for advertising, and we do not sell or share your data with third parties for marketing purposes.
Who else processes your data
To generate your content, the text you submit is sent to the following third-party providers, solely to produce your requested output:
- Anthropic (Claude) — for script and text generation
- ElevenLabs — for text-to-speech narration
- OpenAI — for image generation
- PayPal — for processing top-up payments
We also retrieve public-domain and openly-licensed images from open-access sources (such as Wikimedia Commons, Openverse, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art) to illustrate your content; this involves sending scene keywords to those services but no personal data about you.
Each of these providers processes data under their own privacy policies as our data processors. We choose providers with their own data protection commitments, but we encourage you to review their policies if you have concerns about how submitted text or generated media is handled on their end.
How long we keep your data
- Account data: kept for as long as your account is active, and deleted (or anonymised) within 30 days of account deletion.
- Billing records: kept for 6 years as required by UK tax and accounting law, even after account deletion.
- Render outputs and source content: render outputs (audio, video, and images produced by a job) are available to download for 14 days after creation, after which they are automatically deleted by a routine cleanup process. Your account, job history, and billing/credit records are retained as described above and are not affected by this deletion.
Your rights
Under UK GDPR, you can ask us to:
- Access the personal data we hold about you
- Correct inaccurate data
- Delete your account and associated personal data ("right to be forgotten") — note that billing records may be retained separately where we're legally required to keep them
- Export your data in a portable format
- Object to processing based on legitimate interest
To exercise any of these, email privacy@thevinculum.net. We'll respond within one month.
You also have the right to complain to the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk) if you believe we've mishandled your data.
Cookies
We use only strictly necessary cookies to keep you logged in (session cookies). We do not use tracking, analytics, or advertising cookies at this time. If that changes, this policy will be updated and, where required, we'll ask for your consent.
Security
We take reasonable technical measures to protect your data, including encrypted connections (HTTPS), hashed passwords, and restricted server access. No system is perfectly secure, but we aim to minimise risk and will notify affected users and the ICO if we become aware of a data breach affecting personal data, as required by law.
Changes to this policy
We may update this policy as the service evolves. Material changes will be noted with an updated "Last updated" date at the top of this page.
Contact
Questions or requests about your data: privacy@thevinculum.net