Privacy Policy.

Who operates this website

The Essence of My Life is a poetry website operated by Ayesha Akhtar. For questions about this policy or requests concerning your information, use the contact form.

Messages you send

The contact form asks for your name, email address, subject and message. These details are stored in the website’s private database so the operator can read the message, consider corrections or permission requests, and respond using the address you provide. Contact messages are not published as comments and are not added to a mailing list.

Please send only the information needed for your request. Do not include passwords, payment information, identification documents or other sensitive details. Messages are retained until the operator deletes them or they are no longer needed for the correspondence. You can request deletion through the same contact route; information needed to address an unresolved legal or security matter may need to be retained.

Writing you submit to the community

The Write & Share form collects your chosen name or pen name, email address, writing type, language, title, optional theme and introduction, full writing, any AI-assistance disclosure, and your permission and privacy confirmations. Submissions are stored in the private review inbox first. Approved submissions display the chosen name, writing, language, theme, publication date and AI disclosure on public pages. Your email address, consent records and moderation notes are not displayed publicly. Chosen names are supplied by writers and are not verified identities.

Your email is used for review, rights questions, corrections or withdrawal requests. This version sends no automatic email and creates no writer account. The operator may contact you separately about your submission. Previewing your writing runs in the browser and does not itself submit or save it to a writer account. Keep a personal copy before sending.

Submissions are retained until deleted by the operator or no longer needed for publication, review or related correspondence. You can request correction, withdrawal or deletion through the contact form, identifying the title, chosen name and submission email. Enough information may be requested to verify the request. Removing a public page cannot recall copies or search-engine caches already made elsewhere. Information needed for an unresolved rights or security matter may need to be retained.

Saved poems on your device

If you tap a heart, this website stores the selected poem identifiers in your browser’s local storage. This makes your saved collection available when you return using that browser. The saved list is not uploaded by this feature and does not synchronise to an account or another device. You can remove individual saved poems or clear this website’s browser storage.

Necessary cookies and security

The contact and writing forms use a necessary security cookie to help protect form submissions. Administrator sign-in uses authentication and session cookies. Public readers do not need to create an account.

To limit repeated form submissions, the application temporarily keeps non-readable keyed identifiers derived from the submitted email and connection address, with submission counts. The community form checks email and connection separately. This record expires after approximately ten minutes. It is used for abuse prevention, not advertising profiles.

When the site is publicly hosted, the hosting service can process request information such as IP address, browser details, requested page, time and error information as part of serving and securing the website. Access to the contact and community review inboxes is restricted to authorised administrators.

Advertising and analytics

Google advertising is not enabled in this version of the website. There is no analytics tracking code in the website application. If advertising or analytics is introduced, this policy must be updated to describe the services actually used, and the applicable consent setup must be completed before they are enabled.

Sharing and service providers

The operator does not publish private submission email addresses or contact-message details, or sell the contact and submission databases. Information may be processed by services needed to host, secure or operate the site, or disclosed when necessary to comply with a legal obligation. External websites linked from a page have their own privacy practices.

Your choices and requests

You can browse without saving poems or sending a message. Your browser provides controls for cookies and local storage; blocking necessary cookies can prevent the contact form or administrator login from working. To ask about access, correction or deletion of a contact message, identify the email address and approximate date involved. The operator may need enough information to verify the request.

Changes to this policy

The date above identifies this policy version. Material changes to the website’s data practices should be reflected here before the corresponding features are put into use.