Privacy Policy

Details on Libreture's privacy practices and your data.

Last Updated: 26/8/2021

Libreture provides online ebook, digital comic, magazine & RPG storage to readers. Readers can leave their collection private, or choose to make it public to display information about their collection. Anyone can view publicly visible collections by visiting the Libreture website, and search engines can index these collections. No books are available to download by anyone other than the owner that uploaded them.

Learn more about how Libreture works.

Libreture is a Data Controller, registered with the Information Commissioner's Office.

What Personal Data does Libreture collect and process?

Libreture only stores and processes the personal data you provide when creating an account.

This data includes:

  • username - does not need to be your real name
  • password
  • e-mail address

If you choose to Upgrade your Storage, your payment details, which may include your real name, will be collected separately by our payment provider. These details include:

  • name on the payment card
  • e-mail address
  • postal address (sometimes)
  • payment card number, expiration date, and 3-digit code

Your payment details are recorded securely and directly with the payment provider, and are not recorded with, or even pass through, Libreture. Only the additional fact that you have an active subscription is then recorded on Libreture. Libreture's current payment provider is Stripe. Please read their Privacy Policy.

If you choose to subscribe to the Libreture E-Mail Newsletter, you will be providing your information directly to our newsletter provider. You will be asked for your:

  • e-mail address

Libreture's current e-mail newsletter provider is MailerLite. Please read their Privacy Policy.

Libreture uses MailerLite to manage our e-mail marketing subscriber list and to send e-mails to subscribers. MailerLite is a third-party provider, which may process your data using industry standard technologies to help Libreture monitor and improve our newsletter.

You can unsubscribe from the newsletter at any time, using the unsubscribe link in any of the newsletter e-mails or by e-mailing support@libreture.com. At which point your e-mail address will be deleted.

Why does Libreture collect this Personal Data?

The personal details Libreture collects are the minimum I believe are necessary to run the service effectively.

Libreture collects this information under the Lawful Basis of a Contract.

The following diagram shows what is and is not covered by the various lawful bases.

Diagram showing rights under GDP lawful basis.

More information about Lawful Basis and GDPR

The lawful basis of Contract means you have the following rights when creating a Libreture account:

Right to erasure
You can cancel your Libreture account at any time. All your data and books will be deleted on your next renewal date.
Right to Portability
You can already download the books you have uploaded to your library. New features will soon allow you to download your entire library in one go, along with all the data you have additionally applied to it through Libreture, such as Reading Status, Recommendations, Favourites, etc.

While not included in your rights under Contract, Libreture addresses the following in its processes:

Right to Object
Whilst you cannot object to Libreture's right to record the minimum required information to provide customers with the service, you of course have the right not to create a Libreture account in the first place. You also have the right to close your account at any time - all your Personal Data will be deleted immediately (or on your next renewal date, if you have upgraded your storage), which ends your relationship with Libreture.

The specific items of Personal Data are collected for these reasons:

Username
An unique address for your library, and a way to refer to you through any necessary internal communications. Not used for logging-in or authentication. Only made public (on Libreture.com) if you choose to make your library public.
E-Mail Address
An unique identifier, so you can log-in. It also allows Libreture to send you password reminders, book upload reports, and any other internal or transactional messages related to your account or the service. Never made public.
Password
An accepted method of ensuring you are who you say you are when logging-in to your account. Encrypted using salted PBKDF2 with 30,000 iterations. Never made public.

Who has access to your data?

Three separate parties have various levels of access to your personal data.

Libreture - Kevin Beynon
As the owner of Libreture, I can view the username and e-mail address you add to Libreture when creating an account.
If you choose to upgrade your storage, I can view the e-mail address you give the payment provider, along with the type of payment card, the last four digits, and its expiry date.
Web Hosting Company - Mythic Beasts Ltd.
Since the Libreture website and database is hosted on a server managed by Mythic Beasts, they technically have access to the system and any personal data, but have no reason without my express permission. The server is hosted in the Netherlands.
Payment Provider - Stripe
Stripe collects credit/debit card information, along with name and e-mail address, and sometimes a postal address. This information is only requested for customers who pay for additional storage, and solely for processing these payments.

Data Privacy

Private by default. Public by choice.

Your personal data, including your e-mail address and password, are never shared with anyone.

All personal data in an user's account is only stored for as long as that account exists. That is, until account deletion is triggered by either the user or by Libreture.

Libreture uses SSL throughout, meaning your entire interaction with Libreture is delivered over HTTPS.

You may experience a warning about the certificate when using Libreture through an older browser, such as on an old e-reader device. This is due to older browsers not recognising new SSL Certification Authorities, such as Let's Encrypt, which Libreture uses. Many old e-readers that are otherwise in perfect working order are no longer updated by their respective manufacturers. The security certificate is still valid, and if you can, please select whichever option allows you to continue.

Your book collection, or library, is private by default. If you choose to make your library public, your username and information about your book collection will be visible to the general public and will likely be indexed by search engines.

Your private library and any books you have specifically made private will never be intentionally displayed to other users or shared with third parties.

Libreture does not serve any external third-party content (scripts, cookies, or images), other than the payment provider (Stripe) tools that are required on the Edit Account page.

Analytics

This site collects completely anonymous statistical information about visitors.

No personally identifiable information is recorded in the analytics data.

Recorded analytics data includes which pages and how long visitors stay on each one.

I don't use Google Analytics, but instead use Plausible. I review the data to see how many visitors Libreture attracts. Based on those statistics, I try to determine what works and what doesn't. Plausible does not use cookies or any intrusive technologies to collect analytics data. Learn more about their Privacy Focus.

All analytics data is stored in the EU.

Social Plug-ins

Libreture DOES NOT use any third-party social media share buttons.

Instead, you'll find 'share links' to Twitter and Reddit (and a Mail To link) that do not include any Javascript or tracking software, to help visitors share activity or book information with their followers and friends.

If you are still concerned, you may wish to use privacy protection tools, such as the Disconnect or uBlock Origin plug-ins. These can usually be found in your web browser's Plug-in or Add-on listings.

Reading Privacy

You may want to keep your entire library private or make is publicly visible and just keep some books hidden for all sorts of reasons.

Your actual book files are never shared, only information about your books, and only if you make your library public.

You can change your library's privacy setting at any time by visiting your library and selecting Make my library public. You can make it private again just as easily, by selecting Make my library private.

To exclude individual books from displaying publicly, regardless of your library's overall setting, select Make Private on an individual book page.

Private libraries and private books are only visible to you - never to other users or the public, including search engines.

Do not feel obliged to make your library public.
Libreture is funded by users' storage subscriptions, so it makes no difference to Libreture's revenue whether you make your library public or not. Libreture's business model is specifically designed not to make use of selling data or advertising space.

Suggestions or concerns

We think the privacy options in Libreture work in the majority of cases, but let us know if you have any suggestions or concerns.

Thank you,

Kevin Beynon
Owner and registered Data Controller of Libreture

Get in touch

Contact me or connect at BlueSky, Mastodon or Twitter.

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