Privacy Policy

Books & Clubs is operated by Bleu Hill Holdings LLC ("we," "us," or "our"). We are committed to protecting your privacy and being transparent about how we collect, use, and share your information. This Privacy Policy applies to all users of the Books & Clubs platform, accessible at booksandclubs.app and through our mobile applications.

By creating an account or using Books & Clubs, you agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy. Books & Clubs is intended for users who are 18 years of age or older. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18.

Account & Identity Information

When you create an account, we collect your email address, username, display name, bio, and password. Passwords are encrypted and never stored in plaintext. We also record your account creation date and last login.

Reader Information

As you use the platform, we collect information about your reading activity, including your personal library contents (book titles, authors, reading status, ratings, and notes), favorite genres, favorite books, reading statistics, club memberships, club messages, and your followers and following relationships.

Author Information

Authors who apply for verification and create author profiles provide additional information, including their author bio, genres they write in, website URL, and social media profile URLs (TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, X/Twitter, Amazon Author Page, Goodreads). Authors also provide information about their books (titles, descriptions, genres, buy links, and cover images), ARC team details (team name, description, reader limits, deadlines, screening questions, and uploaded ARC files in PDF or EPUB format), pen name information, and the content of posts and announcements published on their profiles.

Author Verification Information

When authors apply for verification, we collect the proof links, website URLs, published book links, and any additional information submitted as part of the verification request.

ARC Team Information

For ARC (Advance Reader Copy) teams, we collect application responses submitted by readers, NDA agreement acknowledgments, application status, review completion status, and messages exchanged within ARC team chats and direct messages between authors and readers.

Pen Name Information

Authors who create pen names provide a display name, username, bio, genres, social media links, and visibility preferences for each pen name.

Payment Information

When you subscribe to a paid plan, we collect your subscription plan type, billing interval, and Stripe customer and subscription identifiers. All payment card information is processed directly by Stripe. Books & Clubs never sees, stores, or has access to your full card number, CVV, or billing address.

Usage & Technical Information

We automatically collect certain technical information when you use our platform, including your device type, browser type, IP address, pages visited, features used, search queries entered, and performance data. This information is collected to maintain and improve the platform.

Communications

We retain records of emails sent to you (such as welcome emails and notifications), messages you send within book clubs, ARC team group chats, and direct messages between authors and readers.

We use the information we collect to:

• —Create and manage your account and profile
• —Provide personalized book recommendations based on your genres and reading history
• —Operate book clubs, ARC teams, and social features
• —Process subscription payments and manage your plan
• —Send transactional emails including welcome messages, notifications, and account updates
• —Verify author identities and manage author profiles and pen names
• —Enable communication between authors and readers within the platform
• —Monitor and improve platform performance, security, and reliability
• —Enforce our Terms of Service and community guidelines
• —Comply with applicable laws and legal obligations

We do not sell your personal information to third parties. We share your information only in the following circumstances:

Service Providers

We share information with trusted third-party service providers who help us operate the platform. These providers are contractually bound to protect your information and may only use it to perform services on our behalf:

• —Supabase — database hosting, user authentication, and file storage
• —Stripe — payment processing and subscription management
• —Resend — transactional email delivery
• —Vercel — website hosting, deployment, and performance analytics

Public Profile Information

Information you choose to make public — such as your display name, bio, author profile, books, posts, and club activity — is visible to other users of the platform. You control your privacy settings and can make your profile private at any time.

Legal Requirements

We may disclose your information if required by law, court order, or government authority, or if we believe disclosure is necessary to protect the rights, property, or safety of Books & Clubs, our users, or the public.

Business Transfers

If Books & Clubs or Bleu Hill Holdings LLC is involved in a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, your information may be transferred as part of that transaction. We will notify you of any such change and your continued use of the platform constitutes acceptance of the updated terms.

We retain your personal information for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide our services. If you delete your account, we will delete your personal information within 30 days, except where we are required to retain it for legal, regulatory, or legitimate business purposes such as resolving disputes or enforcing agreements.

ARC files (PDFs and EPUBs) uploaded by authors are stored securely and deleted upon request or when the associated ARC team is deleted.

Depending on your location, you may have the following rights regarding your personal information:

• —Access — request a copy of the personal information we hold about you
• —Correction — request that we correct inaccurate or incomplete information
• —Deletion — request that we delete your personal information
• —Portability — request a copy of your data in a portable format
• —Objection — object to certain types of processing, including marketing
• —Restriction — request that we restrict processing of your information in certain circumstances
• —Withdrawal of consent — withdraw consent at any time where processing is based on consent

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at privacy@booksandclubs.com. We will respond to your request within 30 days. We may ask you to verify your identity before fulfilling your request.

California Residents (CCPA)

California residents have the right to know what personal information we collect, disclose, and sell (we do not sell personal information), the right to delete personal information, and the right not to be discriminated against for exercising these rights.

European Users (GDPR)

If you are located in the European Economic Area (EEA), United Kingdom, or Switzerland, you have rights under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Our legal basis for processing your information includes performance of a contract (providing our services), legitimate interests (improving and securing the platform), consent (where explicitly provided), and compliance with legal obligations. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority.

We take the security of your personal information seriously. We implement industry-standard technical and organizational measures to protect your data, including encrypted data transmission (HTTPS), encrypted password storage, row-level security on our database, access controls limiting who can access your data, and regular security monitoring.

While we take every precaution, no method of transmission over the internet or electronic storage is 100% secure. We cannot guarantee absolute security and encourage you to use a strong, unique password and protect your account credentials.

Books & Clubs uses essential cookies and local storage to maintain your login session and preferences. We use Vercel Analytics to collect anonymous performance and usage data to help us improve the platform. We do not use third-party advertising cookies or track you across other websites.

You can control cookie settings through your browser preferences. Disabling essential cookies may affect your ability to use certain features of the platform.

The platform may contain links to third-party websites including Amazon, Goodreads, and author social media profiles. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of these sites. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of any third-party sites you visit.

Books & Clubs is operated from the United States. If you are accessing our platform from outside the United States, your information may be transferred to, stored, and processed in the United States or other countries where our service providers operate. By using our platform, you consent to this transfer. We take steps to ensure that your data receives an adequate level of protection regardless of where it is processed.

Books & Clubs is intended for users who are 18 years of age or older. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If we become aware that we have collected personal information from a person under 18, we will take immediate steps to delete that information and terminate the associated account. If you believe a minor has created an account, please contact us at privacy@booksandclubs.com.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technology, or legal requirements. When we make material changes, we will notify you by email and by posting a notice on the platform. Your continued use of Books & Clubs after the effective date of the updated policy constitutes your acceptance of the changes.

If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us: