Privacy policy

BDeBooks ("BDeBooks", "we", "us", or "our") operates bdebooks.com together with its catalogue sections and subdirectories, including every language catalogue. This Privacy Policy applies across those properties and explains what information we collect, how we use and share it, and the rights and choices available to you, including under the European Union and United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Brazil's General Data Protection Law (LGPD), the California Consumer Privacy Act and California Privacy Rights Act (CCPA/CPRA), and other applicable United States state privacy laws.

1. Who we are

BDeBooks is the controller responsible for your personal data on the Site. For any privacy question or request, contact mail@bdebooks.com.

2. Information we collect

• Information you provide voluntarily: your email address if you subscribe to a newsletter; your name and email address if you post a comment; your username and email address if you use an existing reader account; the contents of any message you send us through the contact form or by email; the name, contact details and statement in any copyright notice you send us through the copyright removal form or by email; and the author, contact, book and rights-declaration details, and any manuscript file, you provide with a publishing proposal.
• Information collected automatically: your IP address, approximate country or region, browser type and version, device and operating system information, referring and exit pages, pages viewed, and the date and time of access. This may be collected through cookies, similar technologies and server logs.

You can browse and download books without creating an account. A free reader account is optional. If you create one, it stores your display name, email address, a password hash, your sign-in sessions and security settings, the books you save to your library with your reading progress, your discussion notes and your preferences. Passwords are not stored in readable form. We do not knowingly collect special categories of sensitive personal data.

Signing in with Google

You may create or open a reader account with Google instead of, or as well as, an email address, username and password. If you do, Google tells us your Google account identifier, your name and your email address, and whether Google has verified that address. We use these only to sign you in, to create your account and to show your name on the account. We do not receive your Google password, we do not post anything on your behalf, and we do not read your contacts or other data. You can disconnect Google at any time in your account Settings under "Ways to sign in", as long as another way to sign in remains. To delete the data we hold, including the link to Google, delete your account in Settings, or write to mail@bdebooks.com and we will delete it. You can also remove BDeBooks from the apps connected to your Google account in Google's settings; this stops it sharing data with us, and your BDeBooks account stays until you delete it.

3. Cookies and similar technologies

We and our partners may use cookies and similar technologies for:

• Strictly necessary purposes: core site functionality, security, sessions and content delivery.
• Analytics: understanding how the Site is used so we can improve it.
• Advertising: delivering, personalizing and measuring ads where advertising is present.

Where the law requires consent, optional advertising and analytics technologies are handled according to your consent choice. See the Cookie Policy for more detail.

4. How we use your information

• To operate and provide the Site, including pages, downloads and read-online features.
• To authenticate an existing reader account and preserve reading-list choices requested by that reader.
• To send a requested newsletter, respond to inquiries, and review author publishing proposals. A manuscript file sent with a proposal is checked for malware, stored privately and opened only by our team.
• To display and measure advertising where it is present.
• To analyze usage and improve content, performance and user experience.
• To maintain security, prevent fraud or abuse, and comply with legal obligations.

5. Legal bases for processing in the EEA and UK

Where the GDPR applies, we rely on:

• Consent for optional advertising and analytics technologies and for sending a requested newsletter. You may withdraw consent at any time.
• Legitimate interests for security, basic functionality and privacy-protective analytics where permitted.
• Legal obligation where we must process data to comply with the law.

6. Advertising and Google AdSense

Where Google AdSense is present, Google and its partners may use advertising technologies to serve and measure ads. You can manage personalized advertising through Google Ads Settings. More information about Google's advertising technology providers is available through Google AdSense Help.

7. Third parties and data sharing

We do not sell personal information for money. We may share limited data with service providers that help operate the Site, each under its own privacy policy:

• Google for advertising and analytics where those services are active.
• Cloudflare for content delivery, security and performance, including Turnstile, which checks that a form is sent by a person rather than an automated program.
• Brevo for newsletter delivery if you subscribe.
• Hosting providers for website infrastructure.

We may also disclose information where required by law or to protect our rights, users or the public.

8. International data transfers

Our servers and service providers may process data in countries outside your own, including countries outside the European Economic Area. Where required, transfers are protected by appropriate safeguards such as the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses.

9. Your rights in the EEA and UK

If you are in the EEA or UK, you may have the right to access your personal data; request correction or erasure; restrict or object to processing; request data portability; and withdraw consent. You may also lodge a complaint with the data protection authority of your country, for example the CNIL in France, the AEPD in Spain, the CNPD in Portugal or the ICO in the United Kingdom. To exercise a right, email mail@bdebooks.com.

10. Your rights in California and other US states

• You may have the right to know, access, delete and correct personal information, and to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information for cross-context behavioural or targeted advertising.
• We do not sell personal information for monetary value. Some laws may treat advertising technologies as a sale or sharing. Where applicable, use the available consent controls and ad settings to opt out.
• Non-discrimination: we will not discriminate against you for exercising a privacy right.

To submit a request, email mail@bdebooks.com.

11. Your rights in Brazil (LGPD)

If you are in Brazil, the General Data Protection Law (Lei Geral de Proteção de Dados Pessoais, Law No. 13.709/2018) gives you the right to: confirmation that we process your personal data; access to it; correction of incomplete, inaccurate or outdated data; anonymisation, blocking or deletion of data that is unnecessary, excessive or processed unlawfully; portability to another provider; deletion of data processed on the basis of your consent; information about the public and private entities we share data with; information about the possibility of refusing consent and its consequences; and revocation of consent (Article 18). The legal bases in Section 5 also apply under the LGPD (Article 7). To exercise a right, email mail@bdebooks.com. You may also file a complaint with the Autoridade Nacional de Proteção de Dados (ANPD).

12. Your choices

• Use an available consent banner to manage optional cookies.
• Use browser settings to block or delete cookies.
• Manage personalized ads through the link in Section 6.
• Unsubscribe from a newsletter using the link in that email.

13. Data retention

We retain personal data only for as long as necessary for the purposes described here or as required by law. For example, newsletter data is kept until you unsubscribe, comment data while it remains published, existing account data while the account is active or until a valid deletion request is completed, server logs for a limited period, publishing proposal details while we review the proposal and maintain the resulting editorial or rights record, and copyright notices as a permanent record of the notice and our decision. You may ask BDeBooks to delete an account, comment, proposal or other personal data that is no longer needed, subject to legal and security requirements.

14. Children's privacy

The Site is not directed to children under 13, or the higher minimum age required in a jurisdiction. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has provided personal data, contact us and we will address it.

15. Data security

We use reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect information, including HTTPS encryption, firewall and CDN-level security, and access controls. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security.

16. Links to other websites

The Site may contain links to websites we do not operate. We are not responsible for their privacy practices or content. Review their policies before providing information.

17. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy. The last-updated date above reflects the current version, and material changes will be posted on this page.

18. Contact us

For a question about this Privacy Policy or to exercise a privacy right, email mail@bdebooks.com.