Privacy Policy

Short version: your files and numbers stay on your device. We store only what you send us through a form. Advertising and measurement partners may collect data through cookies, as explained below, and you can control that.

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This policy explains what Book Recommendations ("we", "us", "our") collects when you use this website (booksrecommendations.com), why we collect it, who else handles it, and what choices you have. We wrote it in plain language on purpose. If something is unclear, write to info@booksrecommendations.com. It should be read together with our cookie policy and advertising policy.

Contents

Who is responsible for your data

The operator of this website is the data controller for the information we collect ourselves, such as form messages and server logs. Advertising, analytics and social media companies that place their own cookies or tags on this site decide for themselves how they use the data they collect, and are usually independent controllers of that data (see "Advertising, ad networks and cookies"). You can reach us through the contact page or at info@booksrecommendations.com.

What the tools do with your data

The metadata checker, royalty calculator, cover calculator, interior PDF checker, sales dashboard and description builder run inside your browser. Manuscripts, PDF files, sales reports and descriptions are processed on your device and are not sent to our server. Book profiles you save in the metadata tool stay in your browser's local storage until you delete them with the delete button or clear your browser data.

What we collect and why

DataWhenWhy
Name, email, optional phone number and messageYou send a form (contact page or "Request a tool")To read and answer your message and to decide which tools to build
Page you sent the form from and your IP addressYou send a formTo limit spam and abuse (at most five messages per hour from one network)
Server logs (IP address, browser type, pages requested, time)You visit any pageOur hosting provider keeps these to run and protect the service
Order and customer details: name, email, billing and delivery address, country, tax details, what you bought, order history, support messages, and, for a business, company nameYou buy a product, order a service, create an account or ask for supportTo take payment, deliver the order, send receipts, handle refunds, support and warranty claims, prevent fraud, and keep records the tax and accounting laws require
Payment confirmation data (payment status, last four card digits, payment method type, transaction ID). Full card details are handled by the payment provider, not by usYou payTo confirm payment, issue refunds and handle disputes
Subscription choices, email address and sign-up sourceYou join a mailing list or newsletterTo send the emails you asked for
Comments, reviews, testimonials and files you submit, with your name and the timeYou post or send themTo publish or review them, moderate the site and respond to your request
Device and browser details, approximate location (derived from IP address), pages viewed, referring site, cookie and advertising identifiers, ad interactionsYou visit a page while advertising, analytics or marketing tags are active and, where the law requires it, you have agreedTo show, limit, measure and protect advertising, to understand how the site is used, and to measure our own marketing

You do not need an account or to give us any details to use the free tools. If we offer paid products, services, accounts or newsletters, we collect the details listed above to run them. We do not sell your name, email address, order history or messages. Some US state laws treat the use of advertising cookies by third parties as a "sale" or "sharing" of personal information, and we explain how to opt out in the section on US state rules.

If the GDPR or the UK GDPR applies to you, we process form messages because it is necessary to answer you (legitimate interest and, for a request you make, steps at your request). We keep basic server logs and spam-protection data for security and to prevent fraud and invalid ad traffic (legitimate interest). We use advertising, analytics and marketing cookies and similar technology, and we allow our partners to do so, only with your consent where the law requires it. You can withdraw consent at any time without affecting what happened before.

Customers, accounts, payments and orders

If you buy a product or service, create an account or request a quote, we use your details to carry out the contract with you: to take and confirm payment, deliver files or goods, do the work, send receipts and order messages, provide support, handle refunds, returns and disputes, and keep the records that tax, accounting and consumer laws require. We also use them to detect and prevent fraud, chargebacks and misuse (legitimate interest).

  • Payments. Payments are processed by third-party payment providers and other methods we may offer at checkout (for example card processors, digital wallets, bank transfer and local payment services). The provider collects your card or account details under its own privacy policy. We do not see or store your full card number, and we receive only a confirmation, status and limited details.
  • Delivery. We share your name, address and phone number with couriers, postal services and print-on-demand or fulfilment partners so they can deliver physical goods. Digital files are delivered by email or download links through our systems or a digital-delivery provider.
  • Taxes and records. We may keep order and invoice records for the time that tax and accounting laws require, usually 6 to 10 years, even if you ask for other data to be deleted.
  • Fraud and compliance. We and our payment providers may check orders against fraud and sanctions lists, which can involve automated checks. If an order is blocked this way, you can ask us for a human review.
  • Accounts. If we offer accounts, we store your login email and a password hash, never the password itself. You can ask us to close your account.
  • Services and projects. Files and information you give us for a project are used only to deliver it and kept for as long as we need them to support the work and any follow-up, then deleted or returned on request, subject to legal record-keeping.

Email and newsletters

We send order, account and support messages because they are needed to run your order or answer you. We send marketing emails or newsletters only where you have signed up or agreed, or where the law allows it to existing customers about similar products. Every marketing email has an unsubscribe link, and you can also write to us to stop them. We may use an email-service provider to send them, and that provider may record whether an email was opened or a link clicked, to measure results. You can block this by turning off remote images in your email app.

Other ways we may contact you or collect data

  • SMS, WhatsApp, push notifications and phone. If we offer these, we use them only after you have agreed (for example by ticking a box or texting a keyword), and tell you how to stop (for example by replying STOP or turning notifications off). Message and data rates from your carrier may apply.
  • Surveys, contests and giveaways. If you enter one, we use your details to run it, contact winners and, where the rules say so, to send related offers. Each one has its own rules.
  • Webinars, events and coaching. We use registration and attendance details to run the event and follow up. Providers of webinar or meeting platforms process some of this data under their own policies, and sessions may be recorded if we tell you.
  • Donations and tips. If we accept them, the payment provider handles your payment details, and we receive your name, amount and any message you add.
  • AI features. If we add AI-based tools or chat, what you type into them may be processed by an AI provider that acts for us. Do not enter confidential or sensitive personal information. We will say on the tool if it works differently.
  • Communities and accounts. If we run a forum, group or membership area, your profile and posts are visible as the settings of that area say.

Comments, reviews and submissions

If the site lets you post a comment, review or testimonial, what you post, with the name you choose, may be shown publicly and can be copied by others. Do not post personal details you do not want public. We may moderate, edit or remove submissions as set out in the acceptable use policy. You can ask us to remove your own comment or review.

Advertising, ad networks and cookies

This site is free and may be funded by advertising. We may show ads from Google AdSense and from any other third-party advertising company, network, exchange, platform, ad server, affiliate network or direct advertiser, anywhere in the world. We do not list every partner here because the set changes over time and often changes automatically as ads are auctioned in real time. The rules we apply to ads are in our advertising policy.

Google, as a third-party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads on this site. Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visit to this site and other sites on the internet. Other third-party vendors and ad partners may do the same with their own cookies, web beacons, pixels, scripts, device and browser identifiers, and similar technologies.

Depending on the partner and on your consent choices, these companies may:

  • show ads and limit how often you see them (frequency capping);
  • show ads based on your interests, on previous visits to this or other sites (including remarketing), or on the content of the page (contextual ads);
  • measure whether ads were seen or clicked, and measure conversions;
  • detect and prevent fraud, invalid clicks and invalid traffic;
  • combine what they learn here with data they already hold about your browser or device.

We do not give ad partners your name, email address, phone number or form messages. Each ad partner handles the data it collects under its own privacy policy, which you can usually find through the "AdChoices" or "Why this ad?" link on its ads, or on its own website.

Opting out does not remove ads. It means the ads you see are less likely to be based on your interests.

Our own marketing and advertising campaigns

We may promote Book Recommendations on other websites, search engines, social networks and professional networks, for example through Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising (Bing), LinkedIn, Meta (Facebook and Instagram), X, TikTok, Pinterest, Reddit, YouTube and any other advertising platform. To run and measure these campaigns we may place the platform's tag, pixel or conversion script on this site. When such a tag is active (and, where required, you have agreed), the platform can recognise that your browser visited our site, record which pages you viewed or which action you took, and use that to measure results, to build audiences of people who visited, and to show you our ads elsewhere. The platform handles that data under its own privacy policy, and you can manage ad preferences in your account settings on that platform.

These tags are never needed to use the tools. If you decline or block them, the calculators, checkers and guides work in the same way.

Analytics and measurement

We may use analytics and measurement services, such as Google Analytics, Google Search Console, tag managers, A/B testing, heat-map or performance-monitoring tools, to learn which pages are useful, how fast they load and where visitors come from. These services may set cookies or read device information and normally report the results to us in aggregate. Where the law requires consent for them, we ask for it first.

Other services that receive your data

  • Google Fonts. Page text is set in fonts loaded from Google, so your browser contacts Google servers when a page loads and Google receives your IP address.
  • Advertising, analytics, marketing and social media providers described above, which receive the identifiers and activity data described in this policy.
  • Advertisers, agencies and sponsors. If we sell ad space directly, an advertiser or its agency may ask to add its own ad tag or tracking pixel. We allow this only if it follows the law and the signals from our consent tool, and we do not give advertisers our visitors' names, emails or messages. They receive aggregate reports. A form or page run by an advertiser, which you reach by clicking an ad, is covered by that advertiser's own privacy policy.
  • Embedded and social features. If we embed a video, share button, social post or similar content from another company, that company may receive your IP address and set its own cookies when the content loads.
  • Hosting, database, email and security providers. The site runs on a cloud hosting platform, and messages are stored in a database on a web-hosting server. They process data only to provide those services to us.
  • Payment, delivery, email and customer-support providers that help us take payments, ship orders, send emails and answer questions.
  • Professional advisers and authorities. Accountants, lawyers, tax authorities and insurers, where needed.
  • Legal and safety reasons. We may disclose information if the law requires it, to enforce our terms, or to protect the site, our visitors or others from fraud, abuse or harm.
  • Business changes. If the site is sold or transferred, data we hold may transfer with it and this policy will continue to apply until it is updated.
  • Links to other sites. Platform websites such as Amazon KDP, Barnes & Noble Press, IngramSpark and Lulu have their own privacy policies. We are not responsible for them.
  • Consent message. Where the law requires consent, a consent management platform shows a message before advertising, analytics or marketing technology is used. You can accept, decline or manage your choices, and reopen the message later to change them.
  • Browser controls. You can block or delete cookies in your browser, use private browsing, or install tracking-protection or ad-blocking tools. See the cookie policy for how.
  • Opt-out preference signals. Where the law requires it and our consent tool supports it, we treat a browser signal such as Global Privacy Control as a request to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information. Some partners also honour "Do Not Track", although there is no common standard for it.
  • Mobile devices. You can reset or limit your advertising identifier in your phone's privacy settings.
  • Email. You can unsubscribe from marketing emails at any time with the link in each email, or by writing to us. We will still send order and account messages you need.

How long we keep data

We keep messages only as long as needed to answer them and to plan new tools, and we aim to delete them within 24 months. We keep order and invoice records for as long as tax and accounting laws require, and customer account data until you close the account (plus the legal record-keeping period). Mailing-list details stay until you unsubscribe. You can ask us to delete yours sooner. Spam-protection counters are tied to messages and are removed with them. Server logs follow the hosting provider's own retention rules. Cookies and identifiers set by advertising, analytics and marketing partners last as long as the partner decides, usually from a few hours up to about two years, and are kept by the partner under its own policy.

Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to ask us to show you the data we hold about you, correct it, delete it, restrict or object to its use, receive a copy, or withdraw consent you gave earlier. You may also object to processing based on legitimate interest and to direct marketing, and you may complain to your local data-protection authority. To use any of these rights, write to info@booksrecommendations.com and tell us the email address you used. We answer within one month, or sooner if the law sets a shorter time. For data that an advertising, analytics or social media partner collected through its own cookies, you will usually need to contact that partner as well, because we cannot see or change it.

California and other US state rules

If you live in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia, Texas, Oregon or another US state with a privacy law, you may have the right to know what personal information we collect, to access, correct and delete it, to opt out of its "sale" or "sharing" for cross-context behavioural advertising and targeted advertising, and to opt out of profiling. We do not knowingly sell personal information for money. However, when advertising or marketing cookies from third parties are active on this site, the identifiers and browsing activity they collect (online identifiers, internet activity, approximate location and device data) may count as a "sale" or "sharing" under these laws.

  • To opt out, use the privacy or consent options shown on the site, turn on a browser opt-out signal such as Global Privacy Control, use the opt-out links in the advertising section above, or write to us.
  • To use your other rights, follow the steps under "Your rights". If you use an authorised agent, we may ask for proof of the agent's authority.
  • We will not treat you differently, for example by denying you the tools, because you use these rights.
  • We do not knowingly sell or share the personal information of anyone under 16.

Children

The site and our products and services are written for adults who publish books and are not for people under 18. We do not knowingly collect information from children under 13 (or under 16 where local law sets that age), and we do not knowingly allow personalised advertising to be shown to them. If you think a child has sent us a message, tell us and we will delete it.

Security

The site uses HTTPS, the dashboard is protected by a password and a lockout after repeated failures, and messages are visible only to the site owner. No online service is perfectly secure, so please do not put sensitive personal details in a message.

International transfers

Our providers and advertising partners may process data in countries other than yours, including the United States. Where the law requires it, they rely on approved safeguards such as adequacy decisions, the EU-US Data Privacy Framework or standard contractual clauses.

Data breaches

If a security incident puts your personal data at risk, we will investigate quickly, tell the authorities and affected people where the law requires it, and take steps to limit harm.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy, for example when we add a new type of service. When we do, we change the date at the top. If a change is significant we will say so on the home page, and where the law requires it we will ask for your consent again.

Get a free quote or request a tool

Tell us which service you need, which tool or platform you want next, or which figure looks wrong. We read every message and reply within one business day when an answer is needed.