BookShark Privacy Policy

At BookShark, we appreciate the trust you place in us when you choose to visit our website, and we take that responsibility seriously. This BookShark Privacy Policy (the “Policy”) describes how we collect and use information about you when you visit our website or call us on the phone. In this Policy, “we” and “our” mean BookShark LLC, and “you” means any person who visits our website.

We Respect Your Privacy

We always have and always will maintain your privacy to the highest degree possible. Both online and off, we use (and will use) the information you give us solely to fulfill our obligations to you as a customer, and to improve our services to you and other customers and prospective customers.  The following privacy policy explains in detail what information we collect, how we use that information, and your options.

Privacy Policy Table of Contents

  • What Information We Collect
  • How We Collect Information
  • Cookie Policy
  • How We Use Personal Information
  • What Information We Share
  • Online Advertising and Third Parties We Work With
  • Your Choices and Access Requests
  • We are Committed to Protecting Your Information
  • How to Contact Us
  • Updates to this Policy
  • Effective Date

What Information We Collect

  • Device and browsing information, including information about your phone, tablet, computer, or device, and online browsing activity (collectively, “automatically collected information”). Automatically collected information may include IP addresses, unique device identifiers, cookie identifiers, device and browser settings and information, and Internet service provider information. Automatically collected information also may include information about when and how you access and use our website, such as the date and time of your use, the websites you visit before coming and after leaving our website, how you navigate and what you search for using our website, the website pages and items you view using our website, and the items you purchase. We use all of this information to help maintain accurate accounts, to provide and to change services, to provide accurate billing and shipping, to answer your inquiries, to market services and products, and to help make our website useful to you.

  • Contact information, such as your name, address, phone number, or email address as you provide it;

  • Purchase information, such as the items you purchase, items you have altered or custom made, payment method and payment information (such as debit or credit card number and information), billing and shipping address, and contact information (such as for receipts or order and shipping updates);

  • Preference information, such as your contact and marketing preferences;

  • Profile and account information, which may include Contact, Purchase, and Preference information as well as your account password, information about wish list items, items in your online shopping cart or saved for future purchase, product review information, and other information about your profile or account;

  • Demographic information, which may include age or birthdate, gender, ZIP code, and other information about you;

  • Call recordings including information about your call, and information you share with our representatives for quality assurance and training when you call us on the phone;

You may always remove your information from our system. (See You May Access or Correct Any Information We Collect below.)

How We Collect Information

We collect information on our website, during telephone calls, and through customer surveys. We acquire this information directly from you when you visit our website, speak with us on the phone, or answer a survey. We also collect information from third parties. For example, we collect and obtain information about you as follows:

  • Directly from you such as the days and times you make purchases, interact with Customer Service personnel, register a BookShark account, participate in contests or sweepstakes, respond to surveys, engage in promotional activities, or sign up for emails or marketing.

  • From third parties such as service providers, analytics companies, advertising networks, demographic companies, and other third parties that provide us with information about you and the different devices you use online.[a1]

  • From social media platforms and networks that you use in connection with our website, or that share or allow you to share information with us. At the present time, these platforms and networks include Meta, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Spotify, TikTok, SnapChat, and Reddit. If you use functionalities, plugins, widgets, or tools from social media platforms or networks in connection with our website (e.g., to log into an account, or to share inspiration, finds, purchases, and other content with your friends and followers on social media), we will collect the information that you share with us, or that those social media platforms or networks share with us. For more information about social media platform and network privacy practices, please review the privacy policies and settings of the specific social media platforms and networks that you use.

  • Using cookies and automatic collection methods. For example, we and third parties we work with may collect information from the computer, tablet, phone, or other device that you use to access our website, or that you use to open an email or click on an advertisement from us. The information we collect in this way generally does not include personal information unless you provide it through our website or you choose to share it with us. We collect this information by means of     

    1. cookies (which may be session-based or persistent, and are typically small data files that are stored on your hard drive or in connection with your Internet browser);
    2. web beacons, pixels, or tags (small images embedded into websites or emails that send information about your computer, tablet, phone, or other device when you visit our website, or open an email we send to you);
    3. website application log files (which we create automatically in connection with access to and use of our website).

Cookie Policy for BookShark

What Are Cookies

As is common practice with almost all professional websites this site uses cookies, which are tiny files that are downloaded to your computer, to improve your experience. This page describes what information they gather, how we use it and why we sometimes need to store these cookies. We will also share how you can prevent these cookies from being stored however this may downgrade or 'break' certain elements of the sites functionality.

How We Use Cookies

We use cookies for a variety of reasons detailed below. Unfortunately in most cases there are no industry standard options for disabling cookies without completely disabling the functionality and features they add to this site. It is recommended that you leave on all cookies if you are not sure whether you need them or not in case they are used to provide a service that you use.

Disabling Cookies

You can prevent the setting of cookies by adjusting the settings on your browser (see your browser Help for how to do this). Be aware that disabling cookies will affect the functionality of this and many other websites that you visit. Disabling cookies will usually result in also disabling certain functionality and features of this site. Therefore it is recommended that you do not disable cookies.

The Cookies We Set

Account related cookies

If you create an account with us, then we will use cookies for the management of the signup process and general administration. These cookies will usually be deleted when you log out however in some cases they may remain afterwards to remember your site preferences when logged out.

Login related cookies

We use cookies when you are logged in so that we can remember this fact. This prevents you from having to log in every single time you visit a new page. These cookies are typically removed or cleared when you log out to ensure that you can only access restricted features and areas when logged in.

Email and newsletter related cookies

This site offers newsletter or email subscription services and cookies may be used to remember if you are already registered and whether to show certain notifications which might only be valid to subscribed/unsubscribed users.

Orders processing related cookies

This site offers e-commerce or payment facilities and some cookies are essential to ensure that your order is remembered between pages so that we can process it properly.

Surveys related cookies

From time to time we offer user surveys and questionnaires to provide you with interesting insights, helpful tools, or to understand our user base more accurately. These surveys may use cookies to remember who has already taken part in a survey or to provide you with accurate results after you change pages.

Forms related cookies

When you submit data to through a form such as those found on contact pages or comment forms cookies may be set to remember your user details for future correspondence.

Site preferences cookies

In order to provide you with a great experience on this site we provide the functionality to set your preferences for how this site runs when you use it. In order to remember your preferences we need to set cookies so that this information can be called whenever you interact with a page is affected by your preferences.

Third Party Cookies

In some special cases we also use cookies provided by trusted third parties. The following section details which third party cookies you might encounter through this site.

This site uses Google Analytics which is one of the most widespread and trusted analytics solution on the web for helping us to understand how you use the site and ways that we can improve your experience. These cookies may track things such as how long you spend on the site and the pages that you visit so we can continue to produce engaging content.

For more information on Google Analytics cookies, see the official Google Analytics page.

From time to time we test new features and make subtle changes to the way that the site is delivered. When we are still testing new features these cookies may be used to ensure that you receive a consistent experience whilst on the site whilst ensuring we understand which optimizations our users appreciate the most.

As we sell products it's important for us to understand statistics about how many of the visitors to our site actually make a purchase and as such this is the kind of data that these cookies will track. This is important to you as it means that we can accurately make business predictions that allow us to monitor our advertising and product costs to ensure the best possible price.

Several partners advertise on our behalf and affiliate tracking cookies simply allow us to see if our customers have come to the site through one of our partner sites so that we can credit them appropriately and where applicable allow our affiliate partners to provide any bonus that they may provide you for making a purchase.

We also use social media buttons and/or plugins on this site that allow you to connect with your social network in various ways. For these to work the following social media sites— Meta and Pinterest —will set cookies through our site which may be used to enhance your profile on their site or contribute to the data they hold for various purposes outlined in their respective privacy policies.

How We Use Personal Information

We use the information that we collect in order to efficiently conduct our business and to provide you with the best possible products, services, and experiences. Examples of how we use information:

  • To provide you with proper products and services. Examples: fulfilling your orders and processing your payments; maintaining and servicing your account(s).

  • To respond to you appropriately. Examples: to identify you when you place an order, call us, make a request or inquiry, enter a contest or sweepstakes, complete a survey, or share a comment or concern.

  • To personalize your experiences with us. Such personalization may include remembering your interests and preferences; customizing the products and services we share with you; tracking and categorizing your activities and interests on our website (including identifying the different devices you use) so as to enrich your experience on our website or in interaction with our customer service personnel.

  • To enhance our ability to communicate with you as much as possible about products or services that are likely to be of interest to you and as little as possible about products or services that are not of interest. You always have the ability and right to choose not to receive mailed promotional items by adjusting your email preferences or totally unsubscribing from email/sms marketing by using the link at the top and bottom of each email we send or by contacting us to request removal (info@bookshark.com).

  • To improve our efficiency and effectiveness as a company both online and off. This means we seek to understand how our customers use our website and how they shop with us. It also means we seek to determine the methods and devices they use to access our website and otherwise communicate with us. We seek to use such knowledge to improve our website’s usability.

  • For our business purposes, such as: to operate and improve upon our business, product offerings and, lawful business activities; to maintain our programs, accounts, and records; for research; to determine your satisfaction with our products and services; to detect and prevent fraud or misuse of our services; and for any other business purpose that is permitted by law;

  • For legal and safety purposes, such as to: defend or protect us, our customers, you, or third parties, from harm or in legal proceedings; protect our rights; protect our security and the security of our customers, employees, and property; respond to court orders, lawsuits, subpoenas, and government requests; address legal and regulatory compliance; and notify you of product recalls or safety issues.

What Information We Share

We do not disclose, sell, or trade personal information about you to or with third parties for their or any other third-party company’s marketing or advertising purposes. We do share personal information with third parties for other purposes. For example, we share personal information with:

  • Third parties and service providers that help us market or advertise to you (including co-branded marketing and advertising), for example Meta, Pinterest, Reddit, Spotify, Instagram, SnapChat, TikTok, Google Ad Network, Microsoft and others.

  • We also, by nature of our relationship with them, share information with third-party companies and services that provide services to us and products directly to you (that you purchase through us. Such sharing is necessary for us to fulfill our business obligations to you and/or for you to fulfill your obligations to us. Examples of this kind of information and the companies we are talking about: the U.S. Postal Service, UPS, FedEx, the bank or credit card company that processes payments you make, e-product providers like Rosetta Stone, and so forth.  

  • Social media platforms and networks such as Meta, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram that offer functionalities, plugins, widgets, or tools in connection with our website (e.g., to log into an account, or to share inspiration, finds, purchases, and other content with your friends and followers on social media). If you choose to use these functionalities, plugins, widgets, or tools—which are always branded and provided by those platforms and networks and are not branded nor provided by BookShark, certain information may be shared with or collected by those social media companies. For more information about exactly what information we share with or acquire from those platforms or networks, and how those companies use your information, see the applicable companies’ privacy policies.

  • Additional third parties such as law enforcement, government entities, courts, or other third parties as required by applicable law, such as for the legal and safety purposes described under the “How We Use Personal Information” Section above, or otherwise to help prevent harm or fraud to us, you, our customers, or other third parties. We also may share personal information with third parties upon your request or with your approval, though we may not be able to accommodate such requests.

Online Advertising and Third Parties We Work With

We work with third-party companies for advertising purposes, to track and categorize visitors’ activity and interests over time on our website and on third-party websites. Such tracking helps us understand our customers (and likely customers’) interests which helps us to serve you (and all our other customers and potential customers) more effectively. It also helps us figure out how to identify where we are most likely to find other people like you who will likely enjoy our products and services.

We work with third-party companies to help us show advertisements across the Internet.

We also work with third-party companies to identify the different device(s) our visitors use to access our website.  This helps us improve our visitors’ experience when using our website.

We share information with these companies, and these companies may collect information (including automatically collected information) when you use our website. We share and they collect by means of the methods described in the “How We Collect Information” Section above (see “Using cookies and automatic collection methods”).

For information about how you can control the online advertising practices described in this section, please see the “Your Choices and Access Requests” Section immediately below.

Your Choices and Access Requests

We strive to offer you with choices about how we use and share your personal information. Your choices include:

  • Online Advertising. We strive to work only with third-party advertisers that pursue best-practices.  You can manage, opt out of, and learn more about third-party advertising preferences using this tool http://optout.aboutads.info/?c=2#!/

  • Third-party vendors, including Google, may show ads for BookShark.com on websites across the internet. Some of these ads may be served based on information collected from the BookShark.com website through the use of cookies. The Network Advertising Initiative (“NAI”) is a cooperative of online marketing and analytics companies which provides information regarding Internet advertising and marketing companies. The NAI website provides an opt out tool which allows consumers to opt-out of the advertising delivered by NAI member companies. The NAI opt out tool is located at http://www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp.

  • Social Media Platforms and Networks. We encourage you to review your privacy options and settings with the social media platforms and networks you use. They explain the choices you have about sharing information from those platforms and networks with us.

Third-Party Ad Choices

BookShark works with trusted partners to create interest-based ads that may be displayed when you visit other websites. In order to tailor ads to your interests, our partners may collect anonymous details about your visit to BookShark.com. You may learn more about BookShark's interest-based advertising activities or choose to opt out using the links provided.

What happens if I opt out?

If you opt out, our third party advertising partners will no longer use information about your visit to bookshark.com to show you interest-based advertising from BookShark. An opt out cookie will be set on your browser that stores your preference for each partner. If you clear your browser's cookies or use a different browser to visit our site, our partners will not be able to retrieve your opt out preference and you will need to opt-out again.

Opting out of BookShark's interest-based advertising activities is not the same thing as opting out of ads. You will still see ads, and you may even see ads from BookShark that are not interest-based.

To stop receiving interest-based ads from BookShark, visit the links to each of our third-party advertising partners's websites below.

Our Interest-Based Advertising Partners

Meta Ads About Meta Ads Opt Out of Meta Ads
Meta Pixel About Meta Pixel Opt Out of Meta Pixel
Google Adwords About Google Adwords Opt Out of Google Adwords
Google Analytics About Google Analytics Opt Out of Google Analytics
Google Call Tracking About Google Call Tracking Opt Out of Google Call Tracking
Google Customer Match About Google Customer Match OptOut of Google Customer Match
Pinterest About Pinterest Ads Opt Out of Pinterest Ads
Reddit About Reddit Ads Opt Out of Reddit Ads
Snapchat About Snapchat Ads Opt Out of Snapchat Ads
TikTok About TikTok Ads Opt Out of TikTok Ads
Microsoft About Microsoft Ads Opt Out of Microsoft Ads
  • Email Choices. You may opt-out of future marketing emails anytime by clicking the unsubscribe link in any email from BookShark or by using this Global Unsubscribe Page. If you would like to be added to or removed from any or all BookShark email lists, please send an email to bold@bookshark.com with your request. Please note that even if you unsubscribe from all marketing-oriented emails, if you have an outstanding order or some other business dealings with our company, we reserve the right to contact you via email concerning those matters.

  • Access Requests. If you have registered for an online account with us, we allow you to access and update certain personal information that you have provided to us by logging into your online account and using the features and functionalities available there. You may also make a request for access to personal information by sending an email or writing to us at the address specified below. We are not able to grant all access requests, and in order to protect your privacy, we will seek to confirm your identity before we grant access to your information, or before we make any corrections or deletions.

We are Committed to Protecting Your Information

We are committed to protecting your information from those who would seek to do you harm. As such, we secure our website with the industry standard for protecting web communications (SSL technology). Because of the encryption, your transactions on this site, financial and otherwise, are safe and protected. We have also acquired PCI Level 3 status (click here to learn more), which assures you of significant additional protections related to any transaction involving a credit card. Furthermore, our employees and maintenance personnel use IDs and passwords to further protect access to your information.

How to Contact Us

You may contact us at any time if you want to correct the information we maintain about you or to request that we no longer contact you. Ways to contact us include:

  • Email info@bookshark.com
  • Visit  https://bookshark.com
  • Mail 8022 South Grant Way, Littleton, CO 80122-2705
  • Phone 1-866-668-0179 or 303-797-2954

Please contact us with any questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy.

Updates to This Policy

We may make changes to this Policy, and may apply any changes to information previously collected, as permitted by law. When we make material changes to this Policy, we will notify you by posting the updated Policy on our website, and we will update the effective date at the end of this Policy.

We will also update the “effective date” at the end of this Privacy Policy.

Please review this Privacy Policy periodically in case you miss one of our notices. Changes to this Privacy Policy will be effective when they are posted on this page.

Effective date

This policy is effective November 13, 2020.