Privacy Policy

This privacy notice for Boston Made, Inc. (“Boston Made,” “we,” “us,” or “our“) describes how and why we may collect, store, use, and/or share (“process“) your information when you use our services (“Services“), such as when you:

• Visit Boston Made Reader at https://reader.bostonmade.com, or any website of ours that links to this privacy notice
• Read stories, guides, and books in Boston Made Reader, including saved progress and reading history
• Engage with us in other related ways, including any sales, marketing, or events

Questions or concerns? Reading this privacy notice will help you understand your privacy rights and choices. If you do not agree with our policies and practices, please do not use our Services. If you still have any questions or concerns, please contact us at hello@bostonmade.com.

Summary of key points

This summary provides key points from our privacy notice. You can find more detail about any of these topics in the full notice below, or jump to a section using the table of contents.

What personal information do we process? When you visit, use, or navigate our Services, we may process personal information depending on how you interact with Boston Made and the Services, the choices you make, and the products and features you use. Learn more.

Do we process any sensitive personal information? We do not intentionally collect sensitive personal information. If that ever changes, we will only do so with your consent or as otherwise permitted by applicable law. Learn more.

Do we receive any information from third parties? We may receive limited information from public databases, marketing partners, social media platforms, and other outside sources. Learn more.

How do we process your information? We process your information to provide, improve, and administer our Services, communicate with you, for security and fraud prevention, and to comply with law. We may also process your information for other purposes with your consent. We process your information only when we have a valid legal reason to do so. Learn more.

In what situations and with which parties do we share personal information? We may share information in specific situations and with specific third parties. Learn more.

How do we keep your information safe? We have organizational and technical processes and procedures in place to protect your personal information. However, no electronic transmission over the internet or information storage technology can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. Learn more.

What are your rights? Depending on where you are located, applicable privacy law may give you certain rights regarding your personal information. Learn more.

How do you exercise your rights? The easiest way is to email us at hello@bostonmade.com. We will consider and act upon any request in accordance with applicable data protection laws.

1. What information do we collect?

Personal information you disclose to us

In short: We collect personal information that you provide to us.

We collect personal information that you voluntarily provide to us when you create an account or sign in, subscribe to updates, make a purchase, express an interest in obtaining information about us or our products and Services, participate in activities on the Services, or otherwise contact us.

Personal information provided by you. The personal information that we collect depends on the context of your interactions with us and the Services, the choices you make, and the products and features you use. It may include the following:

• names
• email addresses
• phone numbers
• mailing addresses
• usernames
• passwords
• contact preferences
• billing addresses
• contact or authentication data

Sensitive information. We do not intentionally collect sensitive personal information (such as health, financial account, biometric, or government identification data). If we ever need to, we will only do so with your consent or as otherwise permitted by applicable law.

Payment data. If you make a purchase, we collect the data necessary to process your payment. Card payments are handled by our payment processors (such as Stripe); we do not store full card numbers. See Stripe’s privacy policy.

Social media login data. We may provide you with the option to register with us using your existing social media or single sign-on account details. If you choose to register in this way, we will collect the information described in “How do we handle your social logins?” below.

All personal information that you provide to us must be true, complete, and accurate, and you must notify us of any changes to such personal information.

Information automatically collected

In short: Some information, such as your Internet Protocol (IP) address and/or browser and device characteristics, is collected automatically when you visit our Services.

We automatically collect certain information when you visit, use, or navigate the Services. This information does not reveal your specific identity (like your name or contact information) but may include device and usage information, such as your IP address, browser and device characteristics, operating system, language preferences, referring URLs, device name, country, location, information about how and when you use our Services, and other technical information. This information is primarily needed to maintain the security and operation of our Services, and for our internal analytics and reporting purposes.

Like many businesses, we also collect information through cookies and similar technologies. The information we collect includes:

• Log and usage data. Service-related, diagnostic, usage, and performance information our servers automatically collect when you access or use our Services, such as your IP address, device information, browser type and settings, and information about your activity in the Services (such as date/time stamps, pages and files viewed, searches, and other actions you take).
• Device data. Information about the computer, phone, tablet, or other device you use to access the Services, such as your IP address (or proxy server), device and application identification numbers, browser type, hardware model, internet service provider and/or mobile carrier, and operating system.
• Location data. Information about your device’s location, which can be either precise or imprecise. We generally use approximate location derived from your IP address. You can opt out of allowing us to collect precise location by refusing access or by disabling location settings on your device, although some features may then be unavailable.

Information collected from other sources

In short: We may collect limited data from public databases, marketing partners, social media platforms, and other outside sources.

To improve our ability to provide relevant marketing, offers, and services to you and to keep our records up to date, we may obtain information about you from other sources, such as public databases, joint marketing partners, affiliate programs, data providers, and social media platforms. This information may include mailing addresses, job titles, email addresses, phone numbers, IP addresses, and social media profiles. If you interact with us on a social media platform using your social media account, we receive personal information about you such as your name and email address, depending on your account’s privacy settings.

2. How do we process your information?

In short: We process your information to provide, improve, and administer our Services, communicate with you, for security and fraud prevention, and to comply with law. We may also process your information for other purposes with your consent.

We process your personal information for a variety of reasons, depending on how you interact with our Services, including:

• To facilitate account creation and authentication and otherwise manage user accounts. We may process your information so you can create and log in to your account, and keep your account in working order.
• To deliver and facilitate the services you request. We may process your information to provide you with the requested service.
• To respond to inquiries and offer support. We may process your information to respond to your inquiries and solve any potential issues you might have with the requested service.
• To send you marketing and promotional communications. We may process the personal information you send to us for our marketing purposes, if this is in accordance with your marketing preferences. You can opt out at any time.
• To protect our Services. We may process your information as part of our efforts to keep our Services safe and secure, including fraud monitoring and prevention.
• To save or protect an individual’s vital interest. We may process your information when necessary to save or protect an individual’s vital interest, such as to prevent harm.

3. What legal bases do we rely on to process your information?

In short: We only process your personal information when we believe it is necessary and we have a valid legal reason (legal basis) to do so under applicable law, such as with your consent, to comply with laws, to provide you with services or fulfill our contractual obligations, to protect your rights, or to fulfill our legitimate business interests.

If you are located in the EU or UK, this section applies to you. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and UK GDPR require us to explain the legal bases we rely on to process your personal information. We may rely on:

• Consent. We may process your information if you have given us permission to use your personal information for a specific purpose. You can withdraw your consent at any time. Learn more.
• Performance of a contract. We may process your personal information when we believe it is necessary to fulfill our contractual obligations to you, including providing our Services, or at your request before entering into a contract with you.
• Legitimate interests. We may process your information when we believe it is reasonably necessary to achieve our legitimate business interests and those interests do not outweigh your interests and fundamental rights and freedoms.
• Legal obligations. We may process your information where we believe it is necessary to comply with our legal obligations, such as to cooperate with a law enforcement body or regulatory agency, exercise or defend our legal rights, or disclose your information as evidence in litigation.
• Vital interests. We may process your information where we believe it is necessary to protect your vital interests or the vital interests of a third party, such as situations involving potential threats to the safety of any person.

If you are located in Canada, this section applies to you. We may process your information if you have given us express consent to use your personal information for a specific purpose, or in situations where your permission can be inferred (implied consent). You can withdraw your consent at any time. In some exceptional cases, we may be legally permitted under applicable law to process your information without your consent, for example for investigations and fraud detection and prevention, for business transactions provided certain conditions are met, if disclosure is required to comply with a subpoena, warrant, or court order, or if the information is publicly available and is specified by the regulations.

4. When and with whom do we share your personal information?

In short: We may share information in specific situations described in this section and/or with the following categories of third parties.

We may need to share your personal information in the following situations:

• Service providers. We share information with vendors that perform services for us, such as website hosting, payment processing, email delivery, analytics, customer support, and security. They may only use your information to perform those services for us.
• Business transfers. We may share or transfer your information in connection with, or during negotiations of, any merger, sale of company assets, financing, or acquisition of all or a portion of our business to another company.
• Maps and location services. Where our Services use mapping or location features (for example, Google Maps Platform APIs), we may share your information with those providers. To learn more, see Google’s Privacy Policy.
• Affiliates. We may share your information with our affiliates, in which case we will require those affiliates to honor this privacy notice. Affiliates include Boston Made, Inc. and the companies in the Boston Made family of brands.
• Business partners. We may share your information with our business partners to offer you certain products, services, or promotions.
• Other users. When you share personal information (for example, by posting comments, contributions, or other content to the Services) or otherwise interact with public areas of the Services, that information may be viewed by other users and may be publicly available outside the Services.

5. What is our stance on third-party websites?

In short: We are not responsible for the safety of any information that you share with third parties that we may link to or who advertise on our Services, but are not affiliated with our Services.

The Services may link to third-party websites, online services, or mobile applications and/or contain advertisements from third parties that are not affiliated with us. We do not make any guarantee regarding any such third parties, and we will not be liable for any loss or damage caused by the use of such third-party websites, services, or applications. The inclusion of a link to a third-party website, service, or application does not imply an endorsement by us. Any data collected by third parties is not covered by this privacy notice. You should review the policies of those third parties and contact them directly with any questions.

6. Do we use cookies and other tracking technologies?

In short: We may use cookies and other tracking technologies to collect and store your information.

We may use cookies and similar tracking technologies (like web beacons and pixels) to keep you signed in, remember your preferences, understand how the Services are used, and support advertising. Some pages show advertising from Google and other partners, who may use cookies to serve and measure ads. You can learn how Google uses data at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites. Where required by law, we ask for your consent through our cookie banner, and you can change your choices at any time through the cookie settings on this site or through your browser.

7. How do we handle your social logins?

In short: If you choose to register or log in to our Services using a social media or single sign-on account, we may have access to certain information about you.

Our Services may offer you the ability to register and log in using third-party account details (such as a social media account or the shared Boston Made sign-in). Where you choose to do this, we will receive certain profile information about you from that provider, which will often include your name, email address, and profile picture, as well as other information you choose to make public. We will use the information we receive only for the purposes described in this privacy notice or that are otherwise made clear to you on the relevant Services. We do not control, and are not responsible for, other uses of your personal information by your third-party provider.

8. Is your information transferred internationally?

In short: We may transfer, store, and process your information in countries other than your own.

Our servers are located in the United States. If you access our Services from outside the United States, please be aware that your information may be transferred to, stored, and processed by us and by the third parties with whom we may share your personal information (see “When and with whom do we share your personal information?” above) in the United States and other countries. If you are a resident of the European Economic Area (EEA) or United Kingdom (UK), these countries may not have data protection laws as comprehensive as those in your country. However, we will take all necessary measures to protect your personal information in accordance with this privacy notice and applicable law.

9. How long do we keep your information?

In short: We keep your information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this privacy notice unless otherwise required by law.

We will only keep your personal information for as long as it is necessary for the purposes set out in this privacy notice, unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law (such as tax, accounting, or other legal requirements). When we have no ongoing legitimate business need to process your personal information, we will either delete or anonymize it, or, if this is not possible (for example, because it is stored in backup archives), we will securely store it and isolate it from any further processing until deletion is possible.

10. How do we keep your information safe?

In short: We aim to protect your personal information through a system of organizational and technical security measures.

We have implemented appropriate and reasonable technical and organizational security measures designed to protect the security of any personal information we process, including encrypted (HTTPS) connections and access controls. However, no electronic transmission over the internet or information storage technology can be guaranteed to be 100% secure, so we cannot promise or guarantee that unauthorized third parties will not be able to defeat our security. Transmission of personal information to and from our Services is at your own risk, and you should only access the Services within a secure environment.

11. Do we collect information from minors?

In short: We do not knowingly collect data from or market to children under 13 years of age.

We do not knowingly solicit data from or market to children under 13 years of age. By using the Services, you represent that you are at least 13 or that you are the parent or guardian of a minor and consent to that minor’s use of the Services. If we learn that personal information from users under 13 has been collected, we will deactivate the account and take reasonable measures to promptly delete such data from our records. If you become aware of any data we may have collected from children under 13, please contact us at hello@bostonmade.com.

12. What are your privacy rights?

In short: In some regions, such as the European Economic Area (EEA), United Kingdom (UK), and Canada, and in several U.S. states, you have rights that allow you greater access to and control over your personal information. You may review, change, or terminate your account at any time.

Depending on where you live, these may include the right (i) to request access to and obtain a copy of your personal information, (ii) to request correction or deletion, (iii) to restrict the processing of your personal information, and (iv) if applicable, to data portability. In certain circumstances, you may also have the right to object to the processing of your personal information. You can make such a request by contacting us using the details in “How can you contact us about this notice?” below. We will consider and act upon any request in accordance with applicable data protection laws.

If you are located in the EEA or UK and you believe we are unlawfully processing your personal information, you also have the right to complain to your local data protection supervisory authority. If you are located in Switzerland, you may contact the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner.

Withdrawing your consent. If we are relying on your consent to process your personal information, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time by contacting us. This will not affect the lawfulness of the processing before its withdrawal or processing conducted in reliance on lawful grounds other than consent.

Opting out of marketing and promotional communications. You can unsubscribe from our marketing and promotional communications at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link in our emails, replying “STOP” or “UNSUBSCRIBE” to our text messages, or by contacting us. We may still send you service-related messages that are necessary for the administration and use of your account or to respond to your requests.

Account information

If you would at any time like to review or change the information in your account or terminate your account, you can:

• Log in to your account settings and update your user account.
• Contact us using the contact information provided.

Upon your request to terminate your account, we will deactivate or delete your account and information from our active databases. However, we may retain some information in our files to prevent fraud, troubleshoot problems, assist with investigations, enforce our legal terms, and/or comply with applicable legal requirements.

Cookies and similar technologies. Most web browsers are set to accept cookies by default. You can usually set your browser to remove or reject cookies, and you can change your choices through the cookie settings on this site. Rejecting cookies could affect certain features of our Services. To opt out of interest-based advertising, visit aboutads.info/choices.

13. Controls for Do-Not-Track features

Most web browsers and some mobile operating systems and applications include a Do-Not-Track (“DNT”) feature you can activate to signal that you do not want data about your online browsing activities monitored and collected. No uniform technology standard for recognizing and implementing DNT signals has been finalized, so we do not currently respond to DNT browser signals. Where required by law, we honor recognized opt-out preference signals such as Global Privacy Control. If a standard for online tracking is adopted that we must follow, we will inform you in a revised version of this privacy notice.

14. Do United States residents have specific privacy rights?

In short: Yes. If you live in California, Virginia, or another U.S. state with a consumer privacy law, you may have specific rights regarding your personal information.

What categories of personal information do we collect? Over the past twelve (12) months we have collected the following categories of personal information:

We may also collect other personal information when you interact with us in person, online, by phone, or by mail in the context of receiving help through our customer support channels, participating in customer surveys or contests, and the delivery of our Services and responses to your inquiries.

Do we sell or share your personal information? Boston Made does not sell personal information for money. We may use cookies and similar technologies for targeted advertising, which some state laws treat as “sharing”; you can opt out through the cookie settings on this site or by emailing us. We may disclose your personal information to our service providers under written contracts that require them to protect it and use it only to perform services for us.

Your rights. Depending on your state of residence, you may have the right to:

• know whether we process your personal information and access it
• request correction of inaccuracies in your personal information
• request deletion of your personal information
• obtain a copy of the personal information you previously shared with us
• opt out of the processing of your personal information for targeted advertising, the sale of personal data, or profiling in furtherance of decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects
• limit the use and disclosure of sensitive personal information (we do not process sensitive personal information)
• not be discriminated against for exercising your privacy rights

California “Shine the Light.” California Civil Code Section 1798.83 permits California residents to request, once a year and free of charge, information about the categories of personal information (if any) we disclosed to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. California residents under 18 with a registered account may also request removal of content they publicly posted on the Services.

How to exercise your rights. Email hello@bostonmade.com or write to us at the address below. You may use an authorized agent; we may deny a request from an agent who does not submit proof that they have been validly authorized to act on your behalf.

Verification. We will verify your identity before responding, usually by matching information you provide with information we already have, or by contacting you through a method you previously provided. We will only use personal information provided in your request to verify your identity or authority to make the request.

Response time and appeals. We will respond without undue delay and within forty-five (45) days of receipt, which may be extended once by forty-five (45) additional days when reasonably necessary. If we decline to take action on your request, you may appeal by emailing hello@bostonmade.com with the subject line “Privacy appeal.” Within sixty (60) days of receiving your appeal, we will inform you in writing of any action taken or not taken, with an explanation. If your appeal is denied, you may contact your state Attorney General (for Virginia residents, submit a complaint).

15. Do we make updates to this notice?

In short: Yes, we will update this notice as necessary to stay compliant with relevant laws.

We may update this privacy notice from time to time. The updated version will be indicated by an updated “Last updated” date and will be effective as soon as it is accessible. If we make material changes, we may notify you by prominently posting a notice of the changes or by sending you a notification directly. We encourage you to review this privacy notice frequently.

16. How can you contact US about this notice?

If you have questions or comments about this notice, you may email us at hello@bostonmade.com or write to us at:

Boston Made, Inc.
8 Grafton Street, Suite 210
Worcester, MA 01608
United States

17. How can you review, update, or delete the data we collect from you?

Based on the applicable laws of your country or state, you may have the right to request access to the personal information we collect from you, change that information, or delete it. To make a request, email hello@bostonmade.com with the subject line “Privacy request” and tell us what you would like us to do.