Privacy Policy

Best-Edit is a service operated by Monumental Stories LLC. We provide editorial, newsroom, publishing, transcription, and related software for individual users and organizations. This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect through best-edit.com and the Best-Edit application, how we use and disclose it, and the choices available to you.

This policy does not govern the NewsHound Tips & Interviews SMS program. That program has a separate SMS Privacy Policy, which applies to phone numbers, messages, calls, recordings, and consent records collected through the program.

If you use Best-Edit through an employer, newsroom, publication, or other organization, that organization may control your account and the customer content submitted through it. Its administrators may be able to access, manage, export, or delete account information and customer content according to their permissions and agreements with us.

Information we collect

We collect the following categories of information:

• Account and organization information. Your email address, username, password hash, team or publication membership, role, edition, locale, settings, subscription status, and related account identifiers. We may receive some of this information from an administrator who creates or invites you to an account.
• Customer content. The material you or your organization submit to, create in, or generate through Best-Edit. This can include documents, stories and revisions, chat messages, prompts and instructions, AI output, source and quote records, reference materials, transcripts, audio recordings, interview or tip-line material, FOIA material, social and newsletter content, uploads, publishing data, and other editorial work.
• Integration and billing information. Connection details, encrypted access tokens or credentials, destination identifiers, and activity for services you choose to connect. Stripe processes payment details; Best-Edit receives subscription, customer, payment-status, and transaction identifiers rather than complete payment-card numbers.
• Usage and technical information. Sign-in and session information, IP address, browser and device information, pages and features used, event timestamps, request route, response status and duration, product plan, usage counts, token and cost measurements, errors, and diagnostic information. Diagnostic logs may contain account identifiers or limited request context needed to investigate a problem.
• Communications. Information you send when you email us, request support, or otherwise communicate with us.

We receive information directly from you, from the organization that provides your account, from connected services at your direction, and automatically when you use Best-Edit.

How we use information

We use information to:

• Create and administer accounts, teams, publications, permissions, and subscriptions.
• Provide editing, AI, transcription, reference retrieval, verification, workflow, publishing, newsletter, social, and other features you request.
• Send content to destinations and integrations you authorize.
• Process payments, measure usage, enforce product limits, and maintain billing records.
• Provide support and service communications.
• Monitor performance, understand feature use, diagnose errors, secure the service, prevent abuse, and maintain audit records.
• Improve the reliability and usability of Best-Edit.
• Comply with law, enforce our agreements, and protect Best-Edit, our users, and others.

AI, embeddings, and transcription

When you use an AI feature, Best-Edit sends the content and instructions needed to complete the request to Anthropic. When you use transcription, audio, a media URL, and related settings may be sent to ElevenLabs. Best-Edit uses a locally hosted BGE model to create embeddings for reference retrieval. Customer content is not sent to OpenAI.

Best-Edit does not use customer content to train its own models. We use customer content to provide the features you request, preserve your work and its provenance, and operate the service as described in this policy.

When we disclose information

We disclose information only as needed for these purposes:

• Service providers. Providers that host or support Best-Edit or perform services for us. Depending on the features in use, these include Replit and Neon for application and database infrastructure; Anthropic for generative AI; ElevenLabs for transcription; Stripe for billing; PostHog for product analytics; Sentry for error and performance monitoring; Twilio for calling and SMS; and Apify for enabled data-collection workflows.
• Connected services. Services you or your organization choose to connect, such as WordPress or Newspack, Meta/Facebook, X, Slack, Letterhead, Mailchimp, Arc XP, Naviga, or a configured webhook. We send them the content, credentials, and instructions needed to perform the action you authorize. Their own privacy terms govern information after they receive it.
• Your organization. The customer organization that provides your account and its authorized administrators, team members, and publication users, according to product permissions.
• Public and publishing destinations. Content is disclosed to the public or to a destination's audience when an authorized user publishes it. Exported content is handled by the recipient after export.
• Legal, safety, and business needs. We may disclose information when we reasonably believe the law requires it; to enforce agreements or protect rights, safety, and security; or as part of a merger, financing, acquisition, reorganization, bankruptcy, or sale of assets, subject to applicable law.

We do not sell personal information for money. We do not use or disclose customer content for targeted advertising.

Cookies and analytics

Best-Edit uses a necessary session cookie to keep you signed in. The cookie is configured to expire after 30 days, although a session may end sooner. Disabling necessary cookies may prevent sign-in and other application features from working.

When configured, PostHog records page views, feature interactions, and account and organization attributes such as user ID, email, username, team, edition, role, locale, plan, and subscription status. PostHog may use cookies or similar browser storage for analytics. Best-Edit also records server-side usage measurements for product operation and billing. We do not currently use advertising cookies or session replay.

Retention and deletion

We retain account information and customer content while the relevant account or organization remains active and for as long as needed to provide the service, maintain provenance and audit records, meet contractual or legal obligations, resolve disputes, and protect the service. Retention varies by record and feature:

• Temporary upload and processing data generally expires within minutes to 24 hours.
• Live-transcription audio recordings are scheduled for deletion after 30 days, while the resulting transcript may remain as customer content.
• Session cookies expire after 30 days.
• Billing, consent, security, activity, and audit records may be kept longer when needed for the purpose for which they were collected.

Deleting content in the product may first remove it from active views rather than immediately erasing every related database or audit record. Access tokens or connections can be revoked through Best-Edit or the connected service, depending on the integration.

Best-Edit does not currently offer self-service account deletion. To request access to or deletion of account information, email legal@monumentalstories.com. We may need to verify your identity and authority. If an organization controls the account or content, we may refer the request to that organization or require its authorization. We may retain information when required or permitted by law, contract, security needs, or another legitimate operational requirement.

Security

We use technical and organizational safeguards intended to protect information. These include password hashing, access controls, secure session cookies, encryption of stored third-party credentials, hashing of API keys, and monitoring designed to limit sensitive data in error reports. No method of storage or transmission is completely secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security. Read more on our Security page.

Your choices and privacy rights

You can update some account information and disconnect integrations through the product. Depending on where you live, you may also have rights to request access to, correction of, deletion of, or a copy of your personal information, or to object to or restrict certain processing. To make a request, email legal@monumentalstories.com. We may verify your identity, and these rights may be limited by applicable law.

For personal information contained in customer content controlled by an organization, contact that organization first. We will assist the organization with a verified request as appropriate.

Children

Best-Edit is a professional service and is not directed to children under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has provided personal information to us, contact legal@monumentalstories.com.

Processing locations

Best-Edit and its service providers may process information in the United States and other countries. Privacy and data-protection laws in those places may differ from the laws where you live.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as our product or legal obligations change. We will revise the date at the top of the page and provide additional notice when required by law or when a change materially affects how we handle personal information.

Contact

Questions or privacy requests can be sent to legal@monumentalstories.com.