Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy for Ko-fi.com

Policy last updated and effective from 17th February 2024

1. Introduction

We are Ko-Fi Labs limited, having registered offices at PO Box 501, The Nexus Building, Broadway, Letchworth Garden City, Hertfordshire, SG6 3TA, registered as a limited liability company with company number 11087704 ('Ko-fi', 'We' or 'us'). We are registered with the Information Commissioner's Office under number ZB401278.

Application of this privacy policy

This privacy policy applies when you use our website (www.ko-fi.com) or App. It doesn't apply to personal data collected and shared by our customers, Creators, or any third-party payment processors through our platform. The Creators are the Controllers of their webpages and Ko-fi has no control over how these webpages are administered or used. Please refer to the Privacy Policy provided by the Creators to see how your personal data is collected and processed by the Creators.

2. What personal data do we collect

In order to provide the service to our website users, we collect the following personal data from you and your device. 

  • When you use our website, we collect data such as details of purchases/donations made through our platform, details of your visits to our site and the resources you use, information about your computer (e.g. your IP address, browser, operating system, etc.). We use this information for system administration and to report aggregate information to our advertisers (including any referring URL (where a visitor to a page came from)) on a consent basis via cookies. Please see the section on cookies for further detail.
  • When you create an account with us as a user, we collect your personal data such as name, e-mail address, and phone numbers either entered directly or transmitted via a social sign-up facility such as ‘sign up with Google’ or ‘sign up with Facebook’ as is necessary to provide such a service.

We collect this information on the basis of our legitimate interest to provide you with our platform's core features such as ability to follow and support the Creators and connect you to them.

  • When you register with us as a Creator, we collect information such as your name, location and email address. We collect this information to enter into a contract with you to offer you the services you have registered for. 
  • When you support a Creator and follow them, we may collect personal data such as your e-mail address, when you follow a Creator. When you support a Creator, we may collect some addition information such as your Stripe ID (if using Stripe), PayPal ID, IP address associated with a transaction and email      address This is to enable the content you have requested to follow. 
  • Guest Supporters, we will collect your name, e-mail address,  Stripe ID (if using Stripe), PayPal ID, IP address associated with a transaction when you support a Creator as a guest, without creating a profile with us. We collect this information about you in order to enable you to make a donation or use our platform to support a Creator as requested by you. 
  • When you sign up or take part in surveys, we will collect the information you put into the forms, or surveys on our site to improve your experience of our service. We use this information to understand your marketing preferences based on your consent. You can change your marketing preferences at any time and withdraw consent for the same if you do not wish to be contacted.
  • When you create a tailored profile, information you put into your Ko-fi profile and updates to your profile including but not limited to images, tags, text updates and links to third-party websites or content on the basis of consent and as necessary for the customisation of your profile.
  • When you make a payment, we collect some limited information you enter to send or receive payments such as your name, e-mail address, when using PayPal, PayPal email address, PayPal ID, IP Address associated with a transaction or Stripe Connected Account information such as Stripe ID, IP address, IP address associated with the transaction as necessary so we can effect your payments.
  • When you apply for a job with us, we may collect your name, contact details, recruitment information (e.g. right-to-work documentation and references), test results (inc. psychometric), qualifications, accreditations and any additional information we may receive from our recruitment partners. 

We will use your personal data to assess your suitability for our available roles. We do this to perform our contract obligations or to take steps at your request, before entering into a contract. Where we process your right-to-work documentation, we will do so to comply with our legal obligations.

Note to Supporters: Both Ko-fi and the Creators using Ko-fi process the personal information provided on Ko-fi separately and are therefore considered independent data controllers. For example, Creators using Ko-fi will have access to their Supporter email addresses and buyer shipping addresses and transaction information. If you do not wish for your information to be available to Creators on Ko-fi, please do not enter that information when using Ko-fi and do not use this service.

In addition, if you don’t want us to use your personal data for any of the other reasons set out in this section, you can let us know at any time by contacting us at data@ko-fi.com, and we will delete your data from our systems. However, you acknowledge this will remove our ability to provide the service to you and will not automatically remove that contact or transaction data previously made available to Creators.

3. Disclosure of personal data to third parties

We sometimes share your personal data with third parties. The types of third parties with which we share personal data are described below:

Creators

When a Supporter supports a Creator, the following personal data belonging to the Supporter will be shared with the Creators:

Data shared for Donations

  • Name or Username given when you register or make a payment to a Creator
  • Email address

Additional data shared for Purchases and Memberships 

  • First name and last name
  • email address
  • postal address and phone number 

We collect this information to allow the Creator to deliver any physical items you have requested or entitled to as part of a Membership.

The Creators receive this personal data as it is required for shipping providers and as such Creators are responsible for their own lawful processing of information made available to them by the service.

Third Party Payment Processors

We are not a payment processor. Payments are facilitated directly between users of the platform including the Creators and Supporters, via third party payment providers such as PayPal and Stripe.  Before creating an account or making a payment please take a moment to read the privacy policies of these payment providers:

Third Party Service Providers

We may connect users to third party services listed below to perform certain functions. Before using our website please take a moment to read the privacy policies of these third-party services.

Users can authenticate (log in to Ko-fi) via the following services:

Users can connect to Chat and set up Stream Alerts via:

Ko-fi facilitates a direct relationship between Creators and Supporters . Individual Creators receive certain contact information about Supporters such as email addresses and transaction information such as delivery addresses and phone numbers when required for shipping providers and as such Creators are responsible for their own lawful processing of information made available to them by the service.

Third parties where required by law

We may disclose your personal data to a third party if it is necessary to comply with a legal obligation, to enforce or apply our terms of use and other agreements; or to protect the rights, property, or safety of our clients or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations for the purposes of fraud protection or tax reporting.

Professional advisors

We may disclose personal data to our professional advisors, such as lawyers, auditors, and insurers, if necessary as part of the professional services they provide us with.

Third parties in connection with a business sale

If we make a sale or transfer of assets or are otherwise involved in a merger or business / asset transfer, we may transfer your personal data to one or more third parties as part of that transaction. If a change happens to our business, the new owners may use your personal data in the same way as set out in this privacy policy.

4. International transfers of your personal data

Where personal data is shared and disclosed as set out above, these parties may be established outside the European Economic Area (“EEA”) and the United Kingdom. Whenever we transfer your personal data outside the EEA and the United Kingdom, we ensure that a similar degree of protection is afforded to it by ensuring appropriate safeguards are implemented. This may include, where appropriate, signing up to EU Standard Contractual Clauses. To keep this policy as short and easy to understand as possible, we haven’t set out the specific circumstances when each of these protection measures are used. To find out more information regarding the specific mechanism used by us when transferring your personal data outside the EEA and the United Kingdom, please contact us at data@ko-fi.com.

5. How long do you keep my data for?

We will only retain your personal data for as long as we need it unless we are required to keep it for longer to comply with our legal, accounting, or regulatory requirements.

In some circumstances we may carefully anonymise your personal data so that it can no longer be associated with you, and we may use this anonymised information indefinitely without notifying you. We use this anonymised information to improve the way we work and our services.

We delete information relating to purchases from us 7 years after your last order with us. 

Other information related to your account will be deleted 2 years after your account has become inactive.

6. Marketing

We may send you marketing messages from time to time in accordance with your marketing preferences. You can ask us to stop sending you marketing messages at any time by following the opt-out links in any message sent to you or by contacting us at data@ko-fi.com

Please note that opting out of marketing does not opt you out of receiving important business communications, such as service announcements or security information. If you opted-in to our marketing messages, we rely on our consent to contact you. Otherwise, we rely on our legitimate interests to promote our business when reaching out to our Creators and Supporters who are likely to be interested in hearing from us.

7. Your rights and controlling your personal data

You may exercise certain rights regarding your data, such as the following:

  • The right to access. If you wish to access your personal data, you can do so at any time by contacting us.
  • The right to seek rectification. If you believe that any information we hold about you is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading, please contact us.
  • The right to deletion. You can ask us to delete or remove your personal data from our systems where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have exercised your right to object to processing (see below).  
  • The right to object. You have the right to object to the processing of your personal data at any time for direct marketing purposes. You can also object in certain other circumstances to our continued processing of your personal data. 
  • The right of restriction. You have the right, under certain circumstances, to restrict the processing of your data.
  • The right to data portability. You have the right under certain circumstances to be provided with a copy of the personal data we have on you in a structured, machine-readable and commonly used format and for us to transfer it to a third party.
  • The right to withdraw consent. You have the right to withdraw consent to our processing of your personal data where we have collected and processed it with your consent. 

Any requests to exercise these rights can be done by emailing data@ko-fi.com. These requests can be exercised free of charge and will be addressed as early as possible and always within one month.

You also have the right to make a complaint to your supervisory authority. In the UK, this is the Information Commissioner’s Office (www.ico.org.uk).

8. Cookie Policy

Ko-fi.com use cookies to operate the service and improve it.

Our website uses cookies to collect information about your access to the site. Cookies are pieces of information that include a unique reference code that a website transfers to your device to store and sometimes track information about you. We use CookieYes to deliver this information to you. For further information, Please click

9. Disclosing your information

Where any of your data is required for such a purpose, we will take all reasonable steps to ensure that your data will be handled safely, securely, and in accordance with your rights, our obligations, and the obligations of the third party under GDPR and the law.

Disclosing Supporter information to Creators

When you support a Creator, we may share your:

  • Name or username registered with us when you make a payment to a Creator
  • email address,
  • physical address, (only where it is required to deliver a product that you have purchased)
  • any transaction information entered on Ko-fi required to facilitate direct communication between the Creator and Supporter, the fulfilment of transactions or calculation of tax liabilities, and
  • some aggregated and anonymised information about your support that cannot identify you.

Please note that when a Supporter makes a payment to a Creator using the Ko-fi platform, their PayPal or Stripe information may be shared with the Creator through PayPal or Stripe. To find out more, please check the help pages available here

Creators are responsible for how they use the data collected on Ko-fi. By following, supporting, subscribing or buying from a Creator on Ko-fi you are directing us to share your information in this way. If you do not wish for information to be disclosed to a Creator please do not use Ko-fi.

Creators may contact you outside of Ko-fi and you agree to contact them directly should you wish to withdraw your consent to contact you. It will be wholly the responsibility of the Creator, not Ko-fi to use your data in accordance with applicable laws.

10. Links to other sites

We are not responsible for any other sites not operated by Ko-fi Labs Limited

Please note that our Terms of Use and our policies will not apply to other websites that you get to via a link from our site. We have no control over how your data is collected, stored or used by other websites and we advise you to check the privacy policies of any such websites before providing any data to them.

11. Changes

Come back to this page for updates

If we change our Privacy Policy, we will post the changes on this page. If we decide to, we may also email you.