Privacy Policy

Effective date: April 17, 2026 · Last updated: April 17, 2026

1. Overview

DearAgent is a web application for authors querying literary agents. The service is operated by Precipice Research, a company organised in the United Kingdom (“DearAgent”, “we”, “us”, or “our”). This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect about you, why we collect it, how we use and share it, how long we keep it, and the rights you have over it.

The service is currently in a pre-launch preview. Some features described on the site (for example, AI matching, submission tracking, and paid plans) are still being rolled out. We will update this policy as features go live and our data practices change.

If you do not agree with this policy, please do not use DearAgent. Your continued use of the service means you accept the current version of this policy.

2. Information we collect

Information you provide directly

Account information. When you sign up we receive your email address, name, and authentication identifiers from Clerk, our authentication provider. You can optionally opt in to marketing emails; this preference is stored on your account.
Book profiles. If you create a book profile we store the details you enter — for example, working title, logline, synopsis, genre and subgenre, themes, tones, comparison titles, target audience, word count, and manuscript status.
Query letters and AI feedback sessions. We store query letter drafts and versions you create, together with any AI-coaching conversations you initiate about those drafts. You can delete any letter, version, or session from your dashboard.
Saved agents and submission tracking. Lists of agents you save, personal notes you attach to them, and any submission status or follow-up information you record.
Support correspondence. If you contact us by email we keep a record of the conversation.

Information we collect automatically

Usage counters. We track per-account monthly usage of features like profile views and AI-feedback sessions so we can enforce plan limits fairly.
Technical and log data. Our servers log IP addresses, user-agent strings, request paths, timestamps, and similar information for security, abuse prevention, and debugging.
Analytics. We use a self-hosted instance of Umami, a privacy-first analytics tool. Umami does not set cookies and does not collect personally identifying information; it records page views, referrers, and coarse device/country information so we can understand aggregate usage.

Information we will collect if paid plans go live

We do not currently accept payments. When paid plans launch we expect to use Stripe as our payment processor. If you subscribe, Stripe will collect and process your payment details directly; we will receive limited billing metadata sufficient to operate your subscription. We will update this policy when that happens.

3. How we use your information

We use the information described above to:

Provide, maintain, and improve the service, including authentication, saving your work, and displaying personalised content such as agent matches.
Generate AI feedback on your query letters when you ask us to, by sending the necessary context to our AI provider (see section 5).
Enforce plan limits and prevent abuse, including rate-limiting, detecting automated scraping of our directory, and investigating security incidents.
Send transactional communications, such as sign-in emails, receipts (when paid plans launch), and service announcements.
Send marketing communications, but only if you have opted in. You can opt out at any time from the unsubscribe link in any marketing email or from your account settings.
Comply with legal obligations and respond to lawful requests.
Measure and improve the service using aggregated, privacy-preserving analytics.

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it with third parties for cross-context behavioural advertising.

4. Legal bases for processing (GDPR / UK DPA)

If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland, we rely on the following legal bases under the UK GDPR and EU GDPR:

Performance of a contract — to provide the service you sign up for (account, directory access, matching, query-letter tools, submission tracking).
Legitimate interests — to secure the service, prevent abuse, debug problems, maintain aggregated analytics, and improve our product. We balance these interests against your privacy rights.
Consent — for marketing emails and for any optional features that require your explicit permission. You can withdraw consent at any time.
Legal obligation — to comply with laws, court orders, and lawful requests from public authorities.

5. AI processing of your content

DearAgent includes AI-powered tools — for example, feedback and coaching on query letters. These tools are optional. They only run when you explicitly ask for them (by clicking an AI feedback action in the product). Here is what happens when you do:

We send the relevant inputs — typically your query letter content, associated book-profile fields (for example, logline, comps, target audience), and, if you are personalising for a specific agent, that agent's publicly listed preferences — to our AI provider, currently Anthropic (the Claude API), under Anthropic's commercial API terms.
Under Anthropic's commercial API terms as of the date of this policy, inputs and outputs are not used to train Anthropic's models. Anthropic's terms may change; we will update this policy if the position materially changes.
We store the request and the AI's response as a feedback session on your account so you can review it later. You can delete any session at any time from your dashboard.
You retain ownership of any query letter, book profile, or other content you create on DearAgent. AI-generated suggestions are provided as an aid; you decide whether to use them.
Our matching algorithm runs on our own systems using data stored in our database; it does not send your content to any third-party AI provider.

If we add, change, or replace our AI provider in a way that materially affects how your content is processed, we will update this policy.

6. Agent directory data

DearAgent maintains a directory of literary agents. Directory entries are compiled from publicly available professional and business sources. Entries contain business-contact and professional-preference information only, not private personal data.

Our crawlers are configured to respect robots.txt directives and site rate limits. We store raw snapshots of scraped pages for operational, quality-assurance, and compliance purposes.

If you are a literary agent or agency representative and you would like your entry corrected, updated, or removed, email us at [email protected]. We will consider such requests and aim to respond within a reasonable time.

8. International data transfers

Precipice Research is based in the United Kingdom. Your information may be processed in the United Kingdom, the European Union (including Germany, where some of our infrastructure is hosted), and the United States (where several of our subprocessors are located). Where we transfer personal data out of the UK or EEA to a country that has not been recognised as providing an adequate level of data protection, we rely on appropriate safeguards — such as the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses and the UK International Data Transfer Addendum — to protect that information.

9. Data retention

Account data is retained for as long as your account is active and for a period afterwards to allow for account recovery, closure processing, and legal, accounting, and dispute-resolution purposes, after which we delete or anonymise it.
Content you create — books, query letters, AI feedback sessions, saved agents, submission notes — is retained until you delete it or close your account.
Technical logs are retained for a limited period for security, debugging, and similar operational purposes.
Billing records (when paid plans go live) will be retained as long as required by applicable tax and accounting law.
We may retain information longer where required by law, needed to resolve disputes, or necessary to enforce our agreements.

10. Your rights

Rights for everyone

Regardless of where you live, you can:

Access and update most of your account and content data directly from your dashboard.
Delete your books, query letters, AI feedback sessions, and saved agents at any time from your dashboard.
Request export or deletion of your account data by emailing [email protected].
Opt out of marketing communications at any time.

Rights in the UK, EEA, and Switzerland (GDPR / UK DPA 2018)

You have the right to:

Access the personal data we hold about you and receive a copy of it.
Rectify inaccurate or incomplete information.
Request erasure of your personal data in certain circumstances.
Restrict or object to certain processing, including processing based on legitimate interests and direct marketing.
Receive your data in a portable format and ask us to transmit it to another controller where technically feasible.
Withdraw consent where processing is based on consent.
Lodge a complaint with your local supervisory authority. In the United Kingdom this is the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).

Rights for California residents (CCPA / CPRA)

If you are a California resident, you have the right to:

Know what personal information we collect, use, disclose, and retain.
Request deletion of personal information we have collected from you, subject to legal exceptions.
Correct inaccurate personal information.
Limit the use and disclosure of sensitive personal information.
Opt out of the “sale” or “sharing” of personal information. We do not sell or share personal information as those terms are defined under the CCPA/CPRA.
Not receive discriminatory treatment for exercising your rights.

How to exercise your rights

Email [email protected] from the address on your account, or include enough information for us to verify your identity if you no longer have access to that address. We respond to rights requests within the time frames required by applicable law. Where applicable law permits (for example, for manifestly unfounded or excessive requests), we may charge a reasonable fee or decline to act.

11. Security

We use commercially reasonable technical and organisational measures designed to protect your information against unauthorised access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction. No internet service can be guaranteed perfectly secure.

You are responsible for keeping your account credentials confidential and for notifying us promptly if you believe your account has been compromised.

12. Children

DearAgent is not directed to children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 16 (or the age of digital consent applicable in your jurisdiction, whichever is higher). If you become aware that a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us so we can take appropriate action, including deletion.

13. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we revise this policy we will update the “Last updated” date above. We may, at our discretion, provide additional notice of material changes (for example, by email or an in-app notice) before they take effect. Continued use of the service after a change means you accept the updated policy.

14. Contact us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, want to exercise your rights, or need to reach us about any privacy matter, email [email protected].

Precipice Research
Operator of DearAgent
71-75 Shelton Street
Covent Garden
London WC2H 9JQ
United Kingdom