Anthology Book Shop is the data controller responsible for the personal information we collect and use.

We run the website www.anthologybookshop.co.uk and trade under the name Anthology Book Shop, as a bookshop and online bookstore based in the UK.

If you have a privacy query, want to make a data protection request or have a question about this Privacy Policy, you can reach us via www.anthologybookshop.co.uk.

The types of personal information we may collect and use are set out below.

Account Information

Your name, email address and password, along with your account preferences and settings, saved addresses, order history, wishlist activity, store credit and gift card balance.

Order and Transaction Information

Your name, email address, phone number, billing address and delivery address, together with details of your order: the products you bought, its value, the payment status, the delivery method and any discount codes used. It also covers returns, refunds, exchanges and notes made by our customer service team.

Payment Information

Third-party payment providers handle payments for us, and we do not usually store full card details. The limited payment information we may receive includes confirmation of payment, the payment method, a transaction ID, the results of fraud checks, your billing address and the payment status.

Delivery Information

Your name, email address, phone number and delivery address, plus courier tracking details, delivery notes, safe place instructions and proof of delivery.

Communication Information

Emails, contact form messages, customer service enquiries, complaints, social media messages, reviews, event queries and return requests, as well as anything else you choose to tell us when you get in touch.

Marketing Information

Your email address and marketing preferences, the date you signed up to our newsletter, records of your consent and any unsubscribe activity. We may also hold email open rates, click activity and interests inferred from how you engage with our emails or website.

Website and Technical Information

Your IP address, browser type, device type, operating system and approximate location, along with the pages you visit, the products you view, where you were referred from, session data, cookies, analytics data, error logs and security logs.

Event Information

When you book or attend an event, we may collect your name and contact details, ticket and booking information, any accessibility requests, dietary information where relevant, attendance records and event communications.

Reviews, Community and Social Media Information

Reviews, comments, photographs, usernames, social media handles, tags, testimonials and any other content you share with us or post publicly about Anthology Book Shop.

Age-Related Information

Certain products contain adult or mature themes. Where it is necessary, we may ask you to confirm that you are over 18, or that you are otherwise eligible to buy particular products or attend particular events.

We may collect personal information when you do any of the following:

• Browse or use our website.
• Open an account.
• Make an order.
• Purchase or redeem a gift card.
• Sign up to a newsletter or mailing list.
• Get in touch by email, contact form, social media or any other channel.
• Return or exchange a product, or make a complaint about one.
• Attend an event, book a place or make an enquiry about one.
• Write a review or submit content.
• Enter a promotion, competition, giveaway or survey.
• Engage with our adverts, emails, social media or website.
• Use cookies or similar technologies on our website.

In addition, we may be sent limited information by payment providers, delivery companies, analytics providers, email marketing platforms, fraud prevention providers and other service providers that help us run our business.

Our purposes for using your personal information are as follows.

To Process and Fulfil Orders

Your information allows us to accept orders, take payment, dispatch products, arrange delivery and keep you updated on your order. It also lets us manage returns and refunds and give you customer support.

To Manage Your Account

We rely on your information to set up and run your customer account, display your order history, save your preferences, manage wishlists, process store credit and make shopping with us better.

To Provide Customer Service

Your information helps us answer enquiries, sort out problems, handle complaints, process returns and deal with faulty or missing items. We also use it to keep a record of our communications with customers.

To Send Service Messages

We may email or message you about your order, account, payment, delivery, returns or event bookings, or to send security notices or other important service updates.

Messages of this kind are not marketing.

To Send Marketing

Where we are permitted to, we may email you about new releases, book recommendations, events, offers, restocks, pre-orders, exclusive editions, community updates and other news from Anthology Book Shop.

Unsubscribing from marketing emails is possible whenever you wish.

To Personalise Your Experience

Information about your browsing, purchases and preferences may be used to suggest products, remember your choices, display relevant content and make our website better for you.

To Run Events

Personal information is used to look after event bookings, tickets and attendance, and to send updates and other event communications. It also helps us cater for access needs, maintain safety, give notice of photography and follow up after the event.

To Manage Promotions and Giveaways

We may use personal information to run promotions, competitions, discounts, giveaways, loyalty schemes and customer rewards.

To Improve Our Website and Business

Technical data, analytics and data about customer behaviour help us see how our website is used. With them we can improve our products, correct errors, plan our stock better, measure how well our marketing performs and develop our services.

To Prevent Fraud and Protect Our Business

Information may be used to detect, prevent and look into fraud, payment disputes, chargebacks, misuse of discounts, suspicious orders, misuse of accounts, security threats and other unlawful activity.

To Meet Legal and Tax Obligations

Where accounting, tax, legal, regulatory, consumer rights, data protection or dispute requirements call for it, we may use and keep information for those purposes.

UK data protection law requires us to have a lawful basis before we use your personal information.

We may rely on any of the lawful bases below.

Contract

Where it is necessary in order to perform a contract with you, we use your information. Examples include processing your order, delivering products, managing returns, handling event bookings and providing account services.

Legal Obligation

We use your information where we need it to meet our legal duties, among them our tax, accounting, consumer rights, fraud prevention, data protection and other regulatory obligations.

Legitimate Interests

Where we have a legitimate business interest, we may use your information, as long as your own rights and interests do not outweigh that interest. Such interests may include improving our website, preventing fraud, handling customer service, keeping business records, managing reviews, analysing sales, protecting our legal position and, where permitted, sending relevant marketing to existing customers.

Consent

Where consent is required, we rely on it. This applies, for example, to certain marketing emails, non-essential cookies, and specific uses of photographs, testimonials or sensitive information.

Where consent is our lawful basis, you may withdraw it whenever you like.

Vital Interests

Occasionally we may use personal information because it is necessary to protect someone’s life or safety, for instance in an emergency at an event.

Marketing emails may be sent to you if you have joined our mailing list or given your consent, or where the law lets us contact existing customers about similar goods or services.

According to the ICO, the “soft opt-in” can allow a business to email its own customers about similar goods or services. This is on condition that the customer has a clear chance to opt out when their details are collected, and again in each marketing message that follows.

To unsubscribe from marketing emails at any time, use the unsubscribe link in our emails or contact us via www.anthologybookshop.co.uk.

Where necessary, we will carry on sending you important messages that are not marketing, such as those about your orders, account, events, payments or returns, or legal notices.

Cookies and similar technologies may be used on our website to make it work, remember your preferences, keep your basket active and support checkout. They may also help us improve security, analyse how the website performs and support advertising or marketing.

The cookies we use may fall into these categories:

• Essential cookies, which the website needs in order to work.
• Preference cookies, which remember the choices you make.
• Analytics cookies, which help us understand how the website is used.
• Marketing cookies, which help us measure or display relevant advertising.

We will ask for your consent before using non-essential cookies wherever the law requires it.

Cookies can generally be managed through your browser settings, or through any cookie settings tool that our website provides.

Blocking certain cookies may stop parts of the website working as they should.

Where it is necessary to run our business, fulfil orders, provide services or comply with the law, we may pass personal information to trusted third parties.

Those third parties may include:

• Payment processors and providers of fraud prevention services.
• Delivery companies, couriers and postal services.
• Providers of website hosting.
• Providers of ecommerce platforms.
• Email marketing platforms.
• Analytics providers.
• Customer service tools.
• Providers of IT, security and technical support.
• Accountants, bookkeepers, legal advisers and insurers.
• Event partners, venues or ticketing providers, where needed.
• Regulators, law enforcement, courts, HMRC and other authorities, where required.
• Buyers of the business, investors or advisers, if we sell, restructure or transfer any part of our business.

What we share is limited to the information needed for the purpose concerned.

Selling your personal information is something we do not do.

It is possible that some of our service providers process personal information outside the United Kingdom.

If so, we will take steps to make sure appropriate safeguards apply. Where required, that could mean using providers located in countries covered by an adequacy decision, or relying on approved contractual protections.

Personal information is kept only for as long as is necessary for the purposes explained in this Privacy Policy.

Our usual retention periods are:

• Order and transaction records: ordinarily up to 6 years, for tax, accounting and legal purposes.
• Customer account information: while the account is still active, and afterwards for a reasonable period once it has been closed.
• Customer service messages: as long as is needed to resolve the matter and keep business records.
• Marketing records: until you unsubscribe or the information is no longer required.
• Consent records: as long as is needed to show how consent was obtained and managed.
• Event booking records: as long as is needed to run the event and keep suitable records.
• Website analytics: for a limited period, which depends on the analytics tool in use.
• Legal, dispute or fraud records: as long as is necessary to protect our rights or meet our legal obligations.

Information may be anonymised so that it can no longer identify you. If that happens, we may go on to use it for research, analytics or business planning.

We take reasonable steps to guard personal information against loss, misuse, unauthorised access, disclosure, alteration and destruction.

Measures of this kind may include secure payment processing, access controls, password protection, encryption where appropriate, secure hosting, limits on staff access, system monitoring and only keeping records where necessary.

Complete security cannot be guaranteed for any website, email system or online service. Keeping your account login details confidential is your responsibility.

UK data protection law may give you the following rights:

• The right to be informed of how your information is used.
• The right of access to your personal information.
• The right to have inaccurate or incomplete information corrected.
• The right to ask for your information to be deleted.
• The right to restrict the way your information is used.
• The right to object to certain uses of your information.
• The right to data portability.
• The right to withdraw consent, where the processing relies on consent.
• Rights connected with automated decision-making and profiling, where these apply.

The ICO says that a privacy notice should set out people’s rights, among them the rights of access, rectification, erasure, restriction and objection.

If you wish to exercise any of your rights, please get in touch via www.anthologybookshop.co.uk.

Before we respond, we may have to verify who you are. Certain rights are subject to legal limits, and we may need to keep some information for tax, accounting, legal, fraud prevention or dispute purposes.

If you are not happy with the way we use your personal information, please speak to us first so that we have the chance to put things right.

You are also entitled to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office, which is the UK’s data protection regulator.

The ICO can be reached via www.ico.org.uk.

Children under 13 are not the intended audience for our website.

Mature or adult themes may feature in some of the products Anthology Book Shop sells, which means they may be unsuitable for children or young people.

Personal information from children under 13 is not knowingly collected by us. Should we find that we hold such information without appropriate consent, we will take steps to delete it.

Customers must make sure that any books and products they buy for children or young people are suitable.

Anthology Book Shop sells books which may contain romance, erotic content, dark themes, LGBTQ+ themes, violence, trauma, fantasy, paranormal content or other mature subject matter. For that reason, we may process limited information about what you buy, your preferences, your wishlists or your browsing activity.

Such information can reveal your reading interests or genre preferences. Our use of it is confined to ordinary ecommerce purposes: fulfilling orders, managing accounts, making recommendations, customer service, stock planning and, where permitted, marketing.

Reading preference data is never used by us to make decisions that have legal or similarly significant effects on you.

When you post a review, tag us, send a testimonial, comment on our social media or share content with us, we may make use of it for customer engagement, marketing, website content or social proof.

We may repost or refer to content that is public. For content that is private or contains identifiable images, we may seek your permission where appropriate.

You may ask us to take down your testimonial or user-generated content, or to stop using it. We might not be able to do so for content that has already been printed, published by third parties or shared in places outside our control.

Anthology Book Shop events may involve photography or filming for marketing, social media, community or record-keeping purposes.

We will make this clear at the event where that is practical.

Anyone who would rather not be photographed or filmed should let a member of staff at the event know.

Images of crowds or backgrounds in which you are not the main focus may still be used by us, unless you tell us otherwise and it is reasonable for us to avoid or remove the image.

Fully automated decisions that have legal or similarly significant effects on you are not something we make using personal information.

We may carry out limited profiling or segmentation for marketing, product recommendations, fraud checks, customer preferences, website analytics or advertising. As an example, we might suggest books on the basis of what you have bought or browsed before.

Opting out of marketing emails is possible whenever you wish.

Links on our website may lead to third-party websites, social media pages, publisher websites, payment providers, delivery tracking pages or event platforms.

The privacy practices, content and security of third-party websites are outside our responsibility.

Please read their privacy policies before you give them any personal information.

From time to time we may revise this Privacy Policy to reflect changes to our business, website, services, technology, legal obligations or data protection practices.

You will find the most recent version on www.anthologybookshop.co.uk.

By continuing to use our website once the Privacy Policy has been updated, you acknowledge the updated version.

If you have a privacy question, a data protection request, an account query or a concern about how your personal information is used, please contact Anthology Book Shop via www.anthologybookshop.co.uk.

This Privacy Policy applies to Anthology Book Shop, trading as Anthology Book Shop, and operating through www.anthologybookshop.co.uk.