Privacy policy.

This policy explains what personal information The Village Bookworm (“we”, “us”) collects through our website, how we use it, and the choices you have.

Information we collect

When you place an order: your name, email address, phone number and, for shipped orders, your shipping address. Card payments are processed by Square. Your card details go directly to Square and are never seen or stored by us.

When you contact us or send an event inquiry: your name, email address and message, plus your phone number, preferred date and chosen package if you provide them.

Automatically: like most websites, our hosting provider records technical information such as your IP address, browser type and the pages you visit, to keep the site running and secure. We also use your IP address briefly to limit repeated requests and protect against spam and abuse.

How we use it

• to process, ship and support your orders, including order updates
• to respond to your messages and event inquiries
• to protect our website, customers and payments from fraud, spam and abuse
• to keep the business, tax and accounting records the law requires

We don’t sell or rent your personal information, and we don’t use it for advertising.

Who we share it with

We share information only with the service providers that help us run the shop, and only as much as they need to do their job:

• Square: payments and order processing
• Amazon Web Services: website hosting
• Sanity: secure storage of messages sent through our forms
• Cloudflare: bot and spam protection on our forms and checkout
• Upstash: short-lived counters used to prevent abuse
• Resend: delivering form notifications to our inbox
• Google Books and Open Library: book cover images load directly from these services, so they receive your IP address, as with any image on the web

We may also share information when the law requires it.

Cookies and similar technologies

We don’t use advertising or analytics cookies. Your shopping cart is saved in your own browser so it’s still there when you come back, and you can clear it at any time. Square’s secure payment form and Cloudflare’s bot check may use cookies or similar technologies that they need to work securely.

How long we keep it

We keep order records for as long as we need them for accounting and legal purposes. We keep messages and inquiries for as long as we need to respond and follow up.

Security

Information is sent over encrypted connections, card payments are handled by Square, and access to stored information is limited to the people who run the shop. No method of sending or storing information online is completely secure, but we work hard to protect yours.

Your choices

You can ask us to see, correct or delete the personal information we hold about you by contacting us below. We may need to keep some records, such as completed orders, for legal or accounting reasons.

Children

Our website isn’t directed at children under 13, and we don’t knowingly collect their personal information. If you believe a child has given us information, please contact us and we’ll delete it.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The date at the top of the page shows when it last changed.

Contact us

See also our shipping & returns policy.