Privacy Policy

This privacy policy explains how we use the information we collect about you and the procedures that we have in place to safeguard your privacy whilst you use the Left Book Club website. It was last updated on 10 September 2018.

We will only use the information that we collect about you lawfully, in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998 and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

We may update this policy from time to time. If we do, any changes will be detailed on this page for you to refer to. If you have any questions, or any requests concerning your personal information please contact us at office@leftbookclub.com or alternatively, write to us at:

Left Book Club 

345 Archway Road 

London 

N6 5AA

How We Collect and Use Your Personal Data

The Left Book Club collects certain personal data depending on what activities you engage in while on our website. Examples of these different activities and the data we may collect are listed below:

General use of the website: We use Google Analytics to monitor traffic patterns. As part of this, we may collect information about your geographical location; age and gender; and statistics about your use of the website.
Making a purchase on the website: When you buy a product from our website we require you to create a user account, and we store your name and email address on our user account database, along with details of any purchases or downloads. Please note – we do not store card details on the Left Book Club website. These are stored with our ecommerce supplier, Stripe.
Signing up to our newsletter: If you choose to sign up to our newsletter we will collect your name, email address and IP address.

What we do with the information we gather:

If you have opted in to receive promotional emails via our newsletter, we will use the contact details provided to contact you about new books, authors, events and other developments.
If you make a purchase on the website, we will keep records of your transactions in case of any questions, replacements or refunds, but we will not contact you for promotional and marketing purposes unless you have opted in.
We use the data gathered about your visit(s) to our website in order to improve our functionality and overall user experience

Our Legal Basis for Using Your Personal Data

There are three legal grounds on which we rely to use your personal data. These are listed below:

Contract: When you make a purchase from the Left Book Club website, this constitutes a contract of sorts. In order for us to fulfil our obligations under this contract, we need to collect and process certain information, including payment information (as outlined above).
Legitimate Interests: As a data controller, we rely on our legitimate business interest to process the personal information you provide to us when you use our site or if you contact us, or participate in any survey, competition or similar activity we might run. We will only use your data in ways you would reasonably expect.
Consent: We will only collect or process your personal data, including for marketing purposes, where you have provided active and explicit consent for us to do so.

Disclosure of Personal Data

We will not share your personal data with any third parties unless it is strictly necessary. Those third parties with whom we may share your data are as follows:

Google analytics – in order to monitor site traffic for the purposes of improving the user experience.
Our third party service providers, including Stripe and accredited distributors, to ensure the correct functioning of the website, including the e-commerce system and payment process.
If you sign up to the Left Book Club mailing list, your contact details will be shared with MailChimp.
Our regulators, law enforcement or fraud prevention agencies, as well as our legal advisers, courts and any other authorised bodies, for the purposes of investigating any actual or suspected criminal activity, enforcing our rights or other regulatory or legal matters.

Marketing and Promotional Activity

Where you have provided your explicit consent for us to do so, we may contact you with marketing information about certain products, events, services etc. We will only use the personal information you provide us with in order to provide marketing information that is relevant – in other words, relating to the same or similar services you have previously used.

If you are signed up to the Left Book Club mailing list but no longer want to receive promotional emails from us, simply scroll to the bottom of any email you have received and click ‘unsubscribe from this list’. You will still receive emails from us to confirm any purchases, and there may be instances where it is necessary for us to communicate with you, in any event, for administrative or operational reasons relating to our service.

To change any of your contact details or account settings please log in, click ‘My Account’ and make changes. If you do not want to receive promotional emails from us, simply scroll to the bottom of any email you have received and click ‘unsubscribe from this list’. You will still receive emails from us to confirm any purchases, and there may be instances where it is necessary for us to communicate with you, in any event, for administrative or operational reasons relating to our service.

Security

We endeavour to do our best to protect your personal data. For all personal data we hold, we use strict procedures and security features to prevent unauthorised access. Nonetheless, we cannot guarantee the absolute security of your data transmitted to our site, and any transmission is at your own risk.

In order to have a user account on the Left Book Club website you will be required to create a password. You are responsible for keeping this password confidential and secure. If you forget your password we are able to issue a new one.

All card payments made on the Left Book Club website are handled securely by Stripe (include link), a validated Level 1 PCI DSS Compliant Service Provider.

Storage and Retention

Our website is hosted on servers based in the UK, and our e-commerce platform is hosted on servers based in the USA. Therefore, any personal data we collect relating to your transaction history will be stored in the USA.

We will retain information about you only for the period necessary to fulfil the purposes for which the information was collected.

This retention period may vary depending on the purposes for which the information was collected. For example, the data we collect via Google Analytics will be stored for 50 months; if you have signed up to receive our newsletter we will retain your data indefinitely, until you opt-out.

Please note that in some circumstances we may be legally obliged to retain your information, for example, for tax and accounting purposes.

Your Rights

As a data subject (i.e. someone about whom we collect personal information) you have certain rights. These rights are not universal or absolute, and may vary depending on applicable data protection legislation. Under GDPR, all website users based in the European Union have the following rights:

The right to access personal data held by us about you.
The right to require us to correct any inaccurate data we might hold about you.
The right to require us to erase/delete personal data held by us about you.
The right to restrict our processing of personal data held by us about you.
The right to request and receive – at no financial cost – any and all personal data which you have provided to us in an accessible format.
The right to withdraw your consent to our processing of your personal data, either in specific aspects, or in its totality.

In order to exercise any of these rights, please email us at office@leftbookclub.com.

Should you wish to make a complaint, you may also contact the Information Commissioner’s Office, here.

Cookies Policy

Cookies are small text files placed on your computer or mobile device by websites you visit.

The Left Book Club website uses cookies for a number of purposes: to enable us to simplify the logging in process for registered users, to help ensure the security and authenticity of registered users, and to provide the mechanisms for online shopping. Cookies also help us to analyse data about webpage traffic which we use to improve our website. A cookie in no way gives us access to your computer or any information about you, other than the data that you choose to share with us.

While you do not need to allow your browser to accept cookies in order to use our website, you will need to have cookies enabled if you wish to shop online or access any areas reserved for registered users, such as your account.