Phonic Books Ltd is committed to safeguarding your privacy. At all times we aim to respect any personal data you share with us, or that we receive from other organizations, and keep it safe. This Privacy Policy (“Policy”) sets out our data collection and processing practices and your options regarding the ways in which your personal information is used.
This Policy contains important information about your personal rights to privacy. Please read it carefully to understand how we use your personal data. We may update this Policy from time to time without notice to you, so please check it regularly. Your continued use of our website after any such changes have been made will amount to your acknowledgement of the amended notice.
The provision of your personal data to us is voluntary. However, without providing us with your personal data, you will be unable to purchase items via our online shop, apply for employment with us or make enquiries by email, via our website or telephone.
1. We collect information about you:
(1) When you give it to us DIRECTLY
You provide such information when you search, buy, post, participate in a contest or questionnaire or communicate with customer service. For example, you provide information when you: search for a product; place an order through www.phonicbooks.com; provide information in Your Account (and you might have more than one if you have used more than one email address when shopping with us); communicate with us by phone, email or otherwise; complete a questionnaire or a contest entry form; use our services; participate in Social Media; provide and rate Customer Reviews. As a result of those actions, you might supply us with such information as: your name; address and phone number; people to whom purchases have been dispatched (including addresses and phone numbers); people (with addresses and phone numbers); email addresses of your colleagues, friends and other people; content of reviews and emails to us; and financial information.
(2) When you give it to us INDIRECTLY
Your information may be shared with us by others including users of our services and independent event organizers. Your information will also be provided to us when you follow us or otherwise interact with us on or via Twitter, when you like and/or join our page on Facebook or interact with us in other ways on or via Facebook.
(3) When you give permission to OTHER ORGANIZATIONS to share it or it is AVAILABLE PUBLICLY
We may combine information you provide to us with information available from external publicly available sources. Depending on your privacy settings for social media services, we may also access information from those accounts or services. We use this information to gain a better understanding of you and to improve our communications.
(4) When you visit our WEBSITE
We use cookies to identify you when you visit our website and to enable us to personalize your online experience (for example, by remembering your login details). Please refer to our Cookies Policy for details on the way our use of cookies affects your personal data.
2. What information do we collect?
We may collect, store and use the following kinds of personal data:
(1) We will typically hold your name and contact details, including physical address, telephone number and email address, and social media identity. However, we may request other information where it is appropriate and relevant, for example:
Details of why you have decided to contact us, details of campaigns you have supported, details of topics/areas of interest to you, responses to surveys you have completed.
(2) Information about your computer and about your visits to and use of our website including your IP address, geographical location, browser type, referral source, length of visit and number of page views;
(3) Information about the services you use, services and products of interest to you or any marketing and/or communication preferences you give; and/or
(4) any other information shared with us as per clause 1.
3. Do we process sensitive personal information?
We do not collect or process any sensitive personal information.
4. How and why will we use your personal data?
Personal data, however provided to us, will be used for the purposes specified in this Policy or in relevant parts of the website.
We may use your personal information to:
(1) Enable you to use all of the services we offer;
(2) Send you information about our products, campaigns, and any other information, products or services that we provide (this will not be done without your consent);
(3) Provide you with the services, products or information you have requested;
(4) Improve your browsing experience by personalizing your interaction with our website;
(5) Handle the administration of any payment you make via credit/debit card, check or BACS transfer;
(6) Collect payments from you and send statements and/or receipts to you;
(7) Conduct research into the impact of our campaigns;
(8) Deal with inquiries and complaints made by or about you relating to the website or us in general;
(9) Audit and/or administer our accounts.
5. Research/profiling
We may use your personal information to undertake research to gather further information about you from publicly accessible sources (as per clause 1 above). This helps us to get a better understanding of your background, interests and preferences in order to improve our communications and/or interactions with you, to help ensure they are targeted to be relevant and appropriate, and to provide information and other aspects of our services which we consider may be of interest to you.
Facebook marketing
We may use some of your personal information to participate in Facebook’s Custom Audience and Lookalike Audience programs, which enable us to display advertisements to both existing and prospective supporters when they visit Facebook. We may provide your email address to Facebook so they can determine whether you are a registered account holder with them. Our advertisements may then appear when you access Facebook. Some of your data is sent in an encrypted format that is deleted by Facebook (a) if it does not match with a Facebook account or (b) after they confirm you are a registered account holder.
For more detailed information please see https://www.facebook.com/business/help/744354708981227 and Facebook’s data policy.
Google Analytics
We may use some of your personal information to analyse our digital performance, for example to see how our website can be improved to help us achieve the purposes set out in section 11 below, to record how you are using our website or to assess the popularity of marketing campaigns. For more information on how we use your personal information in relation to Google Analytics, please view our cookie policy.
6. Communications and marketing
Where you have provided us with your physical address, we will contact you by post; and where you have provided appropriate consent, also by telephone and email, with targeted communications to let you know about our products that we consider may be of particular interest.
When you contact us, whether by telephone, through our website or by email, we collect the data you have given to us in order to reply with the information you need.
We record your request and our reply in order to increase the efficiency of our business.
We keep personally identifiable information associated with your message, such as your name and email address so as to be able to track our communications, with you to provide a high-quality service.
Mailchimp
We may use some of your data to send you targeted and appropriate information and other aspects of our services which we consider may be of interest to you via Mailchimp. You are free to unsubscribe at any time by visiting the ‘unsubscribe and ‘preferences’ footer options at any time.
When you send an email marketing campaign, it bounces from server to server as it crosses the Internet. Along the way, server administrators can read what you send. Email was not built for confidential information. We do not use MailChimp to send confidential information.
For more detailed information please see Mailchimp’s Privacy Policy
7. Job application and employment
If you send us information in connection with a job application, we may keep it for up to three years in case we decide to contact you at a later date.
If we employ you, we collect information about you and your work from time to time throughout the period of your employment. This information will be used only for purposes directly relevant to your employment. After your employment has ended, we will keep your file for six years before destroying or deleting it.
8. Complaints
When we receive a complaint, we record all the information you have given to us.
We use that information to resolve your complaint.
If your complaint reasonably requires us to contact some other person, we may decide to give to that other person some of the information contained in your complaint. We do this as infrequently as possible, but it is a matter for our sole discretion as to whether we do give information, and if we do, what that information is.
We may also compile statistics showing information obtained from this source to assess the level of service we provide, but not in a way that could identify you or any other person.
9. Payments
All financial transactions carried out on our website are handled through “Stripe”, a third-party payment services provider. We recommend that you read Stripe’s privacy policy prior to effecting any transactions with us. We will provide your personal data to Stripe only to the extent necessary for the purposes of processing payments for transactions you enter into with us. We do not store your financial details.
10. Children’s data
We do not knowingly process data of any person under the age of 16. If we come to discover, or have reason to believe, that you are 15 and under and we are holding your personal information, we will delete that information within a reasonable period and withhold our services accordingly.
11. Other disclosures
In addition to the disclosures reasonably necessary for the purposes identified elsewhere in this privacy policy, we will disclose your information to regulatory and/or government bodies and/or law enforcement agencies upon request only when required to do so in order to satisfy legal obligations which are binding on us.
12. Security of and access to your personal data
We endeavour to ensure that there are appropriate and proportionate technical and organisational measures to prevent the loss, destruction, misuse, alteration, unauthorized disclosure of or access to your personal information.
Your information is only accessible by appropriately trained staff.
Otherwise than as set out in this Privacy Policy, we will only ever share your data with your informed consent.
13. Your rights
Where we rely on your consent to use your personal information, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. This includes the right to ask us to stop using your personal information for direct marketing purposes or to be unsubscribed from our email list at any time. You also have the following rights:
(1) Right to be informed – you have the right to be told how your personal information will be used. This Policy and other policies and statements used on our website and in our communications are intended to provide you with a clear and transparent description of how your personal information may be used.
(2) Right of access – you can write to us to ask for confirmation of what information we hold on you and to request a copy of that information. Provided we are satisfied that you are entitled to see the information requested and we have successfully confirmed your identity, we have 30 days to comply.
(3) Right of erasure – as from 25 May 2018, you can ask us for your personal information to be deleted from our records. In many cases we would propose to suppress further communications with you, rather than delete it.
(4) Right of rectification – if you believe our records of your personal information are inaccurate, you have the right to ask for those records to be updated.
(5) Right to restrict processing – you have the right to ask for processing of your personal data to be restricted if there is disagreement about its accuracy or legitimate usage.
(6) Right to data portability – to the extent required by the General Data Protection Regulations (“GDPR”) where we are processing your personal information (i) under your consent, (ii) because such processing is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are party or to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contact or (iii) by automated means, you may ask us to provide it to you – or another service provider – in a machine-readable format.
To exercise these rights, please send a description of the personal information in question using the contact details in section 20 below. We also have specific pages to unsubscribe from our email list. Where we consider that the information with which you have provided us does not enable us to identify the personal information in question, we reserve the right to ask for (i) personal identification and/or (ii) further information.
Please note that some of these rights only apply in limited circumstances. For more information, we suggest that you consult ICO guidance – https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/individual-rights/.
You are further entitled to make a complaint about us or the way we have processed your data to the Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”). For further information on how to exercise this right, please see the guidance at https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/personal-information. The contact details of the ICO can be found here: https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/.
14. Lawful processing
We are required to have one or more lawful grounds to process your personal information. Only 4 of these are relevant to us:
Personal information is processed on the basis of a person’s consent
Personal information is processed on the basis of a contractual relationship
Personal information is processed on the basis of legal obligations
Personal information is processed on the basis of legitimate interests
(1) Consent
We will ask for your consent to use your information to send you electronic communications such as newsletters and marketing emails, for targeted advertising and profiling.
(2) Contractual relationships
Most of our interactions with subscribers and website users are voluntary and not contractual. However, sometimes it will be necessary to process personal information so that we can enter contractual relationships with people – for example, if you purchase something via our online shop.
(3) Legal obligations
Sometimes we will be obliged to process your personal information due to legal obligations which are binding on us. We will only ever do so when strictly necessary.
(4) Legitimate interests
Applicable law allows personal information to be collected and used if it is reasonably necessary for our legitimate activities (as long as its use is fair, balanced and does not unduly impact individuals’ rights).
We will rely on this ground to process your personal data when it is not practical or appropriate to ask for consent.
Governance
Internal and external audit for financial or regulatory compliance purposes
Statutory reporting
Conventional direct marketing and other forms of marketing, publicity or advertisement
Unsolicited commercial or non-commercial messages, including campaigns and newsletters.
Analysis, targeting and segmentation to develop and promote or strategy and improve communication efficiency.
Personalization used to tailor and enhance your experience of our communications.
Operational Management
Physical security, IT and network security
Maintenance of suppression files
Processing for historical, scientific or statistical purpose
Purely administrative purposes
Responding to enquiries
Delivery of requested products or information
Communications designed to administer existing services and financial transactions
Thank you communications and receipts
Maintaining a supporter database and suppression lists
Financial Management and control
Processing financial transactions and maintaining financial controls
Prevention of fraud, misuse of services, or money laundering
Enforcement of legal claims
Reporting criminal acts and compliance with law enforcement agencies
When we use your personal information, we will consider if it is fair and balanced to do so and if it is within your reasonable expectations. We will balance your rights and our legitimate interests to ensure that we use your personal information in ways that are not unduly intrusive or unfair in other ways.
15. Data may be processed outside the European Union
Our website is hosted in the United Kingdom.
We may also use outsourced services in countries outside the European Union from time to time in other aspects of our business.
Accordingly, data obtained within the UK or any other country could be processed outside the European Union.
We use the following safeguards with respect to data transferred outside the European Union:
(1) the data protection clauses in our contracts with data processors include transfer clauses written by or approved by a supervisory authority in the European Union.
(2) we comply with a code of conduct approved by a supervisory authority in the European Union.
(3) we are certified under an approved certification mechanism as provided for in the GDPR.
(4) both our organization and the processor are public authorities between whom there is either a legally binding agreement or administrative arrangements approved by a supervisory authority in the European Union relating to protection of your information.
16. Data Retention
In general, unless still required in connection with the purpose(s) for which it was collected and/or is processed, we remove your personal information from our records six years after the date it was collected. However, if before that date (i) your personal information is no longer required in connection with such purpose(s), (ii) we are no longer lawfully entitled to process it or (iii) you validly exercise your right of erasure, we will remove it from our records at the relevant time.
In the event that you ask us to stop sending you direct marketing/other electronic communications, we will keep your name on our internal suppression list to ensure that you are not contacted again.
17. Policy Amendments
We keep this Privacy Policy under regular review and reserve the right to update from time-to-time by posting an updated version on our website, not least because of changes in applicable law. We recommend that you check this Privacy Policy occasionally to ensure you remain happy with it. We may also notify you of changes to our privacy policy by email.
18. Third Party Websites
Our website may link directly to other sites. This Privacy Policy does not cover external websites and we are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of those sites. We encourage you to read the privacy policies of any external websites you visit via links on our website.
19. Updating Information
You can check the personal data we hold about you, and ask us to update it where necessary, by emailing us at sales@phonicbooks.com.
20. Contact
We are not required by law to have a “Data Protection Officer”. However, please let us know if you have any queries or concerns whatsoever about the way in which your data is being processed, by emailing .
Additional Information Regarding California
If you are a resident of California, we have certain obligations, and you have certain rights with respect to your Personal Information.
Pursuant to the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, as amended, including by the California Privacy Rights Act of 2023 (“CCPA”), we are providing the following additional details regarding the categories of Personal Information about California residents that we collect, use, disclose or sell. We are providing this Privacy Policy in addition to the information contained in our general Privacy Policy.
Disclosure, Sale, and Sharing of Personal Information
We disclose, sell or share Personal Information with the following categories of service providers and third parties:
- “Affiliates.” We share with our affiliates for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy.
- “Book Authors.” We share with book authors for marketing purposes.
- “Service Providers.” We share with our trusted third-party service providers, to facilitate services they provide to us, such as internet services, website hosting, data analytics, payment processing, order fulfillment, information technology and related infrastructure provision, customer service, email delivery, marketing, auditing, background checks, and other services.
- “Ad Networks.” We share with third-party ad networks and online advertising partners to permit them to send you marketing communications.
- “Marketing Partners.” We share with our marketing partners to permit them to send you marketing communications, consistent with your choices.
- “Social Networks” We share with social network platforms, who use the data we share in accordance with their own privacy policies.
- “Business Partners.” We share with our trusted business partners.
- “Contest Sponsors.” With your consent, we share with third-party sponsors of sweepstakes, contests, and similar promotions.
- “Legal Authorities.” We share with public and government authorities, including regulators and law enforcement, to respond to requests, as well as to protect and defend legal rights.
- “Other Parties in Litigation” We share information in the context of litigation discovery and in response to subpoenas and court orders.
The CCPA requires us to describe the categories of Personal Information we sell to or share with third parties and how to opt out of future sales or sharing. The CCPA defines Personal Information to include online identifiers, including IP addresses, cookies IDs, and mobile IDs. The law also defines a “sale” or “share” broadly to include simply making data available to third parties in some cases. In the preceding twelve (12) months, we disclosed for our operational business purposes or sold the following categories of Personal Information to the following categories of service providers and third parties:
Categories of Personal Information | Disclosed to Which Categories of Third Parties for Operational Business Purposes | Purpose for Disclosure |
Identifiers | Service Providers, Book Authors, Affiliates, Ad Networks, Social Networks, Authors, Business Partners, Contest Sponsors (in accordance with your choices), Marketing Partners and Legal Authorities and Other Parties in Litigation. | Commercial or Business Purpose |
Customer Records Information | Service Providers, Affiliates and Legal Authorities and Other Parties in Litigation. | Commercial or Business Purpose |
Protected Class Information | Service Providers, Affiliates and Legal Authorities and Other Parties in Litigation. | Commercial or Business Purpose |
Transaction Information | Service Providers, Affiliates, and Legal Authorities and Other Parties in Litigation. | Commercial or Business Purpose |
Online Use Information | Service Providers, Ad Networks, Social Networks, Marketing Partners and Legal Authorities and Other Parties in Litigation. | Commercial or Business Purpose |
Geolocation Data | Service Providers, and Legal Authorities and Other Parties in Litigation. | Commercial or Business Purpose |
Audio/Video Data | Service Providers, and Legal Authorities and Other Parties in Litigation. | Commercial or Business Purpose |
Employment Information | Service Providers, and Legal Authorities and Other Parties in Litigation. | Commercial or Business Purpose |
Inferences | Service Providers, Marketing Partners and Legal Authorities and Other Parties in Litigation. | Commercial or Business Purpose |
Categories of Personal Information | Disclosed to Which Categories of Third Parties for Operational Business Purposes | Purpose for Disclosure |
Online Use Information | Ad Networks, Social Networks and Marketing Partners | Sale and Sharing (as disclosed under the section on Disclosure and Sale above) |
We let advertising and analytics providers collect IP addresses, cookie IDs, and mobile IDs, along with associated device and usage data, when you access our online services, but we do not “sell” or “share” any other Personal Information. We generally do not “sell” or “share” your Personal Information, as defined by the CCPA, except in a few limited cases to support our business operations (e.g., email addresses to correct and enhance our contact lists). If you do not wish for us or our partners to “sell” or “share” Personal Information relating to your visits to our sites for advertising purposes, you can make your Do Not Sell or Share Request by emailing us, or using the choices below. If you opt out using these choices, we will not disclose or make available such Personal Information in ways that are considered a “sale” or “sharing” under the CCPA. However, we will continue to make available to our partners (acting as our service providers) some Personal Information to help us perform advertising-related functions. Further, using these choices will not opt you out of the use of previously “sold” or “shared” Personal Information or stop all interest-based advertising.
We do not knowingly sell the Personal Information of minors under sixteen (16) years of age.
Your CCPA Rights: Requests to Know, Requests to Correct, Requests to Delete, Requests to Opt-Out of Sale and Requests to Opt-Out of Sharing with Third parties.
If you are a California resident, you have certain rights with respect to Personal Information that we collect and process about you, including:
(1) Right to Know. You have a right to request that we disclose to you the Personal Information we have collected about you (“Request to Know”). You also have a right to request additional information about our collection, use, disclosure, sale, or sharing of such Personal Information. Note that we have provided much of this information in this Privacy Policy:
- The categories of Personal Information we collected about you and the categories of sources from which we collected such Personal Information;
- The specific pieces of Personal Information we collected about you;
- The business or commercial purpose for collecting or selling (if applicable) Personal Information about you;
- The categories of Personal Information about you that we sold and, for each, the categories of third parties to whom we sold such Personal Information (if applicable); and
- The categories of Personal Information about you that we otherwise shared or disclosed, and, for each, the categories of third parties with whom we shared or to whom we disclosed such Personal Information (if applicable).
To make a Right to Know request or a request for additional information, please click here.
(2) Right to Request Deletion. You also have a right to request that we delete Personal Information under certain circumstances, subject to a number of exceptions (“Request to Delete”). To make a request for deletion, please click here.
(3) Right to Correct Inaccurate Personal Information we collected from you (“Request to Correct”). To make a request to correct please click here.
(4) Right to Opt-Out. You have a right to opt-out from future “sales” or “sharing” of Personal Information about you (“Request to Opt-out”) by clicking here.
(5) Right to Limit Use of Sensitive Personal Information. Under the CCPA California Residents have the right to request that we limit the use and disclosure of their Sensitive Information for any purposes other than to provide the services or goods you request or as otherwise permitted by law. Note that we do not use sensitive personal information for any such additional purposes.
(6) Right to Designate an Authorized Agent. You may designate, in writing or through a power of attorney, an authorized agent to make requests on your behalf to exercise your rights under the CCPA. Before accepting such a request from an agent, we will require the agent to provide proof you have authorized it to act on your behalf, and we may need you to verify your identity directly with us (as further described below in the section titled “Responding to Individual Rights Requests”).
(7) Right to Non-Discrimination. You have the right to be free from unlawful discrimination for exercising your rights under the CCPA.
(8) Right to Notice of Privacy Practices. You have a right to receive notice of our practices at or before collection of Personal Information.
Additional California Disclosures
Additionally, under California Civil Code section 1798.83, also known as the “Shine the Light” law, California residents who have provided Personal Information to a business with which the individual has established a business relationship for personal, family, or household purposes (“California Customers”) may request information about whether the business has disclosed Personal Information to any third parties for the third parties’ direct marketing purposes.
We comply with this law by offering our customers a choice about the disclosure of Personal Information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes, and you can make or change such choice by emailing us at privacy@penguinrandomhouse.com or submitting a request to opt out of sharing of your Personal Information.
California Customers may request further information about our compliance with this law by e-mailing privacy@penguinrandomhouse.com. Please note that businesses are required to respond to one request per California Customer each year and may not be required to respond to requests made by means other than through the designated e-mail address.
California residents under the age of eighteen (18) who are registered users of online sites, services, or applications have a right under California Business and Professions Code Section 22581 to remove, or request and obtain removal of, content or information they have publicly posted. To remove content or information you have publicly posted, contact us at privacy@penguinrandomhouse.com. Alternatively, to request that we remove such content or information, please send a detailed description of the specific content or information you wish to have removed to privacy@penguinrandomhouse.com. Please be aware that your request does not guarantee complete or comprehensive removal of content or information posted online and that the law may not permit or require removal in certain circumstances.
Notice of Financial Incentive
We may, at times, offer discount codes or other incentives, such as downloadable content, when you sign up for marketing content such as newsletters. When you sign up for one of these programs, we typically collect your first and last name and email address so that we may provide you with the offers you requested as well as other offers that we think may be of interest to you. We have not assigned a specific monetary value to the Personal Information we collect via these incentives as the value varies from consumer to consumer, based on the discounts and incentives each customer redeems, and the purchases they make. But we do receive value in the form of consumer engagement and purchases, which we estimate by comparing the total amount spent by our customers who redeem such discounts and incentives, less our expenses to provide the offering to those customers who do not redeem such discounts and incentives within the same timeframe less the costs of the discount and of administering the newsletter program. You can unsubscribe from these newsletters and related communications as described in the communications, which will opt you out from related discounts or other incentive offers and retain any incentive received prior to opting out.
Cookies, Mobile IDs and Similar Technologies
We use cookies, web beacons, mobile analytics and advertising IDs, and similar technologies to operate our websites and online services and to help collect data, including usage data, identifiers and device information.
What are cookies and similar technologies?
Cookies are small text files placed by a website and stored by your browser on your device. A cookie can later be read when your browser connects to a web server in the same domain that placed the cookie. The text in a cookie contains a string of numbers and letters that may uniquely identify your device and can contain other information as well. This allows the web server to recognize your browser over time, each time it connects to that web server. Cookies allow us to collect information such as browser type, time spent on the Services, pages visited, language preferences, and other traffic data.
Pixel tags (also known as web beacons and clear GIFs) may be used to, among other things, track the actions of users of the Services (including email recipients), measure the success of our marketing campaigns, compile statistics about usage of the Services and response rates, and identify similar audiences to whom we can market our Services.
How do we and our partners use cookies and similar technologies?
We, and our analytics and advertising partners, use these technologies in our websites, apps, and online services to collect Personal Information (such as the pages you visit, the links you click on and similar usage information, as well as identifiers and device information) when you use our Services, including Personal information about your online activities over time and across different websites or online services.
This information is used to store your preferences and settings, enable you to sign-in, analyze how our websites and apps perform, track your interaction with the site or app, develop inferences, deliver and tailor interest-based advertising, combat fraud, and fulfill other legitimate purposes. Additionally, the information is used for security purposes, to facilitate navigation, to display information more effectively, and to personalize your experience. We also gather statistical information about use of the Services to continually improve their design and functionality, understand how they are used, and assist us with resolving questions regarding them. Cookies further allow us to select which of our advertisements or offers are most likely to appeal to you and display them while you are on the Services. We may also use cookies or other technologies in online advertising to track responses to our ads. If you do not want information collected through the use of cookies, most browsers allow you to automatically decline cookies or be given the choice of declining or accepting a particular cookie (or cookies) from a particular website (including using the options described below in the section titled “What Controls are Available”). You may also wish to refer to http://www.allaboutcookies.org/manage-cookies/index.html. If, however, you do not accept cookies, you may experience some inconvenience in your use of the Services.
We and/or our analytics and advertising partners also share the information we collect or infer with other companies for these purposes.
Analytics
We use analytics providers including but not limited to Google Analytics, Lytics and Adobe Analytics, which use cookies and similar technologies to collect and analyze information about use of the Services and report on activities and trends. We also use Localytics to track analytics on our mobile apps. These analytics services may also collect information regarding the use of other websites, apps and online resources. You can learn about Google’s practices by going to www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners/, and exercise the opt-out provided by Google by downloading the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on, available at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout. To opt out of Adobe Analytics, you can implement the opt-out cookies at https://scode.randomhouse.com/optout.html.
Physical Location
We may collect the physical location of your device by, for example, using satellite, cell phone tower or WiFi signals. We may use your device’s physical location to provide you with personalized location-based services and content.
We may also share your device’s physical location, combined with information about what advertisements you viewed and other information we collect, with our marketing partners to enable them to provide you with more personalized content and to study the effectiveness of advertising campaigns. In some instances, you may be permitted to allow or deny such uses and/or sharing of your device’s location, but if you do, we and/or our marketing partners may not be able to provide you with the applicable personalized services and content.
What controls are available?
- Advertising controls. Our advertising partners may participate in associations that provide simple ways to opt out of ad targeting, which you can access at:
- United States: NAI (http://optout.networkadvertising.org) and DAA (http://optout.aboutads.info/)
- Canada: Digital Advertising Alliance of Canada (https://youradchoices.ca/)
- Europe: European Digital Advertising Alliance (http://www.youronlinechoices.com/)
- These choices are specific to the browser you are using. If you access our online services from other devices or browsers, take these actions from those systems to ensure your choices apply to the data collected when you use those systems.
- Browser cookie controls. Most web browsers are set to accept cookies by default. If you prefer, you can go to your browser settings to learn how to delete or reject cookies. If you choose to delete or reject cookies, this could affect certain features or services of our website. If you choose to delete cookies, settings and preferences controlled by those cookies — including advertising preferences — may be deleted and may need to be recreated.
- Mobile advertising ID controls. iOS and Android operating systems provide options to limit tracking and/or reset the advertising IDs.
- Email web beacons. Most email clients have settings which allow you to prevent the automatic downloading of images — including web beacons — which prevents the automatic connection to the web servers that host those images.
- Do Not Track. Some browsers have incorporated “Do Not Track” (DNT) features that can send a signal to the websites you visit indicating you do not wish to be tracked. Because there is not a common understanding of how to interpret the DNT signal our websites do not currently respond to browser DNT signals. Instead, you can use the range of other tools to control data collection and use, including the cookie controls and advertising controls described above.
- Global Privacy Control. Global Privacy Control (GPC) is a browser setting that notifies websites of a user’s privacy preferences — such as not to share or sell Personal Information without their consent — by sending a signal to each website a user visits. When we detect such a signal, we will make reasonable efforts to respect your choices indicated by a GPC setting or similar control that is recognized by regulation or otherwise widely acknowledged as a valid opt-out preference signal.
Third Party Advertising
We may use third-party advertising companies to serve advertisements regarding goods and services that may be of interest to you when you access and use the Services and other websites or online services.
You may receive advertisements based on information relating to your access to and use of the Services and other websites or online services on any of your devices, as well as on information received from third parties. These companies place or recognize a unique cookie on your browser (including through the use of pixel tags). They also use these technologies, along with information they collect about your online use, to recognize you across the devices you use, such as a mobile phone and a laptop. If you would like more information about this practice, and to learn how to opt out of it in desktop and mobile browsers on the particular device on which you are accessing this Privacy Policy, please visit http://optout.aboutads.info/#/ and http://optout.networkadvertising.org/#/.