Privacy Policy

Last Updated: Nov 10, 2024

Overview

This policy was written to the best of our ability at the current stage of development. It is subject to change at any time, and we will notify you about major changes via email.
  1. What does this policy cover?
  2. What does this policy NOT cover?
  3. What information do you collect about me?
  4. How will you use the data you collected about me?
  5. Do you share my information with other organizations?
  6. What measures do you take to guard against piracy?
  7. How long will you keep my information?
  8. Who can I get in touch with if I want to access my data?
  9. How do I delete my account?
  10. Does your website use cookies?
  11. Does your website use affiliate links?

What does this policy cover?

This policy covers the data BookSirens LLC ("us", "we", or"our") collects about you ("user"), what we do with it, why we collect it, and how you can access it.

What does this policy NOT cover?

This policy does not cover what third party services we use with your data. However, we can be completely transparent about these third-party services and link you to their privacy policies. We employ the services of trusted companies to handle transactions and actions that are outside the expertise of the team at BookSirens LLC. Examples of third-party services we use and the reasons are:

What information do you collect about me?

Information you provide us
  • Account information: When you sign up, you provide us with your name and email address. You may additionally provide us with links to your website, blogs, and public profiles on sites like Facebook, X (Twitter), Instagram, etc...
  • Billing details: You may provide us with your billing details. This information never goes through our server and we do not store it; we send this directly and securely to a trusted third-party service (Braintree) listed above to process the data for us.
  • Book content: If you list a book on BookSirens, you provide us your book's cover and electronic manuscripts in the form of a PDF, PDF sample, ePub, and Mobi files. We store these files securely using Amazon Web Services. The book cover may appear publicly. However, the manuscripts are only shared with users who download your book on BookSirens.
Information collected via technology
  • Usage data: As you use the site, we have analytics engines running which will collect information about how you are using the site and information about your device, browser, and IP address. We do not send any personal identifiable information to these analytics engines, meaning they will not be able to connect your data to your name or email address.
  • Goodreads information: You have the option to connect your Goodreads account. If you do, we will use the Goodreads API to fetch information about your Goodreads reviews and shelves. We do NOT update your Goodreads profile in any way (i.e. we do NOT add or update any of your reviews or your Goodreads profile information). Unfortunately, the Goodreads Connect feature does not allow us to selectively ask for "read only" permission. This is a limitation on the Goodreads side. Therefore, we have no choice but to ask for both "read" and "write" permissions, even though we only use the "read" access.
  • Amazon information: You have the option to connect your Amazon account. If you do, we will use Login with Amazon to facilitate the connection. We do not store any personal details from your Amazon account. You may additionally provide us with a link to your public Amazon profile URL.
  • Email tracking pixels: We will periodically send you emails as you engage with our site. These emails contain a tracking pixel which will let us know if you have opened the email. We use this information to analyze how our users are responding to our communication efforts and to ultimately improve the service for you.
  • Facebook tracking pixel: We are running a Facebook Tracking Pixel. This means if you have visited our website in the past, we may show you ads on Facebook. We do NOT participate in the Advanced Matching feature that uses your personal information on Facebook to match with your activity on our site.

How will you use the data you collected about me?

In general, we collect information about you in order to operate our site and provide you the with features we hope you love. For readers, this includes, but is not limited to:
  • Sending you ARCs you are most likely to enjoy
  • Analyzing your reading habits so you can learn from them
  • Helping you discover new authors in your favorite genres
For authors, publishers, and publicists, this includes but is not limited to:
  • Promoting your books to reviewers in your book's genres
  • Helping you grow your readership and ARC team
  • Tracking your reviews and reader feedback over time
We may also use your anonymized personal data to:
  • Debug or make improvements to the service
  • Corroborate your usage details with other users in order to analyze general trends and habits of users for determining ways to continuously improve the site
  • Protect, investigate and deter against fraudulent, unauthorized or illegal activity
During only necessary times, we may access your personal data to:
  • Provide customer service if you personally report a bug or issue to us via email or a support form embedded in the site
  • Send you relevant information, such as technical notices, updates, security alerts, support and administrative messages

Do you share my information with other organizations?

We share selected information with the third-party services listed above, and strictly only for the necessary operations of the service. We do NOT share your information with other organizations for profit and we're committed to never doing this. As such, you will never see ads on our platform.

What measures do you take to guard against piracy?

We store your content securely on Amazon Web Services. However, we cannot guarantee that your content will not be pirated by a user who decides to download your content. You acknowledge that, by providing you with the ability to view and distribute your content on BookSirens, we are merely acting as a passive conduit for such distribution and are not undertaking any obligation or liability relating to any contents or activities by users on our platform.

How long will you keep my information?

We will keep your information as long as you are a user. If you request a deletion of your account either by email via [email protected] or through the site, we will delete your account and all associated data within 48 hours.

Who can I get in touch with if I want to access my data?

Please contact us at [email protected].

How do I delete my account?

Please contact us at [email protected] from your account's email address and we will delete your account and all associated data within 48 hours.

Does your website use cookies?

Aside from third-party cookies from services listed above, we use cookies to store your authorization token. This means that you can use our service without proving your username and password each time for authentication. We also use cookies to store your options for dismissing certain messages or dialog boxes.

Does your website use affiliate links?

Yes. We are a participant in the Amazon Affiliate Program. These programs are designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to products. We use affiliate links when linking to the Amazon page for the books on our site.