This Privacy Policy describes how BookFylo ("BookFylo," "we," "us," or "our") collects, uses, stores, protects, and shares your personal information when you use our website, mobile application, and related services (collectively, the "Platform").
By accessing or using the Platform, you agree to the collection and use of your information in accordance with this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with the terms of this Privacy Policy, please do not use the Platform.
1. Information We Collect
We collect various types of information to provide and improve our services to you.
1.1. Information You Provide Directly:
Account Registration & Profile Data: When you create an account, we collect your full name (legal name and/or pen name), email address, phone number, and a password. You may also provide additional profile information voluntarily.
Publisher/Author Information: If you publish content on our Platform, we collect your Permanent Account Number (PAN), bank account details (for royalty payouts), residential address (for print-on-demand shipping and tax purposes), and Goods and Services Tax Identification Number (GSTIN), if applicable.
Content Data: When you upload or publish a book, we collect the book manuscript (text, images, illustrations), book title, descriptions, genre, keywords, cover designs, pricing information, and any other metadata you provide related to your book.
Customer Order & Shipping Data (for buyers): If you purchase a physical book, we collect your shipping address, contact name, and phone number to facilitate delivery.
Payment Information (for buyers): When you make a purchase, payment details such as credit/debit card information, UPI IDs, or Net Banking details are collected. Please note that we integrate with secure, PCI-compliant third-party payment gateways to process your payments, and we do not directly store your full credit card details on our servers.
Communications & Support: We collect information you provide when you contact our customer support, send us feedback, or respond to surveys.
1.2. Information Collected Automatically (Usage Data):
When you access and use the Platform, we may automatically collect certain information about your device and usage patterns, including:
Device Information: Your IP address, device type (e.g., mobile phone, tablet, desktop), operating system, browser type, app version, unique device identifiers, and mobile network information.
Usage Data: Details of your interactions with our Platform, such as the pages you visit, the time spent on those pages, clicks, search queries, referring URLs, and crash reports.
1.3. Information from Third Parties:
We may receive information about you from third-party service providers that we work with, such as:
Payment Gateways: Transaction status and masked payment details (e.g., last four digits of a card number) to confirm payments.
Distribution Partners: Sales reports and fulfillment statuses related to your books.
Analytics Providers: Aggregated and anonymized usage data to help us understand user behavior.
2. How We Use Your Information
We use the collected information for various purposes, including:
To Provide and Maintain the Platform: To operate, deliver, and maintain the functionality of BookFylo, including account management, content hosting, and book distribution.
To Process Transactions & Royalties: To process payments for book purchases, calculate and disburse royalties to authors/publishers, and manage refunds or chargebacks.
To Fulfill Orders: To process and ship print-on-demand book orders to customers.
To Personalize Your Experience: To tailor content, recommend books, and offer features that match your interests.
To Improve Our Services: To understand how users interact with the Platform, identify areas for improvement, troubleshoot technical issues, and develop new features.
For Communication: To send you service-related notifications (e.g., account updates, order confirmations, royalty statements), respond to your inquiries, and provide customer support.
For Marketing and Promotion: To send you promotional materials, newsletters, and offers about books or services that may interest you, subject to your consent and preferences.
For Security and Fraud Prevention: To protect the security and integrity of the Platform, detect and prevent fraudulent activities, and enforce our Terms and Conditions.
For Legal and Regulatory Compliance: To comply with applicable laws, regulations, legal processes, and governmental requests, including tax obligations (e.g., TDS, GST RCM), and to protect our rights and interests.
3. How We Share Your Information
We may share your personal information with third parties in the following circumstances:
With Service Providers: We share information with third-party vendors, consultants, and other service providers who perform services on our behalf, such as payment processing (e.g., Razorpay, Stripe), print-on-demand fulfillment, cloud hosting (e.g., Google Cloud, AWS), analytics, customer support, and marketing services. These service providers are obligated to protect your information and use it only for the purposes for which it was disclosed.
With Distribution Partners: For the purpose of selling and distributing your books, we may share relevant content data and metadata with our distribution partners (e.g., Amazon, Flipkart, other online retailers).
For Legal Compliance and Protection: We may disclose your information if required to do so by law or in response to valid requests by public authorities (e.g., a court order or government agency request), or to protect the rights, property, or safety of BookFylo, our users, or the public. This includes compliance with Indian laws such as the Information Technology Act, 2000, and its associated rules.
In Case of Business Transfer: In connection with, or during negotiations of, any merger, sale of company assets, financing, or acquisition of all or a portion of our business by another company, your information may be transferred.
With Your Consent: We may share your information with your explicit consent or at your direction.
Aggregated or Anonymized Data: We may share aggregated or anonymized information that cannot reasonably be used to identify you, for various purposes, including analytics, research, and marketing.
4. Data Security
We implement reasonable security measures designed to protect your personal information from unauthorized access, use, alteration, or disclosure. However, no method of transmission over the Internet or method of electronic storage is 100% secure. Therefore, while we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.
5. Your Rights
Depending on applicable laws, you may have certain rights regarding your personal information, including:
Access and Correction: The right to access and update your personal information held by us. You can typically do this through your account settings.
Deletion: The right to request the deletion of your personal information, subject to legal obligations and legitimate business purposes.
Withdraw Consent: Where we rely on your consent to process your personal information, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time.
Object to Processing: The right to object to certain types of processing of your personal information.
To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the details provided in Section 8. We will respond to your request in accordance with applicable law.
6. Cookies and Tracking Technologies
We use cookies and similar tracking technologies (like web beacons and pixels) to track activity on our Platform and hold certain information. Cookies are files with a small amount of data that may include an anonymous unique identifier.
Purpose: We use cookies for essential functions (e.g., maintaining your login session), performance and analytics (e.g., understanding how you use the site), and personalization.
Your Choices: You can instruct your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. However, if you do not accept cookies, you may not be able to use some portions of our Platform.
7. Children’s Privacy
Our Platform is not intended for use by individuals under the age of 18. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 18. If we become aware that we have collected personal information from a child under 18 without verification of parental consent, we will take steps to remove that information from our servers. If you believe that we might have any information from or about a child under 18, please contact us.
8. Changes to This Privacy Policy
We may update our Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page and updating the "Last Updated" date at the top. We may also notify you via email or through a prominent notice on our Platform prior to the change becoming effective. Your continued use of the Platform after any such changes constitutes your acceptance of the new Privacy Policy.
9. Contact Us
If you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us: