Bottom Line (TL;DR):
We value your privacy. AALBC.com operates without third-party tracking cookies or behavioral advertising trackers—an increasingly uncommon practice on the web. When you create an AALBC account, we do not sell, rent, or share your account information with advertisers or other third parties for marketing purposes. We won’t even add you to our eNewsletter mailing list unless you explicitly sign up for it, and we never sell, rent, or share our mailing list with others for their own marketing.
AALBC is also available as a Progressive Web App (PWA) that you can install directly from AALBC.com through your browser. No Apple App Store, Google Play Store, or third-party account is required to install AALBC. This allows us to maintain a more direct relationship with our readers while reducing our dependence on third-party platforms for app distribution.
When you delete your AALBC account, the account information maintained by AALBC is permanently deleted, subject to any information we may be required to retain for legal, security, transaction, or administrative purposes.
Privacy Policy:
African American Literature Book Club (AALBC.com) created this Privacy Statement to affirm our strong commitment to protecting your privacy. The following describes our information-gathering and data-use practices for AALBC.com and the installable AALBC Progressive Web App. In most cases, visitors can use AALBC without providing personally identifiable information. Registered users may also use an avatar and screen name rather than publicly displaying their real identity.
Information Collected by AALBC.com
AALBC.com may collect information when users create an account, register for our eNewsletter, participate in activities on our website (including contests and polls), make purchases, save books, follow authors, or use other account features. We also use strictly functional cookies and similar technologies necessary to provide site features and maintain user sessions.
When visitors access AALBC.com, our web server, like virtually all web servers, automatically receives standard technical information such as IP addresses, requested pages, dates and times of requests, browser information, and related server-log data. We use this information to operate, secure, troubleshoot, and understand the use of AALBC.com.
Use of Information Collected by AALBC.com
AALBC.com will not sell, rent, or lease your personally identifiable information to others unless we have your explicit permission or are required to disclose information by law.
AALBC.com does not use Google Analytics or similar third-party analytics platforms to track visitors. We maintain our own server and analyze site activity internally. We may use server data to produce aggregate statistics, such as the percentage of visitors from a particular geographic region or the popularity of specific pages. We may share broad, aggregate information with advertisers and business partners, but we do not provide them with information intended to identify individual AALBC visitors.
Our site uses functional cookies where necessary. If you create an account, cookies help maintain your login as you move from page to page, provide account features, and remember certain preferences. We do not use third-party tracking cookies to follow you across unrelated websites, and we do not sell your browsing activity to advertisers.
AALBC Progressive Web App (PWA)
AALBC can be installed directly from AALBC.com as a Progressive Web App. The AALBC app does not require installation through the Apple App Store or Google Play Store, and you do not need an Apple, Google, Facebook, or other third-party account to install or use the app.
Direct installation reduces the number of third-party platforms involved in distributing AALBC and allows us to provide the app directly to our readers. The installed AALBC app provides access to the same AALBC.com services and is governed by this Privacy Policy.
Installing AALBC as a Progressive Web App does not make your device or internet activity anonymous. Your browser, operating system, internet service provider, and other services you use may have their own data practices. Their collection and use of information are governed by their respective privacy policies.
Public Forums
AALBC provides discussion boards and other community features that allow users to publish information publicly. Please remember that information you disclose in these areas may become publicly accessible, and you should exercise caution when deciding whether to disclose personal information. Please refer to our legal disclaimer for the use of our discussion boards.
Advertiser Information
Information provided by advertisers who participate in our advertising campaigns will not be shared with anyone other than those directly involved in administering the advertiser’s campaign, except as otherwise required by law. Advertisers are not provided with personally identifiable information about AALBC.com visitors, and we never sell or rent our mailing lists.
AALBC.com maintains its own advertising platform. We do not provide third-party advertising networks with access to visitor data for the purpose of tracking AALBC users across the web.
Interest-Based Advertising
Our goal is to deliver advertising that we sell directly and that is relevant to readers of Black literature. We do not deliver interest-based or online behavioral advertising based on tracking visitors across unrelated websites or apps.
Because AALBC does not use third-party advertising cookies for behavioral targeting, visitors do not need to opt out of behavioral advertising cookies placed by AALBC.
eNewsletter
Information collected from subscribers to our eNewsletter falls under AALBC.com’s general rules for the “Use of Information Collected by AALBC.com” described above. We will not sell, rent, or lease your name, email address, or other personal information to others for their own marketing purposes.
We make aggregate demographic information publicly available at aalbc.com/aalbcdemographics.htm. Information provided in this report is presented in aggregate form and is not intended to identify individual visitors.
Choice/Opt-Out
AALBC utilizes Mailchimp to distribute our electronic newsletter. Users must choose to subscribe to receive the eNewsletter. Creating an AALBC account does not automatically subscribe you to the newsletter.
AALBC.com does not sell, rent, or provide its eNewsletter subscriber list to other entities for their own marketing. Sponsored advertisements may appear within newsletters distributed by AALBC, but sponsors do not receive our subscriber list.
eNewsletter recipients may unsubscribe at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link included in the newsletter.
Because Mailchimp is a third-party service used to distribute the newsletter, information necessary to provide that service is processed through Mailchimp and is also subject to Mailchimp’s applicable privacy and security practices.
Account Deletion
Users may delete their AALBC accounts. When an account is deleted, AALBC permanently deletes the account information associated with that account from our active systems, except for information that may need to be retained for legitimate legal, security, transaction, fraud-prevention, backup, or administrative purposes.
Security
AALBC.com uses reasonable technical and administrative safeguards designed to protect the confidentiality and security of information we maintain. These measures include encrypted HTTPS connections and other server and network security practices.
No internet-connected system can be guaranteed to be completely secure. Although AALBC takes reasonable measures to protect information, security incidents involving AALBC or third-party service providers remain possible.
Third-Party Services and External Links
AALBC may link to external websites or use third-party services when necessary to provide particular functions, such as newsletter delivery or payment processing. Once you interact with a third-party service or leave AALBC.com, that organization’s privacy practices may apply. AALBC does not control the privacy practices of independent third parties.
Contact AALBC.com
If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, the practices of AALBC.com, or your dealings with the website or AALBC Progressive Web App, you can contact us at:
AALBC.com, LLC8606 Hunters Village Rd #247
Tampa, FL 33647
Office: (347) 692-2522
Email: troy@aalbc.com
