General Enquiries

Support

Authors & Publishers

1. Information We Collect

• Account data: your email address and display name when you register.
• Purchase data: records of books and chapters you have purchased, stored in our database.
• Payment data: processed exclusively by Stripe — BookCircle never sees or stores your card number, expiry, or CVV.
• Usage data: pages visited, reading progress, and device/browser type, collected anonymously to improve the service.

2. How We Use Your Data

• To provide and manage your account and purchased library.
• To process payments and issue receipts via Stripe.
• To send transactional emails (purchase confirmations, account notices).
• To improve and personalise the BookCircle experience.
• To comply with legal obligations.

We do not sell your personal data to third parties. We do not use your data for advertising profiling.

3. Third-Party Services

• Supabase — our database and authentication provider. Data is hosted on secure, encrypted servers.
• Stripe — payment processing. Subject to Stripe's own privacy policy.
• Google Fonts — font delivery. May log your IP address per Google's privacy policy.

4. Cookies

BookCircle uses minimal, essential cookies and local storage to keep you logged in and remember your preferences (such as font size and reading position). We do not use third-party advertising cookies.

5. Data Retention

We retain your account and purchase records for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide services. If you request account deletion, we will erase your personal data within 30 days, except where retention is required by law (e.g., financial records).

6. Your Rights

Depending on your location you may have the right to:

• Access the personal data we hold about you.
• Request correction of inaccurate data.
• Request deletion of your data ("right to be forgotten").
• Object to or restrict certain processing of your data.
• Data portability (receive your data in a machine-readable format).

To exercise any of these rights, email us at support@pinderbookcircle.com. We will respond within 30 days.

7. Security

We implement industry-standard security measures including HTTPS encryption, secure authentication via Supabase, and access controls to protect your data. No method of transmission over the internet is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

8. Children's Privacy

BookCircle is not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has provided us with their data, please contact us and we will delete it promptly.

9. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of significant changes by updating the "Last updated" date above. Continued use of BookCircle after changes constitutes acceptance of the revised policy.

10. Contact

Questions about this Privacy Policy? We're here to help.

Email: support@pinderbookcircle.com

Address: Pinder BookCircle, United Kingdom

1. Acceptance of Terms

By using BookCircle you confirm that you are at least 13 years old (or the applicable age of digital consent in your country), that you have the legal capacity to enter into a binding agreement, and that you accept these Terms in full. If you are using BookCircle on behalf of an organisation, you represent that you are authorised to bind that organisation.

2. Your Account

You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your login credentials and for all activity that occurs under your account. You agree to:

• Provide accurate and complete registration information.
• Notify us immediately of any unauthorised use of your account.
• Not share your account with or transfer it to any other person.

We reserve the right to suspend or terminate accounts that violate these Terms or that we reasonably believe have been compromised.

3. Purchases & Digital Content

All sales on BookCircle are for digital content (books and individual chapters). When you complete a purchase:

• You receive a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to read the content through BookCircle's reader.
• You do not acquire any ownership of the underlying intellectual property.
• Chapters must be purchased in sequential order — you cannot purchase a later chapter without owning all preceding chapters of the same book.
• All prices are shown in USD. Applicable taxes may be added at checkout depending on your location.

Payments are processed securely by Stripe. BookCircle does not store your card details.

4. Refund Policy

Because our products are delivered digitally and become immediately accessible upon purchase, all sales are final and we do not offer refunds except in the following circumstances:

• You were charged more than once for the same item due to a technical error on our part.
• The content you purchased was materially different from its description at the time of sale.
• You did not receive access to the content within 24 hours of a successful payment.

To request a refund under these circumstances, contact us at support@pinderbookcircle.com within 7 days of purchase with your order reference and a brief description of the issue.

5. Intellectual Property

All content on BookCircle — including book text, cover images, logos, UI design, and software — is protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws.

• You may not reproduce, distribute, publicly display, or create derivative works from any content without the express written permission of the rights holder.
• Authors who publish on BookCircle retain full ownership of their work and grant BookCircle a limited licence to display and sell their content through the platform.
• BookCircle's trademarks, brand name, and logos may not be used without our prior written consent.

6. Acceptable Use

You agree not to use BookCircle to:

• Violate any applicable law or regulation.
• Infringe the intellectual property rights of others.
• Upload, post, or transmit any harmful, offensive, or unlawful material.
• Attempt to gain unauthorised access to any part of our systems.
• Scrape, crawl, or otherwise extract content from the platform by automated means.
• Resell or redistribute purchased digital content to third parties.

We reserve the right to remove content and/or suspend accounts that violate this policy without notice or refund.

7. Selling on BookCircle

Authors and publishers who list content for sale agree to the following additional terms:

• You own or have the necessary rights to all content you upload and sell.
• Your content does not infringe any third-party rights, contain illegal material, or violate our content guidelines.
• BookCircle takes a platform fee on each sale (communicated to you during the seller onboarding process).
• Payouts are made via the payment method agreed during onboarding, subject to any applicable holding periods.
• We reserve the right to remove listings that do not meet our quality or legal standards.

8. Disclaimer of Warranties

BookCircle is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis without warranties of any kind, either express or implied, including but not limited to warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement. We do not warrant that the service will be uninterrupted, error-free, or free of viruses or other harmful components.

9. Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, BookCircle, its owners, employees, and affiliates shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages arising from your use of (or inability to use) the service, even if we have been advised of the possibility of such damages. Our total cumulative liability for any claim arising out of these Terms shall not exceed the greater of (a) the total amount you paid to BookCircle in the 12 months preceding the claim, or (b) USD $50.

10. Privacy

Your use of BookCircle is also governed by our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated into these Terms by reference. By using BookCircle you consent to the data practices described therein.

11. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. When we do, we will revise the "Last updated" date at the top of this page. Continued use of BookCircle after changes take effect constitutes your acceptance of the revised Terms. We encourage you to review this page periodically.

12. Governing Law

These Terms shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of England and Wales, without regard to conflict of law principles. Any disputes arising under these Terms shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.

13. Contact Us

If you have any questions about these Terms, please reach out:

Email: support@pinderbookcircle.com

Address: Pinder BookCircle, United Kingdom