Carry On Audio

Privacy Policy

Version 1.9 · in effect from 31 October 2026

This policy explains what Carry On Audio collects about you, why, who else handles it, and what you can do about it. It covers carry-onaudio.com: listening, accounts, payments, reviews, and the Studio that writers use.

The short version. We collect what we need to run your account, play episodes, take payments and produce writers' work. We don't sell your personal information, we don't show targeted ads, and the site runs no advertising or cross-site trackers. We count visits with our hosting provider's visitor counter, which sets no cookies (see Cookies and browser storage).

Who we are

Carry On Audio is a sole proprietorship based in Maryland, USA. It decides how the information described here is used. You can reach us at mykaielpatterson@carry-onaudio.com.

Your account

Your email address and password. The password is stored only in scrambled (hashed) form by our sign-in provider; we can't read it.
If you sign in with Google instead, Google tells us your email address, your name and your profile picture. We use the email address for your account; we don't show your Google name or picture to anyone, and we never see your Google password.
An optional display name. It is never shown publicly.
Which version of the Terms and of this policy you accepted when you created your account, and when.
Where your account came from, if the site could tell: the advertising tags on the link you first arrived with (such as utm_source and utm_campaign), or the name of the site or app that sent you, the first page you opened and when. It is saved once, right after you sign up, and we use it only to see, in totals, which ads and links bring people.
When you signed up, confirmed your email and signed in. Each time you sign in, our sign-in system records your IP address and your browser and device type for that session, and keeps a security log of sign-in events with IP addresses.

What you listen to

To play episodes, apply free and plan limits, resume where you stopped and count plays, we record listening events: when you start, pause, resume or finish an episode, your position, how many seconds you heard, how you had access (free preview, free daily episode, coins, plan or Superfan), and the time.

Each event also carries a device ID. The first time you play an episode in a browser, our server gives that browser a random value in a cookie (see Cookies and browser storage). The device ID we store is a scrambled form of that value, so it can't be used to pose as your device. If you're signed in, events are linked to your account.

If you aren't signed in, events aren't linked to anyone until you sign in and use Carry On on that device. Then what that device played while signed out in the last 30 days joins your account, so it shows in Continue listening and your Library; later sign-ins bring along anything it played signed out since. This doesn't happen if another account has listened on that device while signed in, or if the device's signed-out listening has already joined another account: then that listening stays linked to no one.

We don't store your IP address with listening events. We use it for a moment, in memory, to stop floods of requests, and then forget it.

We look out for listening that seems automated, such as many plays started from one device in a short time. When we decide listening is fake, we mark those events so they no longer count toward plays, rankings, review eligibility or writers' pay. We don't delete them.

We also record which episodes you unlocked, which series you follow, and which series you have Superfan for.

Writers see only totals for their own episodes, such as plays, listeners, minutes and how many people finished. They never see who listened.

Purchases

Checkout happens on our payment processor's secure page. We never receive your full card number. We send the processor your email address, your account ID and what you're buying.

We keep a record of each purchase: what you bought, the amount, its status (paid, refunded or disputed), the processor's reference numbers, and the coins it added or used. We also keep the processor's own record of each payment event, exactly as it sends it. That record can include your name, email address, billing country and postal code, card brand, the last four digits of the card and its expiry date. To stop people rewarding themselves through invites, we keep a scrambled fingerprint of the payment account used.

Things you choose to make public

Reviews: your star rating and review text. They show as "A listener" unless you choose a public name.
Public name and photo, if you set them on your profile. The photo is stored as a public file in a folder with a random name (never your account ID), and search engines are asked not to index it.
Writers: your pen name, series, covers, summaries, episode titles and character names.

We also publish totals such as star averages, play counts, follower counts and rankings. They never name listeners.

Other things you send us

Beta feedback: your note, the page you sent it from and, if you were signed in, your account. No IP address or device details.
Our one-question survey: the answer you picked, any words you added, the page you were on and, if you were signed in, your account. On the writer pages you may also leave an email so we can reply; it is used only for that. No IP address or device details. We remember in your browser that you answered or closed it, so it is not shown again.
Invites: your invite code, who joined with it, and whether their purchase earned a reward. An invite code you arrived with is kept in your browser until you sign up.
Messages between you and Carry On, on the Studio's Messages page. That is also where we tell you about a suspension, and where you can appeal it.
Copyright notices and counter-notices: the sender's name and contact details, the work named and the notice itself. When we take something down, we tell its writer who sent the notice and which work it names, but not how to reach the sender. When we receive a counter-notice, we send a copy of it to the person who sent the notice.
Writer applications from the Write for us page or by email: the program you chose, your name and pen name, email, genres, where you publish, follower details you gave, your sample and your message. If you were signed in, your account. No IP address or device details. We use it only to review your application and reply.
Email: if you write to us, we keep the conversation.

If you write for Carry On

Your Writer Agreement signature: your legal name, pen name, email for notices, the agreement version and a fingerprint of the exact text you signed, the time, your IP address and your browser type. This is the record of the contract.
Your commissioned-writing agreement signature, if Carry On commissions a series from you: the same details as a Writer Agreement signature, plus your mailing address and the terms of the offer you signed. This is the record of the contract and of the copyright you assigned. You can download your signed copy from its page in the Studio.
The record of the rights in a commissioned series: your answers about earlier drafts of the story and about commitments to other platforms or publishers, our check that it doesn't reuse the world or characters of a series you publish yourself, and any registration numbers. We keep it as the record of the rights you assigned. The series is credited as its agreement says, normally with your pen name.
Payouts: your payout account is set up on our payment processor's own pages. We keep only its reference number and whether it is ready to be paid; we never see your bank details.
Tax forms are collected by a separate tax-form service, outside Carry On. We keep only their status (not requested, requested or verified), never your Social Security number, tax ID or the form itself.
Your work in the Studio: scripts, sound cues, casting, voice settings, covers, the audio we generate, and a record of each generation (characters sent, time taken and cost information).

AI processing

Producing an episode means sending its words to AI services:

Voices and sound: each spoken line (with its delivery note, such as "whispering"), the chosen voice and its settings, and each sound-effect or ambience description go to our AI voice and sound provider. Nothing that identifies the writer or any listener is sent with them.
Check my chapter: when a writer presses it, the chapter, the series and episode titles, the genre, the character names and the closing lines of the previous episode go to our AI text-review provider. We keep the findings and a record of the request.

Listening data, payment details and listeners' personal information are never sent to AI providers. Each provider processes the text under its own terms and may keep it for a limited time, and some providers' terms let them use submitted content to improve their services unless that is switched off. Writers can ask us how this applies to their work.

How we use it

to run your account, sign you in and keep it secure;
to play episodes and apply previews, daily limits, unlocks, plans and Superfan;
to take payments, give refunds and handle disputed charges;
to prevent fraud and abuse, such as fake accounts, fake plays and self-referrals;
to produce writers' episodes, pay writers, and show them totals for their work;
to show reviews, ratings, play counts and rankings;
to send the emails described below;
to keep the records the law requires, such as tax and accounting records; and
to understand, in totals, how Carry On is used, so we can fix and improve it.

We don't sell your personal information, we don't share it for targeted advertising, and we don't show you ads based on what you do elsewhere.

Emails

Account emails: resetting your password, and security alerts when your password or email address changes. These are part of having an account. Creating an account doesn't send an email to confirm your address.
Notifications: if you follow a series, we may email you when it has a new episode, and we may confirm purchases and plan changes. Every such email has an unsubscribe link, and unfollowing a series stops its emails.

We don't send advertising emails to people who haven't asked for them.

Cookies and browser storage

We use only what the site needs to work, plus one visitor counter. There are no advertising or social-media trackers, and the site loads no scripts from other websites.

A visitor counter from our hosting provider counts page views, without cookies. For each page view it records the page address, the address of the page that sent you there, a rough location and your device and browser type. Before anything is sent, we remove search terms and every code from the address (only campaign tags such as utm_source stay), replace the code in an invite link with a placeholder, and leave out staff pages, the links in sign-in and reset emails, and system addresses entirely. We use it only to see, in totals, how many people visit and which pages they read.
Sign-in cookies keep you signed in, plus a short-lived one while an email link signs you in.
A password-reset cookie, for one hour after you open a reset link.
A device cookie with a random value, set by our server the first time you play an episode in a browser and kept for up to 400 days. It lets us tell your listening events apart by device and bring your signed-out listening to your account when you sign in (see What you listen to). Page scripts can't read it, and it is never used on other websites.
A source cookie (carryon_src), set the first time you arrive from an ad or another site, holding the advertising tags on that link or the name of the site that sent you, kept for up to 30 days or until you sign up, when it is saved to your account once and removed. It is never used on other websites.
In your browser's storage: where you stopped in each episode, your autoplay setting, an invite code waiting for sign-up, and, for the open tab only, a note that it has already asked to bring this device's signed-out listening to your account.

Checkout opens on our payment processor's own page, which uses its own cookies under its own privacy policy.

Do Not Track: because we don't track you across websites, we don't change anything in response to a browser's Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control signal; there is nothing extra to switch off.

Writers we contact

To find writers, we read public pages and search results about published stories, and we may email a writer at a business address they published themselves (for example on their own website or bio). We never message writers inside other platforms, and we never guess or buy email addresses. Our system sends these invitations itself, a few a day at most, in a letter Carry On wrote, with one sentence about your published work.

What we keep: your name and pen name, your published stories and their links, any follower or play numbers that were public or that you sent us (and how we know them), the business contact you published and where you published it, the messages we sent and when, and what you replied.
Where it comes from: your public pages and public search results, and what you tell us.
To stop it: use the link at the bottom of any message, or reply "stop". We put your address on a do-not-contact list at once and keep it there, with the record that you opted out, so you aren't contacted again.
To have the rest removed, write to mykaielpatterson@carry-onaudio.com.

How long we keep it

Account details: while your account is open. When your account is deleted, we remove or replace them (see Your choices and rights).
Purchases, coins, unlocks, refunds, disputes, payouts and tax records: for as long as we need them for accounting, tax and legal reasons, usually at least seven years. We keep the payment processor's record of each payment unchanged, as the record of that payment, even after an account is deleted.
Listening events: kept so that totals and writers' pay stay correct. When an account is deleted, its events stay with what is left of the account, which no longer has your email address, password or profile names, because writers' share of subscription money is divided by listening.
Writer Agreement and commissioned-writing agreement signatures: for as long as the agreement, or any claim about it, may matter.
Reviews: a withdrawn or hidden review stays in our records, not on the page. When an account is deleted, the words of its reviews are removed and its star ratings stay in our records, not on the page; a review we hid for breaking the rules is kept as it was, as the record of that decision.
Messages, beta feedback and survey answers: kept, also after an account is deleted, as the record of what was said. Ask us and we will remove an email you left with a survey answer.
Writer applications and what we keep about writers we contact: until you ask us to remove it. The do-not-contact list is kept permanently, so an opt-out keeps working.
Safety records: suspensions, copyright notices and counter-notices, requests to download data or delete an account, and the record of what our staff did and why: kept permanently.
Our hosting and sign-in providers keep technical logs, and our hosting provider keeps the visitor counter's records, for their own limited periods.

Your choices and rights

You can do these yourself: change or remove your public name and photo, edit or withdraw your reviews, unfollow series, unsubscribe from emails, and cancel a plan.

Two more are on your account page, when you are signed in:

Download my data gives you one file with your own information: your account and sign-up details, your profile and public profile, the series you follow, your reviews, your listening (the newest 50,000 events), unlocks, Superfan, plan, coin history, purchases, messages with Carry On, feedback, invite codes, the series you write, your Writer Agreement signatures and your past requests. Your Studio scripts and audio aren't in it.
Ask Carry On to delete my account sends us a deletion request. You can cancel it while it waits, and we complete it within 45 days. A plan that renews has to be cancelled first and, if you write for Carry On, your Writer Agreement has to end first.

What deletion removes: your email address (replaced with one that leads nowhere), your password, your sign-in methods and every signed-in session, so the account can never be used again; your display name, pen name, bio and profile photo (a series Carry On commissioned from you keeps the credit its agreement sets); your public name and photo; the words of your reviews, which come down; the series you follow; your place on the early waitlist; and your invite codes, which stop working. Of what you gave us at sign-up, we keep only which versions of the Terms and this policy you accepted, and when.

What it keeps, attached to what is left of the account: purchases, coins, unlocks, refunds, disputes, earnings, payouts and tax status; Writer Agreement signatures and any commissioned-writing agreement you signed, with its mailing address and your answers about earlier drafts and other commitments; the writer invite you joined with, if you had one (the address it was sent to and the name on it); listening events; messages with Carry On and beta feedback; reviews we hid for breaking the rules; and our safety and audit records (see How long we keep it). Your series aren't deleted with your account: series you publish yourself follow the Writer Agreement, and a series Carry On commissioned from you stays Carry On's and keeps the credit its agreement sets. Before you ask, you can delete in the Studio any draft that was never published.

The deletion doesn't reach our service providers by itself. Once it is done, we also remove your customer record at our payment processor and your profile at our email notification service, if you have them. The processor keeps its own record of your payments under its own rules.

To correct your information, to get a copy of anything that isn't in the download, or if you can't sign in, email mykaielpatterson@carry-onaudio.com from the address on your account, so we know it's you. We answer within 45 days.

If we can't do what you asked, we'll explain why. You can reply to ask us to look again, and if you're still not satisfied you can contact the Maryland Attorney General's Consumer Protection Division. We never treat you differently for making a request.

Security

All traffic to Carry On is encrypted. Passwords are stored hashed. The database lets each account read only its own private records, audio files are private and played through links that expire, and staff actions are logged. No system is perfectly secure. If a breach affects your personal information, we will tell you and the authorities as the law requires.

Children

Kids & Family stories are for children listening on a parent's or guardian's account. Before the first one plays, the account holder agrees once, as the parent or guardian; we keep that agreement, its wording and when it was given. We never ask anyone's age. Children shouldn't make accounts of their own: if we learn that a child under 13 has, we delete it.

Where it's handled

Carry On is run from the United States. Our service providers may store and process information in the United States and in other countries.

Changes to this policy

When we change this policy, we post the new version here with a new date. If a change matters to you, we'll tell you by email or on the site before it takes effect.

Contact

Questions and requests: mykaielpatterson@carry-onaudio.com. Carry On Audio, a sole proprietorship based in Maryland, USA.

The early waitlist (before 22 September 2026)

Before Carry On Audio opened, a small number of people joined an email waitlist. This section is for them; it does not apply to a Carry On account.

When you joined, you ticked this:

Email me Carry On launch updates and early-access news. Unsubscribe anytime.

That is what we used your email for, and nothing else.

What we keep, from the waitlist

Your email address.
Your name, if you gave one.
Whether you joined as a listener, a writer, or both.
The link tag you arrived from, if the link carried one.
The exact wording you agreed to, and when.

What the waitlist never collected

No password and no account. No IP address, device details or location. Joining the waitlist never created a Carry On account.

Leaving the waitlist

Every email we sent includes a link to unsubscribe, and it works with one click on the page it opens. To have your entry deleted entirely, write to mykaielpatterson@carry-onaudio.com.