Ben's Book Boutique

Privacy

What we collect, why, who else sees it, and how long we keep it. In plain English, because a privacy notice nobody can read is not a privacy notice.

Who is responsible

Ben's Book Boutique is the data controller for information collected through bensbookboutique.com. Contact address: Unit 171421, 13 Freeland Park, Wareham Road, Poole, Dorset, BH16 6FH, UK. Any question about your data: hello@bensbookboutique.com.

What we collect

  • Your details: name, email address, delivery address, and your order.
  • The personalisation: the first name you want printed, the character chosen, and any gift message. This is usually a child’s first name, given to us by an adult making the purchase.
  • Payment: handled entirely by our payment processor. We receive a confirmation that you paid and the last few digits of the card. We never see your full card number.
  • Site analytics: the pages you view and how long you stay on them, the links and buttons you click, the books you look at and when you start a checkout, the page you came from and any utm_ tags in the link, and your browser, device, screen size and language. PostHog, our analytics provider, may work out a rough location (country or town) from your IP address. We have switched on its setting that discards the IP address itself, so it is not stored.

We do not sell anybody’s data to anybody, ever. If, and only if, you press Accept on the cookie notice, the Pinterest tag described under Cookies below is switched on.

Why we have it, and on what basis

  • To make and send your book: we cannot print a personalised book without the name, or post it without the address. This is necessary to perform our contract with you.
  • To keep records: sales records are kept because we are legally required to keep them.
  • To answer you: if you email us about an order, we keep the correspondence so the next person to read it has the context.
  • To measure our Pinterest ads: only if you press Accept on the cookie notice. Your consent is the basis, and you can withdraw it at any time with the “Cookie settings” link at the bottom of every page.
  • To see how the shop is used: site analytics shows us which pages and books people look at and where visits come from, so we can make the shop better. This is in our legitimate interests. It stores nothing on your device, so we do not ask for consent, and you can turn it off at any time (see Cookies below).

Who else sees it

Only the companies that do a job for us, and only the part they need (plus Pinterest, if you consent):

  • Stripe, our payment processor, handles your payment.
  • Our printer (Bookvault, United Kingdom) receives your delivery address and the finished print file, which contains the printed name and message. It does not receive your email address or payment details, and it does not contact you.
  • Pinterest, only if you press Accept on the cookie notice. It receives your visit and, for an order, the order value and an order reference. Not your name, address or the child’s details.
  • PostHog, our analytics provider, hosted in the EU, receives the site analytics described above. From our payment system it also receives, for each order, the order value, which book, any utm_ tags and a scrambled order reference. It never receives your name, email address, delivery address or any of the child’s details.
  • The courier receives your name and address so it can deliver the parcel.
  • Etsy, if you ordered there rather than here. In that case Etsy is the one holding your account and its own privacy policy applies alongside this one.
  • Our hosting and database providers, who store the data on our behalf. Our database is hosted in London.

How long we keep it

  • Print files: the PDF containing the child’s name is deleted shortly after printing, on an automatic schedule. It does not sit around.
  • Order records: kept as long as we are required to keep sales records for tax purposes, currently six years.
  • Emails: kept while they are useful, then deleted.
  • Site analytics: PostHog keeps it for one year.

Children

Our books are for children but our shop is not: orders are placed by adults, and we do not knowingly collect anything from a child. The only thing we hold about the child is the first name and the character chosen, given to us by the adult buying the book, printed, and then deleted with the print file.

Your rights

You can ask us for a copy of what we hold about you, ask us to correct it, ask us to delete it, or object to how we are using it. Email us and we will deal with it. There is no form and no charge.

If we get it wrong you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk. We would appreciate the chance to fix it first.

Cookies

By default we use only what the site needs to work: a session for checkout, and a login for the shop owner.

We advertise on Pinterest. If you press Accept on the cookie notice, the Pinterest tag loads and sets a cookie so Pinterest can tell us which ads led to a visit or an order. For an order it is sent the order value and an order reference, not your name, address or the child’s details. If you press No thanks, none of this loads, and the shop works identically. We remember your choice in your browser. To change your mind, use the “Cookie settings” link at the bottom of any page: it forgets your choice and asks again.

We measure visits to this site with PostHog, hosted in the EU. It counts page views, where a visit came from, the links and buttons clicked, time on page, and purchases. It uses no cookies and stores nothing in your browser, and it never records what you type. It runs whether or not you press No thanks, because that button is about Pinterest.

You can turn site analytics off with the button below. We then keep one small note in your browser that says so, which is all it stores, and analytics does not start on this browser again until you turn it back on. If your browser sends Global Privacy Control, analytics is already off. A purchase is still counted, from our payment system rather than your browser. It sends nothing that identifies you to PostHog: no name, email address, delivery address or child’s details, only the order value, which book, any utm_ tags and a scrambled order reference.