We at Follett respect your privacy and value the relationship we have with you. This Privacy Policy is designed to tell you what information about you Follett collects and how Follett uses and shares that information. This Privacy Policy applies to information collected by Follett Higher Education Group, Inc., Advanced Graphic Products, Inc. (Advanced-Online/OnDemand), Follett Higher Ed Group, Ltd. and any affiliate or subsidiary companies (“Follett,” “we,” or “us), offline or online, including, but not limited to, websites that are directed at individual customers, such as efollett.com and merchorders.com, and sites that are directed to enterprise customers, such as bookvolume.com and all other websites, features, applications, store kiosks, widgets or online services that are owned or controlled by Follett , and that post a link to this Privacy Policy (collectively, the “Services”). The Services include the online bookstores operated by Follett on behalf of colleges and universities, or other higher education institutions, online corporate stores operated by Follett on behalf of third party companies, and any information collected by Follett at an on-campus or corporate on-site store as well as other online resources, Services, community forums, and contests or sweepstakes offered or operated by Follett. Please review this Privacy Policy carefully. Please note that certain features or services referenced in this Privacy Policy may not be offered on all Services or through all features at all times.

Information We Collect About You

You may provide Follett with “Personal Information” (which is information that can be used to contact or specifically identify an individual, such as your full name, mailing address, mobile number, and email address), account information (such as a password or other information that helps us confirm that it is you accessing your account) and demographic or other information (such as your gender, age or birthdate, zip code and information about your interests and preferences). Cookies enable personalization of your experience on the Messaging Service (e.g., sending you personalized text messages such as shopping cart reminders). We will also collect payment information (typically, credit card account information) if you choose to purchase products or services through the Services. And, when you make a purchase or otherwise transact with Follett, whether online or offline, we will retain information regarding those purchases and transactions, including, but not limited to products purchased, location of purchase, and how frequently you make purchases. Any information combined with Personal Information will be treated as Personal Information.

Information the Services Automatically Collect or Processes

We and our third-party service providers, including analytics providers and third-party content providers, may automatically collect certain information whenever you access and use the Services (“Usage Information”). Usage Information may include the type of device you are using to access the Services, the areas of the Services that you access or use, and the time of day you used the Services, among other information. In addition, we automatically collect your IP address or other unique identifier (“Device Identifier”) for any mobile phone, tablet or other devices you may use to access the Services. A Device Identifier is a number that is automatically assigned or connected to the device you use to access the Services, and our servers identify your device by its Device Identifier. Usage Information is generally non-identifying, but if we associate it with you as a specific and identifiable person, we treat it as Personal Information.

Follett does not collect personal information about your online activities over time and across third-party websites or online services. Therefore, “do not track” signals transmitted from web browsers do not apply to our sites, and we do not alter any of our data collection and use practices upon receipt of such a signal.

The methods used to collect Usage Information may include the following:

Cookies. A cookie is a data file, which we place on a device when it is used to visit the Services or otherwise access our online content. Cookies may be used for many purposes, including, without limitation, remembering you and your preferences, tracking your visits to our web pages, and for displaying offers related to your prior activity on the Services. We may also use technologies such as cookies to provide you with enhanced online display advertising tailored to your interests. For additional information on the type of information collected by cookies, including how to opt out of receiving interest-based advertising, please see the “Third Party Ad Servers and Analytics Providers” section of this Policy. A Flash cookie is a data file placed on a device via the Adobe Flash plugin that may be built-in to or downloaded by you to your device. Flash cookies may be used for various purposes, including, without limitation, enabling a Flash feature and remembering your preferences. For more information about Flash and the privacy choices Adobe offers, visit here. If you choose to disable cookies or to adjust your Flash privacy settings on your device, some features of the Services may not function properly.

Web Beacons. Small graphic images or other web programming code called web beacons (also known as “1×1 GIFs” or “clear GIFs”) may be included in our web pages and e-mail messages. Web beacons may be invisible to you, but any electronic image or other web programming code inserted into a web page or e-mail can act as a web beacon. Web beacons or similar technologies may be used for a number of purposes, including, without limitation, to count visitors to the Services, to monitor how users navigate the Services, to count how many e-mails that were sent were actually opened or to count how many particular articles or links were actually viewed.

Embedded Scripts. An embedded script is programming code that is designed to collect information about your interactions with the Services, such as the links you click on. The code is temporarily downloaded onto your device from our web server or a third party service provider, is active only while you are connected to the Services, and is deactivated or deleted thereafter.

In addition, we may use a variety of other technologies that collect similar information for security and fraud detection purposes.

Information Third Parties Provide About You

We may receive information about you from third parties. For example, your school may provide us with information about you, such as enrollment information, classes you are taking and Personal Information including, but not limited to financial aid information, so that we may provide services to you, such as selling you the required books for a class, enabling payment from financial aid funds, or offering you other products or services. We may supplement and combine the information we collect with information provided by third parties for a variety of reasons, including to provide you with information, services or products you have requested, to enhance our ability to serve you, to tailor content and to offer you opportunities to purchase products or services that we believe may be of interest to you. In those cases, we will apply this Privacy Policy to the combined information.

Protection of Children’s Privacy

The Services are intended for general audiences and are not directed at children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from individuals under 13. If we obtain actual knowledge that any information we collect has been provided by a child under the age of 13, we will promptly delete that information.

Community Forums and User Content

Follett provides the opportunity to participate and post content publicly in forums on the Services, through interactive features and through other communication functionality (“Community Forums”) including Follett official social media accounts on Facebook and Twitter. You may choose, through such features or otherwise, to submit or post reviews, photographs, videos, questions, comments, suggestions or other content, (collectively, “User Content”). Please note that certain information, such as your name, may be publicly displayed on the Services along with your User Content.

If you submit User Content in one of our Community Forums, such as by posting photos, commenting on a blog, or participating in online forums or communities at our Service, depending on your privacy settings this information may become public on the Internet. Therefore, we cannot prevent further use of this information. You can control what data you share through privacy settings available on some Social Networks. For more information about how you can customize your privacy settings and how Social Networks handle your personally identifiable information, please refer to their privacy help guides, privacy policies and terms of use.

Social Features

Functionality on the Services may permit interactions that you initiate between the Services and a third-party web site or service (“Social Features”). Examples of Social Features include enabling you to “like” or “share” content from the Services to other websites or services or to “like” or “share” our page on a third party service and to otherwise connect the Services to a third party web site or service. If you choose to share content or to otherwise post information through the Services to a third party site or service, or vice versa, that information may be publicly displayed. Similarly, if you post information on a third party platform that references a Follett product (e.g., by using a Twitter hashtag associated with a Follett Brand product in your tweet), your post may be published on our Services. Also, both Follett and the third party may have access to certain information about you and your use of the Services and the third party site or service. In addition, we may receive information about you if other users of a third party web site give us access to their profiles and you are one of their “connections” or information about you is otherwise accessible through your “connections” web page, profile page, or similar page on a social networking or other third party web site or interactive service.

The information we collect in connection with Social Features is subject to this Privacy Policy. The information collected and stored by the third party remains subject to the third party’s privacy practices, including whether the third party continues to share information with us, the types of information shared, and your choices with regard to what is visible to others on that third party web site or service.

How Follett Uses Your Information

Any information you provide or that is collected by us may be combined with any other information you provide to us, is provided by third parties, information we collect through the Services, or otherwise. We may use the information we collect or receive, including Personal Information and Usage Information:

To allow you to participate in features we offer or to provide related customer service including, without limitation, to respond to your questions, complaints or comments;

To tailor content, recommendations and offers we display or otherwise provide to you;

To confirm or fulfill an order you have made or authorize or complete a transaction you have requested;

To provide you with information, products or services that you have requested or agreed to receive or that we otherwise believe will interest you, either on behalf of Follett or third parties, and which may include advertisements or special offers;

To verify enrollment and financial aid information;

To improve the Services and our products and for internal business purposes, analyzing usage of our Services and purchase of our products;

To contact you with regard to your use of the Services and, in our discretion, changes to our policies for the Services;

To enforce applicable agreements and policies for the Services, to prevent fraud, to comply with all applicable laws and Follett’s corporate reporting obligations; and

As otherwise described in this Privacy Policy and for purposes disclosed at the time you provide your information or with your consent.

How Follett Shares Your Information

Follett may share your Information in the following cases:

With Affiliates, Subsidiaries and Business Partners: Follett may disclose your Information to our affiliates and subsidiaries. When you make an online or in-store purchase from one of the stores we operate for our business partners, or when you purchase merchandise that is licensed by our business partners (ex. collegiate apparel),  we may share your personal information, and information regarding those purchases and transactions, with our business partners.  

With Your Consent: Follett may share your Information with other third parties with your consent.

As Required by Law: Follett may disclose any Information we deem necessary, in Follett’s sole discretion, to comply with any applicable law, regulation, legal process or governmental request and to provide information to a claimed owner of intellectual property, and/or defend any applicable Terms of Use or other policies applicable to the Services, or to protect the personal safety, rights, property or security of any organization or individual. We may also use Device Identifiers to identify users and may do so in cooperation with copyright owners, internet service providers, wireless service providers or law enforcement agencies in our discretion.

To Prevent Harm or Loss: Follett may disclose Information when we believe, in our sole discretion, disclosure is necessary or appropriate to prevent physical harm, fraud, or financial loss or in connection with suspected or actual illegal activity. In Connection With a Sale of Follett’s Business: Follett also reserves the right to transfer Information in the event Follett transfers or sells all or a portion of Follett’s business or assets to a subsequent owner, co-owner or operator of all or any portion of the Services or in connection with a corporate merger, consolidation, or restructuring, the sale of substantially all of our stock and/or assets, or other corporate change, including, without limitation, during the course of any due diligence process.

Non-Personal Information. We may share non-Personal Information, such as aggregate user statistics, demographic information and Usage Information with third parties, including advertisers, content providers, and analytics providers, and third parties may collect non-Personal Information when you use or visit the Services.

Third-Party Service Providers. We may use third parties to perform certain services on our behalf, such as fulfilling and processing orders, tracking analytics, or performing other administrative services. We may provide these companies with access to user information, including Personal Information, to carry out the services they are performing. These Services Providers have no independent rights in your Personal Information and are not authorized by Follett to use or disclose your Information except as necessary to perform services on Follett’s behalf or comply with legal requirements.

Sweepstakes, Contests and Promotions. We may offer sweepstakes, contests, and other promotions, sometimes in collaboration with third parties. If you choose to enter a promotion, Personal Information, such as your name, contact information, email address, and shipping address, may be disclosed to third parties or the public in connection with the administration of such promotion, including, without limitation, in connection with winner selection, prize fulfillment, and as required by law or permitted by the Promotion’s official rules, such as on a winners list. If the sweepstakes, contest or promotion is co-sponsored by another party, that co-sponsor may also receive your Personal Information when you enter the promotion.

Third Party Ad Servers and Analytics Providers

Follett works with third party network advertisers, ad agencies, analytics service providers and other vendors to serve third party advertisements on and through the Services, to provide us with information regarding traffic on the Services, including the pages viewed and the actions users take when visiting the Services; to serve our advertisements on other websites, within mobile Apps, and elsewhere online; and to provide us with information regarding the use of the Services and the effectiveness of our advertisements. For example, if you click one of our advertisements, our service provider(s) may be able to tell us the advertisement you clicked on and where you were viewing the advertisement; likewise, if you click on an ad you see on our Services, our service provider(s) may be able to tell which page you were visiting on our Services and pass that information to the advertiser. The advertisements you see may be served by one or more third parties, who may use information about your activities on the Services, and other websites and services, to provide you targeted advertising based upon your interests.

These third-party service providers may set and access their own tracking technologies on your device (including cookies and web beacons) and may otherwise collect or have access to information about you (such as your general interest in higher education and certain subjects and Usage Information) including Personal Information. These third parties may collect information about you across sites and over time. Cookies and web beacons, including those set by third-party network advertisers, may be used to, among other things, serve you targeted advertisements, prevent you from seeing the same advertisements too many times and to conduct research regarding the usefulness of certain advertisements to you.

While we may use a variety of service providers to perform advertising services, some of these companies are members of the Network Advertising Initiative (“NAI”) or the Digital Advertising Alliance (“DAA”) Self-Regulatory Program for Online Behavioral Advertising.

You may want to visit http://www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp, which provides information regarding targeted advertising and the “opt-out” procedures of NAI members. You may also want to visit http://www.aboutads.info/choices/, which provides information regarding targeted advertising and offers an “opt-out” by participating companies in the DAA Self-Regulatory Program. You may also opt out of tracking and receiving targeted advertisements on your mobile device by some mobile advertising companies and other similar entities by downloading the App Choices app at www.aboutads.info/appchoices. Please note opting out through these mechanisms does not opt you out of being served advertising. You will continue to receive generic ads while visiting the Services and elsewhere online.

The Services are affiliated with Publisher First, Inc. dba Freestar (“Freestar”) for the purposes of placing certain advertising on the Services, and Freestar will collect and use certain data for advertising purposes. To learn more about Freestar’s data usage, click here.

Account Preferences and Updating Your Information

You may be able to review and update your account information through the Services, including certain Personal Information and your communications preferences. You may opt out of receiving marketing e-mails from us by following the opt-out instructions provided to you in those e-mails. Please note that we reserve the right to send you certain communications relating to your account or use of the Services (for example, order confirmations) and these transactional account messages may be unaffected if you opt-out from marketing communications.

If you sign up to receive any SMS or MMS messages that we may offer, you may unsubscribe by replying “STOP”. Additional information on SMS text messaging can be found in the “Mobile Services” section of our Terms of Use.

Third Party Applications/Websites

The Services may permit you to link to other applications and websites. Such third party applications/websites are not under the control of Follett and such links do not constitute an endorsement by Follett of those other applications/websites or the services offered through them. The privacy and security practices of such third party applications/websites are not covered by this Privacy Policy and Follett is not responsible for the privacy or security practices or content of such applications/websites.

Security

We take commercially reasonable security measures to secure the personal information submitted to us, both during transmission and once we receive it, using administrative, technical and physical controls that are designed to reasonably safeguard information that can individually identify you. However, no method of electronic transmission or method of electronic storage is 100% secure. Therefore, we cannot guarantee the security of any information you submit and you do so at your own initiative and risk.

Users Residing Outside the United States and Consent To Transfer

The Services are operated in the United States. If you are located outside of the United States, please be aware that we may transfer, process, or provide access to information we collect, including your Personal Information, to Follett based in the United States and we may transfer or provide access to your information, including Personal Information, to our offices or service providers in other countries where the privacy and data protection laws may not be as comprehensive as those in the country where you reside and/or are a citizen. By using the Services, or providing us with any information, you fully understand and unambiguously consent to this use, transfer, processing and storage of your information in the United States, or another country other than your own. You are solely responsible for compliance with any data protection or privacy obligations in your jurisdiction when you use the Services or provide us with Personal Information. Regardless of where we transfer your information, we still protect your information in the manner described in this Privacy Statement.

Your California Privacy Rights

If you are a California resident, California Civil Code Section 1798.83 permits you to request information regarding the disclosure of your personal information by Follett to third parties for the third parties’ direct marketing purposes within the immediately preceding calendar year. Follett will provide you with a list of the categories of personal information disclosed and a list of the names and addresses of the third parties. To make such a request, please send an email to privacy@follett.com.

If you are a California resident under the age of 18, and a registered user of any site where this policy is posted, California Business and Professions Code Section 22581 permits you to request and obtain removal of content or information you have publicly posted. To make such a request, please send an email with a detailed description of the specific content or information to privacy@follett.com. Please be aware that such a request does not ensure complete or comprehensive removal of the content or information you have posted and that there may be circumstances in which the law does not require or allow removal even if requested.

HOW TO CONTACT US

If you have any questions or comments about this Privacy Policy, please contact us by email at privacy@follett.com or telephone at 800-222-0858 or 708-884-0230. You also may write to us at Follett Corporation, Attn: Privacy, 3 Westbrook Corporate Center, Suite 200, Westchester, IL 60154. For California residents to exercise your consumer rights by clicking here. Questions or comments submitted through other means, such as Wall posts, may not be received or addressed.

For purchase questions, please contact the Higher Education Customer Service Team at customerservice@efollett.com, or call 1-800-381-5151.

Updates to This Privacy Policy

We ask that you read this Privacy Policy from time to time. Follett may modify this Privacy Policy at any time in its sole discretion. Please review this Privacy Policy frequently to stay updated about any changes. If we make material changes to this Privacy Policy that reduce your rights under this Privacy Policy, we will provide you notice by prominent posting on our sites.