01. Who we are

We are the Escape Collective. Our website address is: https://escapecollective.com.

02. Comments

When our visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.

An anonymised string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.

03. Media

If you upload images to our website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Note that visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.

04. Cookies

If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.

If you visit our login page, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.

When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.

05. Embedded content from other websites

Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.

Note that these websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

06. Who we share your data with

If you request a password reset, your IP address will be included in the reset email.

07. How long we retain your data

If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognise and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.

For users that register on our website, we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time via https://escapecollective.com/my-account. Website administrators can also see and edit that information.

08. What rights you have over your data

If you have an account on the Escape Collective, or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.

09. Where your data is sent

Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.

Advertising policy

Escape Collective is built on a membership-first business model and must always remain that way. This means a few things to us. 

First, your membership dollars/euros/pounds/pesos must remain the single most important revenue stream for the business. This gives us the ability to say ‘no thanks’ to any commercial partnership. The ability to say ‘no’ is the source of our independence. It is hugely important to us. 

Second, we must think and act for the benefit of our members first, always. 

Yet this is media, a business notorious mostly for making its creators poorer. In this difficult landscape, we would be foolish to rely on a single revenue stream, and, crucially, doing so would not properly serve our members, thus breaking rule two above. If we want to produce more content in more areas, which we do, and if we want to ensure the ongoing survival of this project, which we’re quite attached to now, then we need to diversify. 

We will move carefully and start small. The goal is simple: Use ad revenue to improve our editorial product more quickly and expansively than we could with member revenue alone.

Yes, that means ads

We are currently considering, quite carefully, a few different types of ads to roll out in late 2023 and early 2024. This timeline is actually slightly delayed; our original roadmap included some ads at launch. But given our small team and limited ad sales expertise, we felt it was best to launch ad-free. 

Ads in 2024 are likely to be found in podcasts (in the free feeds), newsletters, and our fantasy game. We believe that these particular locations for ads are highly effective while having a minimal negative impact on our audience and members. 

We’re going to start small and be very careful.

Our advertising policy 

There are two fundamental considerations with advertising. The first is user experience – we all know bad ads can be annoying. The second is editorial independence. We have a series of policies in place to protect both your eyeballs and our editors’ ability to operate without undue influence. 

Protecting Your Eyeballs:

• No user experience horrors (pop-ups, flashy banners, autoplay videos).
• Advertisements will be placed in designated areas on our platforms, clearly separated from main content.

Editorial:

• We reserve the right to reject or remove any advertising that we deem inappropriate, misleading, or incompatible with our brand.  
• Advertisers have no input into our editorial decisions, outcomes, and production. Editorial content is never shared prior to publishing.

Transparency:

• All advertisements will be clearly labelled as such to distinguish them from our editorial content.
• If content is commercially funded, it will be labelled as such. The purpose of commercially funded content is to bring you something of value that we could not do without the partnership.

What’s in the ads:

• Ads must adhere to our content guidelines and can not contain offensive, discriminatory, or misleading content.
• We will not accept ads for products or services that are illegal or harmful.
• We will not accept ads for products that we think stink up the place.

User Privacy and Ad Blocking:

• We prioritize the privacy and data security of our members and visitors. We will not share user data with advertisers without explicit consent.
• We respect our users’ choice to use ad-blockers. However, we encourage users to support our mission by allowing non-intrusive ads to appear. 

Ad Revenue Allocation:

• Revenues generated from ads will be reinvested in our content, used to pay staff and contributors, and used to enhance our services for members.

Member Feedback:

• We encourage our members to provide feedback on our advertising practices and content. Your input helps us improve our policies.

Review and Revision:

• We will periodically review and update this advertising policy to reflect changes in our practices and industry standards. We commit to reviewing this policy at least annually.