This policy explains how rileylocke.net collects, uses, discloses, and retains personal information. It also explains the choices and rights that may be available to you.
Riley Locke does not sell personal information for money. The site may use analytics, affiliate retailers, advertising, sponsorships, payment services, email services, and other providers. Those relationships are described below and in the Cookie Policy and Advertising & Sponsorship Disclosure.
Who operates Riley Locke
Riley Locke Publications is a trade name used by GR Investments LLC, a Delaware limited liability company in the United States. GR Investments LLC operates rileylocke.net and is responsible for the information covered by this policy.
Privacy questions and requests may be submitted through the contact form.
Information we collect
Information you provide
Depending on the features you use, you may provide:
- an account name, email address, and password credential;
- books saved to your shelf, reading states, private ratings, progress, goals, and preferences;
- newsletter subscription and consent information;
- messages, correction reports, comments, survey responses, or support requests;
- billing and transaction details for a paid product or service, although full payment-card details are handled by the payment provider rather than stored by Riley Locke; and
- information submitted for a membership, beta program, license, sponsorship, advertising inquiry, or business relationship.
Passwords are stored using WordPress security controls as a salted hash, not in readable form.
Information collected automatically
When you use the site, Riley Locke or its service providers may collect technical and activity information such as:
- IP address, request time, browser and device information, and server logs;
- pages or content types visited, broad referral source, and actions such as a search, shelf update, Discover completion, or advertising interaction;
- cookie, local-storage, consent, or similar browser identifiers where a feature uses them; and
- performance, security, fraud-prevention, and error information.
Riley Locke's local operational measurement is designed to store accepted events in daily aggregate buckets without a visitor identifier, raw referring URL, full IP address, user agent, or search term. Browser Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control signals disable that public measurement beacon.
Information from other sources
Riley Locke may receive information from service providers and partners, including account authentication, email delivery, payment status, affiliate reports, advertising reports, analytics reports, fraud-prevention signals, or business contact information.
Advertising reports are generally aggregate campaign information. Riley Locke does not sell private shelf contents or identifiable Reading Match Profiles to advertisers.
How we use information
Riley Locke may use information to:
- provide accounts, shelves, preferences, recommendations, and requested services;
- send a newsletter or other messages you asked to receive;
- process purchases, memberships, subscriptions, licenses, advertising, sponsorships, or business inquiries;
- operate search, discovery, content, corrections, and support;
- secure accounts, prevent abuse, diagnose faults, and maintain backups;
- understand aggregate site use and improve performance and reader experience;
- measure aggregate affiliate-link, campaign, advertising, and sponsorship performance;
- comply with law, enforce terms, and protect rights; and
- create deidentified or aggregate reports that do not reasonably identify an individual.
Riley Locke does not use private shelf contents as paid editorial placement and does not license identifiable shelf histories as part of the public book dataset.
Affiliate retailer links
Some book pages contain affiliate links to Bookshop.org, Amazon, or another disclosed retailer. Riley Locke may record an aggregate click counter by day, retailer, book, edition, and placement without storing a reader identifier in the affiliate click table.
When you follow an external retailer link, the retailer receives the information normally transmitted by your browser and applies its own privacy terms. The retailer or affiliate program may later report attributed clicks, orders, or commissions to Riley Locke. Riley Locke does not use private shelves or identifiable Reading Match Profiles to determine affiliate-link ranking.
Advertising and sponsorships
Riley Locke may display contextual or interest-based advertising or sponsored material. If an advertising technology is enabled, the provider may receive limited online activity, device, browser, IP-address, page, cookie, or advertising-identifier information needed to select, deliver, limit, secure, or measure an advertisement.
Riley Locke does not sell personal information for money. Some privacy laws may define disclosures for cross-context behavioral or targeted advertising as a sale, sharing, or targeted advertising even when no money is paid for the data itself. Where an applicable law requires an opt-out, Riley Locke will provide or honor the required choice, including Global Privacy Control where it applies.
Before a new nonessential advertising provider is activated, the site should update its cookie or privacy controls and identify the provider or category in the Cookie Policy.
Newsletter and commercial email
If you subscribe, Riley Locke stores the email address and records needed to document and honor the subscription. Commercial emails identify the sender and include an unsubscribe method. Unsubscribe requests are applied as promptly as reasonably possible, subject to any legally permitted processing period.
Transactional or account-security messages may still be sent when needed to provide a service you requested or protect an account.
Riley Locke does not give a sponsor the subscriber list merely because it sponsors a newsletter placement.
Payments and paid services
Payments may be processed by a third-party payment provider. The provider receives the information needed to process the payment and applies its own privacy terms. Riley Locke may receive transaction status, amount, product, customer contact, tax, refund, dispute, or subscription information, but does not need to store a full card number.
When information is disclosed
Information may be disclosed to:
- hosting, security, authentication, email, analytics, advertising, payment, support, and other service providers;
- retailers or other destinations you choose to visit;
- sponsors or business partners in aggregate form or as necessary for a disclosed campaign or service;
- professional advisers, insurers, auditors, or prospective transaction parties subject to appropriate obligations;
- government authorities or other parties when required by law or reasonably necessary to protect rights and safety; and
- a successor in a merger, financing, reorganization, sale, or transfer of all or part of the business.
Service providers are expected to use information for the contracted service and applicable legal obligations, not to acquire Riley Locke's editorial authority.
Retention
Information is kept only as long as reasonably needed for the purpose collected, including service delivery, security, accounting, dispute handling, legal compliance, and backups.
Account and shelf information is retained while the account is active or until deletion is requested or performed through the available account controls. Backup copies may remain for a limited period before being overwritten or securely deleted. Newsletter suppression information may be retained so an unsubscribe request remains honored.
Security logs, support messages, transaction records, consent records, and business records may have different retention periods based on operational and legal needs.
Security
Riley Locke uses administrative, technical, and organizational safeguards appropriate to the service. No website, transmission method, or storage system can be guaranteed completely secure.
You are responsible for using a strong, unique password and protecting access to your email account and devices.
Your choices and privacy rights
You can choose not to provide optional information, although a feature may not work without information needed to provide it. Account and shelf controls may allow you to update or delete information directly. Newsletter messages include an unsubscribe method.
Depending on where you live and whether a law applies to Riley Locke, you may have rights to request access, correction, deletion, portability, restriction, objection, or information about disclosures. You may also have a right to opt out of certain targeted advertising, sale, sharing, or profiling and to appeal a denied request.
Submit a request through the contact form. Riley Locke may need to verify the request and may retain information where an exception or legal obligation applies. Riley Locke will not discriminate against you for exercising an applicable privacy right.
Children
Riley Locke is a general-audience book site and is not directed to children under 13. Do not create an account or submit personal information if you are under 13. If Riley Locke learns that personal information was collected from a child under 13 without appropriate authorization, it will take reasonable steps to delete it.
International use
Riley Locke is operated from the United States. Information may be processed in the United States and other countries where service providers operate. Those countries may have different data-protection rules from your home jurisdiction.
Where a specific transfer mechanism or additional notice is required, Riley Locke will use the mechanism or provide the notice applicable to the service and location involved.
Changes to this policy
This policy may be updated as the site, providers, monetization methods, or legal requirements change. The effective date at the top identifies the current version. Material changes may also be announced through the site or another appropriate channel.
Contact
Privacy questions, rights requests, and concerns should be sent through the contact form. Include enough information to identify the account or interaction involved, but do not send passwords or full payment-card numbers.