Lamplight — Privacy Policy

Last updated: 25/10/2026

Lamplight is a writing and learning application designed to help users develop vocabulary, creative writing and language skills.

We take privacy seriously. This is particularly important because Lamplight may be used by children and young people.

This Privacy Policy explains what personal information we collect, why we use it, who we may share it with, how long we keep it and the rights available to you.

If you are a child or young person, you may also find our Privacy Notice for Children & Parents easier to read.

1. Who is responsible for your information?

For the purposes of UK data protection law, the controller responsible for your personal information is:

Step Up I.C.P.E

Trading as: Lamplight

Address: 41A High Street Portishead BS20 6AA

Email: hello@lamplightapp.com

References in this policy to “Lamplight”, “we”, “us” or “our” mean the organisation identified above.

2. Information we collect

Depending on how you use Lamplight, we may collect and process:

Account information

your name;
email address;
account identifier;
login and authentication information; and
information provided by an authentication provider where you choose to use one.

Writing and notebook information

words and phrases you save;
notes and writing ideas;
lines or passages you save to your notebook; and
other material you choose to store in Lamplight.

Searches, prompts and AI interactions

words;
phrases;
questions;
prompts; and
other text you submit to those features.

Subscription information

subscription status;
billing status;
transaction identifiers; and
limited information relating to payments.

Lamplight does not receive or store your full debit or credit card details where payments are handled by an external payment provider.

Technical and security information

We may collect limited technical information reasonably necessary to operate and protect Lamplight, such as:

device or browser information;
IP address;
login and security information;
diagnostic information;
error information; and
records relating to suspected misuse or security incidents.

We aim to collect only information that is reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this policy.

3. How and why we use personal information

UK data protection law requires us to have a lawful basis for using personal information.

Depending on the particular processing activity, we may rely on one or more of the following lawful bases.

Providing the Lamplight service

We use account information, saved material, searches and other necessary information to create and maintain accounts, provide requested features and make saved material available to users.

Our lawful basis will generally be that the processing is necessary to provide the service requested by you or to take steps at your request before providing that service.

Providing AI-assisted features

Where you choose to use an AI-assisted feature, we process the text necessary to provide the requested result.

Our lawful basis will generally be that the processing is necessary to provide the feature you have requested.

Where a different lawful basis is required for a particular AI feature, we will provide appropriate information before that processing takes place.

Managing subscriptions and payments

We process information necessary to administer subscriptions, payments and billing.

Our lawful basis will generally be performance of our contract with the person purchasing the subscription and, where applicable, compliance with our legal obligations.

Security and preventing misuse

We may process limited account and technical information to protect users and Lamplight, detect fraud or misuse, investigate security incidents and maintain the integrity of the service.

Where this processing is not necessary to perform our contract or comply with a legal obligation, we may rely on our legitimate interests in operating a safe and secure service.

When relying on legitimate interests in relation to children, we take particular account of children's rights and interests.

Diagnosing problems and improving Lamplight

We may use limited technical, diagnostic and usage information to identify faults and improve the reliability and operation of Lamplight.

Where this is not necessary to provide the service, we will only rely on legitimate interests where those interests are not overridden by the rights and interests of users, particularly children.

We do not assume that a use of personal information is lawful simply because it would be useful to us.

4. Children and young people

Lamplight may be used by people under the age of 18.

Children deserve particular protection when using online services. We therefore aim to apply privacy protections appropriate to the risks presented by the service and to place the best interests of children at the centre of decisions about children's personal information.

We aim in particular to:

collect only personal information reasonably necessary to provide Lamplight;
provide privacy information in language appropriate for younger users;
avoid using children's personal information in ways they would not reasonably expect;
use privacy-protective settings by default where appropriate;
avoid unnecessary sharing of children's information; and
consider children's interests when designing or changing features that use personal information.

Children under 13

UK data protection law contains particular rules where an online service offered directly to a child relies on consent as the lawful basis for processing personal information.

Where we rely on consent for processing covered by those rules and the user is under 13, we will take reasonable steps to obtain or verify authorisation from a person with parental responsibility.

This does not mean that consent is necessarily the lawful basis for every way in which Lamplight processes a child's information.

Where appropriate, we may use proportionate measures to understand whether a user falls within a relevant age range so that suitable protections can be applied.

5. AI-assisted features

Some Lamplight features use artificial intelligence.

When you use an AI-powered feature, the text necessary to respond to your request may be sent to an external AI service provider, such as Anthropic, for processing.

The provider processes that information in order to help generate the requested result and may process information in accordance with the contractual and data-protection arrangements applying to our use of its service.

Under the terms applying to our use of the provider's service, the text sent for processing is not used to train the provider's own AI models.

The provider keeps this information only for a limited period before deleting it, except where longer retention is required by law or to investigate misuse or a breach of the provider's usage rules.

Lamplight does not use saved notebook material to train its own AI models.

We encourage users not to include personal or sensitive information in AI prompts unless it is genuinely necessary.

Children in particular should not enter information such as:

their home address;
telephone number;
passwords;
financial information;
school login details;
precise location;
private information about another person; or
other sensitive information that is not needed for their writing request.

AI systems can make mistakes. Generated information may be inaccurate, incomplete, unsuitable, repetitive or similar to material generated for other users.

Lamplight should therefore be used as a writing and learning assistant rather than as an unquestionable source of information.

6. Your notebook and writing

If you save words, phrases, notes, lines or other writing to your Lamplight notebook, that material is stored so that it can be retrieved when you sign in and, where supported, accessed across devices.

Your notebook is intended to be private to your account unless we introduce a sharing feature and clearly explain that feature before you use it.

You retain any rights you have in original writing you create and submit to Lamplight.

Lamplight does not become the owner of your original writing merely because you use the service.

We process and store that material only as reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this policy.

7. Payments

Payments and subscriptions may be processed by Stripe or another payment provider clearly identified at checkout.

Payment providers may process information necessary to complete and administer your payment in accordance with their own privacy information.

Lamplight does not receive or store your full debit or credit card details where those details are entered directly into the payment provider's payment system.

Where a child uses Lamplight, paid subscriptions should be purchased or authorised by a parent, guardian or another adult legally able to enter into the purchase.

Lamplight may allow users to sign in using Google or another authentication provider.

If you choose this option, the provider may confirm your identity and provide Lamplight with limited account information, such as your name, email address and account identifier.

Lamplight does not receive your Google password.

The authentication provider may separately process information about your use of its service under its own privacy terms.

We do not sell users' personal information.

We do not sell children's personal information.

We may provide limited personal information to service providers where reasonably necessary to operate Lamplight, including providers of:

hosting and data storage;
authentication;
payment processing;
artificial intelligence services;
security;
email or service communications; and
technical infrastructure.

We expect service providers processing personal information on our behalf to protect that information and use it only for the purposes for which it has been provided, subject to applicable law and contractual arrangements.

We may also disclose information where:

required by law;
necessary to establish, exercise or defend legal rights;
reasonably necessary to prevent fraud or protect the security of Lamplight; or
reasonably necessary to protect the rights, safety or interests of users or others.

If ownership or control of Lamplight changes as part of a business sale, merger, restructuring or similar transaction, personal information may be transferred as part of that transaction subject to applicable data-protection law.

10. International transfers

Some service providers may process personal information outside the United Kingdom.

Where UK data-protection law requires safeguards for an international transfer, we will use an appropriate lawful transfer mechanism, such as applicable adequacy regulations or approved contractual safeguards, and any additional protections required in the circumstances.

You may contact us if you would like further information about safeguards applying to relevant international transfers.

11. Advertising and profiling

Lamplight does not use children's personal information for targeted advertising.

We do not create advertising profiles of children based on their writing, searches or notebook contents.

Lamplight does not currently display behavioural advertising.

Advertising measurement cookies

We advertise Lamplight on Google and Reddit. To see which ads bring people to Lamplight, we use the Google Ads tag and the Reddit Pixel, but only if you choose "Accept" on the cookie banner. If you choose "No thanks", or make no choice, they are not loaded.

If you accept, these tools set cookies on your device and send Google and Reddit information such as your IP address, browser and device details, the pages you visit on Lamplight, and whether you create an account or subscribe. Google and Reddit use this to tell us how our ads performed. They act under their own privacy policies.

We never send Google or Reddit your writing, searches, notebook contents, name or email address.

You can change your choice at any time: change my cookie choice. This shows the cookie banner again the next time you open Lamplight.

If we materially change the way advertising or profiling works in the future, we will update our privacy information and introduce appropriate safeguards before using personal information for the new purpose.

12. Automated decision-making

Lamplight's AI features generate writing and language suggestions.

We do not currently use solely automated processing to make decisions about users that produce legal effects or similarly significant effects on them.

If this changes, we will provide the information and safeguards required by applicable data-protection law.

13. How long we keep information

We do not intend to keep personal information indefinitely.

We retain different categories of information for different periods depending on why the information is needed.

In general:

account information is retained while an account remains active and for a limited period afterwards where necessary;
saved notebook material is retained while needed to provide the user's account and is deleted or anonymised following account deletion, subject to legitimate technical and legal retention requirements;
payment and transaction records may be retained for periods required by tax, accounting, fraud-prevention or other legal obligations;
security and diagnostic records are retained only for a proportionate period necessary for security, investigation and service operation; and
backup copies may remain for a limited period after deletion before being overwritten.

The periods we currently apply are:

account information: kept while the account is active and deleted within 30 days after the account is closed;
saved notebook and writing material: deleted or anonymised within 30 days after the account is closed;
payment and transaction records: kept for up to six years, to meet tax and accounting obligations;
security and diagnostic records: kept for up to 30 days; and
backup copies: overwritten within 7 days.

When information is no longer required, we will delete or anonymise it unless we are legally entitled or required to retain it.

14. Your data-protection rights

Depending on the circumstances, UK data-protection law may give you rights to:

be informed about how your information is used;
ask whether we hold personal information about you;
obtain a copy of personal information we hold about you;
correct inaccurate or incomplete information;
request deletion of personal information;
request restriction of certain processing;
object to certain processing;
receive certain information in a portable format;
withdraw consent where processing is based on consent; and
exercise rights relating to qualifying automated decision-making.

These rights do not apply in exactly the same way in every situation, and some are subject to legal exceptions.

Parents or guardians may exercise appropriate rights on behalf of a child where they are legally entitled to do so. A child may also have data-protection rights in their own capacity.

To exercise a privacy right, contact: hello@lamplightapp.com

We may need to ask for information reasonably necessary to confirm identity before responding to certain requests.

15. Complaints

If you have concerns about how Lamplight handles personal information, please contact us first so that we can investigate.

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK's independent data-protection regulator.

Information about making a complaint is available from the ICO.

16. Cookies and similar technologies

Lamplight may use cookies, local storage or similar technologies that are strictly necessary for login, security, account operation and essential functionality.

Where we use non-essential cookies or similar technologies requiring consent under applicable law, we will provide appropriate information and obtain any consent required before using them.

More detailed information may be provided in a separate Cookie Notice where appropriate.

17. Security

We use appropriate technical and organisational measures designed to protect personal information against accidental or unlawful loss, alteration, destruction, unauthorised access or disclosure.

The measures used will depend on the nature of the information and the risks associated with its processing.

No online service can guarantee absolute security.

Users should protect their login details and should not share passwords with other people.

18. Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy when Lamplight changes, our service providers change or legal requirements develop.

We will publish the updated policy and change the “Last updated” date.

Where a significant change materially affects how users' personal information is used, we will take reasonable steps to bring that change to users' attention before or when the change takes effect where required.

Where an important change affects children's personal information, we will take particular care to explain the change clearly and appropriately.

19. Contact us

Questions about privacy or requests concerning personal information can be sent to:

Lamplight