We care about your privacy. As a literary magazine based in the European Union, we handle your personal data in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). We only collect the personal data necessary to manage submissions and to communicate with you, and only when you have actively shared that data with us.

1. Data Controller

The data controller responsible for this website is:

The Berlin Literary Review
editors@theberlinliteraryreview.com
For legal details, see our Impressum

2. How Do We Collect Your Data?

We collect your personal data in two ways:

a) Data You Provide Voluntarily:
This includes any information you send us when:

• Submitting work (e.g. poems, short stories)
• Contacting us via email or forms

This typically includes your name, email address, and the content of your submission or message.

b) Automatically Collected Data:
When you visit our website, some technical data may be automatically collected by our hosting provider (WordPress), such as:

• Referring website
• Browser type
• General location (e.g. country)

3. Legal Basis for Processing

We process your data based on one or more of the following legal grounds under the GDPR:

• Consent – when you explicitly provide your data (e.g. via submission or contact)
• Legitimate interest – for managing submissions, responding to inquiries, and maintaining site functionality

You may withdraw your consent at any time by contacting us.

4. How Do We Use Your Data?

We use your personal data exclusively to:

• Review and respond to your submissions or queries
• Communicate with you regarding possible publication
• Display your name and work on our site only if you have explicitly agreed to publication
• Analyze anonymous website usage patterns (via WordPress analytics)

We do not use your data for marketing or advertising purposes. We never sell or share your data with third parties, except as required by law.

5. Data Retention

We retain your personal data only as long as necessary for the purposes it was collected:

• Submission data: kept until the editorial process is complete or publication ends
• Contact queries: retained for a maximum of 12 months unless you request earlier deletion

You can request deletion of your data at any time, and we will comply unless legal obligations require us to retain it.

6. Your Rights Under GDPR

You have the following rights regarding your personal data:

• Right of access – to know what data we hold about you
• Right to rectification – to correct inaccurate data
• Right to erasure – to request deletion of your data (“right to be forgotten”)
• Right to restrict processing – to limit how your data is used
• Right to object – to processing based on legitimate interests
• Right to data portability – to receive your data in a structured, portable format

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at editors@theberlinliteraryreview.com.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority if you believe your data has been mishandled.

7. Cookies

Our website is hosted by WordPress, which may use cookies for basic functionality, performance analytics, and embedded content.

For more information, see the WordPress Cookie Policy

8. Contact

For any questions regarding this policy or to make a data request, please contact us:

The Berlin Literary Review
Email: editors@theberlinliteraryreview.com

The Writing Desk App

The Writing Desk allows users to create accounts and securely store their own writing within the application.

Account information may include:

• email address
• authentication information
• submission tracking information

Writers retain full ownership of their work at all times.

The Berlin Literary Review has no editorial interest in accessing private user information stored within The Writing Desk. We do not read, monitor, analyze, or review user writing inside the app.

User data is securely stored using trusted third-party infrastructure providers.

User manuscripts are not used to train artificial intelligence systems, generate datasets, or develop machine learning tools.

Access to account data is strictly limited to essential technical administration, user-requested support, legal obligations, or security-related issues such as account recovery or abuse prevention.

You have the following rights regarding your personal data:

Right to data portability – to receive your data in a structured, portable format
Right of access – to know what data we hold about you
Right to rectification – to correct inaccurate data
Right to erasure – to request deletion of your data (“right to be forgotten”)
Right to restrict processing – to limit how your data is used
Right to object – to processing based on legitimate interests

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at editors@theberlinliteraryreview.com.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority if you believe your data has been mishandled.