Boston Academic Publishing, Inc., d.b.a. FlatWorld, Privacy Policy

This Privacy & Cookies Policy (“Policy”) explains the information practices of Boston Academic Publishing, Inc., d.b.a. FlatWorld (“FlatWorld,” also “we,” “our,” and “us”) related to the flatworld.com, fwk.com and flatworldknowledge.com websites, and the products and services offered through those websites (collectively the “Products”). You agree to the terms of this Policy as set forth in our Terms of Use.

This policy does not cover the privacy practices of third parties, such as the practices of third-party payment processing or delivery services, or our partners and/or advertisers. In addition, our site may contain links to the websites or services of third parties. Such third-party services and websites operate independently of the Service and each has its own privacy and security practices. We encourage you to review their policies before submitting any personal information to them.

I. Information FlatWorld collects about you

FlatWorld collects information from you as described in this Policy, including when you register with FlatWorld, and when you download, access or use any of the Products. “Personally identifiable information” refers to information we collect that permits a specific individual to be contacted physically or online.

A. Information You Provide Directly to Us

When you create a registered member account, we request that you provide certain information, including your name and email address, institutional affiliation, phone number, and the like.

When you make a purchase, we require that you provide certain information, including your name, address, and related payment information. FlatWorld does not collect or store credit card information – our payment processors collect that information from you directly.

When you use and/or access the Products, we may request and you may provide other information during the course of your use. For example, we collect user-generated content submitted in connection with use of the Products including notes and highlights in books, and information you share with others through the Products.

When you participate in assessments, surveys, and homework-related Products, we may collect information concerning your use of those Products including information and commentary submitted by instructors, grades, completion information, how long you used the Products, information you submit, and other information concerning your participation in these instruments.

When you communicate with us, through the Products or otherwise, you may also provide us with information. For example, if you email us regarding an order, you will provide us with your email address, and the information contained without your email. We also offer chat solutions, for example in connection with user support, which may be hosted by us or third parties, and we collect the information you provide during those sessions.

B. Information We Receive From Third Parties

We may collect, purchase, request or otherwise receive information about you, including personally-identifiable information, from third-party sources, including your employer or educational institution. We may acquire personally identifiable information from third party sources, including marketing services and public websites, to help us market our products to instructors and institutions. We may collect information about our users’ engagement with our Products on social media. We may receive information about our users from instructors and institutions (e.g., class rosters that may include names, email addresses and other identifying information). And we may receive information from content owners, educational institutions and others concerning usage and engagement with Products, performance on assessments and homework, and the like. We may combine information we receive from third parties with other information we collect about you.

C. Information That Is Automatically Collected

FlatWorld automatically collects certain information as you use and interact with the Products and make Product purchases. This information includes:

facts about your purchases,
how and when you use the Products,
the specific Products you use,
the specific parts of the Products you use,
data created when you view the Products, create new notes, or view previous notes on any device,
activities you engaged in, such as your searches and other transactions,
information about page views, page usage, time on page, and other information about usage,
information about your device, including Internet Protocol (“IP”) address information, unique device identifier (e.g., UDID, MAC Address, etc.), browser type, referring / exit pages and URLs, number of clicks, domain names, landing pages, and other such information.
information from interactive Products, including scores from assessments, engagement during study sessions and overall performance, and
records of any contact we have with you by telephone, email or online.

FlatWorld may collect information about you when you visit the FlatWorld website through the use of “cookies.” Cookies are small text files placed in visitors' computers to store their preferences. A number of cookies we use last only for the duration of your web session and expire when you close your browser. Other cookies are used to remember you when you return to our website and will last for longer.

We use cookies and other logging techniques to:

remember that you have visited our website before; this means we can determine the identity and number of unique visitors we receive;
customize elements of the promotional layout and/or content of the pages of our website;
collect information about how you use our website (including how long you spend on the website) and where you have come to our website from, so that we can improve the website and learn which parts of it are most popular with visitors;
gather information about the pages on our website that you visit, and also other information about other websites that you visit, so as to understand the interests of our users.
For the other purposes discussed in Section II, re: FlatWorld’s Use of your Information.

Some of the cookies used by our website are set by us, and some are set by third parties who are delivering services on our behalf.

Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but have the ability to decline cookies. This can be done by activating the setting on your browser that enables you to decline the cookies. Please note that if you choose to decline cookies, you may be unable to access parts of our website.

In addition to cookies, tracking GIFs, also knows as “pixels” or “web beacons,” may be set by us or third parties in respect of your use of the Products. Tracking GIFs are small image files within the content of the Products (including our websites, eBooks, emails we send, and the like), or by third parties, to gather information about which parts of the Products are viewed and whether particular content is of interest.

II. FlatWorld's use of your information

A. FlatWorld uses your information, by itself or in conjunction with data lawfully through other sources, for the following purposes:

To meet our contractual commitments to you.
To communicate with you. We use email and/or prominent notifications on our website as our primary means of informing our users about important information concerning the Products. With the exception of certain service-related announcements (such as email verification during registration, requests for password reset, important security or Product updates, and policy changes), you may opt out of marketing-oriented email communications via a link of the footer of each such email you receive.
To improve our site, analyze trends, administer the site, track the movements of users around the site, and gather aggregate information about our customers as a whole.
To administer your account and respond to your requests.
To provide you with the Products.
To maintain and improve the Products and to develop new Products.
To track your purchase history and to provide you on an ongoing basis with information related to the Products, including changes to the Products or other information we think you may find useful about our products and services or those of carefully selected third parties.
To customize content supplied to you based on your use of the Products (e.g., study recommendations, supplemental content).
To conduct surveys, in the course of testing our Products, and to update our Products and analyze how they are used.
To provide recommendations or advertising for products and services that may be of interest to you.
To conduct analytics on our Services, using our own analytics or third party services such as Google Analytics. These service providers use the sort of technology described in the “information that is Automatically Collected” section above to help us analyze how users use the Products, including by noting the third-party website from which you arrive. To learn more about how Google Analytics collects and uses your data when you use this site, and how you can control the information sent to Google Analytics, please review https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners. We use these analytics to improve and administer our site, to analyze trends, to evaluate your use of the Products, and to gather information about our user base.
To prevent, investigate and deal with fraud, violation of intellectual property rights and other laws and unauthorized use of Products or your account.
With our affiliates. We may use your information in connection with other websites, services, and entities that are under our common ownership or common corporate control. We may combine information you provide while using the Service with information you provide to other websites, services, and entities that are under our common ownership or common corporate control.
We may employ cookies and pixels, aka web beacons, as noted above in the “Cookies” section, including to track the online usage patterns of our users, in HTML-based emails we send, to help us track which emails are opened by recipients, and to improve the effectiveness of our marketing and the Products.

We may aggregate and/or de-identify information collected through the Products. We may use de-identified or aggregated data for any purpose, including publishing it on our public website, and we may share it with any third parties.

III. Your Choices

You can tell us not to contact you with promotional information regarding our Products and those of third parties by following the unsubscribe instructions on promotional communications sent to you.

We make it easy for registered users to view, edit, and/or delete certain information they have provided (such as name, address, email address, and other personally identifiable information). That information is available for editing in the “Account Settings” section of your account. If you would like to delete your entire account from the system, please email us at privacy@flatworld.com.

California Online Privacy Protection Act Notice Concerning Do Not Track Signals

Do Not Track (“DNT”) is a privacy preference that users can set in certain web browsers and is a way for users to inform websites and services that they do not want certain information about their webpage visits collected over time and across websites or online services. We do not recognize or respond to browser-initiated DNT signals, as the Internet industry is currently still working toward defining exactly what DNT means, what it means to comply with DNT, and a common approach to responding to DNT. To learn more about Do Not Track, you can do so here.

IV. FlatWorld may share your information with third parties as described below.

With your educator/institution. We may share any information we collect with academic institutions and their employees (including instructors), and we may permit instructors or institutions to integrate such data with their learning management systems. Information we may share includes whether you own a certain Product, information on your engagement with our Products (e.g., how long you spent using the Product and which parts you accessed), information regarding your engagement and performance on homework or assessments, personally identifiable information, and the like.

With content owners. We may share a variety of information with content owners (including the authors and those who have rights in the books, homework assignments, assessments and other content we offer through FlatWorld). FlatWorld may share contact information of verified instructors. FlatWorld may also share de-identified or aggregate data about you and your use of the Product with Content Owners. Content Owners will use this data for their own research and tracking purposes, to evaluate Product use and access, to improve Products and related analysis.

For marketing purposes. We may share information with third parties for the purpose of having them market, or assist us in marketing, our Products to educational institutions and educators.

With resellers and others who carry our content. We may make certain FlatWorld content available on other platforms, but do not share personally identifiable information with those other platforms. We encourage you to review the privacy practices of those third parties before sharing personal information with them.

We may disclose to anyone, including third parties or the general public, the names of educators and institutions who have adopted certain Products for use in their classes.

Third Party Service Providers. We use other companies, agents, contractors, and/or FlatWorld affiliates to perform services on our behalf or to assist us with providing the Products to you. For example, we may engage such service providers to provide marketing (including telemarketing, email and direct mail marketing), communications, website hosting infrastructure and IT services, personalize and optimize the Service, process credit card transactions, provide customer service, collect debts, and analyze and enhance data. In the course of providing such services to us, these other companies may have access to your information, or may share with us information they collect in the course of providing their services. We do not authorize these companies to use or disclose your personal information, except in connection with providing the services we request from them.

For legal and safety reasons. We reserve the right to disclose your information, including your personally identifiable information, when we have a good faith belief that access, use, preservation, or disclosure of such information is necessary to (a) comply with any law, regulation, legal process, or enforceable governmental request; (b) enforce our terms of use, including investigation of potential violations of our terms of use; (c) detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security, or technical issues; or (d) protect against harm to our rights, property, or safety, or those of our employees, users, or the public, as required or permitted by law.

If we receive notice that User Content you have posted to or through the Products may infringe the rights of third parties, including their intellectual property rights, we reserve the right (in our sole discretion) to disclose information, including personally identifiable information, about you to those third parties, so that they can contact you directly regarding their concern.

Change of Control. If we become involved in a merger, acquisition, or any form of sale of some or all of our assets, including bankruptcy, our assets, including Member account information and personally identifiable information, may be transferred to a third party. At that time, your Member account information and personally identifiable information may become subject to that third-party’s privacy policy.

Public forums

Some of the Products may, from time to time, make chat rooms, message boards, news groups and/or other public forums available to users. Any information that is disclosed in such forums is available to all other users of such features and may become publicly available.

Children’s' privacy

You must be 13 years of age or older to use the Products. FlatWorld does not solicit orders or knowingly collect information from children under the age of 13. If we have reason to believe that any information has been submitted to us by a child under 13, we will delete that information after taking appropriate actions to prevent further information submission and as required by law.

V. Security

FlatWorld takes information security seriously and has taken various measures to keep your information secure from unauthorized access or disclosure, whether that information is stored physically or electronically. FlatWorld has established administrative, technical, physical, electronic and managerial procedures to help prevent unauthorized access, maintain data security and use the information collected from you in accordance with this Policy. FlatWorld has security measures in place to protect against loss, misuse, or alteration of your information. Despite these efforts, FlatWorld cannot guarantee that unauthorized access or disclosure of information will never happen. If you have concerns, do not use the Products.

It is advisable to close your browser when you have finished your user session to help ensure others do not access your personal data if you use a shared computer or a computer in a public place.

International transfer of Information

Given that the Internet is a global environment, using the Internet to collect and process Information necessarily involves the transmission of data on an international basis. Therefore, by using any of the Products, you acknowledge and consent to the transfer of your Information outside your country of residence to any country (including the United States) where we have facilities or engage third parties (including but not limited to payment processors, cloud service or other IT providers and other companies that provide services to us). You understand that the countries to which we may transfer Information may not have as comprehensive a level of data protection as in your country.

Third-party links

You may find links to third-party websites from any of the Products. These websites may have their own privacy, cookies and/or other policies, which you should check. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for their policies because we have no control over them.

YOUR CALIFORNIA PRIVACY RIGHTS

California Civil Code Section 1798.83, known as the “Shine the Light” law, permits our users who are California residents to request and obtain from us a list of what personal information (if any) we may have disclosed to third parties for direct marketing purposes in the preceding calendar year, including the names and addresses of those third parties. Requests may be made only once a year and are free of charge. If you would like to make such a request, you must do so in writing via email to privacy@flatworld.com; please include the phrase “Your California Privacy Rights” in the subject line and in the body of your message.

Changes to this Policy

From time to time, we review and may make changes to our privacy policy. If we make material changes to the policy, we will notify you that the policy has changed either by emailing you or by placing a notice on our website. The most recent version of our privacy policy is always available from a link on our homepage at flatworld.com/privacy.

Contacting us

If you have any questions, comments, or requests regarding this Policy, please contact us by email at privacy@flatworld.com or by mail using the following contact information:

FlatWorld
292 Newbury Street
Suite #282
Boston, MA 02115-2832

Last updated: January 17th, 2023