The Open Access Publisher and Free Library

Privacy Policy

 Privacy Policy

Last Updated: October, 2022

Read-Me.Org (“We” or “Us”) respect your privacy and are committed to protecting it through our compliance with this policy.

This online Privacy Policy (“Policy”) describes how we collect, share, use, and protect information when you visit https://read-me.org/ (the “Website”).

The Policy does not apply to information collected by any third party including through any application or content (including advertising) that may link to or be accessible from or on the Website.  

Please read this Policy carefully to understand our policies and practices regarding your information and how we will treat it. If you do not agree with our policies and practices, your choice is to not use our Website. By accessing or using the Website, you agree to this Policy. This Policy may change from time to time (see Changes to Our Privacy Policy). Your continued use of this Website after we make changes is deemed to be an acceptance of the updated Policy. Please check the Policy periodically for updates.

This Policy applies to information we collect:

  • On the Website.

  • In email, text, and other electronic messages between you Us or through the Website.

  • From our affiliates, any of our service providers or your selected providers (collectively “Business Partners”), collected to provide our services to you (“Services”).

  • When you contact us.

It does not apply to information collected by any third party including through any application or content (including advertising) that may link to or be accessible from our Website.

Information We Collect and How We Collect It

We collect different types of information from and about users of our Website. Through the use of our Website, we may collect (the below collectively, “Your Information”):

·       Personal Identifiable Information: By which you may be personally identified, including but not limited to name, email address, mailing address, and any person information you choose to provide or is contained in files that you choose to upload onto the Website (“Personal Information”).

·       Aggregate Data: We may collect data that is about you but individually does not identify you, such as statistical information and analytic data relating to our Website usage.

We collect information: 

  • Directly from you when you provide it to us such as when subscribe or fill out a submission form.

  • When you correspond with us, such as records or copies of correspondence (including email addresses) if you contact us.

We may use Your Information for the following purposes:

  • To present our Website and its content to you.

  • To provide you with information, products, or services that you request from us.

  • For the performance of a contract, including to carry out our obligations and enforce our rights arising from any contracts entered into between you and us.

  • To contact you by email regarding updates or informative communications.

  • To provide customer support.

  • To detect, prevent, and address technical issues and to improve our Website and services.

  • To prevent and detect criminal and/or fraudulent activity that would be damaging to you and us.

  • To notify you about changes to our Website or any products or services we offer or provide though it.

  • In any other way we may describe when you provide the information.

  • To fulfill any other purpose for which you provide it.

  • For any other purpose with your consent.

Please be aware that if you are submitting publications, the information contained therein will be published or displayed (hereinafter, "posted") on public areas of the Website, or transmitted to other users of the Website or third parties (collectively, "User Contributions"). Your User Contributions are posted on and transmitted to others at your own risk. Additionally, we cannot control the actions of other users of the Website. Therefore, we cannot and do not guarantee that your User Contributions will not be viewed by unauthorized persons or not used in unintended ways. Read-Me.org has no obligation to review your submissions prior to posting to determine whether it contains personally identifiable information. Any inclusion of such personally identifiable information is at your own risk.

Donation Information:

When you donate online to Us, if you are using a credit card, you must submit your name, credit card number, expiration code, and CVC and billing information for credit card verification purposes. This information allows our third party credit card processor, to process and fulfill your donation. The payment information you provide is transmitted securely by encryption. We do not have access to your credit card number or other information required for donations, and your sharing of such information is governed by the applicable privacy policy and terms of use of the third party payment processor.

Technologies Used for Automatic Data Collection

Cookies:

We may use “cookies” to collect certain information, to ensure that you get the most out of our Website. A cookie is a file stored on your computer or device to uniquely identify your browser or to store information or settings on your computer or device. For example, when you visit our Website again, the cookie allows the Website to recognize your browser. Cookies allow us to monitor usage of the Website, improve the Website’s usability, and to personalize the content for you.

If you do not wish to receive cookies for these purposes, you may change the settings on your internet browser to reject cookies. Please note that if you do set your browser to reject cookies, you may not be able to use all of the features of our Website. Unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies when you direct your browser to our Website. 

Third Party Cookies and Tracking Technologies:

Third party service providers that we partner with may also place their own cookies on your device. This includes Squarespace, our website hosting company. These third parties may use cookies alone or in conjunction with web beacons or other tracking technologies to collect information about you. The information that they collect may be associated with your Personal Information or your device (such as IP address), or they may collect information, including Personal Information, about your online activities over time and across different websites and other online services. We do not control these third parties’ tracking technologies or how they may be used. Note that this Privacy Policy covers only our use of cookies and does not include use of cookies by any third parties.

Google Analytics:

Google Analytics is a web analytics website offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic. Google uses the data collected to track and monitor the use of our Website. This data is shared with other Google websites.  Google may use the collected data to contextualize and personalize the ads of its own advertising network.

You can opt-out of having made your activity on the Website available to Google Analytics by installing the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on.  The add-on prevents the Google Analytics JavaScript (ga.js, analytics.js and dc.js) from sharing information with Google Analytics about visit activity. For more information on the privacy practices of Google, please visit the Google Privacy Terms web page https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en  

Third Party Links

Our Website may link to external sites that are not operated by us, including social media websites and applications, that are operated by third parties. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of any third party, including any third party with whom we have an affiliation or business relationship with. We do not control and do not accept any liability or responsibility for those websites and this Privacy Policy does not apply to those websites. Please consult the terms and conditions and privacy policies of those external websites to find out how they collect and use Your Information and to establish whether they use cookies and what they use them for.

We may receive some information that you submit to a third-party website or application that you access through our Website.

How We Use Your Information

We use, or may use in the future, Your Information, including any Personal Information:

  • To subscribe you to our updates.

  • To receive and publish your written submissions.

  • To verify your identity.

  • To respond to requests and communicate with you.

  • To present our Website content to you.

  • To provide you with information that you request from us.

  • To fulfill any other purpose for which you provide it.

  • To notify you about changes to our Website.

  • To allow you to participate in interactive features on our Website.

  • To prevent and detect criminal and/or fraudulent activity.

  • To comply with and enforce applicable legal requirements, relevant industry standards, contractual obligations and our policies; and

  • For any other purpose with your consent.

We do not sell or rent your Personal Information .

Disclosure of Your Information

We may disclose aggregated information about our users and information that does not identify any individual, without restriction.

We may disclose Personal Information that we collect, or you provide as described in this Policy:

  • To our subsidiaries and affiliates.

  • To contractors, service providers, and other third parties we partner with to provide our services or we use to support our business.

  • To a buyer or other successor in the event of a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of our assets, whether as going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding, in which Personal Information or information held by us about our users is among the assets transferred.

  • To fulfill the purpose for which you provide it. For example, if you provide us with an email address for us to contact you, we will transmit the contents of that request and contact you.

  • For any other purpose disclosed by us when you provide the information.

  • For any other purpose with your consent.

We may also disclose your personal information:

  • To comply with any court order, law, or legal process, including to respond to any government or regulatory request.

  • To enforce our agreements or applicable contracts or other legal documentation, including our Terms of Use.

  • If we believe disclosure is necessary or appropriate to protect the rights, property, or safety of our customers, our organization, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organizations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction.

Choices About How We Use and Disclose Your Information

We strive to provide you with choices regarding the personal information you provide to us. We have created mechanisms to provide you with the following control over your information:

  • ·Tracking Technologies and Advertising. You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when cookies are being sent. To learn how you can manage your Flash cookie settings, visit the Flash player settings page on Adobe's website. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of this site may then be inaccessible or not function properly.

  • ·Emails From Us. If you do not wish to have your email address or contact information to be used to receive updates, you can opt-out by sending us an email stating your request to harrowbooks@aol.com or by hitting the unsubscribe button at the bottom of an email.

    We do not control third parties' collection or use of your information to serve interest-based advertising. However, these third parties may provide you with ways to choose not to have your information collected or used in this way.

Accessing or Correcting Your Information

You may also send us an email at harrowbooks@aol.com to request access to, correct or delete any Personal Information that you have provided to us. We may not accommodate a request to change information if we believe the change would violate any law or legal requirement or cause the information to be incorrect.

European General Data Privacy Regulation (“EU GDPR”) and United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation (“UK GDPR”) (Collectively “GDPR”):

If you are a resident of the European Union (EU) or United Kingdom (UK), you have certain data protection rights under the European or United Kingdom’s GDPR.

Special Category Data;

We do not collect any Personal Data about you that is identified under GDPR as special category data. Special category data includes details about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sexual orientation, personal or political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health, and genetic and biometric data. We also do not collect any information about criminal convictions and offenses.  If we learn that we have collected such Personal Data, we will take steps to delete the data as soon as possible.

Legal Basis for Processing Personal Data Under GDPR

To process your Personal Data, we must have a legal basis for doing so. We may process your Personal Data under the following conditions:

·      Consent: You have given your consent for processing Personal Data for one or more specific purposes.

·      Performance of a contract: The Personal Data is necessary for the performance of an agreement with you and/or for any pre-contractual obligations thereof.

·      Legal obligations: Processing Personal Data is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which the Company is subject.

·      Vital interests: Processing Personal Data is necessary in order to protect your vital interests or of another natural person.

·      Public interests: Processing Personal Data is related to a task that is carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the Company.

·      Legitimate interests: Processing Personal Data is necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by the Company.

Your Data Protection Rights Under GDPR

In certain circumstances, you have the following data protection rights with respect to the Personal Data that we collect and process:

·      The Right to Request Access.  You have the right to access, update, or delete the information we have about you.

·      The Right of Rectification.  You have the right to have any incomplete or inaccurate information we hold about you corrected.

·      The Right to Object.  You have the right to object to our processing of your Personal Data.

·      The Right to Restrict Processing.  You have the right to request that we restrict the processing of your Personal Data.  

·      The Right of Erasure.  In certain circumstances, you have the right to ask us to remove or delete your Personal Data.

·      The Right to be Forgotten. You have the right to request that we delete your Personal Data, in certain situations.

·      The Right to Transfer.  Upon request we will provide you (or a third-party you have chosen) the Personal Data we have collected about you.  Your Personal Data will be provided in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format.  Please note that this right only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the Personal Data to perform a contract with you.

·      Withdraw Your Consent.  You have the right to withdraw your consent at any time where we relied on your consent to process your Personal Data.

Data Transfers outside of the European Economic Area (“EEA”) or United Kingdom (“UK”):

We are based in the United States of America. We may process, store, and transfer the Personal Data we collect, in and to a country outside your own, with different privacy laws that may or may not be as comprehensive as your own, including the United States of America. By submitting your Personal Data or engaging with our Websites, you consent to this transfer, storing, or processing.

Exercising Your Rights Under GDPR

You may exercise any of the rights enumerated above by contacting us at harrowbooks@aol.com. Please note that we may ask you to verify your identity before responding to such requests. 

You also have the right to complain to a Data Protection Authority about our collection and use of your Personal Data.  For more information, please contact your local data protection authority in the European Economic Area. You can find their contact details here: http://ec.europa.eu/justice/data-protection/bodies/authorities/index_en.htm

California’s Shine the Light Law:

California Civil Code § 1798.83 permits Users that are residents of California to request the following information regarding our disclosure of their Personal Data to third parties for those third parties’ direct marketing purposes: (i) a list of certain categories of Personal Data that we have disclosed to certain third parties for their direct marketing purposes during the immediately preceding calendar year; (ii) the identity of certain third parties that received Personal Data from us for their direct marketing purposes during that calendar year; and (iii) where the nature of the third parties’ business is not reasonably determinable, examples of the products or services marketed (if we have that information).  If you are a California resident and would like to make such a request, please email us atharrowbooks@aol.com.

“Do Not Track” Policy as Required by California Online Privacy Protection Act (CalOPPA):

The Website does not respond to or support Do Not Track (“DNT”) signals. 

Do Not Track is a preference you can set in your web browser to inform websites you do not want to be tracked.  You can enable or disable DNT by visiting the preferences or settings page of your web browser.

Privacy of Children Under the Age of 13

We do not aim any of our products or services directly at children under the age of 13, and we do not knowingly collect Personal Information about children under 13. If you are under 13, do not use or provide any information on this Website. If we learn we have collected or received Personal Information from a child under 13 without verification of parental consent, we will delete that information. If you believe we might have any information from or about a child under 13, please contact us at harrowbooks@aol.com.

Changes to This Policy

At our discretion, we may change our Privacy Policy at any time for any reason, including but not limited to reflect updates to our business processes, current acceptable practices, or legislative or regulatory changes. If we decide to change this Privacy Policy, we will post the new Privacy Policy on this page.

If required by law, we will get your permission or give you the opportunity to opt in to or opt out of, as applicable, any new uses of your Personal Information. The date the Policy was last revised is identified at the top of the page. You are responsible for ensuring we have an up-to-date active and deliverable email address for you, and for periodically visiting our Website and this Policy to check for any changes.

Contact Us

For any questions or concerns regarding your privacy or this Policy, you may contact us at: harrowbooks@aol.com