1. Who is responsible and how to reach us
This policy covers the website epubcreator.online and every tool, page, and form on it (together, "the service"). The operator of Book Publishing Tools Online is responsible for the personal information described here, as the controller under European and UK data-protection law, and runs the service from Canada. For anything in this policy, including requests about your information, use the feedback form and put "privacy" in the message. A person reads every message and replies to the email address you give.
2. What runs in your browser and never reaches us
Importing a manuscript, converting it to EPUB or PDF, previewing it, checking its fidelity, designing a cover, business card, image, or video, encoding video, and exporting files all happen inside your browser. Your files and the text in them are not uploaded to us for any of that. A copy reaches our servers only when you are signed in and choose to save a project to the cloud or to publish a book page. Working files may be kept in your browser's own storage (section 7) so a reload does not lose work; that storage stays on your device.
3. Information we collect, why, and for how long
We collect only what is listed below. "Legal basis" refers to the grounds for processing under the EU and UK GDPR; the same purposes apply everywhere else.
| Information | Where it comes from and why we use it | Legal basis | Kept for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Account details: name (optional), email address, password, account creation date, sign-in sessions | You, when you create an account. Needed to run the account, keep you signed in, send password reset links, and tell you about material changes to the service or to these documents. The password is stored only as a hash by our authentication provider; we never see it. | Contract | Until your account is deleted |
| Saved projects: manuscript text, title, author name, settings, cover, embedded media | You, when you save a project to the cloud. Stored so you can reopen it on any device. | Contract | Until your account is deleted. A claimed book slot cannot be removed on its own, but its content can be replaced at any time. |
| Book pages: page design, text, images, buy links, the public address you chose, and whether the page is published | You, when you build a page in the Webpage Builder. Stored to serve the page at its address and, while published, to list it in the Library. | Contract | Until you delete the page or your account |
| Usage counts: exports per month, stock downloads per day, requests per day | Generated as you use the tools. Applies plan limits, prevents abuse, and keeps the metered stock library affordable. | Contract; legitimate interests | Request counters: 7 days. Export and download counts: until your account is deleted |
| Activity log: the action (for example "project saved", "page opened", "export requested", "stock download served"), the item it applied to, and the time | Recorded when a signed-in action succeeds. Used to support you, investigate problems, detect misuse, and understand which tools are used. Nothing is logged for visitors who are not signed in. | Legitimate interests | Until your account is deleted |
| Payment records (once paid plans begin): checkout session reference, plan tier, payment status, licence expiry date | Created when you buy a plan. Card details are entered on Stripe's own pages and never reach us. Stripe receives your email address to send its receipt. | Contract; legal obligation (tax and accounting records) | Our copy is deleted with your account. Stripe keeps its own transaction records for as long as tax and accounting law requires. |
| Feedback and bug reports: what you type, the tool and report type you pick, your email address if you give it, and the page address and browser version the form records | You, through the feedback form. Used to reproduce and fix problems and to reply if you asked for a reply. | Legitimate interests; consent for the optional email address | Up to 24 months, then deleted |
| Email delivery records: address, subject, delivery status | Created when we send you a password reset link or a notice about the service, through our email provider. | Contract | Kept briefly by the email provider for delivery and troubleshooting |
| Site statistics: pages viewed, the page that referred you, approximate country or region, browser and device type, and a random visitor identifier stored in a cookie | Google Analytics 4 on the site's own pages, used to see which pages and guides are read. It loads only after you choose Accept in the cookie bar (section 8). Query strings and fragments are removed before a page address is sent, Google's advertising features are switched off, and analytics never runs on author-published book pages or inside your manuscript. | Consent | No longer than 14 months in Google's reports; the cookie lasts up to 2 years |
| Technical logs: IP address, request address, time, browser version, response status | Created automatically by our hosting provider and by our own functions whenever a request is made. Used for security, abuse prevention, and fixing faults. A per-day request counter keyed by IP address limits abusive traffic. | Legitimate interests | Hosting logs: a short period set by the provider. Request counters: 7 days |
We do not deliberately collect special categories of information (such as health, religion, or political opinions). If your manuscript contains such information, it is stored only because you saved it, it is not analysed, and it is protected in the same way as everything else you save.
You do not have to give us anything, but without an email address and a password there is no account, and every tool needs an account.
4. What we do not do
- We do not sell, rent, or trade personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioural advertising.
- We show no advertising and use no advertising cookies or trackers.
- We do not read your manuscripts, covers, or pages. Saved work is opened by the operator only to resolve a problem you have reported, to investigate a report of abuse, or when the law requires it.
- We do not use your content or your information to train artificial-intelligence or machine-learning models, and we do not allow anyone else to.
- We make no decisions about you by automated means that have legal or similarly significant effects.
5. Who else handles your information
We use a small number of providers who process information on our instructions under written terms that limit what they may do with it. None of them may use your information for their own purposes.
| Provider | What it does | What it handles | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neon | Database and account authentication | Account details, saved projects, pages, usage counts, activity log, payment records | United States |
| Netlify | Hosting, content delivery, serverless functions, the feedback form | Technical logs, feedback submissions, and everything that passes through the site | United States, with a worldwide delivery network |
| Resend | Sending password reset and service emails | Email address, message, delivery status | United States |
| Google (Analytics 4) | Site statistics | The site statistics described in section 3 | United States and worldwide |
| Google Fonts | Serves the typefaces on public pages | Your IP address and browser details, in the request for the font files | Worldwide |
| Stripe | Payments, once paid plans begin | Your email address, and the card and billing details you enter on Stripe's own pages | United States and worldwide |
| Cloudflare and other content-delivery networks (cdnjs, unpkg) | Deliver stock media previews and some script libraries the tools use | Your IP address and the request, as with any file download | Worldwide |
We also disclose information when the law requires it, to establish or defend legal claims, to protect the safety of a person or the integrity of the service, or, if the service is ever sold or merged, to the successor, who will be bound by this policy. There is no other sharing.
6. International transfers
The service is run from Canada and its providers store information mainly in the United States, so your information leaves your country whenever you use the service. For visitors in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland, each transfer to the United States is covered by the provider's certification under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework (with its UK and Swiss extensions) or by the standard contractual clauses approved by the European Commission together with the UK addendum, in addition to the security measures in section 9. Canada's federal privacy law applies to the operator wherever the data sits. You can ask for details of the safeguards for a particular provider through the contact route in section 1.
7. Cookies and browser storage
We use no advertising cookies and no third-party tracking beyond Google Analytics, which runs only if you accept it. This is the full list:
| Name or kind | Purpose | Set by | Lasts |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sign-in session cookie | Keeps you signed in after you enter your password. Strictly necessary. | Our authentication provider, through this site's own domain | Until you sign out or the session expires |
| Administrator session cookie | Protects the operator's own admin screen. Set only when the operator signs in. | This site | Browser session |
_ga, _ga_* | Google Analytics: tells visitors and sessions apart for site statistics. Set only after you choose Accept in the cookie bar; never needed for the tools to work. | Google, on the site's own pages | Up to 2 years |
Local storage: bindery_consent | Remembers whether you accepted or declined analytics cookies, so we do not ask on every page. Strictly necessary. | This site | 12 months |
Local storage: bindery_email, bindery_leftw | Remembers the email you signed in with (if you ticked Remember me) and your editor layout, on this device only. | This site | Until you clear site data |
| Browser database (IndexedDB) and cache | Keeps working files and drafts on your device so a reload does not lose work, and caches the video encoder and other libraries. | This site | Until you clear site data |
| Stripe cookies | Fraud prevention and checkout on Stripe's own pages, once paid plans begin. | Stripe | Set by Stripe; see Stripe's cookie policy |
You can delete cookies and site data at any time in your browser's settings, and you can block cookies for this site. Blocking the analytics cookies has no effect on the tools. Blocking the sign-in cookie means you cannot stay signed in.
8. Your analytics choice
On your first visit, a bar at the bottom of the page asks whether Google Analytics may run. Nothing from Google is loaded until you choose Accept. If you choose Decline, or your browser sends a Global Privacy Control signal, no analytics script loads and any analytics cookies left from an earlier visit are removed. Your choice is remembered on that device for 12 months. To change it at any time, use the Cookie choices link at the bottom of any page, or clear this site's data in your browser; withdrawing consent does not affect processing that already happened. The service works identically either way, and analytics is never loaded on author-published book pages.
9. Security
All traffic to the service is encrypted in transit (HTTPS with HSTS). Passwords are hashed by the authentication provider and are never visible to us. API keys and database credentials live only on the server. Every request to a signed-in feature is verified against a signed token. Access to stored information is limited to the operator, and saved work is opened only for the reasons in section 4. Providers are chosen for their own security programmes and certifications. No system is perfectly secure; if a breach affects your information we will tell you and the relevant authority as quickly as the law requires, and in any case without undue delay.
10. Retention and deletion
The table in section 3 gives the retention period for each kind of information. When your account is deleted, your account record, saved projects, pages, usage counts, activity log, and our payment records are deleted with it, normally within 30 days; Stripe keeps its own transaction records as the law requires. Copies may remain in routine backups for a short period, no longer than 30 days, before they are overwritten. Book pages that you have unpublished or deleted may remain in search-engine caches and web archives that we do not control.
To delete your account, send the request through the feedback form from the email address on the account. We confirm when it is done.
11. Your rights
Wherever you live, you can ask us what personal information we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it. Depending on your location you may also have the right to receive a copy in a portable format, to restrict or object to particular processing (including any processing based on legitimate interests), to withdraw consent where consent is the basis, and not to be subject to automated decisions. To exercise any right, use the feedback form from the email address on your account and say what you want; we may ask you to confirm that you control that address. We respond within 30 days, free of charge, unless a request is plainly unfounded or excessive. You will never be treated differently for exercising a right.
European Economic Area, United Kingdom, and Switzerland
The rights above are those in Articles 15 to 22 of the GDPR and their UK and Swiss equivalents. Where processing rests on legitimate interests, we have weighed those interests against yours, and you can object at any time. If you are not satisfied with our answer, you can complain to the data-protection authority of the country where you live, work, or where the issue occurred; in the United Kingdom that is the Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk).
Canada
Under the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act you may ask for access to and correction of your personal information, and you may challenge our compliance through the contact route above and, if unresolved, with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (priv.gc.ca).
California and other US states
Residents of California and of other states with comprehensive privacy laws have the right to know the categories and specific pieces of personal information collected about them, the sources, the purposes, and the categories of third parties it is disclosed to (all set out in sections 3 and 5); to delete it; to correct it; to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information and of targeted advertising; and not to be discriminated against for exercising these rights. We do not sell or share personal information as those laws define it, we do not use it for targeted advertising or profiling, and we do not use sensitive personal information for purposes beyond those the law permits, so there is nothing to opt out of. An authorised agent can make a request on your behalf if you give them written permission and we can confirm your identity. In the twelve months before the effective date we collected the categories of information listed in section 3 and disclosed them only to the providers in section 5.
12. Published book pages and the Library
A book page you publish is public. Its address, title, cover, description, your author name, the buy links you add, and anything else you put on it are visible to anyone, are listed in the public Library, and can be indexed by search engines and copied by web archives. Publish only what you are happy to make public. You can unpublish or delete a page at any time; it disappears from its address and from the Library immediately, but copies held by third parties are outside our control.
13. Children
The service is not directed at children, and you must be at least 16 to create an account. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 16; if we learn that we have, we delete it. If you believe a child has an account, tell us through the feedback form.
14. Links and other people's services
Book pages and guides link to stores such as Amazon, Apple Books, Kobo, and Google Play, and to social networks. Those sites have their own privacy policies, and we are not responsible for them. If you follow or message our account on Bluesky, Bluesky's policy applies to that interaction. Our account may like public posts about books; to manage that we keep a record of the public post reference and the handle that posted it, which we delete on request.
15. Changes to this policy
When this policy changes, the effective date at the top changes with it. For a material change, account holders receive an email at least 14 days before it takes effect, and the previous version is available on request. Continuing to use the service after the effective date means the new policy applies.
16. Contact
Questions, requests, and complaints about privacy go through the feedback form with "privacy" in the message, or through the routes on the contact page.