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Privacy Notice

AbeBooks Privacy Notice

Last Updated: June 30, 2020.

We know that you care how information about you is used and shared, and we appreciate your trust that we will do so carefully and sensibly. This Privacy Notice describes how AbeBooks.com and its affiliates (collectively "AbeBooks") collect and process your personal information through AbeBooks websites services, and online stores that reference this Privacy Notice (together "AbeBooks Services"). By using AbeBooks Services, you are consenting to the practices described in this Privacy Notice.

What Personal Information About Customers Does AbeBooks Collect?
For What Purposes Does AbeBooks Use Your Personal Information?
What About Cookies and Other Identifiers?
Does AbeBooks Share Your Personal Information?
How Secure Is Information About Me?
What About Advertising?
What Information Can I Access?
What Choices Do I Have?
Are Children Allowed to Use AbeBooks Services?
California Consumer Privacy Act
Conditions of Use, Notices and Revisions
Related Practices & Information
Examples of Information Collected

What Personal Information About Customers Does AbeBooks Collect?

We collect your personal information in order to provide and continually improve our products and services.

Here are the types of personal information we collect:

Information You Give Us:We receive and store any information you provide in relation to AbeBooks Services. Click here to see examples of what we collect. You can choose not to provide certain information, but then you might not be able to take advantage of many of our AbeBooks Services.
Automatic Information: We automatically collect and store certain types of information about your use of AbeBooks Services, including information about your interaction with content and services available through AbeBooks Services. Like many websites, we use "cookies" and other unique identifiers, and we obtain certain types of information when your web browser or device accesses AbeBooks Services and other content served by or on behalf of AbeBooks on other websites. Click here to see examples of what we collect.
Information from Other Sources:We might receive information about you from other sources, such as updated delivery and address information from our carriers, which we use to correct our records and deliver your next purchase more easily. Click here to see additional examples of the information we receive.

For What Purposes Does AbeBooks Use Your Personal Information?

We use your personal information to operate, provide, develop, and improve the products and services that we offer our customers. These purposes include:

Purchase and delivery of products and services. We use your personal information to take and handle orders, deliver products and services, process payments, and communicate with you about orders, products and services, and promotional offers.
Provide, troubleshoot, and improve AbeBooks Services. We use your personal information to provide functionality, analyze performance, fix errors, and improve the usability and effectiveness of the AbeBooks Services.
Recommendations and personalization. We use your personal information to recommend features, products, and services that might be of interest to you, identify your preferences, and personalize your experience with AbeBooks Services.
Provide voice and image services. When you use our voice and image services, we use your voice input, images, videos, and other personal information to respond to your requests, provide the requested service to you, and improve our services.
Comply with legal obligations. In certain cases, we collect and use your personal information to comply with laws. For instance, we collect information from sellers regarding place of establishment and bank account information for identity verification and other purposes.
Communicate with you. We use your personal information to communicate with you in relation to AbeBooks Services via different channels (e.g., by phone, e-mail, chat).
Advertising. We use your personal information to display interest-based ads for features, products, and services that might be of interest to you. We do not use information that personally identifies you to display interest-based ads. To learn more, please read our Interest-Based Ads notice.
Fraud Prevention and Credit Risks. We use personal information to prevent and detect fraud and abuse in order to protect the security of our customers, our sellers, AbeBooks, and others. We may also use scoring methods to assess and manage credit risks.

What About Cookies and Other Identifiers?

To enable our systems to recognize your browser or device and to provide and improve AbeBooks Services, we use cookies and other identifiers. For more information about cookies and how we use them, please read our Cookies Notice.

Information about our customers is an important part of our business, and we are not in the business of selling our customers' personal information to others. AbeBooks shares customers' personal information only as described below, with our Affiliates, and with our parent corporation Amazon.com, Inc. and the subsidiaries it controls that are either subject to this Privacy Notice or follow practices at least as protective as those described in this Privacy Notice.

Buying and Selling on AbeBooks: If you purchase or sell products via the AbeBooks websites, we will transmit your personal data to the respective contractual partner (buyer or seller) for the purpose of processing the contract. If you sell products via partner companies (including those not controlled by AbeBooks), in individual cases it can be necessary that we also transmit your personal data to these companies for the purpose of selling your products.
Third-Party Service Providers: We employ other companies and individuals to perform functions on our behalf. Examples include fulfilling orders for products, sending postal mail and e-mail, removing repetitive information from customer lists, analyzing data, providing marketing assistance, providing search results and links (including paid listings and links), processing payments, transmitting content, scoring, assessing and managing credit risk, and providing customer service. These third-party service providers have access to personal information needed to perform their functions, but may not use it for other purposes.
Promotional Offers: Sometimes, we may send offers to selected groups of AbeBooks customers on behalf of other businesses. When we do this, we don't give that business your name and address.
Business Transfers: As we continue to develop our business, we might sell or buy other businesses or services. In such transactions, customer information generally is one of the transferred business assets but remains subject to the promises made in any pre-existing Privacy Notice (unless, of course, the customer consents otherwise). Also, in the unlikely event that AbeBooks Inc. or substantially all of its assets are acquired, customer information will of course be one of the transferred assets.
Protection of AbeBooks and Others: We release account and other personal information when we believe release is appropriate to comply with the law; enforce or apply our Terms and Conditions and other agreements; or protect the rights, property, or safety of AbeBooks, our users, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organizations for fraud protection and credit risk reduction.

Other than as set out above, you will receive notice when personal information about you might be shared with third parties, and you will have an opportunity to choose not to share the information.

How Secure Is Information About Me?

We design our systems with your security and privacy in mind.

We work to protect the security of your personal information during transmission by using encryption protocols and software.
We follow the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) when handling credit card data.
We maintain physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards in connection with the collection, storage, and disclosure of personal customer information. Our security procedures mean that we may occasionally request proof of identity before we disclose personal information to you.
It is important for you to protect against unauthorized access to your password and to your computers and devices. Be sure to sign off when you finish using a shared computer or device.

What About Advertising?

Third Party Advertisers and Links to Other Websites: AbeBooks Services may include third-party advertising and links to other websites and apps. Third party advertising partners may collect information about you when you interact with their content, advertising, and services. For more information about third-party advertising at AbeBooks, including interest-based ads, please read our Interest-Based Ads policy.
Use of Third Party Advertising Services: We provide ad companies with information that allows them to serve you with more useful and relevant AbeBooks ads and to measure their effectiveness. We never share your name or other information that directly identifies you when we do this. Instead, we use an advertising identifier like a cookie or other device identifier. For example, if you purchase a product, we will share your advertising identifier and data about that event. Some ad companies use this information to serve you relevant ads from AbeBooks and other advertisers. You can learn more about how to opt-out of interest-based advertising by going to the Interest-Based Ads page.

Which Information Can I Access?

You can access your information, including your name, address, payment options, profile information, and purchase history in the "My Account" section of the website. Click here for a list of examples of information that you can access.

What Choices Do I Have?

If you have any questions as to how we collect and use your personal information, please contact our Customer Service. Many of our AbeBooks Services also include settings that provide you with options as to how your information is being used.

As described above, you can choose not to provide certain information, but then you might not be able to take advantage of many of the AbeBooks Services.
You can add or update certain information on pages such as those referenced in What Information Can I Access? When you update information, we usually keep a copy of the prior version for our records.
If you do not want to receive e-mail or other communications from us, please contact privacy@abebooks.com.
The Help feature on most browsers and devices will tell you how to prevent your browser or device from accepting new cookies or other identifiers, how to have the browser notify you when you receive a new cookie, or how to block cookies altogether. Because cookies and identifiers allow you to take advantage of some essential features of AbeBooks Services, we recommend that you leave them turned on. For instance, if you block or otherwise reject our cookies, you will not be able to add items to your Shopping Cart, proceed to Checkout, or use any Services that require you to Sign in. For more information about cookies and other identifiers, see our Cookies Notice.
If you want to browse our websites without linking the browsing history to your account, you may do so by logging out of your account here and blocking cookies on your browser.
Most devices provide users with the ability to change device permissions (e.g., disable/access location services, contacts). For most devices, these controls are located in the device's settings menu. If you have questions about how to change your device permissions on devices manufactured by third parties, we recommend you contact your mobile service carrier or your device manufacturer.
If you are a seller, you can add or update certain information in "My account", update your account information and adjust your marketplace profile.

In addition, to the extent required by applicable law, you may have the right to request access to or delete your personal data. If you wish to do any of these things, please contact Customer Service. Depending on your data choices, certain services may be limited or unavailable.

Are Children Allowed to Use AbeBooks Services?

AbeBooks does not sell products for purchase by children. We sell children's products for purchase by adults. If you are under 18, you may use AbeBooks only with the involvement of a parent or guardian.

California Consumer Privacy Act

Click here to read additional disclosures required under the California Consumer Privacy Act.

Conditions of Use, Notices and Revisions

If you choose to use AbeBooks Services, your use and any dispute over privacy is subject to this Notice and our Terms and Conditions, including limitations on damages, resolution of disputes, and application of the laws of British Columbia, Canada. If you have any concern about privacy at AbeBooks, please contact us at privacy@AbeBooks.com with a thorough description, and we will try to resolve it.

Our business changes constantly, and our Privacy Notice will change also. You should check our website frequently to see recent changes. Unless stated otherwise, our current Privacy Notice applies to all information that we have about you and your account. We stand behind the promises we make, however, and will never materially change our policies and practices to make them less protective of customer information collected in the past without the consent of affected customers.

Examples of Information Collected

Information You Give Us When You Use AbeBooks Services

You provide information to us when you:

search or shop for products in our stores;
add or remove an item from your cart, or place an order through or use AbeBooks Services;
provide information in My Account (and you might have more than one if you have used more than one e-mail address or mobile number when shopping with us);
provide information in your Members Menu;
offer your products on or through AbeBooks Services;
communicate with us by phone, e-mail, or otherwise;
complete a questionnaire, a support ticket, or a competition entry form;
upload images to AbeBooks Services;
participate in Discussion Boards or other community features; and
employ wants functionality.

As a result of those actions, you might supply us with such information as:

identifying information such as your name, address, and phone numbers;
payment information;
your age;
your location information;
your IP address;
people, addresses and phone numbers listed in your Address Book;
content of e-mails to us;
images and videos collected or stored in connection with AbeBooks Services;
information and documents regarding identity, including Social Security and driver's license numbers;
corporate and financial information; and
credit history information.

Automatic Information

Examples of the information we collect and analyze include:

the internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer to the internet;
login, e-mail address, and password;
the location of your device or computer;
interaction information, such as glance views and items added to basket;
AbeBooks Services metrics (e.g., the occurrences of technical errors, your interactions with service features and content, your settings preferences and backup information, location of your device running an application, information about uploaded images and files such as the file name, dates, and times);
computer, device, and connection information such as device application or browser type and version, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system, or time zone setting;
purchase and content use history, which we sometimes aggregate with similar information from other customers to create features such as lists of bestselling items;
the full Uniform Resource Locator (URL) clickstream to, through, and from our websites, including date and time; cookie number; products and content you viewed or searched for; page response times, download errors, length of visits to certain pages, and page interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks, and mouse-overs);
phone numbers used to call our customer service number; and
images or videos when you shop in our stores, or stores using AbeBooks Services.

We may also use device identifiers, cookies, and other technologies on devices, applications, and our web pages to collect browsing, usage, or other technical information.

Information From Other Sources

Examples of information we receive from other sources include:

updated delivery and address information from our carriers or other third parties, which we use to correct our records and deliver your next purchase or communication more easily;
information about your interactions with products and services offered by our subsidiaries;
search results and links, including paid listings (such as Sponsored Links);
credit history information from credit bureaus, which we use to help prevent and detect fraud and to offer certain credit or financial services to some customers.

Information You Can Access

Examples of information you can access through AbeBooks Services include:

status of recent orders (including subscriptions);
your complete order history;
personally identifiable information (including name, e-mail, password, and address book);
payment settings;
e-mail notification settings;
recommendations and the products you recently viewed that are the basis for recommendations (including Recommended for You);
your wants;
items saved for later in your shopping basket;
your content, devices, services, and related settings, and communications and personalized advertising preferences;
content that you recently viewed;
voice recordings associated with your account;
your Profile (including your Recommendations, Reminders and personal profile); and
if you are a seller, you can access your account and other information, and adjust your communications preferences, by updating your account in the Members Menu.