Privacy Policy

1.1 Two relationships. For personal data about our own customers and prospects — account holders, billing contacts, people who email us — we act as a controller, and this policy describes what we do with it. For personal data contained within Customer Content that an organization uploads or creates in the Service — an author’s name in a manuscript, a freelance editor’s details in a project record, an email address in a comment — we act as a processor on that organization’s instructions. The organization is the controller of that data and is responsible for having a lawful basis to put it into the Service.

1.2 If you are a User, not the account holder. If you were invited into an organization by your publisher, client, or employer, that organization controls your work within the Service. Requests about content in their workspace should go to them first. We will assist them in responding.

1.3 Data Processing Addendum. Where we act as a processor and a controller requires a data processing agreement, our Data Processing Addendum applies and is available on request from admin@bookworkz.tech.

1.4 Newsletter readers. Authors and presses can use the Service to collect newsletter signups, on their public pages and when a reader requesting a review copy asks to join their list, and to send newsletters to their readers. A reader’s details on an author’s or press’s list are that organization’s data: we act as a processor on its instructions, and it is the controller. If you are one of those readers, questions about the list should go to the author or press that sent you the newsletter, and we will help them respond. You can unsubscribe from any newsletter sent through the Service in one click, using the link at the foot of the message or your email program’s unsubscribe button. One thing we keep for ourselves: when an address bounces or its owner marks a message as spam, we record that address and stop all mail to it from everyone who uses the Service. We do this as a controller, to protect deliverability and to respect the complaint.

(a) Account and profile data. Name, email address, password hash, display preferences, organization name and role, and the identity of the person who invited you.

(b) Customer Content. Manuscripts, outlines, notes, editorial comments, character and story materials, cover and interior assets, metadata, pen names, and anything else you create in or upload to the Service. This may contain personal data about third parties that you have chosen to include. It can include images of people, such as reference photos you add to a character; upload an image of a real person only with their consent (Terms Section 4.5). Reference photos are private to your Organization: we never publish them, and we never send them to an AI model. When you bring files in with Move In, we record a fingerprint of each one (a SHA-256 checksum, worked out from the file’s bytes) so the same file isn’t brought in twice and so we can tell whether a file changed while uploading. A fingerprint can’t be turned back into the file. It’s kept with the file you brought in and deleted with it. When you mark a book as already published from its finished files, those files are kept as its first printing, and review copies of it are made from your print PDF, marked for each reviewer.

(c) Billing data. Plan, subscription status, billing contact, invoice history, Credit balance and ledger, and a customer identifier issued by our payment processor. We do not receive or store full payment card numbers; checkout and the billing portal are hosted by our payment processor.

(d) Usage and technical data. Log records of actions taken in the Service, IP address, browser and device type, timestamps, page and feature usage, and error and performance diagnostics.

(e) AI usage records. Which AI action was run, by whom, when, on which manuscript, and the Credits charged. These records are how metering and spend ceilings work.

(f) Support and correspondence. Messages you send us, and any information you choose to include in them.

(g) Cookies and similar technologies. See Section 10.

(h) Newsletter reader data. For organizations that use newsletters: each reader’s email address, first name and, if given, last name; the tags the organization assigns; and a record of how the reader joined the list. For a signup through a form we host, that record is the page, the time, the wording the reader agreed to, and the reader’s browser type. We do not record a reader’s IP address when they sign up. For each newsletter sent, we record whether it was sent, bounced, was marked as spam, or failed, and, where open and click tracking is on, when it was first opened, how many times it was opened, and which links were clicked and how often. Tracking works through a small image and through links that pass via our email provider. We do not store the IP address, device, or location that an open or click reveals.

(i) Sender postal address. The postal address you give for a pen name or organization, which is printed at the foot of every newsletter sent from it.

(j) Connected social accounts. When you connect a social media account so that posts you schedule are published for you, we store: an encrypted credential (an access token, a Bluesky app password, or a Discord webhook address); the identifier of the account or place we post to (your LinkedIn member identifier, your Tumblr blog’s name, or your Discord server’s identifier); a label we show you (your name as LinkedIn gives it, your blog’s name, or the webhook’s name with the last four characters of its address); when the credential expires; and, for each post, when it went out, the platform’s identifier for it, or why it did not. We ask each platform only for what publishing needs: from LinkedIn, sign-in with your basic profile (openid, profile) and permission to post for you (w_member_social); from Tumblr, your blogs and permission to post to them (basic, write, offline_access). Discord needs no permission from us: you create the webhook in your own server. We do not read your feed, followers or messages on any platform.

(k) Short links. An organization can make BookWorkz short links (bookworkz.tech/go/…) to share in a bio, a post or an email. When someone follows one, we add one to that link’s click count for the day and send them on to its destination. That daily total for each link is all we store. We do not store the reader’s IP address, browser, device or location, we set no cookie, and we do not identify who clicked. We read the browser’s user agent only to leave link previews and search crawlers out of the count, and we don’t keep it. Like every request to the Service, the visit passes through our hosting provider, Vercel, whose own request logs may record technical details such as the IP address, user agent and time, for as long as its service keeps them, to deliver and secure the Service. If an error occurs, our error monitoring may record technical details of that request, as Section 2(d) describes.

(a) We do not sell personal data, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising, as those terms are defined under California law.

(b) We do not use Customer Content to train, fine-tune, or improve any machine-learning model, and we do not authorize any subprocessor to do so on our behalf.

(c) We do not use Customer Content for advertising or profiling.

(d) We do not make Customer Content public except where you affirmatively direct us to, such as by publishing a public book link. Pictures you upload stay private to your workspace until you publish a page or send a newsletter that shows them. A sent newsletter’s pictures stay available at their addresses afterward, so the copies your readers received keep working.

AI features are disabled by default and are enabled only by a deliberate act of an organization admin. While disabled, no Customer Content is transmitted to any model provider for AI processing.

When a User runs an AI action, the relevant portion of Customer Content is transmitted to an AI model provider, processed, and returned. What is sent depends on the action: planning actions send the story materials you have created, such as outlines, character notes and settings; editing and rewriting actions also send the prose they work on; actions that summarize or learn from the whole book send the whole manuscript; and image actions send the image. Our AI and Data page lists which actions do which. That content is used only to carry out the request and is not used to train any model. Requests routed through OpenRouter go only to providers that don’t collect request data, a restriction we set on every request. Requests we send to Anthropic directly are covered by Anthropic’s commercial terms, which bar training on that content. Every AI model provider we use is named in Section 6. Where we reach a provider through an intermediary or routing service, both the routing service and the provider that performs the processing are named there.

We retain a record of each AI action for metering and audit — who ran it, when, on which manuscript, and the Credits charged. Those records do not contain the text of your manuscript.

We use the following service providers to operate the Service. Each is engaged under a written agreement that limits their processing to what we instruct. We do not authorize any of them to use Customer Content to train or improve a machine-learning model. Each provider’s own practices are governed by its published terms, and we encourage you to review those of any provider that matters to your assessment.

AI processing is reached in two ways. Most AI actions are sent to OpenRouter, a routing service, which passes the request to one model provider. A small number of actions, including building an outline from your chapters or from photos of handwritten pages, are sent directly to Anthropic. OpenRouter is a subprocessor in its own right: the request passes through it in transit. Requests routed through OpenRouter go only to providers that don’t collect request data, a restriction we set on every request. Requests we send to Anthropic directly are covered by Anthropic’s commercial terms, which bar training on that content.

The providers listed below are the complete set we permit. Today, requests are sent only to Anthropic, OpenAI and Together; we list the others so that this policy is updated before any of them is used, not after. None of them receives anything while AI features are off. We do not authorize any provider to use Customer Content to train or improve a model.

Model providers may keep the content of a request for a short period to operate their service and detect abuse, and then delete it. Anthropic, for example, deletes request content within 30 days unless it is flagged for a violation of its usage policies, in which case it may be kept longer. We do not control those periods; each provider’s published terms govern.

These two lists name every subprocessor that processes Customer Content or account data, including every AI model provider. We do not publish contract terms, infrastructure regions, model versions, or configuration details, none of which are necessary to understand how your data is handled.

We update this list before a new subprocessor begins processing. If we add an AI model provider, or reach one through a routing service, both the routing service and the provider are added here before any Customer Content is sent to them. Where a signed order form or Data Processing Addendum provides for advance notice or a right to object, those terms govern for that customer.

We disclose personal data only:

(a) to the subprocessors listed above, for the functions described;

(b) within your organization, to other Users, according to the roles and permissions your admins configure;

(c) to professional advisers — accountants, auditors, lawyers — bound by duties of confidentiality;

(d) where required by law, subpoena, or governmental order, or to establish or defend legal claims. Where we are legally permitted to do so, we will notify the affected customer before disclosing;

(e) to protect the rights, safety, or property of BookWorkz, our customers, or the public;

(f) to a successor in connection with a merger, acquisition, reorganization, or sale of all or substantially all of our assets. Personal data transferred in that context remains subject to this policy until the successor provides notice of a change;

(g) to the readers of your newsletters: the sender name and the postal address you give for a pen name or organization, which appear in every newsletter sent from it;

(h) to a social media platform you have connected (Bluesky, LinkedIn, Discord or Tumblr) when a post you scheduled to it is due: the post’s text, its tags, and the pictures you attached, with the credential for that account. Pictures are sent from your private files; they are not made public on our side to do this. The platform handles what it receives under its own privacy policy. These platforms are not our subprocessors: you choose to connect them and choose what we send. A YouTube post is prepared in BookWorkz and uploaded by you; we send nothing to YouTube and store no video; and

(i) to Open Library, a public book catalog run by the Internet Archive, when you bring books in with Move In and a report names a book only by its ISBN: we send that ISBN and nothing else (no title, file, name or account detail) to look up the book’s title, and keep the public catalog answer so each ISBN is asked about once.

We are based in the United States, and our subprocessors process data in the United States and, in some cases, elsewhere. If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland, your personal data will be transferred outside your jurisdiction. Where required, we rely on the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses, the UK International Data Transfer Addendum, or another lawful transfer mechanism, and we require our subprocessors to do the same. A copy of the relevant clauses is available on request from admin@bookworkz.tech.

We use cookies and similar technologies that are strictly necessary to operate the Service — to keep you signed in, maintain your session, remember your theme preference, and protect against abuse.

We use privacy-friendly analytics on our public website to count visits and page views. It does not use cookies, does not track you across sites, and does not build a profile of you. We use no advertising or marketing cookies of any kind.

Newsletters that organizations send through the Service may include open and click tracking, which works through a small image and through links that pass via our email provider. It tells the sending organization whether its newsletter was opened and which links were clicked; see Section 2(h).

We protect personal data with measures appropriate to the risk, including encryption in transit and at rest, row-level access controls enforced at the database layer, role-based permissions within organizations, least-privilege access for our personnel, private storage buckets with path-scoped access, and logging of security-relevant events. No system is perfectly secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security. If a breach affecting your personal data occurs, we will notify you and any relevant supervisory authority as required by law and without undue delay.

12.1 Everyone. You may access, correct, export, or delete your account data at any time from within the Service, or by contacting us at admin@bookworkz.tech. Manuscripts and other Customer Content can be exported in DOCX, EPUB, and print-ready PDF formats.

12.2 EEA, UK, and Switzerland. Where the GDPR or UK GDPR applies, you have the rights of access, rectification, erasure, restriction, portability, and objection, and the right to withdraw consent where processing is based on consent. Our legal bases are: performance of a contract, for providing the Service and billing; legitimate interests, for security, fraud prevention, service improvement, and direct marketing to business contacts; consent, for optional marketing where required; and legal obligation, for tax and compliance records. You have the right to lodge a complaint with your supervisory authority.

12.3 California. Under the CCPA as amended by the CPRA, you have the rights to know, delete, correct, and to limit the use of sensitive personal information, and the right not to be discriminated against for exercising them. We do not sell personal information and do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising. To exercise a right, contact admin@bookworkz.tech. An authorized agent may submit a request with proof of authorization.

12.4 Other US states. Residents of states with comprehensive privacy laws — including Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia, Texas, and Oregon — have comparable rights of access, correction, deletion, and portability, and may appeal a denied request by replying to our response. We will honor these rights for all US residents regardless of state.

12.5 How we respond. We will verify your identity before acting on a request and will respond within the period required by applicable law, normally 30 days for GDPR requests and 45 days for US state requests, and will tell you if we need an extension.

The Service is not directed to children. Users must be at least 18 years old, or the age of majority in their jurisdiction if higher. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children. If we learn that we have, we will delete it. If you believe a child has provided us personal data, contact admin@bookworkz.tech.

We may update this policy. For changes that materially affect how we handle personal data, we will give at least thirty (30) days’ notice by email to account admins and by notice within the Service before the change takes effect. The “last updated” date above reflects the current version, and we maintain prior versions on request.

Questions, requests, and complaints about privacy should go to:

AleWin Enterprises LLC, d/b/a BookWorkz

admin@bookworkz.tech

We will acknowledge your message and respond within the period required by applicable law.