Book Country Privacy Policy
Our privacy policy, as detailed below, answers questions you may have about access, security, and control of personal information. It also describes how the information will be used and whether it will be provided to third parties.
Book Country ( “we,” “our,” or “us,”) believes that your personal information – including your name, mailing address, telephone number, email address, and credit card data – belongs to you. While we collect this type of information when you provide it to us, we do not rent or sell it to third parties. We use it only to process orders and to provide a more personalized shopping experience.
What Information Does Book Country Collect?
When users visit the Book Country website (the “Website”), there are two types of information that may be collected. The first type of information is known as “personally identifiable information.” In order to serve your needs and to provide improved products and services, we may from time to time request personal and private information, such as your name or company, address, contact information, photograph, education, interests, payment information when you place orders, survey information, and/or other information. You may choose to provide this information at your option. Many areas of our site are accessible without providing any personally identifiable information. Personally identifiable information excludes any information you may choose to submit publicly, such as reviews, critiques, editorials, testimonials, documentaries, forum or blog discussions.
Email-A-Friend: You may be able to send information about our products and/or Website to friends by using an “Email to Friend” or similar feature on the Website. You may be asked to provide the name and email address of your friend to us, but such information will only be used to send the initial notice to your friend; we will not save it or use it for any marketing purposes thereafter.
You may choose to place orders or to set up an account to obtain additional information or to order products and/or services. If you place an order or set up such an account, certain private information will be needed, such as your name or company, address, contact information, and payment arrangements. We will maintain a history of orders and payments via your account for normal accounting and business purposes. Book Country does not rent, sell, or share personal information about you with other people or companies that are not our partners or affiliates.
If you choose not to provide private information to this Website, alternate ordering and payment arrangements can be made by providing the necessary information via telephone, fax, or mail, or via another standard method of communication.
To better serve you, Book Country may share your name and contact information with companies that are part of Penguin Group (USA), which offer products or services desirable or useful to you. We may use your email address to occasionally notify you about important functionality changes to the website, new services, and special offers we think you’ll find valuable.
By submitting any information to your Publishing Dashboard or to the Book Country bookstore, you are hereby also consenting to have this submitted information accessible by other users and by those who can view your profile. You understand and agree that Book Country is not responsible for the actions of other users who can view this submitted information and who may contact you, write about you, and otherwise use your submitted information. We may release account information when we believe, in good faith, that such release is reasonably necessary to (1) comply with law, (2) enforce or apply the terms of any of our user agreements, or (3) protect the rights, property, or safety of Book Country and its affiliated companies, our users, or others.
We may release account information when we believe, in good faith, that such release is reasonably necessary to:
- Respond to subpoenas, court orders, or legal process, or to establish or exercise our legal rights or defend against legal claims.
- Believe it is necessary to share information in order to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud, situations involving potential threats to the physical safety of any person, violations of Book Country's terms of use, or as otherwise required by law.
- Transfer information about you if Book Country or Penguin Group (USA), Inc. is acquired by or merged with another company. In this event, Book Country will notify you before information about you is transferred and becomes subject to a different privacy policy.
Public forums: Information you submit or post to a public area of our Website, such as a public profile, chat room, bulletin board, discussion, blog or other community tool or area, will become available to other members of the Website or to the general public. We therefore advise you to exercise great care in determining what information you choose to make publicly available through our Website.
Service providers: We may use third parties, including our corporate parent, Penguin Group (USA) Inc., and affiliates, to help operate and administer our Website and deliver our products and services, and we may share your information with them to use on our behalf on an as-needed basis for such non-marketing purposes. Examples include Website or database hosting companies, email service providers, distribution companies, fulfillment companies, payment processing companies, and other similar service providers that use such information on our behalf. The second type of information is known as “non-personally identifiable information” and is collected upon each visit to our Website. Our server automatically recognizes visitors’ domain names and Internet Protocol addresses (where possible). We also collect information and statistics about how visitors use the site. This information, which is collected and maintained in an anonymous, non-personal, and composite form, allows us to improve the content of our Website and facilitate market research.
Does Book Country Use Non-Personally Identifiable Information?
On occasion, we may provide non-personally identifiable information about our users, sales, traffic patterns, and related site information to reputable third-party vendors to help us understand this information better. However, these statistics will not include any personally identifiable information. Other than improving our Website and providing our visitors with the best experience possible, we make no other use of this information.
Rights to Opt In and Opt Out
You may have the right to “opt in” and/or “opt out” of certain of our uses of your personal information. For example, when you register or submit personal information on this Website, you may have the opportunity to choose, by checking or un-checking the appropriate box, whether you want to receive promotional emails from us and whether we may share your personal information with third parties for their marketing purposes.
If you opt in, you may later opt out of receiving our promotional emails by clicking on an opt-out or “unsubscribe” link within the promotional email you receive, or by changing your email preferences in your account profile. Please understand that if you opt out of all future promotional emails, we may still contact you in connection with your relationship, activities, transactions, and communications with us.
If you opt in and later want us to stop sharing your personal information with third parties for their direct marketing use, you can adjust your preferences in your account profile. Your request will apply as of the date we receive it. We are not responsible for communications from third parties that received your personal information prior to your request. To stop communications from such parties, please contact them directly.
You can also opt-out and change your preferences by emailing us at customersupport@publish.bookcountry.com.
Your California Privacy Rights
To comply with California Civil Code Section 1798.83, also known as the "Shine The Light" law, we provide all of our users (including those who are California residents) the right to opt out of our sharing of their personal information with third parties for direct marketing use. See the opt out instructions above to learn how to exercise those rights.
Your Access Rights
You may review, update or modify the personal information that is stored in your user account on this Website by visiting the “Profile” area of your account on this Website.
How Does Book Country Protect User Information?
We use encryption technology to keep your personal information safe. All of your ordering information – including your name, mailing address, telephone number, email address, and credit card data – is encrypted using a secure server for maximum security.
Credit card transactions are handled by a third-party financial institution called Merchant e-Solutions, a leader in e-commerce payment solutions. They receive the credit card data only to verify the credit card numbers and process transactions.
Furthermore, your credit card and billing information cannot be read as it travels to our ordering system. To ensure that your information is even more secure, once we receive your credit card information, we store only the last five digits on a server that is not accessible from the Internet.
However, even these security steps should not be viewed as a 100% guarantee. Book Country does not warrant the security of any information we collect and you use our Website and provide us with your information at your own risk.
If you feel more comfortable doing so, you may place an order for products or services over the telephone.
Cookies
When you visit a website, information may be stored in a file known as a “cookie.” This file is stored on your computer and is used for future reference. If you revisit a website, the cookie allows that website to identify you as a returning guest and tailor your shopping experience to you.
We use cookies when a user places an order. We use cookies to fill in their name and email address in the form where appropriate (this is known as “auto-fill.”) We also use cookies when a customer uses the User Registration page. Again, we use cookies for auto-filling the form.
Most Web browsers will allow you to erase cookies from your computer hard drive, block acceptance of cookies, or receive a warning before a cookie is stored. Please refer to your Web browser’s help file to learn more about these functions. However, please note that refusing a cookie may limit your access to certain areas and/or functions of the Website, such as your ability to upload manuscripts and make purchases.
The information contained in our cookies is only used by Book Country. Your Web browser will not pass a cookie to a site other than the one that created it.
Additionally, as described in the table below, we generate cookies for tracking purposes through Google Analytics and Adwords.
Web Beacons
In order to determine a user's ability to receive HTML email in addition to whether or not an email has been opened, mail sent from Book Country includes a "web beacon" in a majority of the HTML email messages we send. A web beacon (a small .gif image) is activated when an HTML email is opened via a request for the image on our servers. This capability helps us send email in a format users can read and enables us to track the aggregate number of emails opened. The web beacon does not collect any personally identifiable information. Users that do not want to receive email messages with web beacons can choose to receive their emails in text (non-HTML) format. We also use the capability to track when a URL has been clicked inside of an email message sent by our email system. We use this functionality to track which links were clicked and in what quantity, as well as the aggregate number of links clicked. This click tracking functionality does not collect any personally identifiable information.
Security
Book Country is committed to maintaining the privacy of your personally identifiable information, and will treat the privacy of your information with the same or greater security protections as we provide for our own private information. The Book Country Website has industry-standard security measures in place to prevent the loss, misuse, and alteration of the information under our control. While there is no such thing as “perfect security” on the Internet, we take reasonable steps to ensure the safety of all information. Only employees who need the information to perform a specific job are granted access to personally identifiable information. Furthermore, all employees are kept up to date on our security and privacy practices.
You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account password and for any access to or use of the Website via your password, whether or not authorized by you. Please notify us of any unauthorized use of your password or account or any other breach of security. You are also responsible for any information including personal information that you post or submit on public areas of the Website.
"Linked-To" Websites
The Website may contain links to other websites and online services, which have their own separate terms of use and privacy policies. This Privacy Policy does not apply to information provided to or collected on any other website or service.
Your Consent and Notification of Changes
By using this Website, products, and services, you consent to the terms of this policy. If our privacy policy changes, we will post those changes on this page so that you are always aware of access, security, control of personal information, how information will be used, and whether it will be provided to third parties. Your continued use of the Website constitutes your consent to the updated policy.
Do Not Call Policy
Book Country strives to maintain the highest standards of ethical conduct in its marketing activities and is committed to complying with all federal and state legislation.
No employee or agent of Book Country shall engage in telemarketing practices that violate the terms of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991, the FTC Telephone Sales Rule, or state regulations.
If you do not want to receive sales calls from us you may request to have your name placed on our Do Not Call List. We will process your request and remove your name from our active list within 30 days. You can make this request by phone, email, or mail as follows:
When submitting a request, be sure to include all the relevant information that you want added to our Do Not Contact List, i.e., full name, address, and telephone number(s). Subsequent sign-ups or inquiries may lead to new record creations; these actions by you may lead to inadvertent contact. If that is the case, please do not hesitate to contact us to reiterate the Do Not Call requests. If your information changes, please notify us of your new name, address, and telephone number(s) so that you will remain on the Do Not Call List.
If you would like us to remove you from our Do Not Call List so that you may receive our telephone solicitations, notify us by contacting Customer Service.
Please note that the Book Country Do Not Call List restricts marketing contacts from specific imprints, so you may continue to receive calls from other imprints where you may have signed up separately. If you would like to add your number to the Global Do Not Call List, you may do so by relaying this request to the Customer Service Representative or via email throughcustomersupport@publish.bookcountry.com.
Being on the Book Country Do Not Call List restricts telephone solicitations only. We may still contact you about service-related issues, surveys, billing and other topics.
Tell Us What You Think
We welcome your questions and comments about privacy. Please email us at customersupport@publish.bookcountry.com.
Effective Date: 6/24/2013