Effective Date: December 15, 2021

This Privacy Policy describes how New York Book Forum, Inc. (referred to in this Privacy Policy as “NYBFI,” “we,” and “us”) collects, uses, and discloses your personal information in person and on the websites where this Privacy Policy appears or is referenced, including https://newyorkbookforum.org/.

By accessing this website or participating in an event or program from which this Privacy Policy is referenced, you confirm that you have read, understand, and acknowledge the disclosures in this Privacy Policy. This Privacy Policy is not a contract and does not grant you any legal or contract rights.

This Privacy Policy includes the following sections. You should read the entire Privacy Policy; however, you may use the links below to be directed to the information you are seeking.

  1. What personal information we collect
  2. How we use personal information
  3. We collect personal information from different sources
  4. Who we share your personal information with
  5. Your choices about your personal information
  6. Your California privacy rights
  7. We process and store data in the United States
  8. Our website is not intended for children under 13
  9. We use standard security measures
  10. Links to third-party sites
  11. Contact us
  12. Updates to this Privacy Policy

SECTION 1.  What personal information we collect

We (and the service providers we use to perform services on our behalf) collect, receive, and develop several categories of personal information about you. The exact categories and pieces of personal information will vary depending on the nature of your interactions with us, but in general we might collect some or all of the following information from and about you:

  • Contact Information – For example, we might collect your name, email address, phone number, and mailing address.
  • Device, Internet, and Network Activity Information – For example, if you use our websites, we may collect information about the browser, device, and operating system you are using, device identifiers, IP address, and your time zone. We might collect information about the website you came from, or the site you visit when you leave us. We may collect page interaction information (such as what areas of our websites you visit and for how long, and what content you view and click on). We may also embed technologies (which may include web beacons, tags, and pixels) in the emails we or our vendors send to you, to help us understand how you interact with those messages, such as whether and when you opened a message or clicked on any content within the message.
  • Payment Information – If you make a contribution or purchase tickets to an event or book show, our third-party payment processor will collect your credit card and other payment details. NYBFI does not receive your payment information from the payment processor.
  • Interests and Preferences – For example, if you purchase tickets to a book show, we will collect information about that purchase. We may also collect information about your interests as part the membership registration or event registration process.
  • Professional Information – We may collect information about your current employer and title.

SECTION 2.  How we use personal information

We (and the service providers we hire to help us operate) may use the above-referenced types of personal information for the following purposes:

  • To operate our organization and to pursue our mission of promoting literacy and celebrating reading across all platforms; for example, we might use personal information to provide our programming, disburse funds or other support for literary causes, fulfill memberships, host book shows and book competitions, track and document our impact, and communicate with partners in the book publishing world and beyond.
  • To process donations and membership payments.
  • To respond to your requests or questions. We use information to contact you in response to your feedback or other matters related to our relationship with you (such as correspondence about this Privacy Policy or our Terms).
  • For marketing purposes; for example, we might use personal information to solicit donations from current, past, or prospective donors. We might send you information about new programming, book shows, and events. To learn about your choices for our marketing communications, read the Your Choices section below.
  • To administer, analyze, and improve our websites, such as troubleshooting, data analysis, and testing.
  • To improve, enhance, and update our programming and events.
  • To customize your experience with us.
  • To conduct research and analysis.
  • For security and safety purposes. We may use personal information to protect our websites, as well as to detect and investigate activities that may be illegal or prohibited (such as cyber-attacks or fraudulent transactions).
  • For vetting purposes. We may use certain information to conduct background checks and otherwise vet potential volunteers.
  • For verification purposes. For example, we will use certain pieces of personal information to verify your identity if you make requests pursuant to this Privacy Policy. The verification steps and the pieces of personal information that we request may vary depending on the sensitivity and nature of your request.
  • As otherwise required or permitted by law, or as we may notify you from time to time.

We may use personal information to create deidentified or aggregated data which does not identify you or any other individual, or from which your identity cannot reasonably be ascertained. We may use and disclose this anonymous or aggregated data as we choose.

SECTION 3.  We collect personal information about you from various sources

We (and our service providers) collect personal information about you from various sources, directly and indirectly:

  • Directly from you – For example, we collect information if you donate, become a member, register for an event, contact us, sign up to receive our emails, or otherwise submit your information to us.
  • Automatically from your devices – We use tracking tools like browser cookies and web beacons to automatically collect information about you. We collect information when you interact with our websites, our online content, or our emails that we or our service providers send to you. To learn about your choices for these tracking tools, read the Your Choices section of this Privacy Policy.
  • From service providers we hire to work on our behalf – For example, service providers that host or maintain our websites or send promotional emails for us may pass certain information back to us.
  • From other sources – We might get information from other sources like volunteers, book industry interest groups, other contacts in the book publishing world, and organizations with similar or related missions of promoting literacy and celebrating reading.

We combine information. We may combine information that we have collected offline with information we collect online. Or we may combine information we get from another party with information we already have. We may also aggregate your information with other people’s information to understand preferences and trends over time.

SECTION 4.  We share your personal information with other parties

We may share your personal information with the following categories of third parties:

  • Service providers who perform services on our behalf – This may include vendors who send emails for us, process payments and donations, help us manage and operate our websites, investigate and prevent data incidents, provide physical and digital security services, audit our business and financial statements, and provide legal advice.
  • With book publishers and others in the book publishing industry – We might share information with third parties who help promote our programs and events. Personal information received by publishing industry partners may also be subject to their privacy policies.
  • With marketing partners – We may share information with organizations that help us with our marketing efforts, including social media platforms, advertising networks, and ad tech companies. Personal information received by our marketing partners may also be subject to their privacy policies.
  • With others in the book publishing world – We might share information with book industry interest groups, other contacts in the book publishing world, and organizations with similar or related missions of promoting literacy and celebrating reading.
  • With event organizers and speakers – If you register for an event that we are hosting or co-hosting, we will share certain information with any co-hosts. We may also share elements of your personal information if an event speaker requests information about the attendees of a particular speaking event.
  • For safety and security purposes – We will share information if we think we have to in order to comply with the law or to protect ourselves, our supporters, and others. We may share personal information to respond to a court order or subpoena, and we may share information if a government agency or investigatory body requests it. We might share your personal information in order to enforce our agreements and to protect our rights and/or the rights of others. We might share your personal information when we are investigating potential fraud.
  • With a successor to all or part of our organization. If NYBFI is transferred to a third party (such as another organization with a similar or related mission to ours), we may include personal information as part of that transfer. We may also share your personal information if there is a change to our corporate structure.
  • For other reasons we may describe to you from time to time or as permitted or required by law.

SECTION 5.  Your choices about your personal information

You can opt out of receiving our marketing emails by following the instructions in any promotional message you get from us. Users may also send an unsubscribe request via email to our team at president@newyorkbookforum.org. Please include “Unsubscribe” in your correspondence with us. Even if you opt out of getting marketing messages, we will still send you transactional messages. These include responses to your questions.

You can control certain cookies and online tracking tools.  How you may do so depends on the type of tool. With most web browsers, you can block cookies by activating a setting on your browser that allows you to refuse the setting of cookies. You can also delete cookies through your browser settings. If you use your browser settings to disable, reject, or block cookies (including essential cookies), certain parts of our websites will not function fully. Note that options you select and choices you make are browser-, website-, and device-specific, which means you should make your selections on each device and on each browser you use to access our websites. If you clear your cookies or your browser’s cache, you will need to set your preferences again.

We and our marketing vendors and networks, social media companies, and other services may collect information about your use of our websites so that they or we may display interest-based advertising using information gathered about you over time across multiple websites or other platforms. To do this, we and our vendors use several tracking tools, such as browser cookies, web beacons, and other technologies. You can visit www.aboutads.info/choices and https://optout.privacyrights.info/ to opt out of certain uses of cookies for interest-based advertising purposes.

Our Do Not Track policy: Some browsers have “do not track” features that allow you to tell a website not to track you. These features are not all uniform. We do not currently respond to those signals. If you block cookies, certain features on our site may not work. If you block or reject cookies, not all the tracking described here will stop.

SECTION 6.  Your California Privacy Rights

If you reside in California, you have the right to ask us one time each year if we have shared personal information with third parties for their direct marketing purposes. To make a request, please send us an email, or write to us at the address listed below. Indicate in your letter that you are a California resident making a “Shine the Light” inquiry.

SECTION 7.  We process and store information in the United States

Our websites are intended only for users in the United States.  Note that if you access our websites from outside of the United States, information we collect from you will be transferred to, processed in, and stored in the United States. By using our websites or submitting your personal information, you consent to such transfer, storing and processing.

SECTION 8.  Our website is not intended for children

Our websites and our services are meant for adults. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you are a parent or legal guardian and think your child has given us information, you can contact us using the information provided below.

SECTION 9.  We use standard security measures

The Internet is not 100% secure. We cannot promise that your use of our websites or services will be completely safe. Any transmission of your data to our websites is at your own risk. We encourage you to use caution when using the Internet. We keep personal information as long as it is necessary or relevant for the practices described in this Privacy Policy, including, for example, for legal compliance, dispute resolution, contract enforcement, backup, archival, and other internal operations purposes. We also keep information as otherwise required by law. Personal information may be accessed by persons within our organization, our service providers, and those other parties described in this Privacy Policy, including those who require such access to carry out the purposes described in this Privacy Policy, and such other purposes as permitted or required by applicable law.

SECTION 10.  We may link to third-party sites we don’t control

If you click on a link to a third-party site, you will be taken to a website or service that NYBFI does not control. This Privacy Policy does not apply to the privacy practices of that website or service, which may collect information from you. Read the privacy policy of other websites and services carefully. We are not responsible for these third-party websites or services or their policies.

SECTION 11.  Feel free to contact us

We appreciate your questions or comments about this Privacy Policy, the practices of this website, and your dealings with NYBFI. Please send emails to president@newyorkbookforum.org, or you can send mail to 322 West 52nd Street #82, New York, NY 10101-0082. Please include “Privacy Inquiry” in your correspondence.

SECTION 12.  We may update this Privacy Policy

From time to time we may change this Privacy Policy. We will notify you of any material changes to our Privacy Policy to the extent required by law. We will post an updated copy on our websites. Please check our websites periodically for updates. Your continued use of our websites or our services means that you consent to the collection, use and disclosure of your personal information as set out in the updated Privacy Policy.