Privacy Policy

(Effective July 12, 2022)

Welcome to Pressbooks! We hope you will enjoy and appreciate using our “Services”, which may be: visiting our website at https://pressbooks.com/ (the “Website”); signing up and using the book creation platform for individual authors available at https://pressbooks.pub/ (the “Platform”), where you may purchase a “Subscription” to use the Platform or purchase “Premium Support”; or accessing any other Pressbooks websites or services which may be specified in this Privacy Policy (the “Policy”) from time to time.

Book Oven Inc. d.b.a Pressbooks (the company that owns and operates the Services) takes your privacy and security of personal data very seriously. We have provided and will continue to provide a secure environment and this strict Policy that describes the limited ways your information is used and the limited access to such information. We ask that you read it carefully.

Key Elements of this Policy

Here are the key elements of this Policy needed to make an informed decision about your consent for our collection, use and disclosure of your personal data. By submitting any personal data to us via any means, you consent to such collection, use and disclosure. You can find the details in the rest of the Policy.

Personal Information we collect from you but only with your consent	What we do with it	Third parties we share it with
Newsletter Information (your email address)	Send you our newsletter	Companies that provide our email communications for the newsletter, specifically Mailchimp
Platform Account Information (your email address)	To create a Platform account for you, to communicate with you about your account, and to control your access to the Platform	Companies that provide the infrastructure for the Services, specifically Amazon AWS
Billing Information (your credit card information)	Process your payments for your Subscription or Premium Support	Payment processors, specifically Stripe

Some Terms

Before we really get started, here are a few terms we think you should know as you read this Policy.

“Data Protection Laws” refers to the laws that are designed to protect your personal data and privacy in the place where you live. These include: (1) the “GDPR”, the European data protection law which stands for “General Data Protection Regulation”, with the official name Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council; (2) “PIPEDA” (Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act), which is the Canadian Data Protection Law that applies to our activities in Canada; (3) An Act Respecting the Protection Of Personal Information in the Private Sector (the “Quebec Privacy Act”) which applies to our activities in Quebec; (4) the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) which applies to our activities in the United States in certain circumstances; and (5) the “UK GDPR” which applies to our activities in the United Kingdom; please note that when this Policy refers only to the “GDPR”, this includes the UK GDPR as applicable. Pressbooks is committed to adhering to all these applicable Data Protection laws.

“Personal data” – this is information we collect from you or about you and which is defined in the GDPR as “any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person.” It can be as simple as your name or your email, or something more complicated like an online identifier (usually a string of letters and / or numbers) that gets attached to you. Under PIPEDA, the CCPA and the Quebec Privacy Act, the equivalent concept is “personal information”, which is roughly the same. Any mention of “personal data” in this Policy shall also mean personal information.

About Us and Contacting Us

Book Oven Inc. d.b.a Pressbooks is a registered corporation located in the Province of Quebec, Canada, with an office at the address listed below. Where this Policy refers to “Pressbooks”, it may refer to Book Oven Inc. and / or its affiliates, subsidiaries and parent companies and / or their respective officers, directors, employees, agents, partners, principals, representatives, successors and assigns (collectively “Representatives”), depending on the context. Any reference to “we”, “our”, or “us” in this Policy shall also refer to Pressbooks. In this Policy a Services user may be referred to as “you”.

Under the GDPR, Pressbooks is a “Data Controller”. That means we collect personal data directly from you and determine the purpose and means of “processing” that data. “Processing” is a broad term that means collection, use, storage, transfer or any other action related to your personal data; it is used in this Policy in that way.
If you want to ask us anything about what’s in this Policy, or anything else privacy- or data-related, you can contact us at: privacy@pressbooks.com

or:

5333 Casgrain Ave., Suite 202
Montreal, QC
Canada
H2T 1X3

Data Protection Officer

In addition to the contact information above Pressbooks has designated a Data Protection Officer (DPO) who is responsible for all personal data matters at Pressbooks. If you have a specific complaint or wish to invoke your legal rights under any Data Protection Law, please contact our DPO directly at dpo@pressbooks.com.

Your Rights

You have the following rights regarding your personal data held by Pressbooks, and other rights. Please note that not necessarily all of these rights may be available to you; this depends on the Data Protection Laws where you are located that apply to you. These rights may be exercised without affecting the price you pay for any of the Services, if any.

The right to withdraw at any time your consent for Pressbooks to process your personal data;
The right to have your personal data erased from Pressbooks’ records;
The right to access your personal data and any relevant information around its processing and use;
The right to have a copy of your personal data given to you in an easy to read format so that you can transfer it to another data processor;
The right to have your personal data corrected or updated if you believe it is inaccurate or out of date;
The right to opt out of marketing communications we send you, at any time;
The right to know whether Pressbooks sells or shares your personal data (and if so, who gets it). Please refer to that information elsewhere in this Policy, though you can contact our us if you need additional information or clarifications;
The right to demand that Pressbooks not sell your personal data;
The right to restrict the processing of your personal data if it is inaccurate or if our processing or use of it is against the law; and
The right to refuse any marketing or advertising targeted at you by Pressbooks.

If you wish to exercise any of these rights, please contact us at the contact information above, or refer to the relevant sections further in this Policy.

Please note that if you request erasure of your personal data we shall do it to the extent feasible; however Pressbooks reserves the right to retain some of your personal data for a reasonable time in order to satisfy certain legal obligations or under a legal procedure of any sort. Furthermore, deletion of your personal data may prevent you from using all or a portion of the Services.

Personal Data Collected from You and What We Use It For

In the table below, please find all the personal data we may collect from you directly, what we use it for, and the legal basis under the GDPR for us having and processing this personal data. Under PIPEDA, the CCPA and the Quebec Privacy Act, the legal basis is your informed consent, and by submitting this personal data you acknowledge having granted this consent to Pressbooks.

Personal Information category	Personal Information processed	What we use it for (the “purpose” of processing)	Legal basis for processing under the GDPR
Newsletter information	Your email address	To send you the newsletter	Your consent in giving us this information
Platform Account Information	Your email address and optionally your name	To create an account on the Platform for you, to communicate with you about your account, and control your access to the Platform	Your consent in giving us this information
Support Information	Your email address	Provide support for the Platform when you contact us to request support	Your consent in giving us this information and performance of a contract between you and us
Billing Information	Credit card holder name, credit card number, expiration date, CVV/CVC number and billing address (if required by your credit card agreement)	Process your payments for your Subscription or Premium Support	Performance of a contract between you and us

Where you have provided personal data further to the contract between you and us, if you fail to provide such data or withdraw your consent to use such data, you may no longer be able to access certain of the Services, including the Platform.

Personal Data Collected About You from Third Parties and What We Use It For

Sometimes we get personal data about you from third parties. This table explains the details about this personal data – what it is, where it came from, what we do with it, and legal basis for us having and processing this personal data under the GDPR. Under PIPEDA, the CCPA and the Quebec Privacy Act, the legal basis is your informed consent. None of this data comes from publicly-available sources.

Personal data category	Personal data processed	Who we get the data from	What we use it for (the “purpose” of processing)	Legal basis for processing under the GDPR
Platform Account Information	Your email address, and sometimes additional personal data such as your name, depending on the third-party service	A third-party service (such as Facebook) if you choose to create an account on the Platform via a third-party internet service account	To create an account on the Platform for you	Your consent

To the extent that analytics identifiers and IP addresses are generated by or collected from third parties, these may be considered personal data collected from third parties, and you can find details about that further below in this Policy.

Sensitive Personal Data

We do not collect any of what the GDPR considers sensitive personal data from you, unless you voluntarily submit it to us, which we encourage you not to do.

Who We Transfer Your Personal Data To

We routinely share some of your personal data with certain types of third parties who are identified in the table below along with what they do with it. Please note that some of those third-party recipients may be based outside your home jurisdiction. If you are in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom— please see the “Transfer of Your Personal Data Outside of the European Economic Area” further down in this Policy for more information including on how we safeguard your personal data when this occurs.

We will share personal data with law enforcement or other public authorities if: (1) we are required by applicable law in response to lawful requests, including to meet national security or law enforcement requirements; (2) if we believe it is necessary in order to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities, fraud, or situations involving potential threats to the safety of any person, or any violation of any Pressbooks Services Terms of Use or Terms and Conditions; or (3) if we believe it is necessary to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding situations that involve abuse of the Services infrastructure or the Internet in general (such as voluminous spamming, denial of service attacks, or attempts to compromise the security of the Services infrastructure or the Services generally).

We may also share personal data: (1) to a parent company, subsidiaries, joint ventures, or other companies under common control with Pressbooks (in which case we will require such entities to honour this Policy); (2) if Pressbooks merges with another entity, is subject to a corporate reorganization, sells or transfers all or part of its business, assets or shares (in which case we will require such entity to assume our obligations under this Policy, or inform you that you are covered by a new privacy policy).

We will never share your personal data with other third parties except under these circumstances. We do not sell or rent your personal data to any third party for direct marketing purposes or any other purpose.

Personal data category	Who we transfer it to	What they do with it
Newsletter Information	Mailchimp	Send you the newsletter
Platform Account Information	Companies that provide email services, such as MailgunCompanies that provide the infrastructure for the Services, specifically Amazon Web Services (AWS)	Send you emailsStore it to facilitate your logging-in to the Platform
Support Information	Companies that help us manage our support services, specifically Zendesk	Store it so that we may retrieve it to communicate with you about your support request, and keep records of the progress of your support request
Billing Information	Payment processing companies, particularly Stripe	Process the payments for your purchase of a Subscription or Premium Support
Analytics identifiers and IP addresses	Companies that provide data analytics, specifically Google Analytics	Provide us with analytics as to how the Services are used and to trace fraudulent activities, as further detailed in the Limited Gathering of Information section below

Limited Gathering of Information for Statistical, Analytical and Security Purposes

Pressbooks automatically collects certain information using the “Third-Party Analytics Program” Google Analytics to help us understand how our users use the Services, but none of this information identifies you personally, except via an alphanumeric string. For example, each time you visit the Website or log in to the Platform, we automatically collect (as applicable) your IP address, browser and computer or device type, access times, the web page from which you came, the web page(s) or content you access, and other related information. We use information collected in this manner only to better understand your needs and the needs of Services Users in the aggregate. Pressbooks also makes use of information gathered for statistical purposes to keep track of the number of visits to the Website and Platform, the specific pages on the Website and Platform, and users with a view to introducing improvements to the Services.

Your IP address and other relevant information we collect using the Third-Party Analytics Program may be used in order to trace any fraudulent or criminal activity, or any activity in violation of any applicable Pressbooks Terms of Use.

Pressbooks also makes use of the Third-Party Analytics Program Koko Analytics, but absolutely no transfer of personal data occurs to or from Koko Analytics.

Email Communications and Compliance with Anti-Spam Laws

Pressbooks uses Mailchimp to manage our mailing list and send out our newsletter, and Mailgun to send out emails related to various Platform functions (Mailchimp and Mailgun, together the “Email Service Providers”). Personal data (your email address) is transferred to the Email Service Providers in order to manage the mailing list and for the emails to be sent out properly. Your personal data is only used to send out emails; the Email Service Providers do not use this personal data for any other purpose, and will not transfer or sell your personal data to any other third party. For more information, please refer to Mailchimp’s Privacy Policy and Mailgun’s Privacy Policy.

You may unsubscribe from Pressbooks’ mailing list at any time by following the link at the bottom of all Pressbooks emails. Other types of emails, such as transactional, relational, and other emails related to certain Platform functions will not have an opt-out option as they are necessary for the use of the Platform.

Pressbooks’ practices in regards to its email are designed to be compliant with anti-spam laws, including the American CAN-SPAM Act and the law unofficially called “CASL”, or Canada’s Anti-Spam Law (S.C. 2010, c. 23). If you believe you have received email in violation of these laws or any other anti-spam law, please contact us using the contact information further up in this Policy.

Tracking Technology (“Cookies” and Related Technologies)

This section summarizes the use of tracking technologies in the Services. For more detailed information, please refer to our Cookie Policy.

Pressbooks uses tracking technology (“cookies” and related technology such as tags, pixels and web beacons) in the Services and by interacting with the Services you agree to their use. Cookies are small text files placed on your computer or device when you visit a website or use an online service, in order to track use of the site or service and to improve the user experience by storing certain data on your computer or device.

Specifically, we use cookies and related technologies for the following functions:

to enable your logging-in to the Platform;
to provide general internal and user analytics on the Website and Platform and to conduct research to improve the content of the Website and Platform using the analytics program as described above in this Policy;
to facilitate payment processing for your Subscription or Premium Support; and
to assist in identifying possible fraudulent activities.

Your browser or device can be set to refuse cookies or delete them after they have been stored. You can refer to your browser’s or device’s help section for instructions, but here are instructions for the most commonly-used browsers and operating systems:

Please note that deleting or blocking certain cookies may reduce your user experience by requiring you to re-enter certain information, including information required to use certain of the Services. Furthermore, deleting certain cookies may prevent certain functions, or the entirety of the Platform, from working at all.

How We Protect Your Personal Data

We have implemented very strict technical and organisational procedures for ensuring that, by default, only personal data which are necessary for each specific purpose of the processing are processed by us. These procedures prevent your personal data from being lost; or used or accessed in any unauthorised way.

We also have procedures in place to deal with any suspected data security breach. We will notify you and any applicable supervisory authority of a suspected data security breach where the Data Protection Laws requires us to do so, and within the time frame required by the applicable Data Protection Law.

Pressbooks uses only industry best practices (physical, electronic and procedural) in keeping any data collected (including personal data) secure. In addition, we use third-party vendors and hosting partners to provide the necessary hardware, software, networking, storage, and related technology required to operate the Services, and these third parties have been selected for their high standards of security, both electronic and physical. For example, Pressbooks uses vendors such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), a recognized leader in secure data, for hosting of the Services and related data, and storage of data including personal data.

All information, including personal data, is transferred with encryption using Secure Sockets Layer (“SSL”) or Transport Layer Security (“TLS”), robust security standards for Internet data transfer and transactions. You can use your browser to check Pressbooks’ valid SSL security certificates on the Website and Platform.

Transfer of Your Personal Data Outside of the European Economic Area (EEA) and the United Kingdom (U.K.)

For our European users, we endeavour to keep your personal data inside the EEA or the U.K. (as applicable). However, certain of our data processors (and Pressbooks) are in other countries where your personal data may be transferred. However, these countries are limited to countries with particular circumstances that protect your data, specifically:

Canada. Canada has been determined to have an “adequate level of protection” for your personal data under European data protection law.
The United States. Your personal data is only transferred to companies in the United States that: (1) have signed agreements with us or have informed us that they are GDPR-compliant; and (2) have concluded the Standard Contractual Clauses for the transfer of personal data outside the EEA or the U.K.

That’s it! You have the right, however, to refuse to have your data transferred outside the EEA or the U.K. Please contact our privacy officer to make that request. Please note that making this request may prevent you from being able to use a portion or all of the Services, though we will make every attempt to ensure this is not the case.

Supervisory Authorities and Complaints

If you are in the EEA or the U.K., under the GDPR you have the right to make a complaint to the appropriate supervisory authority. If you are not satisfied with the response received or the actions taken by our privacy team or DPO, or if you would like to make a complaint directly about Pressbooks’ data practises, we invite you to contact the supervisory authority in your country. If you are in the U.K., you should contact the Information Commissioner’s Office who is the supervisory authority. You can reach them in a variety of ways, including by phone (0303 123 1113 in the UK) and mail (Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF). If you are in France, you should contact the ComPressbooks Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés who is the supervisory authority there. Their contact information can be found here.

The full listing of all Data Protection Authorities (the supervisory authorities) across the EEA can be found here.

If you are in Canada and you are not satisfied with the response received or the actions taken by our Privacy Officer, you can make a complaint to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada. Instructions on how to do so can be found on their website. In Quebec you can make a complaint to the Commission d’accès à l’information du Québec with information found on their website.

Data Retention

Your personal data will only be kept for as long as it is necessary for the purpose needed for that processing. For example, we will retain your Platform Account Information only for as long as you have an account with us to use the Platform.

We may have to keep your data for a longer period of time to satisfy our requirements under any applicable law.

Automated Decision-Making

Pressbooks does not use any automated decision-making processes in providing the Services.

Children’s Privacy Statement

The Services are not intended for children under the age of 16. We do not knowingly collect any personal data from a child under 16. If we become aware that we have inadvertently received personal data from a person under the age of 16 through the Services, we will delete such information from our records.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

The date at the top of this page indicates when this Policy was last updated. Every now and then, we will have to update this Policy, and we will update it no less than once every 12 months. You can always find the most updated version at this URL, and we will always post a notice on our Website and Platform if we make big changes. If you have a Pressbooks account to use the Platform or any other Pressbooks service, we will also email you to tell you the Policy has been updated, and what the important changes are.

Thanks for reading! Please keep your personal data safe; we promise to do the same.

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