We at BenBella (“we” or “BenBella”) respect your concerns about privacy and value the relationship we have with you. This Privacy Policy describes the types of personal information we collect or plan to collect on benbellabooks.com and affiliated Web sites, how we may use that information and with whom we may share it.
Information we collect or plan to collect in the future:
Getting our Newsletters and other information
You may sign up to receive our newsletters and/or other information about new releases, author appearances and special offers. In order to fulfill your requests, we will ask you for your name and e-mail address, and sometimes certain other information. You may unsubscribe to our newsletters and alerts at any time by clicking on the unsubscribe link included in all of our e-mails to you.
Ordering our Products
When you order from us, we collect your name, billing address, shipping address, e-mail address, phone number and credit (or debit) card number. We also gather information on the person who will receive any gift you send (e.g., that person’s name and address) and we will retain a record of your purchases.
Surveys and Questionnaires
We may ask visitors to our Web site to complete online surveys and opinion polls on a variety of topics, including their activities, attitudes and interests as they relate to our products and services. When you complete a survey we usually collect your name, address and e-mail address. We may also ask you for additional information, such as your age, interests, product preferences or zip code.
Sweepstakes, Contests and Promotions
From time to time we may run sweepstakes, contests or other promotions online. When you enter a sweepstakes or contest online, we usually collect your name, address, e-mail address and phone number. We may also ask you for additional information, such as your age, interests, product preferences or zip code.
Chat Rooms, Forums and Discussion Groups
We may choose to host chat rooms, forums and/or discussion groups on our Web site. If you choose to participate in a chat room, forum or discussion group, we may request certain information such as your e-mail address and date of birth. Please be aware that some or all information you provide (including personally identifiable information) in connection with a chat room, forum or discussion group may become publicly available. We reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to save and archive any content of any nature posted to this Web site and we may (in addition to any other rights we may have to use such content pursuant to the Terms of Use governing your use of this Web site): 1) disclose such content if required to do so by law or to comply with legal processes; 2) to respond to claims that any of the content violates the property, privacy, publicity or other rights of others; or 3) to protect the rights, property or safety of this Web site, BenBella, its employees, users or members of the public.
The blogs and forums to which you are provided access through this Web site are owned and operated by third-party companies. Use of these sites, as well as such companies’ use of any information you may submit on these sites, may be subject to the terms of use and privacy notices applicable to these sites, which we strongly suggest you review. These sites are not owned by BenBella and are not under our control.
“Contact Us”
You may choose to contact us through our Web site. If you e-mail us comments or questions, we will have your e-mail address, as well as any other information you choose to provide.
Passive Collection of Information
When you visit our Web site, your browser automatically sends us certain Internet-related information, such as the Internet Protocol (IP) address of the computer you’re using and your originating domain. We may also collect certain information about our Web site visitors, such as how many users visited our Site, the average time spent on the Site, the pages viewed and referring Web sites. By collecting this information, we learn how to best tailor our Web site to our visitors. While we generally examine such information only in the aggregate, such information could be linked back to individual IP addresses.
We may use cookies on this Web site. A cookie is a small piece of information sent by a Web site that is saved on your hard disk by your computer’s browser. It holds information a site may need to interact with you and personalize your experience.
How We May Use Information We Collect
Information collected through our Web site is used in connection with the purpose for which it was submitted, including: to contact you to answer a question, to send you a newsletter or other information you have requested, or to enter you into a sweepstakes. In addition, if you purchase a product on our Web site, we will use information to process that purchase and the related payment.
We may also use the information we collect to send you information or products we think may be of interest to you, to customize our contacts with you and to do other internal analyses, such as market research, that will allow us to better meet the needs of our customers. We may also use information to enhance your online experience while using our Web site, to improve the content of the Site or to improve the quality or variety of the products and services we offer.
How We Share Information
We may share the information you provide with companies that are related to BenBella through common ownership or other relationship, but we will not share your information with nonaffiliated third parties.
We also share information provided by our Web site with service providers we have retained to perform services on our behalf. For example: when you make a purchase, we may share information about you and your transaction with other companies for the purpose of processing your transaction, and we may retain outside companies to manage databases of customer information and to distribute e-mail offerings.
In addition, we may disclose information about you 1) if we are required to do so by law; 2) in response to legal process; 3) to law enforcement authorities or other government officials; or 4) when we believe disclosure is necessary or appropriate to prevent physical harm or financial loss or in connection with an investigation of suspected or actual illegal activity.
We reserve the right to transfer any information we have about you in the event we sell or transfer all or a portion of our business or assets. Should such a sale or transfer occur, we will use reasonable efforts to try to ensure that the transferee uses personal information you have provided through this Web site in a manner that is consistent with this Privacy Policy.
Links to Other Web sites
We provide links to other Web sites for your convenience and information. These sites may have their own privacy notices in place, which we strongly suggest you review if you visit any linked Web site. We may not be responsible for the content of these sites, any products or services that may be offered through these sites, or the privacy practices of these sites.
To try and bring you offers that are of interest to you, we may have relationships with other companies that we allow to place ads and provide other services on our Web pages. As a result of your visit to our Site, these ad servers and other entities may collect information such as your domain type, your IP address and click-stream information. We are not responsible for the data collection practices of any sites linked to BenBella nor does our linking to third-party Web sites or services constitute sponsorship or endorsement of the content or business practices on these sites. By use of this Site, you have agreed that you will use the hyperlinks to third-party sites at your own risk.
Security
BenBella Books is committed to protecting the security of information collected on our Site. We use technical, physical and administrative methods to safeguard and secure the information we collect online. When you submit information for a credit card transaction through our purchase pages, we use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) software to encrypt the information during transmission (however, we do not use a secure connection for other types of activities).
In connection with your purchases at BenBella, we use a third-party service provider to collect your credit card (or debit card) number (and related information). The third-party payment service provider will be solely responsible for the collection, use and storage of your credit card (or debit card) information.
Please remember that no data transmission over the Internet, or by other means, can be guaranteed to be 100 percent secure. Thus, while we strive to protect the information you provide through this Web site, BenBella cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us. Therefore, you understand, acknowledge and agree that you transmit information over this Site at your own risk.
You can “opt-out” of receiving newsletters, advertising and promotional e-mail from us by following the opt-out instructions in our e-mail messages. To ensure that your opt-out request is honored, you must use the designated method in the e-mail message to notify us of your opt-out request, as we cannot guarantee that other methods of notification will be effective or timely.
Please note that even if you choose to opt-out of receiving BenBella’s marketing, we will continue to send you important service related communications, including follow-up messages regarding sweepstakes or contests you have entered or other transactions you have undertaken (e.g., order confirmation).
Updates to this Privacy Notice
By using this Web site, you signify your agreement to this Privacy Policy. This Privacy Policy may change from time to time. Changes to this Privacy Policy will become effective when those changes are posted to the Site. Your continued use of the services and the sites subsequent to any changes to this Privacy Policy constitutes your acceptance of the changes. Please review this statement periodically to ensure you are aware of any changes or updates to this Policy. We indicate the effective date of this Policy (and any updates) at the top of the Policy.