BiblioTech Privacy Policy

BiblioTech is a digital library platform. The BiblioTech apps let readers browse the collections their institution or organization subscribes to, borrow and download e-books and journals, and read them offline. The apps are developed and published by Chesalon USA, Inc., Houston, Texas (“Chesalon”, “we”, “us”).

To borrow content, the app signs you in to the BiblioTech Hub: the online library service that holds your account, your organization's collections and the lending records. The Hub is operated by Scholar Leaders (scholarleaders.org), Grand Rapids, Michigan, the organization that makes the BiblioTech collections available to participating institutions. Scholar Leaders is the data controller for the account and lending information held by the Hub. Chesalon builds and maintains the apps and the Hub software, and processes that information on Scholar Leaders' behalf to operate and support the service. Your account is normally created by your institution's administrator, or by you through the BiblioTech portal.

The apps access, collect or transmit the following categories of personal information.

The following is stored only on your computer or phone, in the app's own data folder. It is not sent to Chesalon or to the Hub.

• Downloaded publications (encrypted where the publisher's license requires it).
• Your reading position, bookmarks, highlights, notes and annotations for each title.
• Reader settings such as font, font size, theme, layout and text-to-speech preferences.
• The list of catalogs and feeds you have added.
• If you tick Remember me at sign-in, your username and an encrypted copy of your password so you can be signed in automatically next time. Leave the box unticked and nothing is kept.
• The passphrase used to open license-protected publications, stored in encrypted form so you are not asked for it on every open.

Text-to-speech (read aloud) uses the speech engine built into your operating system. The text and audio never leave your device.

• No location data, and no access to your camera, microphone, contacts, calendar or photos.
• No advertising, no advertising identifiers, and no tracking across other apps or websites.
• No third-party analytics, crash-reporting or marketing SDKs are included in the apps.
• No information from children under 13 knowingly (see section 10).

• To provide the service:sign you in, show your organization's collections, deliver and lend licensed content, and keep track of what is on loan.
• To honor license terms: enforce loan periods and the device limits that publishers attach to their content, which is why devices are registered to your account.
• To provide features you ask for: such as translating a passage you selected.
• To support you: answer questions and resolve problems with your account or the app.
• To keep the service secure: detect misuse of accounts or licensed content and protect the Hub.
• To report to institutions and publishers: provide your institution with information about the use of its subscription, and provide publishers with aggregate, de-identified lending statistics required by their license agreements.
• To comply with law and enforce our agreements.

We do not use your information for advertising, and we do not sell it.

The apps may contain links to external sites (for example a publisher's page or a partner organization). Those sites have their own privacy policies.

• All traffic between the apps and the Hub is encrypted in transit with HTTPS (TLS).
• Account and lending data is stored on Google Cloud Platform with encryption at rest and restricted access.
• Protected publications are encrypted on your device and can only be opened with a valid license.
• Saved credentials and the license passphrase are stored on your device in encrypted form, bound to your computer and user account.
• Access to production systems is limited to personnel who need it to operate the service.

No system is perfectly secure. If Scholar Leaders or Chesalon learns of a breach affecting your personal information, you and your institution will be notified as required by law.

• Account informationis kept while your account is active and for as long as your institution's subscription agreement requires afterwards, then deleted or de-identified.
• Lending records are kept for the period needed to meet publisher license and audit obligations.
• Registered devices are kept until you or an administrator removes them.
• On-device data is removed when you delete a title, sign out (session data), or uninstall the app.
• Server logs are kept for a limited period for security and troubleshooting.

• Sign out at any time; this clears the session from the device. Untick Remember me if you do not want credentials saved.
• Manage devices under My Devices in the app to remove a computer or phone from your account.
• Delete downloaded titles from your library, or uninstall the app to remove all local data.
• Access, correct or deleteyour account information by contacting your institution's BiblioTech administrator, Scholar Leaders at contact@scholarleaders.org, or Chesalon at privacy@chesalon.com. Requests about Hub account data that reach Chesalon are passed to Scholar Leaders. You will receive a response within the time required by applicable law; where your account is managed by an institution, it may need to be involved to complete your request.
• Depending on where you live, you may have additional rights under laws such as the EU/UK GDPR or the California Consumer Privacy Act, including the right to object to or restrict processing and to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. We do not discriminate against you for exercising them.

BiblioTech is intended for students, faculty, researchers and members of subscribing institutions. It is not directed at children under 13 and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, contact us and we will delete it.

The BiblioTech Hub is hosted in the United States. If you use BiblioTech from outside the United States, your information will be transferred to and processed there. Where the law requires, we rely on appropriate safeguards for such transfers.

The BiblioTech desktop app is built on the open-source Readium Desktop / Thorium Reader toolkit (BSD license). We publish this policy for the BiblioTech-branded apps distributed by Chesalon; it does not cover other software built on the same toolkit.

We will update this policy when the apps gain features that change how information is handled, and we will change the “Last updated” date above. Material changes will also be announced in the app or by email to account holders.

App publisher and technical support — Chesalon USA, Inc.
Houston, Texas, United States
Privacy questions about the apps: privacy@chesalon.com
Product support: support@chesalon.com

BiblioTech Hub operator and data controller — Scholar Leaders
5680 Kraft Ave SE, Suite C, Grand Rapids, MI 49512, United States
Account and lending data questions: contact@scholarleaders.org

This page is published for the Microsoft Store, Apple App Store and Google Play listings of BiblioTech and for all users at https://www.chesalon.com/privacy-policy/bibliotech. See also the general Chesalon privacy policy.