PRIVACY POLICY

At Long Stop Books, we’re committed to protecting and respecting your privacy

This Policy explains when and why we collect personal information about people who visit our website, how we use it, the conditions under which we may disclose it to others and how we keep it secure.

We may change this Policy from time to time so please check this page occasionally to ensure that you’re happy with any changes. By using our website, you’re agreeing to be bound by this Policy.

You can ask any questions regarding this Policy via info@longstopbooks.com. We’ll do our best to respond fast and helpfully.

WHO ARE WE?

We’re Long Stop Books, a publishing company specialising in crime fiction. We were founded by writers for readers and, although of course we want to make a profit, we always try to keep readers’ interests uppermost in our mind.

HOW DO WE COLLECT INFORMATION FROM YOU?

We obtain information about you when you use our website or connect with our business. Typical examples would include times when you contact us, or sign up to our newsletters.

WHAT TYPE OF INFORMATION IS COLLECTED FROM YOU?

The personal information we collect might include your name, address, email address, IP address, and information regarding what pages are accessed and when. We do not collect or store any bank card information or similar at any point.

HOW IS YOUR INFORMATION USED?

We may use your information to:

• Complete the delivery of a manuscript you have requested
• Respond to a question
• Process your membership of a reading group
• Adapt my site to your particular interests
• Communicate with you via newsletters and press releases

We review our retention periods for personal information on a regular basis. In particular, we aim to maintain a ‘clean’ email list, so that unengaged subscribers are quietly dropped from our communications, and their data deleted.

WHO HAS ACCESS TO YOUR INFORMATION?

We will not sell or rent your information to third parties.

We will not share your information with third parties for marketing purposes.

Aside from that, the only people who will ever handle your data are the responsible officers at Long Stop Books or some highly reputable tech-consultants, with whom we work closely and trust absolutely.

YOUR CHOICES

You have a choice about whether or not you wish to receive information from us. If you do not want to receive our marketing communications, then you are free to unsubscribe at any time. We’ll always make it easy for you to do that. (Look for a simple ‘Unsubscribe’ link at the bottom of every email.)

We will not contact you for marketing purposes by email, unless you have given your prior consent. We will not contact you for marketing purposes by phone, SMS or direct mail.

HOW YOU CAN ACCESS AND UPDATE YOUR INFORMATION

You have the right to ask for a copy of the information we hold about you, and we’ll be happy to oblige, please request it by email and we will respond promptly.

SECURITY PRECAUTIONS IN PLACE TO PROTECT THE LOSS, MISUSE OR ALTERATION OF YOUR INFORMATION

When you give us personal information, we take steps to ensure that it’s treated securely.

Non-sensitive details (your email address etc.) are transmitted normally over the internet, and this can never be guaranteed to be 100% secure. As a result, while we strive to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of any information you transmit to us, and you do so at your own risk. Once we receive your information, we make our best effort to ensure its security on our systems. Where we have given (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of our websites, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share your password with anyone.

PROFILING

We try to make sure that we only tell readers about things that they’re likely to be interested in. That means that we will try to build a picture of your interests and modify our communications accordingly. That’s not meant to be sinister – it’s meant to be helpful!

USE OF ‘COOKIES’

Like nearly all modern websites, our site uses cookies. ‘Cookies’ are small pieces of information sent by an organisation to your computer and stored on your hard drive to allow that website to recognise you when you visit. They collect statistical data about your browsing actions and patterns and do not identify you as an individual. For example, we use cookies to store your country preference. This helps us to improve our website and deliver a better more personalised service.

It is possible to switch off cookies by setting your browser preferences. Turning cookies of may result in a loss of functionality when using our website.

LINKS TO OTHER WEBSITES

Our website may contain links to other websites run by other organisations. Obviously, we’re not responsible for the privacy policies of those other organisations.

16 OR UNDER

We are concerned to protect the privacy of children aged 16 or under. If you are aged 16 or under‚ please keep your parent or guardian properly informed. We are a responsible, thoughtful and non-spammy site . . . but some of our books feature scenes involving violence, and so on.

HOLDING YOUR DATA OUTSIDE THE UK

We are a small, UK-based company, but our client base is global and our website is hosted via a technology that deploys servers worldwide. This means that your data may be collected and stored outside the UK, and the privacy policies which apply in those jurisdictions may of course be different. That said, the vast majority of our server use is in the United Kingdom, the United States, the European Union and other highly reputable jurisdictions. We’ll go on working, carefully, with highly responsible server partners.

YOUR COMMUNICATIONS WITH US

If you contact us with positive feedback, we may use that comment in our promotional literature. We do not identify users with their full name, simply with a first name and an initial. (eg: “What a great service – Ali J”). If you don’t want your comment to be used even in this restricted way, then please just tell us and we will honour your preferences.

WEBSITE ANALYSIS

We want our users to have a good experience on our website, so we will from time to time engage in analytical exercises that follow user behaviour on the site, and those exercises may involve significant data collection. That said, the data thereby collected is anonymous and collated into large statistical aggregates. We’re interested in users-in-general – we’re never going to spy on you!