AuthorFreely takes your privacy seriously and adopts the following privacy policy to clarify what information we collect, process, and share to provide our service to you.

What types of information do we collect?

Personal information

We collect all personal information that you provide in your account. This includes the information you fill in when registering on our site, such as your email address, name, address, phone and mobile number, and author photo.

This data may include information about your consumption or production preferences (metadata), such as the creation date of a document or the location where a photo was taken.

Order information

We collect information about orders made on our site. This includes your contact details, billing address, shipping address, purchased products, and payment information.

Book information

We collect all information about the book that you provide on the platform. This includes the title, subtitle, author, book specifications (such as size, paper type, etc.), description, interior file, cover, and pricing information. These details may contain metadata about the content you provide, such as the creation date of the file, the user who created it, and other metadata related to the book file you uploaded.

Specially protected data

In your account, you have the option to select your gender. This choice is entirely optional, and you are not required to select it if you do not wish to. The gender you choose is subject to special protection under European Union laws.

Banking information

Our site also asks you to provide your bank account information. Providing your bank account details is optional unless you decide to sell your books through our sales channels. We handle your bank account information with great care.

Use of account data

We collect information about how you use our services, such as when you create an account, log in, perform actions related to a book, and how frequently you engage in these activities.

Cookies and analytics

We use cookies to enhance your browsing experience while navigating our site. We use cookies for the following purposes:

• STRICTLY NECESSARY COOKIES:
  • Authentication: when you want to log in automatically every time you visit our site, we store some authentication data in cookies;
  • Current session data: we store some unique keys about your current visit to our site. These keys do not contain information about your behavior but are used exclusively to ensure you can use our site without needing to log in multiple times;
  • Language: we store your current language selection for our site in a cookie;
• ANALYTICAL COOKIES:
  • Analysis and research: we use these cookies to better understand how you use our site. They help us analyze which parts of the site you use most frequently and which areas need improvement.

How do we use the information?

We use the information to provide the services mentioned in our terms and conditions. We do this in the following ways:

To provide and improve our services: we use the information collected to offer you the ability to create, order, and sell your books. To make this as easy as possible, we use your personal data and book information so that you can easily edit and reorder your books. Additionally, we use your book information to print, make it available through the sales channels you choose, and deliver it to customers who purchase your book through these channels.

Royalty payments: if you publish your book and it is sold through our e-commerce or any of the sales channels we work with in any country, we will use your bank account details to make royalty payments to you. This is the only situation in which we use your bank account details.

Product research and development: we are always looking to improve our services for you as an author. We use the information provided and usage data to research, enhance, and test our services.

For internal analysis purposes: we use this data to calculate statistics on the number of users who use our platform and how they interact with our services.

To communicate and provide support to you: we use the information collected to communicate effectively with you. We use it to keep you updated on developments, send personalized marketing communications, provide advice when you face difficulties, and assist you effectively when requested.

How do we share information?

We only share information that is absolutely necessary and only with trusted partners.

Payment

We ensure that when making a payment for an order or service, you can do so securely. To achieve this, we share your order information with our payment provider, who will store and process your data in accordance with European Union regulations.

When selling your books, we will pay royalties to your bank account or via the intermediary you indicate. We will share your bank account details with our bank to process the payment.

Printing

To print and ship your books, we will share your book and order information with our printing partner. They will store your books and order information in accordance with European Union regulations. Additionally, they will share your shipping details with the shipping company responsible for delivering the package.

Publication

To sell your book, it must be available on our e-commerce platform and through the sales channels we operate with. We will share your book information with these sales channels. When you delete a book, we will inform the sales channel that your book is no longer available for sale. However, we cannot guarantee that all sales channels will delete all information about your book.

Law enforcement and legal requests

We share information with law enforcement authorities or in response to legal requests when necessary.

Social Media

We share some of your data with social media services. This includes posting the link to your book on social media when you use our social sharing feature.

It also includes sharing your address – without your name – with Google Maps when you enter your address in your account. We share your location with Google Maps to verify the validity of the provided address and display your location on a map. This helps us avoid shipping future orders to a non-existent address.

Serving the Public Interest

On some occasions, we process your data to generate anonymous statistics that serve the public interest. This includes providing statistics to newspapers, academic research, and market research.

What is the legal basis for data processing?

We collect, use, and share information based on the following legal grounds:

• Consent: By providing or removing your data, you can determine which information we currently store and share.
• Compliance with legal obligations: We process information when necessary to fulfill our legal obligations.
• Compliance with terms and conditions: We use information as necessary to comply with our terms and conditions.
• Legitimate business interests: We process information based on our legitimate business interests, which include providing a user-friendly, innovative, and profitable self-publishing and book printing service.
• Protection of vital interests: We process information to protect your vital interests or those of others.

How can you exercise your rights under the GDPR?

Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) of the European Union, you have the right to access, correct, delete, or transfer your data. By default, you have access to all personal data, information about books, and orders. You can access, correct, and download data from our site by logging into your account.

In addition to these rights, the GDPR also gives you the right to object to and restrict the processing of your data, including the right to object to the processing of your data for marketing purposes. You can exercise this right by unsubscribing from newsletters/newsletters directly from the emails you receive.

Data Retention and Account Deletion

We store your information until it is no longer needed to provide our services or until your account is deleted, whichever comes first. Additionally, you are free to remove your personal data from your account or delete book information.

To delete your account, please email us at [email protected] requesting deletion. Be sure to send the email from the same address you used to register your account. When you delete your account, we will erase the following information:

• Personal information, including bank account details;
• Book information;
• Order information;

We will delete usage data as much as possible, as some usage data is anonymous and cannot be traced back to your account.

We will not delete invoices, as we have a legal obligation to retain them.

How do we respond to legal requests or prevent harm?

We will access and share your information with regulatory bodies, law enforcement, or others in cases such as:

• Receipt of a legal request and a good faith belief that we are required by law in our jurisdiction or the jurisdiction of the legal request to comply;
• Belief that it is necessary to comply with investigations to prevent imminent death, bodily injury, or harm to us, you, or third parties;
• To detect, prevent, and combat fraud
• To detect, prevent, and combat unauthorized use of our services.

The information we collect about you may be stored for longer periods than those mentioned in this term if they are subject to an ongoing legal request.

How do we use and transfer data?

We work with printing and sales channels in various countries around the world. We will transfer data to these parties only when your decisions on our website require it. The transfer of your data is necessary to provide the service you requested. These companies may store your data outside the European Union.

For example, if you wish to print and deliver a book in a foreign country, we will transfer your book and order information to a local printing press. Another example is when you publish a book: we transfer your book information to the sales channels you selected.

How to contact us with questions?

If you have any questions about the privacy policy, how we collect, store, and process information, contact us by email or mail:

Online

[email protected]

Mail

Cattch PTY LTD

75-77 Dale Street, Port Adelaide 5015

South Australia, Australia

If you wish to file a privacy complaint, please direct your concern to the data protection officer of AuthorFreely or to the National Data Protection Commission (CNPD).