Project C LLC ("Project C," "we," "us," or "our") is committed to protecting the privacy of the journalists, creators, and community members we work with. This policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, and the choices you have.
1. Who we are
Project C supports, amplifies, and normalizes independent creator-model journalism through a newsletter, community, coaching, courses, and research. This policy covers projectc.biz, our newsletter, our community platforms (including Slack), and the forms we use to run programs like the Journalism Creators Startup Lab.
2. Information we collect
We collect information you provide directly to us, including:
Contact information: name, email address, city, country, and (where relevant) state/province or region
Program application information: details about your work as a creator journalist, your platforms and audience, your business and revenue situation, your goals for a given program, and your availability
Links to your published work and social/platform profiles that you choose to share with us
Newsletter subscription information (managed via our email service provider, beehiiv)
Community membership information, if you join our Slack community or member directory
Correspondence you send us directly, such as emails or replies to program communications
We also collect limited, privacy-friendly website analytics to understand overall site usage. This analytics tool does not use cookies and does not track you individually across other websites.
3. How we use your information
We use the information we collect to:
Evaluate and process applications to Project C programs
Communicate with you about programs, deadlines, and decisions
Administer programs you're accepted into, including scheduling, coaching, and coordination with program partners
Send our newsletter and community updates, if you've subscribed or joined
Improve our programs and understand how our website and community are used
Meet our obligations to funders and partners who help make our programs possible
Where the EU or UK GDPR applies, we rely on the following legal bases for this processing:
Contract (Article 6(1)(b)): evaluating and processing your program application and administering programs you're accepted into — these are steps taken at your request before entering into an agreement with us, and performance of that agreement
Consent (Article 6(1)(a)): sending our newsletter and community updates, and sharing your application information with program partners such as the Google News Initiative
Legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f)): our legitimate interests in improving our programs, understanding how our website and community are used (via privacy-friendly analytics), and reporting on program outcomes to the funders and partners who make our programs possible
Legal obligation (Article 6(1)(c)): disclosures we are required to make by law
4. When we share your information
We do not sell your personal information. We share it in these circumstances:
Program partners: For programs run in partnership with organizations, some of the information you provide as part of your application is shared with that partner for the purpose of administering the program. Where this applies, we ask for your explicit consent on the relevant application form before sharing anything, and we tell you which organization it's being shared with. For example, applicants to the Journalism Creators Startup Lab are asked to separately confirm their data can be shared with and processed by the Google News Initiative, which processes that data under its own Privacy Policy. That consent is requested separately from the rest of your application, and you can withdraw it at any time by emailing us (see Section 9), though withdrawal won't affect sharing that has already taken place.
Service providers: We use third-party tools to operate — for example beehiiv (newsletter delivery), Google Workspace (email, forms, and document storage), Slack (community), and Plausible (website analytics). These providers process information on our behalf and are not permitted to use it for their own purposes.
Legal requirements: We may disclose information if required by law or to protect the rights, safety, or property of Project C, our community, or others.
5. How long we keep your information
We keep program application information for as long as needed to run the program and evaluate its outcomes (including post-program surveys at 3, 6, and 12 months), plus a reasonable period afterward for reporting to funders and partners. You can ask us to delete your information sooner — see Section 6.
6. Your choices and rights
You can ask us to access, correct, or delete the personal information we hold about you, or ask us to stop using it for a particular purpose, by emailing info@projectc.biz. If you're located in the EU/EEA or UK, you also have the right to restrict our processing of your information, to object to processing based on our legitimate interests, and to receive the information you provided to us in a portable format. Where we rely on your consent, you can withdraw it at any time; this won't affect processing that happened before you withdrew. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with your data protection supervisory authority. We don't use your information to make automated decisions that have legal or similarly significant effects on you.
You can unsubscribe from our newsletter at any time using the link at the bottom of any newsletter email.
7. International data transfers
Project C is based in the United States. If you're applying from outside the US, your information will be transferred to and processed in the US, as well as in the countries where our service providers (Google, beehiiv, Slack) operate. Where the EU or UK GDPR applies, we rely on appropriate safeguards for these transfers: Google and Slack are certified under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (including the UK Extension and the Swiss-U.S. DPF), and our agreement with beehiiv incorporates the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses (with the UK Addendum and Swiss modifications). Plausible, our website analytics provider, hosts its data in the EU, so no transfer to the US is involved. You can contact us (see Section 9) for more information about these safeguards.
8. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time. We'll post the updated version here with a new "last updated" date.
9. Contact us
Questions about this policy or your information? Email info@projectc.biz.