Last updated: [DATE]
[LAWYER REVIEW REQUIRED BEFORE PUBLISHING. This is a working draft, not legal advice. Sections 3, 6, 8, and 11 need your specific vendor list before they are accurate.]
The Short Version
We collect what we need to run a bookstore and a reading site: your email, your account details, what you’ve bought, and basic technical information about your visit. We do not sell your personal information. We do not share your reading habits with anyone.
The rest of this page is the detailed version, because the short version isn’t a legal document.
1. Who We Are
This policy explains how [FULL LEGAL ENTITY NAME] (“Aegis Publishing,” “we,” “us”) collects and uses personal information through aegispublishing.org.
Contact: [PRIVACY EMAIL] Mailing address: [ADDRESS]
[Both are required under several privacy laws. A P.O. box is acceptable.]
2. Information You Give Us
Account information. Name, email address, and password when you create an account.
Purchase information. What you bought, when, and your order history. Payment card details are collected and processed by our payment processor, not by us. We never see or store your full card number.
Founders Club information. Your membership number, purchase date, and the name you want printed in our books. If you ask us to print a name, that name becomes public in every subsequent edition, and we cannot remove it from copies already printed.
Newsletter subscription. Your email address, and whatever preferences you give us.
Communications. Anything you send us through our contact form or by email.
Content you post. Reviews, comments, or other material you submit to the Site.
3. Information We Collect Automatically
Technical data. IP address, browser type, device type, operating system, referring page, and pages viewed.
Reading activity. If you read books through our online reader, we record which titles you open and your reading progress, so we can return you to where you left off.
We treat reading activity as private. We do not sell it, share it with advertisers, or use it to build profiles about you beyond running the reader and understanding in aggregate which books people finish.
Cookies and similar technologies. See section 6.
[CONFIRM what your analytics stack actually collects. If you add heatmaps or session recording later, that requires additional disclosure and in some jurisdictions consent.]
4. Where Else We Get Information
Payment processors confirm that a transaction succeeded and send us limited details such as the last four digits of a card.
IngramSpark handles book sales and fulfillment. [CONFIRM what order data flows back to you.]
Cortland Falls handles merchandise sales. We receive [CONFIRM: sales figures only, or customer-level data?]. If you buy merchandise, their privacy policy governs that transaction.
5. How We Use Your Information
- To create and maintain your account
- To deliver books, memberships, and the benefits you purchased
- To operate the online reader and save your reading position
- To process payments and refunds
- To send transactional messages (receipts, account notices, delivery confirmations)
- To send the Aegis Dispatch, if you subscribed
- To answer your questions
- To understand how the Site is used and improve it
- To detect fraud, abuse, and unauthorized redistribution of our books
- To comply with legal obligations
Legal bases (for readers in the EU/UK): we process your information to perform our contract with you (accounts, purchases, delivery), on the basis of consent (marketing email, non-essential cookies), and for our legitimate interests (security, fraud prevention, improving the Site).
6. Cookies and Tracking
We use:
Essential cookies to keep you logged in and remember your cart. The Site does not work without these.
Analytics cookies to understand traffic and usage. [SPECIFY PROVIDER, e.g. Google Analytics.]
Advertising and retargeting. [YOUR CALL, AND IT MATTERS. If you install Meta, Google Ads, or TikTok pixels for marketing, say so here explicitly and name them. Advertising trackers are what most privacy complaints and enforcement actions are actually about. If you have no pixels today, state that plainly and update this page before you add one.]
You can control cookies through your browser settings. Blocking essential cookies will break parts of the Site.
[If you have EU/UK visitors, you likely need a consent banner for non-essential cookies, not just a disclosure. This is a real requirement, not a formality.]
7. When We Share Information
We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising.
We share information only with:
- Service providers who work on our behalf: payment processing, email delivery, website hosting, analytics, customer support. They may use your information only to provide those services to us.
- Distribution and merchandise partners where you have made a purchase through them.
- Legal authorities, where required by law, subpoena, or valid legal process, or to protect our rights, safety, or property.
- A successor entity, if Aegis Publishing is sold, merged, or transfers its assets. Your information would move with the business, subject to this policy.
8. Service Providers We Use
[LIST THEM. Transparency here is cheap and it is increasingly expected. Fill in the ones you actually use:]
- Website hosting: GoDaddy Inc
- Payment processing: [PROVIDER]
- Email and newsletter: [PROVIDER]
- Analytics: [PROVIDER]
- Book distribution: IngramSpark
- Merchandise: Cortland Falls
9. How Long We Keep Information
- Account information: for as long as your account is active, and for [PERIOD] after you close it.
- Purchase records: as long as required for tax, accounting, and legal purposes, typically seven years.
- Founders Club records: for the life of the membership, which is indefinite by design.
- Newsletter subscriptions: until you unsubscribe.
- Analytics data: [PERIOD].
10. Security
We use reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect your information, including encrypted connections and hashed passwords. No system is perfectly secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.
If a breach affects your personal information, we will notify you as required by law.
11. Your Rights
Depending on where you live, you may have the right to:
- Access the personal information we hold about you
- Correct inaccurate information
- Delete your information
- Object to or restrict certain processing
- Receive your information in a portable format
- Withdraw consent at any time
- Opt out of marketing email (every message has an unsubscribe link)
California residents additionally have the right to know what we collect and disclose, to delete it, to correct it, to opt out of sale or sharing (we do neither), and not to be discriminated against for exercising these rights.
EU/UK residents may lodge a complaint with their local data protection authority.
To exercise any of these, contact AegisPublishing@proton.me. We will respond within the timeframe the applicable law requires. We may need to verify your identity first.
One limitation worth stating plainly: if you asked us to print your name in our books as a Founder, we cannot remove it from copies already printed and distributed. We can remove it from future printings.
12. Children
The Site is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. If we learn that we have, we will delete it.
Our books are written for adult readers. See our FAQ for content guidance.
13. International Visitors
We operate in the United States, and your information will be processed there. Privacy laws in the United States may differ from those where you live.
[If you actively market to the EU/UK, a lawyer should look at transfer mechanisms. If you are simply accessible from there, the exposure is lower but not zero.]
14. Third-Party Links
The Site links to other websites, including IngramSpark and Cortland Falls. We are not responsible for their privacy practices. Read their policies before giving them your information.
15. Changes to This Policy
We may update this policy. Changes take effect when posted, with a new date at the top. If a change is material, we will notify you by email or a notice on the Site.
16. Contact Us
Questions about this policy or your information:
AegisPublishing@proton.me ยท 500 N. Rainbow Rd. Ste 300 A, Las Vegas, NV, 89107