Privacy Policy

Simple Book Builder ("we," "our," or "us") is committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you use our website and services.

Information We Collect

Personal Information

When you create an account or place an order, we collect:

• Name and email address
• Shipping address
• Payment information (processed securely by a payment processor; we never receive full card numbers)
• Questionnaire responses used to generate your personalized book
• Any custom text you choose to have printed along the page edges of your book
• Reviews you choose to submit of a book you received — the name you give, your rating and text, and any photo you add — which we publish on our website only with your consent, and a photo only with your separate consent. You can remove the photo from the review form at any time; ask us through our support portal and we will take the review down. Your reviews and their photos are deleted when you delete your account.
• A share link, if you choose to create one for a finished book. Anyone with the link can see the book's cover, title and opening paragraphs, including the names in them. The page is hidden from search engines, you can turn the link off at any time, and it stops working when you delete the book or your account.

Automatically Collected Information

When you visit our website, we automatically collect:

• IP address and browser type
• Device information
• Pages visited, how long each was on screen and how far it was scrolled, which marked buttons and links you clicked, which form fields reported an error (the field, never what you typed), and how quickly pages loaded
• The website that referred you (its domain only) and any campaign tags in the link you followed
• A device fingerprint derived from browser characteristics, collected at registration to prevent abuse and duplicate free-book signups
• The approximate country your connection comes from, as our network provider reports it. It decides whether you can start a book we sell in some countries only, whether a Personalized Bible offers the King James Version (sold in the United States only) beside the Berean Standard Bible, whether a journal offers lined, dot-grid and blank pages (they ship to the United States and Canada only), which country your cart starts set to ship to, and which checkout a credit, digital edition or audiobook purchase uses: from the United States we sell to you, from anywhere else our reseller Link does. When no country is reported we treat you as outside the United States. It is not stored, except that when you pay us for a credit, digital edition or audiobook, the two-letter country code is kept with the payment record, together with the country of your card and of your billing address, whether or not the payment then goes through, as the record of where the sale was made or why it was not.

How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect to:

• Generate your personalized AI-created book content
• Process and fulfill your orders
• Send order confirmations and shipping updates
• Respond to your support inquiries
• Improve our services and user experience
• Prevent fraud and abuse
• Comply with legal obligations

AI-Generated Content

Your questionnaire responses and related inputs are processed by artificial intelligence systems operated by service providers we engage solely to generate, check, and deliver your personalized book (and related support features of the Service). Those providers process data on our behalf. They may process and temporarily retain request content as needed to provide the service and for trust-and-safety purposes under their terms. We configure AI processing so that customer content is not used to train AI models for those providers' own products. We retain our own AI generation records (the requests and generated responses for your book) internally for the period stated in Data Retention below, to operate, debug, and improve the generation pipeline.

If you buy an audiobook, the finished text of your book is additionally processed by a text-to-speech provider to produce the spoken recording. That means the words of your story — including any names you gave us that appear in it — are sent to be read aloud and returned to us as an audio file. The same conditions above apply: the provider processes it on our behalf, and we configure that processing so your content is not used to train AI models.

We may change which AI service providers we use over time. We will update this policy if the categories of personal data processed by AI, or the purposes of that processing, change materially. See our Service Providers page for the categories of providers that process personal data on our behalf.

Your data sent for AI processing is:

• Used solely to provide the Service (including creating and delivering your requested book)
• Processed under terms and settings under which customer content is not used to train AI models for providers' own products
• Subject to the applicable privacy terms of those service providers

User-Uploaded Images

If you upload a photo for your book cover, or for a page inside your book, you represent that you have the right to use it and the consent of anyone shown (and, for a child, that you are their guardian or have the guardian's permission). Uploaded images are stored by our cloud hosting and storage providers. They may be sent to our AI service providers solely as needed to screen them for safety and to create and deliver your book's cover artwork. A photo you give for a page inside your book is screened for safety and printed on that page as you gave it; it is not used to make artwork. All of these uses are under terms that do not permit using your content to train AI models. Uploaded photos are not shared for marketing or any other purpose without your consent, and are deleted when you delete the book or your account.

No biometric data. We do not extract, scan, store, or use facial geometry or any other biometric identifier (as defined by the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act, 740 ILCS 14), and we do not perform facial recognition. Your photo is composited into artwork, or printed as you gave it, not analyzed to identify you.

Information About Children Provided by Account Holders

Some books are created about a child (for example, by a parent). If you provide a child's name, details, or photo, you represent that you are the child's parent or legal guardian, or that you have the guardian's permission. We use this information to generate the requested book — never for advertising or to train AI models — and we delete it when you delete your account (internal generation records also age out on the schedule in "Data Retention" below). Our lawful basis is the performance of our contract with you, the adult account holder. (See also "Children's Privacy" below regarding use of the Service by children.)

Sensitive Information in Questionnaires

Questionnaire responses may include personal details such as children's names, pet names, relationship details, and other sentimental information. We use this data to create and deliver your requested book (including any reprints you order), and we retain our own generation, support, and safety records that embed it — for the limited periods and purposes described in "AI-Generated Content" above and "Data Retention" below (quality monitoring, debugging, pipeline improvement, and abuse prevention). It is never sold, never shared or used for advertising, and never used to train AI models.

Some books invite details that may reveal religious beliefs — for a Personalized Bible, the occasion it marks (a baptism or a wedding, for instance), the verse you choose, a dedication, and the names and dates you write on its personal pages. We use them only to print the book you asked for. We never use them for advertising or to infer anything about you, and they are deleted with the book or your account on the same terms as your other answers.

Information Sharing

We share personal data only with service providers that help us run Simple Book Builder. The categories of those providers — what each category does and what types of data it may receive — are described on our Service Providers page. In summary, we may share your information with:

• Payment processors — to process payments securely (we never receive full card numbers)
• Our reseller, Link — for credits, digital editions and audiobooks bought from outside the United States, Link sells to you as seller of record, receives what it needs for that sale (your name, email, billing address and payment details) and handles it under its own privacy policy
• Print and shipping partners — to print and ship physical books
• AI service providers — to generate, check, and deliver your book (see AI-Generated Content above)
• Email delivery providers — to send transactional and service-related email
• Cloud hosting, storage, security, and content-delivery providers — to host the Service and protect it from abuse
• Advertising partners (Meta (Facebook and Instagram)) — only if you opt in to advertising cookies, to measure our ads (see Advertising Cookies below)

We do not sell your personal information to third parties for money. The only data that reaches advertising partners is described under Advertising Cookies, and it is sent only if you opt in.

Data Retention

We retain your data for the following periods:

• Account data (name, email, preferences): Retained while your account is active. Permanently deleted when you delete your account.
• Unpurchased free books: If you delete your account before buying a book we made for you free of charge, we keep a one-way coded fingerprint of your email address (never the address itself) and the number of such books for one year, so the free offer cannot be claimed again by signing up with the same address.
• Order and payment data: 7 years after the transaction date, as required for tax and legal compliance.
• Proof approval records: Retained indefinitely as legal protection for both parties, documenting your review and approval of content.
• Payment transaction logs, dispute records and the country codes kept with a payment: Retained indefinitely, including after account deletion, for fraud prevention, law-enforcement cooperation, and the establishment or defense of legal claims.
• AI generation logs (the AI requests and generated responses for your books, which include your questionnaire content): 90 days, used for quality monitoring, debugging, and improving our generation pipeline. Scrubbed immediately if you delete your account.
• Site usage records (the visits, pages and interactions described under "Our Own Usage Measurement", and the steps of creating and buying a book): visits and steps for 400 days, so we can compare one season with the same season a year earlier; per-page detail and clicks for 180 days. When you delete your account, the link to your account is removed and the records are kept for the rest of that period with nothing that names you.
• Questionnaire responses: Retained while your account is active to allow reprints and regeneration of your books.
• Reviews you submitted (your name as shown, text and photo): Published for as long as you consent, and deleted, with their photos, when you delete your account.

You may request deletion of your account and eligible data at any time through our support portal.

Account deletion is permanent. If an order is still being printed or shipped when you delete your account, the details needed to deliver it (such as the shipping address and the book's content) are kept until it ships, then removed.

Content Approval Records

When you approve book content, we store a record of your approval including:

• Timestamp of approval
• IP address at time of approval
• Browser user-agent at time of approval
• Content hash to verify the exact content approved
• The specific terms you agreed to

These records are retained for legal compliance and cannot be deleted.

Communications

We may send you the following types of emails:

• Transactional Emails: Order confirmations, shipping updates, book generation notifications, and support responses. These are necessary for providing our services.
• Marketing Emails: Promotional offers, new templates, product announcements, and re-engagement reminders about unfinished books. You can opt out of these at any time.

You can manage your email preferences or unsubscribe from marketing emails by:

• Clicking the "Unsubscribe" link at the bottom of any email
• Updating your preferences in your account settings
• Contacting our support team

Please note that even if you opt out of marketing emails, you will continue to receive essential transactional emails related to your orders and account.

Cookies and Tracking

We use essential cookies that are necessary for our website to function properly. These cookies do not require your consent under GDPR as they are strictly necessary for the service you have requested. We also use advertising cookies, but only if you opt in (see Advertising Cookies below).

Cookies We Use

• Session Cookie (simple-book-builder-session): Maintains your login session and shopping cart. Expires after 120 minutes of inactivity.
• Security Cookie (XSRF-TOKEN): Protects against cross-site request forgery attacks. Essential for secure form submissions.
• Remember Me Cookie: Only set if you choose "Remember me" when logging in. Keeps you logged in for up to 400 days (or until you log out).
• Appearance Cookie (appearance): Stores your theme preference (light, dark, or system). Up to 1 year.
• Sidebar Cookie (sidebar_state): Remembers whether the application sidebar is open or collapsed. Up to 7 days.

We also collect a device fingerprint derived from browser characteristics at registration. This is used to prevent abuse and duplicate free-book signups; it is not used for advertising or cross-site tracking.

Advertising Cookies (Only With Your Consent)

If you choose "Accept" in our cookie banner, or turn on Advertising Cookies under Cookie Settings, we load advertising tags from Meta (Facebook and Instagram). They stay off until you opt in, and they never load while your browser sends a Global Privacy Control signal.

Once you opt in, they run only on our public pages (the home page, catalog, book pages, How It Works and our landing pages), your cart, the credits page and the order confirmation page. They are never loaded on the pages where you answer the questionnaire, upload photos, read or edit your book, or manage your account, so your answers, your photos and anything about a child never reach them.

They record which of those pages you visit, which book you looked at, which of our books you add to your cart and its price, and, when you complete an order, which of our books it contains (the kind of book and the cover design you chose, never anything you wrote in it), its total, its number of items and its order number. None of those pages asks you to type personal details, and we switch off Meta's automatic features that read the page. Each partner also receives your IP address and browser details, sets its own cookies, and may connect this activity to an account you have with it, to measure our ads and to show you ads. Each partner handles this data under its own privacy policy as well as on our behalf.

On your cart page and your order confirmation page, where you are signed in, Meta (Facebook and Instagram) also receive a hashed copy of your account email address: a one-way SHA-256 code made from it, which they compare with the same code made from their own users' email addresses, so they can match the visit or purchase to an account you have with them. We never send them your email address itself, your name, your postal address or your phone number, and the code is sent only if you opt in to advertising cookies.

Cookies the partners may set:

• Meta (_fbp, _fbc): Measures visits and purchases from Facebook and Instagram ads. Up to 90 days.

You can withdraw your consent at any time with Cookie Settings at the bottom of our public pages. The tags stop at once, and we delete the cookies they set on our website; cookies a partner set on its own domain are controlled in that partner's settings.

Privacy-First Analytics

We use a privacy-first web analytics provider to understand how many people visit our site and which pages they use. It is cookieless: it sets no cookies, stores nothing on your device, and uses no identifier that follows you between sites or between visits. It cannot be used to identify you, and we cannot use it to build a profile of you.

It records the kind of information your browser sends with any request — the page URL, referring site, approximate country, browser and device type, and performance timings — processed on our behalf as a service provider (see Service Providers). We chose this approach specifically because it is the least invasive way to answer "is anyone visiting?", and it is why it runs without asking for consent: it is not one of the advertising tags.

Our Own Usage Measurement

Our website also measures how it is used, on our own systems. While you browse, a small script on our pages reports which pages you view, how long each one is on screen (only while the tab is visible), how far you scroll, which marked buttons and links you click, which form fields reported an error, and how quickly the page loaded. With the first page of a visit we note the website that sent you (its domain only), any campaign tags in the link you followed, your approximate country, and your device type, browser and operating system family (not the full browser identifier).

It records pages by name, never their full web address, and never what you type into a form. It sets no cookie of its own and stores nothing on your device: a visit is recognized only through the session cookie listed above, so it ends when that session ends. If you are signed in, the visit is linked to your account. We use it to understand which pages and products help people and where they get stuck, so we can improve the site and our marketing; we may use AI tools to analyze anonymous totals drawn from it (counts and averages, never one person's records). Your individual records are not shared with or sold to anyone, not used for advertising, and not used to track you on other websites. It is included in the copy of your data you can download, and it is unlinked from you when you delete your account.

Your Privacy Rights

California Residents (CCPA/CPRA)

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA), you have the following rights:

• Right to Know: You may request details about the personal information we have collected about you, including the categories, sources, purposes, and third parties with whom it is shared.
• Right to Delete: You may request that we delete the personal information we have collected about you, subject to certain legal exceptions (such as order records retained for tax compliance).
• Right to Correct: You may request that we correct inaccurate personal information.
• Right to Data Portability: You may request a copy of your personal information in a portable format. Self-service export at /settings/data-export packages the personal data we hold for your account: account profile (including registration IP), orders and refunds, questionnaire answers, the text of paragraph edits you made, full support ticket message history and your attachments, credit transactions, complete proof-approval records, any cover photo you uploaded, any photo you gave for a page inside a book, and any reviews you wrote with their photos. It also includes the location check we made before charging for a credit, digital edition or audiobook (the country codes of your connection, card and billing address, and whether the payment was charged or released), and any purchase whose payment was still clearing when you finished checkout (which books or credit pack it was for, and whether the payment went through). The package is prepared in the background and emailed to you; download links expire after 72 hours, after which the package file is deleted. Generated book content (chapter text, cover art, page previews, and PDF files) is licensed to you under our Terms of Service and is not personal data, so it is not part of this export. Any printed copy we have already delivered to you remains yours, and any digital edition or audiobook you purchased can be re-downloaded from your account for the hosting period stated in our Terms of Service (twelve months for a digital edition, ninety days for an audiobook), and restored for credits after that.

Selling and sharing: We never sell your personal information for money. If you opt in to advertising cookies, the tags described under Advertising Cookies send Meta (Facebook and Instagram) the pages you visit and your purchases, and send Meta (Facebook and Instagram) a hashed copy of your email address from your cart and order confirmation pages, which may count as "selling" or "sharing" personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising under the CCPA/CPRA. We do this only after you opt in, and you can opt out at any time with Cookie Settings or the "Do Not Sell or Share My Info" link at the bottom of our public pages. We do not share your data for advertising in any other way.

Non-Discrimination: We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your privacy rights. You will not receive different pricing or quality of service for making a privacy request.

To exercise any of these rights, please submit a request through our support portal. We will respond to verified requests within 45 days.

Global Privacy Control (GPC): We treat a GPC signal as a valid request to opt out of selling and sharing. While your browser sends it, the advertising tags never load, whatever you chose in the cookie banner.

Authorized agents: You may use an authorized agent to submit a request on your behalf. We may ask the agent for proof of authorization and may verify your identity directly.

Other U.S. State Residents

If you live in a U.S. state with a comprehensive privacy law (such as Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, Texas, Oregon, and a growing number of others), you have similar rights to access, correct, delete, and obtain a portable copy of your personal information, and to appeal a denied request. We extend the rights described above to you regardless of your state. The Global Privacy Control (GPC) statement in the California section above applies equally to you: we use your personal information for targeted advertising only through the advertising tags described above, only if you opt in, and you can opt out at any time. Submit requests the same way, through our support portal; if we deny a request you may ask us to reconsider.

European Economic Area, UK, and Swiss Residents (GDPR)

If you are located in the European Economic Area (EEA), United Kingdom, or Switzerland, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) provides you with additional rights regarding your personal data.

Data Controller

The data controller responsible for your personal data is SimpleBookBuilder, located at 651 S Sutton Rd # 132, Streamwood, IL 60107, United States. For privacy inquiries, contact us through our support portal.

Data Processing Agreements

We maintain data processing agreements (DPAs) with our key service providers, including our payment processor, AI service providers, and print fulfillment partners, to ensure your data is processed in compliance with GDPR requirements.

Lawful Basis for Processing

We process your personal data under the following legal bases:

• Contractual Necessity: Processing your account information, questionnaire responses, and payment data is necessary to provide our book creation and fulfillment services.
• Legitimate Interest: We process automatically collected data (IP address, browser type, device information) for security, fraud prevention, and service improvement.
• Consent: We send marketing emails only with your explicit opt-in consent, which you can withdraw at any time. Advertising cookies load only with your opt-in consent, which you can withdraw at any time with Cookie Settings.
• Legal Obligation: We retain order and payment data as required by tax and accounting laws.
• Fraud Prevention and Legal Claims: Payment transaction logs and payment-dispute (chargeback) records are retained after account deletion to detect and protect against fraudulent or illegal activity, to cooperate with law enforcement, and to establish or defend legal claims. This retention is permitted by applicable law (including the CCPA's security and legal-compliance exceptions and, where it applies, GDPR Article 17(3)).

Your GDPR Rights

In addition to the rights listed above, you have the right to:

• Right to Restrict Processing: You may request that we limit how we use your data in certain circumstances.
• Right to Object: You may object to our processing of your data based on legitimate interest. We will cease processing unless we have compelling legitimate grounds.
• Right to Lodge a Complaint: You have the right to file a complaint with your local data protection supervisory authority if you believe your rights have been violated.

Automated Decision-Making

Our book generation process uses AI systems to create personalized content based on your questionnaire responses. This is automated processing, but it does not produce legal effects or similarly significant effects on you — it produces a creative product that you review and approve before any purchase or printing occurs. You may request human review of any content through our support portal.

International Data Transfers

Your personal data is processed in the United States. When we transfer data from the EEA, UK, or Switzerland, we rely on Standard Contractual Clauses approved by the European Commission and the UK Information Commissioner's Office to ensure adequate data protection. Some of our service providers (including AI service providers) are based in the United States or may process data in other countries. Cross-border transfers are governed by our agreements with those providers and, where applicable, Standard Contractual Clauses or other lawful transfer mechanisms. Customer content sent for AI processing is configured so it is not used to train AI models for providers' own products.

To exercise any GDPR right, contact us through our support portal. We will respond within 30 days.

Security

We implement appropriate technical and organizational security measures to protect your personal information, including:

• Encryption of data in transit (TLS/HTTPS)
• Payment card data is never stored on our servers — all payment processing is handled by a PCI DSS Level 1 certified payment processor
• Role-based access controls for internal systems
• Regular review of data access and retention practices

However, no method of transmission over the Internet is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

Data Breach Notification

In the event of a data breach that affects your personal information, we will:

• Notify the relevant supervisory authority within 72 hours of becoming aware of the breach, where required by GDPR
• Notify affected individuals without undue delay when the breach is likely to result in a high risk to their rights and freedoms, and as otherwise required by applicable U.S. state law (including the Illinois Personal Information Protection Act, 815 ILCS 530)
• Notify affected California residents as required by the California Civil Code Section 1798.82
• Provide details of the breach, the data affected, and the steps we are taking to address it

Children's Privacy

Our services are not intended for children under 18. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If you believe we have collected such information, please contact us immediately.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page and updating the "Last updated" date.

Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or wish to exercise your privacy rights, please visit our support portal to submit a request, or write to us at:

SimpleBookBuilder
651 S Sutton Rd # 132
Streamwood, IL 60107

Change Log

• October 18, 2026: Noted that, with advertising cookies on, the advertising tags also name the cover design of the book you look at, add to your cart or order, so it matches the same product in our ad partners' catalogs, and that on your cart and order confirmation pages they also receive a one-way hashed copy of your account email address (never the address itself) to match the visit or purchase to an account you have with them.
• October 17, 2026: Added optional advertising cookies. They load only if you opt in, never while your browser sends a Global Privacy Control signal, and never on the pages where you write your book, upload photos or manage your account. The cookie banner now asks before they load, and Cookie Settings lets you withdraw at any time.
• October 13, 2026: Added share links: you can choose to create a link to a finished book that shows its cover, title and opening paragraphs to anyone you send it to. It is hidden from search engines, can be turned off at any time, and is included in your data download.
• October 11, 2026: Your data export now also includes the location check made before charging for a credit, digital edition or audiobook, and any purchase whose payment was still clearing when you finished checkout.
• October 9, 2026: Added "Our Own Usage Measurement": our website now measures, on our own systems and without a cookie of its own, which pages are viewed, for how long, how far they are scrolled, which marked buttons are clicked, which form fields report errors and how fast pages load, along with where a visit came from. Added how long these records are kept, and that they are included in your data download and unlinked from you when you delete your account.
• October 4, 2026: The approximate country of your connection now decides whether a Personalized Bible offers the King James Version, which is sold in the United States only; the Berean Standard Bible is offered everywhere. We now say that the country codes kept with a payment to us are kept whether or not the payment goes through, and for as long as our other payment records.
• October 3, 2026: The approximate country of your connection now also decides which checkout a credit, digital edition or audiobook purchase uses; outside the United States our reseller Link sells them as seller of record and receives what it needs for the sale. For such a purchase we sell, the country codes of your connection, card and billing address are kept with the purchase. It also decides whether a journal offers lined, dot-grid and blank pages, and which country your cart starts set to ship to.
• October 2, 2026: Added Personalized Bibles. We now note that the approximate country of your connection decides whether you can start one (they are sold in the United States only) and is not stored; that a book's personal pages may reveal religious beliefs, and how those details are used and deleted; and that a photo you give for a page inside your book is screened, printed as you gave it, included in your data export and deleted with the book or your account.
• September 28, 2026: Noted that deleting your account before buying a book we made for you free of charge leaves a one-way coded fingerprint of your email address, kept for one year, so the free offer cannot be claimed again with the same address.
• September 27, 2026: Added the reviews you choose to submit (your name as shown, text and photo) to the information we collect, the data export and the retention list, and noted that they are deleted with your account. Stated that account deletion is permanent and that an order still being printed or shipped keeps the details needed to deliver it until it ships. Corrected how long a purchased digital edition or audiobook can be re-downloaded: for the hosting period in our Terms of Service (twelve months for a digital edition, ninety days for an audiobook), then restored for credits, rather than for as long as the Service operates. Removed a Change Log entry that was printed twice.
• August 30, 2026: Noted that buying an audiobook additionally sends the finished text of your book — including any names you gave us that appear in it — to a text-to-speech provider, which returns the spoken recording. The same conditions as our other AI processing apply, including that your content is not used to train AI models.
• August 30, 2026: Noted that custom text you choose to print along your book's page edges is collected and is included in a data export.
• August 22, 2026: Clarified that generated book content is licensed under the Terms of Service rather than being personal data, and that a printed copy already delivered to you remains yours and a purchased digital edition remains downloadable from your account.
• July 23, 2026: Initial version.