Privacy Policy

What Is Collected

Information you provide directly may include:

• your name and contact details — email, telephone, mailing address, and the ways you prefer to be reached
• dates and details you choose to share, about yourself and about your Kindred
• accommodation preferences you choose to share
• photographs, reference images, and related visual materials
• stories and correspondence shared in the course of an inquiry or commission
• billing and transaction details needed to arrange payment — payment card data is processed by payment providers, not stored by Gilded Whisker

Information collected automatically may include:

• device and browser information
• pages visited, time spent, and the source that referred you
• general location inferred from your network address
• records of account activity and security events — sign-ins, verification attempts, and similar — including network and device information, kept to protect your account and the Atelier
• cookie, browser-storage, and analytics data used to understand and improve the site

Purpose and Use

Personal information is collected and used only where it serves a reasonable business purpose:

• to respond to inquiries and correspond with you
• to conduct the commission — consultation, creation, delivery, and follow-up
• to arrange payment and keep the financial records the law requires
• to operate, maintain, secure, and improve the website
• to maintain the archive, provenance, and catalogue records of completed works
• to create, support, document, and defend the artistic process
• to meet legal, regulatory, accounting, or contractual obligations

Information is used for the purpose it was collected for, or for a compatible purpose you would reasonably expect — unless a different use is required or permitted by law. Gilded Whisker does not sell personal information, and does not share it for unrelated marketing.

Messaging

When you share a telephone number and choose how you would like to be reached, those preferences are honoured. If you choose to be reached by text — SMS or RCS — the Atelier may write to you about your inquiry or commission: confirmations, updates, scheduling, and replies to what you send. You may change how you are reached, or stop messages altogether, at any time.

Mobile information is held closely. Telephone numbers and text-messaging consent are never shared with third parties or affiliates for marketing or promotional purposes. They are shared only with the service providers who carry the messages on the Atelier's behalf, and only so far as delivering them requires.

Working Files

A commission generates internal materials drawn from what a Patron shares: narrative studies, thematic maps, analytical notes, compositional documents, and other working records used to understand, develop, support, and document the work.

These materials are the Atelier's process — not administrative records — and they are not automatically deleted on request simply because they precede final delivery.

Where reasonably possible, internal materials are kept in reduced-identification form: direct identifying links are limited or removed, while the transformed material itself is preserved for legitimate artistic, archival, evidentiary, quality-control, or business purposes.

Gilded Whisker may delete or sever direct identifying records — such as client-linking records — where appropriate and legally permissible. That does not obligate the destruction of transformed working materials, final narratives, completed works, or archive and provenance records, unless the law requires otherwise.

Public Display

Completed works may be shown as part of Gilded Whisker's portfolio, gallery, archive, exhibitions, or future publications, unless otherwise agreed in writing.

Display may include the completed portrait and limited accompanying information: the Kindred's name, the title of the work, the year, and, where fitting, the first name of the Patron or Keeper.

Stories shared during a commission are not published in personally identifying form unless they are part of the finished presentation of the work, or you have agreed otherwise. Contact information, payment information, addresses, and private correspondence are never published.

Any display terms beyond this policy are addressed in the commission agreement.

The Archive

Gilded Whisker maintains an archive of completed works to preserve authorship, provenance, and the continuity of the Atelier's output.

Archive records may include the title, year, subject, selected commission details, working references, and the patronage information reasonably required to identify, document, and defend the work over time.

The work is not only delivered; it is catalogued. That purpose is part of the long-term stewardship of the Atelier's output, and those records endure.

Third Parties

Gilded Whisker uses service providers to operate the website and the business: website hosting and platforms, analytics, payments, scheduling, cloud storage and file sharing, communications, and specialized creative and production tools, including artificial-intelligence services.

Providers receive only what their service reasonably requires, and process it under their own terms and privacy practices. Depending on the tools in use, information may be stored or processed in Canada, the United States, or other jurisdictions where providers operate.

Gilded Whisker may also disclose personal information where required by law, court order, or legal process, or where reasonably necessary to protect rights, safety, property, or the establishment, exercise, or defence of legal claims.

Cookies and Browser Storage

The site uses cookies, local browser storage, and similar technologies to keep the site working, remember preferences and sign-ins, understand traffic, and protect against abuse. Some are set by Gilded Whisker; others by the platforms and providers that serve the site.

You may refuse or limit these through your browser settings. Some parts of the site may stop working as intended.

Retention

Personal information is kept only as long as it is reasonably required for its purpose, or as long as the law requires or permits. As a general rule:

• inquiries and correspondence — as long as needed to manage the exchange, and a reasonable period after
• commission records — as long as needed to administer the work, preserve provenance, maintain the archive, and answer later questions or disputes
• internal working materials — where reasonably necessary to create, document, support, catalogue, or defend the work and the Atelier's process
• direct identifying records — deleted, minimised, or severed where appropriate and where no legal, contractual, accounting, evidentiary, or operational reason requires them
• financial and transaction records — as long as tax, accounting, or legal obligations require
• security records and analytics — in security-appropriate or aggregated form

Where deletion is requested, the request is assessed against applicable law and the purpose the information serves. Information no longer reasonably required may be deleted, anonymised, or rendered non-identifying. Information forming part of completed works, final narratives, necessary working materials, archive and provenance records, or legal and business records may be retained unless the law requires otherwise.

Your Rights

Subject to applicable law, you may request access to the personal information held about you, correction of anything inaccurate, withdrawal of consent to certain uses, or deletion of information no longer required.

These rights are not absolute. A request may be declined, limited, or deferred where the law permits or requires retention, or where the information is reasonably required for legal, accounting, contractual, archival, provenance, artistic, evidentiary, or business purposes.

Gilded Whisker provides the rights applicable law requires. If you are outside Canada — including in the European Union or California — additional rights apply only where the law granting them in fact governs Gilded Whisker.

To make a privacy request, use the Contact page below.

Protection

The work and your personal information are protected differently, by design. The sign-in issued for a commission opens its pages — and may be shared with family or friends you wish to bring along. Your personal information sits behind a second door: a one-time code sent to your email address, which only you can open. You may close that door at any time, and withdraw trust from any device you previously approved. Anyone you share your sign-in with can see the work unfold; they cannot see your personal details.

Beyond that design, Gilded Whisker uses safeguards appropriate to the sensitivity of the information involved: secure connections, access controls, careful selection of providers, and the discipline of limiting access to what is actually needed.

No method of storage or transmission is perfectly secure, and absolute security cannot be promised. If a breach ever creates a real risk of significant harm, Gilded Whisker will notify the people affected and the regulator, as Alberta law requires.

International Transfers

Gilded Whisker is based in Alberta, Canada. If you use the site or engage the Atelier from elsewhere, your information may be transferred to, stored in, and processed in Canada and in the jurisdictions where service providers operate.

Gilded Whisker is not established in the European Union or California. Where laws outside Canada genuinely apply to a particular interaction or commission, they are honoured as required; where they do not, this policy does not extend their protections by default. By using the site or engaging Gilded Whisker, you acknowledge these transfers.

Changes

This policy may be updated to reflect changes in law, operations, or the tools used to run the business. The revised version is posted on this page with an updated effective date, and continued use of the site after posting signifies acceptance. Where a change would materially expand how personal information is used, consent is sought as the law requires.

Contact

For questions, requests, or concerns arising from this policy, please contact the Atelier using the inline form.