Privacy Statement for Smashwords, Inc.

Smashwords has created this privacy statement to explain our commitment to privacy. The following discloses our information gathering and dissemination practices for this site.

Our 100% privacy promise to you: Smashwords is committed to protecting the privacy of our visitors and members. We will never sell or rent your personally identifiable information to anyone. You always control your communications preferences.

INFORMATION COLLECTED ON THIS SITE:
For all web site visitors, we collect your IP addresses, browser type, page views, clickstream and usage. This information helps us continually optimize the performance and usability of the site; display content and advertising that matches visitor or member interests; and make automated book recommendations.

Non-member Activity - It is not necessary to become a registered member to enjoy some of the content on Smashwords, although without membership your viewing options and community participation may be limited. For example, without membership you will not be able to purchase books, post reviews, publish material on the site, receive payments for your work, create profile pages, or track your favorite authors.

Smashwords Member Activity - Smashwords members are allowed to access all public areas of the site. We store cookies in your browser to help you personalize your use of the site and so you are automatically logged in to the site each time you visit (unless you manually logged out during your last visit). Members can post reviews, purchase books, publish books, and take advantage of the site’s complementary book marketing tools. When you register for the site, our registration form requires a valid email address so we can contact you about your account and respond to your customer service requests. We ask you to create a unique Smashwords password so we can protect access to your account. We ask for demographic information like zip code and date of birth. We use your zip code to present you with geographically relevant information, and we use date of birth to prevent children from viewing inappropriate adult content. We record several details related to your usage of the site such as reviews you’ve posted, books you’ve published, books you’ve sold, author pages you’ve browsed, books you’ve sampled or purchased, commissions you’ve earned, and books and authors you have favorited. We do not disclose your personally identifiable member information or usage to third parties. However, any information you voluntarily upload or post to the site, such as books, book reviews or personal profile information, becomes publicly available to other users of the site. When you create a personal profile page, your email address is shielded from visitors.

Smashwords allows member authors to publish their works under assumed “pen names.” Under no circumstances will Smashwords reveal the author’s true identity to customers or site visitors.

Authors who wish to sell their works on Smashwords are required to provide more detailed registration information, such as real name, a postal mailing address, a phone number, and possibly tax ID information to comply with State and local tax codes. Smashwords will only use this contact information to fulfill our obligations to you, and will not sell or rent your information to third parties.

Smashwords Email Policy:
Registered members will receive occasional emails from Smashwords summarizing site news and feature updates. Members may opt-out of these updates from day-one of their membership, and can opt-in or opt out of other email notifications they control. Smashwords does not allow third parties to send emails to its member list. Users may opt-in or opt-out of receiving mailings at any time.

Advertising on the Smashwords Site:
Although Smashwords does not currently run advertising, we expect we will run ads in the future. If we run ads, we will do our best to make them unobtrusive, and when possible, informative and targeted to your specific interests.  We will never use pop-up or pop-under ads because we think they’re annoying.

Children's Guidelines
Smashwords is not marketed to children. Like any ordinary bookstore, Smashwords hosts books that may contain adult themes and situations not recommended for children. We take multiple steps to ensure this content is not presented to children. First, we ask a member’s age at registration. Young adults and children under age 18 are blocked from viewing content that contains adult situations or content deemed to be objectionable to children. We have two means for identifying potentially objectionable material: 1. We allow authors to specify if their works are suitable for children. 2. We allow members to flag works they believe are unsuitable for children. 3. We warn members of potentially objectionable content before they click through to it.

Children, should they wish to join, are allowed to become members. The above online information we collect from children is the same we collect from all members, and will only be used to respond directly to the child's request and will not be used by Smashwords for any other purposes without prior parental consent. If Smashwords learns that a child has posted information that would allow others to personally contact the child, Smashwords will immediately remove the information.

Choice/Opt-Out
Smashwords provides users the opportunity to opt-in and opt-out of receiving email communications from Smashwords. For members who have specifically requested to receive communications from Smashwords, they can cancel the communications at any time by clicking on the links contained in the email or by adjusting communications preferences at http://beta.smashwords.com/account/comm

This site gives users the option to remove their information from our database and to not receive future communications or receive our service. Members who wish to cancel their membership can close their account by sending an email to support at smashwords dot com.

Change/Modify
This site gives users the option to change and modify information previously provided by going to the member profile page.

Contacting Smashwords

If you have any questions about this privacy statement, the practices of this site, or your dealings with this Web site, you can contact:

Customer Support
Smashwords, Inc.
15951 Los Gatos Blvd., Ste 16
Los Gatos, CA 95032
www.smashwords.com

Date of last update: May 5, 2008