Privacy & Security

As a customer of University Book Store, your trust is our most important asset. We take the protection and proper use of your personal information seriously and are committed to protecting your personal information in our possession. In order to preserve your trust, we want you to understand what personal information we may collect from you, how we use such information, and the choices you have regarding our use of this information.

In this policy, "personal information", means any information by which you can be identified or contacted, such as your name (first and last) address (city, state, zip) email address, telephone number, etc.

This Privacy Policy governs your experience in any of our stores and on this website unless otherwise indicated.

We collect personal information when communicating or interacting with you through our stores or ubookstore.com, the vanity url for www.bookstore.washington.edu. Some examples include:

  • Registering for a UWCR account on our website
  • When you request that merchandise be sent to you or others, make purchases or returns with us, place an order with us online, phone, email, or fax, or request an electronic copy of a receipt
  • Fulfilling orders you place and delivering packages
  • Requesting a newsletter from us or when offering recommendations to you
  • Subscribing to ubookstore.com emails or other communications from us or managing your preferences with us
  • Your Financial Account numbers when transacting with us
  • Interacting with our website or mobile site
  • When you participate in any of our programs such as contests, sweepstakes, surveys, loyalty programs, etc.
  • When you apply for employment which may include your social security number
  • You may be recorded by in-store cameras used for safety, security and operational purposes, such as to measure traffic patterns in our stores
  • Contacting us with a comment, question or complaint

We may also collect personal information about you from other third parties such as demographic firms, to make our future service and marketing efforts more efficient and personalized. When you visit our websites we may also gather certain information automatically and store it in log files. This information may include Internet Protocol (IP) addresses or other device identifiers, browser information, Internet Service Provider (ISP), operating system, location, date/time stamp and clickstream data.

Information that we and our service providers collect to conduct our business and to provide you with the best possible products, services and experience such as:

  • Products and services
  • Notify you of product recalls or safety issues
  • Process and respond to your application for career opportunities
  • Process membership request when you apply or otherwise administer your participation in our programs
  • Respond to your comments, questions or complaints
  • Determine your satisfaction with our program or service by using surveys
  • When you ask us to, send you marketing communications and other information you have chosen to receive

We also may use your personal information for our everyday business purposes such as security, payment processing, analytics, operations, fraud detection and prevention, reporting, making back-ups and legal compliance.

In rare instances, we may share your information with select partners to better serve you. Service providers, third parties who perform services on our behalf, are contractually restricted from using your information in any manner other than in helping us to provide you with the products and services available from University Book Store. We may also, in certain instances, disclose your personal information when we have reason to believe that it is necessary to identify you, contact you, to advise you of a product recall, detect and protect you or us from fraud or theft, manage information security or bring legal action to protect your rights or the rights of University Book Store. We may also disclose your personal information when you ask us to do so or when we believe it is required or permitted by law.

We conduct video surveillance at our stores for security, fraud and loss prevention purposes and for incident reporting purposes. We use the images and information from such videos only as required for such purposes and for certain operational purposes, such as to measure traffic patterns in our stores.

We often videotape our speakers, product demonstrations and author events. When doing so, the camera focuses on the speaker, demonstration or author, not the guests in attendance, although at times, an attendee may be on tape, due to the proximity to the speaker. These videos are placed on our social media outlets — Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and YouTube. It is our intention to only show the presenter. Customers are advised of the taping prior to the start of an event and have the option to relocate to another seat or location should the possibility of appearing on video be of concern. Children under the age of 13 are not recorded or taped without the written consent of a legal guardian or parent.

Our website uses "cookie" technology. A cookie is small data file that is placed on the hard drive of your computer when you visit a website. A session cookie expires immediately when you end your session or close your browser. A persistent cookie stores information on the hard drive so when you end your session and return to the same website at a later date, the cookie information is still available. A web beacon is small string of code that represents a clear graphic image and is used in conjunction with a cookie.

We use cookies to identify your device, provide website user authentication, conduct fraud prevention and management services, distinguish you from other visitors, record your IP address and understand your use of our site, and identify which sites referred/linked you to ubookstore.com. This information is used for fulfilling contracts with our business partners, and to help us serve you better by improving our website design, as well as our products, services and promotions. We do not otherwise track any information about your use of other websites. Information obtained through cookies and web beacons may be shared with or obtained by service providers on our behalf.

When you visit our website, we may use both a session and a persistent cookie. This cookie may contain information, such as a unique user ID that is used to track your usage of our website. A web beacon allows us to capture certain additional types of information about a visitor's actions on a web site such as a visitor's cookie number, the time, date, duration and number of page views, a description of the page where the web beacon is placed and details about any items that were purchased.

We use third party service providers to serve banner ads and/or links on our behalf across the internet.

These advertising service providers may collect non-identifiable information about your visits to our websites, and your interactions with our products and services. Such non-identifiable information does not include your name, address, email address or other personal information. The information is collected through the use of cookies. In addition to the information about your visits to our website, our service providers may also use the information about your visits to other websites to target advertisements for products available from University Book Store.

Visit: http://www.google.com/policies/privacy/ for more detailed information on retargeting and search advertising practices and privacy.

Visit: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/2838718?hl=en for more detailed information on our use of and privacy in Universal Analytics.

You may choose to opt out of such tracking by visiting Google Analytics at: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout/.

University Book Store invites you to socialize and share your book, author, Husky, UW, student with your friends using social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and YouTube. If you choose to use these outlets, you may be sharing profile elements, including comments. This sharing is subject to each social media outlet's privacy policies.

If you are under 18 years old, you may use the University Book Store network only with the consent of a parent or guardian.

While University Book Store endeavors to ensure that the University Book Store network is available at all times, University Book Store, in its sole discretion, reserves the right to refuse service, terminate your account, remove or edit content, or revoke access. University Book Store shall not be liable if, for any reason, the University Book Store network is unavailable to you.

You are prohibited from:

  1. using the University Book Store network to send or post harassing, abusive or threatening messages.
  2. transmitting or viewing through the University Book Store network any information, data, text, files, links, software or other materials that University Book Store considers to be unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, pornographic, hateful, racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable or which threatens our relationships with our employees, partners, customers or suppliers.
  3. attempting to conceal or misrepresent the identity of the sender or person submitting the information or the origin of any content or services.
  4. disrupting the normal flow of the University Book Store network, including, without limitation, any dialogue on the University Book Store network or otherwise act in a manner that negatively affects other participants or is deemed inappropriate by University Book Store.
  5. sending spam or other direct marketing communications or posting, transmitting or linking to any unsolicited advertising, promotional materials or any other forms of solicitation or commercial content.
  6. intentionally or unintentionally performing or promoting any activity that would violate any applicable local, state, national or international law, including but not limited to any regulations having the force of law while using or accessing the University Book Store network.
  7. posting or transmitting executable programming of any kind, including viruses, spyware, trojan horses, easter eggs or any other form of computer programming.
  8. using the University Book Store network in such a way that damages the image or rights of University Book Store, other users or third parties.
  9. framing or utilizing framing technologies to enclose any trademark, logo, or other proprietary information (including images, text, page layout, or form).

The University Book Store network and all information, content, materials, products, (including software) are services included on or otherwise made available to you through the University Book Store network and are provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis, unless otherwise specified in writing. University Book Store makes no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, as to the operation of the network or the information, content, materials, products or services included on or otherwise made available to you through the network, unless otherwise specified in writing. You expressly agree that your use of the University Book Store network is at your own risk.

To the full extent permissible by applicable law, University Book Store disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including but not limited to, implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. University Book Store does not warrant that

  1. information, content, materials, products including software, or services included on or otherwise made available to you through the University Book Store digital network
  2. email sent from University Book Store or any content providers
  3. are free of viruses or other harmful components

University Book Store will not be liable for any damages of any kind arising from the use of the University Book Store network or from any information, content, materials, products including software or services included on or otherwise made available to you through the University Book Store network, including but not limited to direct, indirect, incidental, punitive and consequential damages, unless otherwise specified in writing.

University Book Store will never knowingly request or collect personal information from anyone under the age of 13 without parental or guardian consent. If you are under 13, please do not provide your personal information on the University Book Store website.

We maintain physical, electronic and procedural safeguards to protect the confidentiality and security of personal information transmitted to use using this website. To help guard your information, our website uses secure HTTP (HTTPS). HTTPS encrypts information transmitted between you and our website, so only you and University Book Store are able to view your information. Please understand that email is not encrypted and is not considered to be a secure means of transmitting credit card information.

To be sure your connection is secure, look for any of the following:

  1. an icon depicting a closed lock or an unbroken key in your browser's address bar, or the status bar at the bottom of your browser.
  2. a button or label in your address bar showing that the connection is secure