Privacy Policy

The Seren website is maintained by Poetry Wales Press Ltd, Suite 6, 4 Derwen Road, Bridgend, CF31 1LH, UK.

What follows is an outline of our policy on how we use the information that is automatically compiled by our server when you visit serenbooks.com. The purpose of this is to inform you that whatever personal information you supply will be used only by Seren; we will not sell or distribute information to anyone; we value your privacy and will not misuse your information.

1. Seren’s use of user-provided information:

1a) Your privacy will be respected; no-one at Seren will violate it. Information collected on this website is confidential and will not be distributed, disclosed or traded.

1b) This website does not collect ‘personally identifying information’ about individuals except when specifically and knowingly provided by them. The website is designed so that user profiles cannot be entered or information extracted.

2. Types of information we gather:

2a) (i) When you become a member of serenbooks.com; (ii) Through purchase of a Seren book or product: name, address, phone number (if supplied), order content, credit card details. We collect only the details you provide for us. This information is collected lawfully and is used in accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018.

3. Emails:

3a) In accordance with the Legitimate Interests clause of the Data Protection Act 2018, you will receive marketing emails from Seren only if you have first consented: either by creating a user account on serenbooks.com, or by signing up separately to the Seren News subscriber list (via the Seren website, or by filling in a sign up form at a Seren event).

4. Other instances where we may contact you:

4a) You will receive a confirmation email of orders placed. We will send notifications if necessary when ordered books are out of stock or unavailable. If you are a member, your ‘personally identifying information’ will be used to enable you to receive automatic notification of updates and changes to the website.

4b) Seren undertakes all its website fulfilment and consequently does not pass on customer details. Your ’personally identifying information’ may be used by us for internal editorial, marketing, or promotional purposes. You can at any time opt out of such use: click on the link supplied in your original membership confirmation which will take you to the ‘account preferences’ page, there you can amend or unsubscribe.

5. Voluntary disclosure of personal information:

5a) While your ’personally identifying information’ is protected (as stated in item 1b), we will sometimes collect ’anonymous aggregated data’ – information that relates to you as a generic person and not as an individual – for statistical purposes. Seren will analyse this information internally to measure use of the website and improve your information and enjoyment of it. Most websites monitor their use in this fashion, but we wish you to be aware of it.

6. Cookies

6a) Cookies (small pieces of text saved to your hard disk by most shopping websites) are sometimes used to gather information which can be sold on. Seren does not do this. People accessing serenbooks.com do so anonymously. Seren do not make any attempt to find out identities of those visiting the website. All the Seren cookie will contain is information about books placed in your shopping basket. When you make a purchase, your email address is used: to confirm your order, to notify you of when it is shipped, and to give you the option to receive an email newsletter.

6b) Though Seren may place a cookie in the browser file of a visitor to the website the cookie does not contain any ‘personally identifying information’. Its function is to enable Seren to relate a user’s visit and use of the site to information that the user has specifically and knowingly.

6c) Google Analytics – these cookies are used to collect information about how visitors use serenbooks.com. Seren use the information to compile reports and to help improve the site. The cookies collect information in an anonymous form, including the number of visitors to the site, where visitors have come to the site from and the pages they visited. Google stores this information. Google’s privacy policy is available to view online: http://www.google.com/privacypolicy.html.

6d) Occasionally serenbooks.com may host advertising banners which, if you click through to the advertisers, may result in your occasionally receiving cookies from them. Seren does not control these cookies, which are not subject to this policy.

6e) Most browsers are initially set to accept cookies. It is possible to configure your browser to refuse cookies or to raise an alert when they are sent. However, such is the balance of website design and it is possible that some parts of serenbooks.com will not function properly if you do decide to disable cookies.

7. Children

7a) Please seek parental approval before sending any information about yourself (name, address, e-mail address, etc.) to anyone on the Internet.

7b) Parents and guardians are encouraged to be involved with your children’s online usage and to be aware of the activities in which they are participating. The ’personally identifying information’ collected by Seren is ‘age-free’ and will only be used for internal purposes such as market research; it may be included in our internal database if the person agrees by submitting ’personally identifying information’. This information will not be posted or published by us, or sold, rented or provided to any third parties. Additionally, what is called ’anonymous aggregated data’ may sometimes provided to our occasional advertisers for statistical purposes. All users should be aware that if they voluntarily disclose their name, email address, etc. on the Seren website, such disclosure may result in unsolicited messages from other parties. For any concerns regarding privacy issues please contact us.

Who we are

Suggested text: Our website address is: https://www.serenbooks.com.

Comments

Suggested text: When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.

An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.

Media

Suggested text: If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.

Cookies

Suggested text: If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.

If you visit our login page, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.

When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.

If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.

Embedded content from other websites

Suggested text: Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.

These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

Who we share your data with

Suggested text: If you request a password reset, your IP address will be included in the reset email.

How long we retain your data

Suggested text: If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.

For users that register on our website (if any), we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.

What rights you have over your data

Suggested text: If you have an account on this site, or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.

Where your data is sent

Suggested text: Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.