Hachette Book Group, Inc. Privacy Policy
Effective January 1, 2020
Last Updated December 11, 2022
Hachette Book Group, Inc. (“Hachette,” “we,” and “us”) understands that you care about how we collect, use, and share information when you interact with our websites, social media sites and handles, email, and online services (our “Services”), and we value the trust you place in us. This Privacy Policy explains:
- the types of information we collect through our Services
- how we use and protect that information
- the types of information we may share with others and under what circumstances
- the choices you have regarding our collection, use, and sharing practices
- details regarding our use of third-party cookies and other tracking technologies
We also include specific disclosures for residents of California.
This Policy applies when you interact with us through our Services. It also applies anywhere it is linked. It does not apply to non-Hachette websites and mobile applications that may link to the Services or be linked to or from the Services; please review the privacy policies on those websites and applications directly to understand their privacy practices.
Information you give us
You may provide the following information directly to us or service providers acting on our behalf.
- Contact and demographic information when completing forms or registering to use our Services.
- Payment information and associated contact information when engaging in a transaction on our site. Shopify is our payment processor for product purchases made on our website. Information you provide to Shopify is governed by their Privacy Policy and your order and shipping information is also shared by them with our fulfillment and related service providers in order to fully process and fulfill your order.
- Email address information when subscribing to our email newsletters.
- Information you provide when responding to a survey.
- Information you provide when you participate in a contest or sweepstakes that we offer.
- Information you make available to us via a social media platform.
- Records of items purchased from us.
- If you contact us, we may keep a record of that correspondence and any contact information provided.
- Any other information you submit to us.
Information We Collect Automatically
We and partners working on our behalf may use log files, cookies, or other digital tracking technologies to collect the following information from the device you use to interact with our Services. We and our service providers working on our behalf also create records when you make purchases or otherwise interact with the Services.
- Device information, including IP address, device identifiers, and details about your web browser.
- Analytical information, including details about your interaction with our Services and email newsletters.
- Diagnostic information, including web traffic logs.
- Advertising information, including special advertising and other unique identifiers that enable us or third parties working on our behalf to target advertisements to you. Please be aware that our advertising partners may collect information about you when you visit third-party websites or use third-party apps. They may use that information to better target advertisements to you on our behalf.
- Business record information, including records of your purchases of products and services.
Much of this information is collected through cookies, web beacons, and other tracking technologies, as well as through your web browser or device. Hachette relies on partners to provide many features of our sites and Services using data about your use of Hachette and other sites.
Below is a list of these providers with links to more information about their use of your data and how to exercise your options regarding tracking. Please note that this list may not be comprehensive and will be updated from time to time.
| Category | Partner | Further Information |
| Analytics | How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services | |
| Analytics | Data Policy | |
| Analytics | WordPress VIP | NewRelic Cookie Policy |
| Analytics | WordPress VIP | Jetpack Cookies |
| Analytics | Mailchimp | Mailchimp Privacy Policy |
| Analytics | Mailchimp | Mailchimp Global Privacy Statement |
| Analytics | Zola | Zola Privacy Policy |
| Analytics | FormStack | FormStack Privacy Policy |
| Analytics | ViralSweep | ViralSweep Privacy Policy |
| Advertising analytics and targeting | Data Policy | |
| Advertising analytics and targeting | Sizmek | Sizmek Privacy Policy |
| Advertising analytics and targeting | Snapchat | Snapchat Privacy Policy |
| Advertising analytics and targeting | Amazon | Amazon Privacy Notice |
| Advertising analytics and targeting | TikTok | TikTok Privacy Policy |
| Advertising analytics and targeting | LinkedIn Privacy Policy | |
| Advertising analytics and targeting | Pinterest Privacy Policy | |
| Storefront and analytics | Shopify | Shopify Privacy Policy |
Most web browsers automatically accept cookies but, if you prefer, you can usually modify your browser setting to disable or reject cookies. If you delete your cookies or if you set your browser to decline cookies, some features of the Services may not be available, work, or work as designed. You may also be able to opt out of or block tracking by interacting directly with the other companies who conduct tracking through our Services.
Information Collected from Other Sources
We may collect information about you if another person provides it to us when signing up for an event, an email newsletter, or another part of the Services. We also collect some information about statements regarding our Services made by consumers on publicly accessible websites.
How We Use and Protect Your Information
We may use the information we collect from you for the following purposes:
- Service functionality: To provide you with our products and services, including to take steps to enter into a contract for sale or for services, process payments, fulfill orders, send service communications, and conduct general business operations, such as accounting, recordkeeping, and audits.
- Advertising and marketing: To send promotional messages through social media, websites we advertise on, and/or email newsletters, and measure the effectiveness of our advertising. We may share your information with business partners, online advertising partners, and social media platforms for this purpose.
- Service improvement: To provide you with the best service and improve and grow our business, including by developing new products and services, understanding how our Services are being used, understanding our customer base and purchasing trends, and understanding the effectiveness of our marketing.
- Security: To protect and secure our Services, assets, network, and business operations, and to detect, investigate, and prevent activities that may violate our policies or be fraudulent or illegal.
- Legal compliance: To detect, investigate, and prevent activities that may violate our policies or be fraudulent or illegal, and to comply with legal requirements regarding the provision of products and services.
How We Secure Protect Your Information
We use a combination of physical, technical, and administrative safeguards to protect the information we collect through the Services. While we use these precautions to safeguard your information, we cannot guarantee the security of the networks, systems, servers, devices, and databases we operate or that are operated on our behalf.
- Service Providers: We engage the following types of vendors to perform functions on our behalf such as billing and collection providers; auditing and accounting firms; professional services consultants; providers of analytics services; security vendors; and IT vendors.
- Social Media Platforms: Where you choose to interact with us through social media, your interaction with these programs typically allows the social media company to collect some information about you through digital cookies they place on your device and other tracking mechanisms they place on your device. In some cases, the social media company may recognize you through its digital cookies even when you do not interact with their application. Please visit the social media companies’ respective privacy policies to better understand their data collection practices and the controls they make available to you.
- Companies involved in advertising: We partner with companies that assist us in advertising about our Services to others who may be interested in the Services. These companies may use tracking technologies on our website to collect or receive information from the Services and elsewhere on the internet and use that information to provide measurement services and target ads.
- Government entities/Law enforcement: We may share information when we believe in good faith that we are lawfully authorized or required to do so to respond to lawful subpoenas, warrants, court orders, or other regulatory or law enforcement requests, or where necessary to protect our property or rights or the safety of our employees, our customers, or other individuals.
- Other businesses in the context of a commercial transaction: We may change our ownership or corporate organization while providing the Services. We may transfer to another entity or its affiliates or service providers some or all information about you in connection with, or during negotiations of, any merger, acquisition, sale of assets or any line of business, change in ownership control, or financing transaction. We cannot promise that an acquiring party or the merged entity will have the same privacy practices or treat your information as described in this policy.
Additional Information About our Data Collection and Sharing Practices
Sharing of Aggregated Data
We may share aggregated or de-identified data at our discretion, including with marketing agencies, media agencies and analytics providers. These other companies will not be able to relate this data to identifiable individuals.
Combination of Information
We may combine information from the Services together and with other information we obtain from our business records or other sources.
Cross-border Transfer of Data
If you use our Services outside of the United States, you understand that we may collect, process, and store your information in the United States and other countries. The laws in the U.S. regarding information may be different from the laws of your state or country. Any such transfers will comply with safeguards as required by relevant law. By using the Services, you consent to the collection, international transfer, storage, and processing of your data.
Our Practices Regarding Information Belonging to Children
The Services are intended for users age thirteen and older. Hachette does not knowingly collect information from children. If we discover that we have inadvertently collected information from anyone younger than the age of 13, we will delete that information.
Your Options and Rights Regarding Your Information
If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from receiving future emails, you can click the unsubscribe link at the bottom of any email newsletter or email us at privacy@hbgusa.com and we will promptly remove you from all correspondence.
You can learn more about ad serving companies and the options available to limit their collection and use of your information by visiting the websites for the Network Advertising Initiative, the Digital Advertising Alliance, and the European Interactive Digital Advertising Initiative. Similarly, you can learn about your options to opt out of mobile app tracking by certain advertising networks through your device settings and by resetting the advertiser ID on your Apple or Android device.
Please note that opting out of advertising networks services does not mean that you will not receive advertising while using our Services or on other websites, nor will it prevent the receipt of interest-based advertising from other companies that do not participate in these programs. It will, however, exclude you from interest-based advertising conducted through participating networks, as provided by their policies and choice mechanisms. If you delete your cookies, you may also delete your opt-out preferences.
Your California Privacy Rights
Persons with disabilities may obtain this notice in alternative format upon request by contacting us at privacy@hbgusa.com or calling 1-800-890-0625.
California Shine the Light
Residents of the State of California have the right to request information from Hachette regarding other companies to whom the company has disclosed certain categories of information during the preceding year for those companies’ direct marketing purposes. If you are a California resident and would like to make such a request, please email privacy@hbgusa.com or write to us at 53 State Street, Boston, MA 02109 ATTN: Customer Service, Privacy.
CCPA
The California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) provides California residents with rights to receive certain disclosures regarding the collection, use, and sharing of “Personal Information,” as well as rights to know/access, delete, and limit sharing of Personal Information. The CCPA defines “Personal Information” as “information that identifies, relates to, describes, is reasonably capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular consumer or household.” Certain information we collect may be exempt from the CCPA because it is considered public information (i.e., it is made available by a government entity) or covered by a specific federal privacy law, such as the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
To the extent that we collect Personal Information that is subject to the CCPA, that information, our practices, and your rights are described below.
Right to Notice at Collection Regarding the Categories of Personal Information Collected
You have the right to receive notice of the categories of Personal Information we collect, and the purposes for which those categories of Personal Information will be used. This notice should be provided at or before the time of collection.The categories we use to describe the information are those enumerated in the CCPA.
- Personal Identifiers:
- Name, phone number, email address and contact address, and payment information when you complete a transaction. If you choose to create an account, you will also be asked to create a username, and we will assign one or more unique identifiers to your profile.
- Your social media handle and basic account information when you interact with our Services through social media.
- Unique numerical identifiers automatically assigned to you by a first-party cookie when you use our Services.
- We collect your IP address automatically when you use our Services.
- Protected Classifications: We may verify your age in order to comply with laws that restrict collection and disclosure of personal information belonging to minors. We use this information to measure the appeal and effectiveness of our Services with members of particular groups, and to provide you with targeted information, advertisements and offers.
- Commercial Information: When you engage in transactions with us, we create records of goods or services purchased or considered, as well as purchasing or consuming histories or tendencies.
- Internet or Other Electronic Network Activity Information: Information about your browsing history, search history, and interactions with websites, and/or applications is automatically collected when you utilize our Services.
- Geolocation Data: As described above, your IP address is automatically collected when you use our Services. We may be able to determine your general location based on the IP address.
- Audio, electronic, visual, thermal, olfactory, or similar information: Any pictures of yourself that you choose to upload to the Services.
- Inferences drawn to create a profile about a consumer reflecting the consumer’s preferences or characteristics: Your author, title and genre interests and similar information you provide to us.
We may share any of the above-listed information with Service Providers, which are companies that we engage for business purposes to conduct activities on our behalf. Service Providers are restricted from using Personal Information for any purpose that is not related to our engagement. The categories of Service Providers with whom we share information and the services they provide are described in our Privacy Policy above in the section titled “How We Share Your Information.” We may also disclose information to other entities who are not listed here when required by law or to protect our Company or other persons, as described in this Privacy Policy.
Hachette does not offer any rewards programs or incentives for the collection or sharing of data at this time.
We also sell some information to third parties, as described below. To opt out of the sale of your information visit our “Do Not Sell My Personal Information page”.
Right to Know/Access Information
You have the right to request access to Personal Information collected about you and information regarding the source of that information, the purposes for which we collect it, and the third parties and service providers with whom we share it. You may submit such a request as described below. To protect our customers’ Personal Information, we are required to verify your identify before we can act on your request.
Right to Request Deletion of Information
You have the right in certain circumstances to request that we delete Personal Information that we have collected directly from you. You may submit such a request as described below. To protect our customers’ Personal Information, we are required to verify your identify before we can act on your request. We may have a reason under the law why we do not have to comply with your request, or why we may comply with it in a more limited way than you anticipated. If we do, we will explain that to you in our response.
Right to Opt Out of Sale of Personal Information to Third Parties
You have the right to opt out of any sale of your Personal Information by Hachette to third parties.
We sell certain information to third parties. To “sell” information means to disclose it to a company for monetary or other benefit. A company may be considered a third party either because the purpose of sharing is not an enumerated business purpose under California law, or because our contract does not restrict them from using Personal Information for other purposes.
We sell the following information:
- Personal Identifiers:
- We provide your contact information to public safety authorities.
- We provide your IP address and Device ID to our advertising partners and business partners.
- Internet or Other Electronic Network Activity Information: We share certain information about how you interact with the Services with our advertising partners.
How to Submit a Request
You may submit a request to exercise your rights to know/access or delete your Personal Information through one of two means:
- By filling out a Consumer Data Request Form available here.
- By calling us at 1-800 890-0625.
To exercise your right to opt out of the sale of your Personal Information, please visit our “Do Not Sell My Personal Information” webpage or call us at 1-800-890-0625.
Please note that your right to opt out does not apply to our sharing of Personal Information with Service Providers.
Verification Procedures
In order to process your request to know/access or delete Personal Information we collect, disclose, or sell, we must verify your request. We do this by asking you to:
- provide personal identifiers we can match against information we may have collected from you previously; and
- confirm your request using the email or telephone account stated in the request.
Authorized Agent
You may authorize another individual or a business registered with the California Secretary of State, called an authorized agent, to make requests on your behalf. We require that you and the individual complete affidavits in order to verify the identity of the authorized agent and confirm that you have authorized them to act on your behalf. Parents of minor children may submit a birth of the child certificate in lieu of an affidavit, in order to make requests on the child’s behalf. Please contact us at privacy@hbgusa.com or call us at 1-800-890-0625 for our form affidavit.
Special Information for Nevada Residents
Residents of the State of Nevada have the right to opt out of the sale of certain pieces of their information to other companies who will sell or license their information to others. At this time, Hachette does not engage in such sales. If you are a Nevada resident and would like more information about our data sharing practices, please email privacy@hbgusa.com.
Changes to This Policy
We may make changes to this Policy from time to time. We will post any changes here, and such changes will become effective when they are posted. Your continued use of our Services following the posting of any changes will mean you accept those changes.
For questions about our privacy practices, contact us at:
Hachette Book Group, Inc.
53 State Street
Boston, MA 02109
ATTN: Customer Service, Privacy
Email: privacy@hbgusa.com
CONTACT US
Questions, comments and requests regarding this Privacy Policy are welcomed and should be addressed to: privacy@hbgusa.com.
Last Updated on July 11, 2022.
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