privacy policy

Last Modified May 27, 2008.

Borders, Inc., Borders Direct, LLC and Walden Book Company, Inc., are subsidiaries of Borders Group, Inc. Borders, Inc., Borders Direct, LLC, Walden Book Company, Inc., and their affiliated companies (collectively, "Borders", "We", or "Us") believe that your personal information—including your purchase history, phone number(s), email and residential addresses, and credit card data—belongs to you. We collect this type of information to serve you better when you provide it to us, but we do not rent or sell your information to third parties. From time to time, we may ask if you are interested in receiving information from third parties whose services or information we think would be of value to you. In those instances, we will only disclose your email address or other personal information to third parties if you expressly consent to such disclosure.

This privacy policy applies when you make a purchase at any Borders, Borders Outlet, Borders Express, Waldenbooks, or Brentano's store; when you visit the "Websites" (including but not limited to www.borders.com, www.bordersmedia.com and www.bordersrewardsperks.com); when you access and use any Borders Website on any in-store computer kiosk (the "kiosks"); when you add items to an online shopping cart; when you subscribe to any of our email programs or mobile content delivery programs; when you sign up for Borders Rewards and Borders Rewards Perks; or when you email content from the kiosk or any Borders Websites.

Your California Privacy Rights

The following only applies to California residents who have an established business relationship with Borders.

If we collect your name or other personal information from you (whether online or offline), and you have given us permission to share your personal information by clicking on the appropriate box or button on the Websites or by any other means we may provide, we may occasionally make that personal information available to our parent or other affiliated companies, or to other third parties who have products or services that we believe will be of interest to you, for their direct marketing purposes. If you later decide that you do not want us to share your personal information with these companies for their direct marketing purposes, please click here www.borders.com/optout. Your opt-out request will be processed within thirty (30) days of the date on which we receive it. For more information on how your personal information is collected, used and shared, please read the remainder of this Privacy Policy.

Our Collection Of Information

Information Collected Directly From You
You can visit the Websites, and can use the kiosks, without entering any personal information. However, in order to access certain information or to take advantage of special programs (such as Borders Rewards, Borders Rewards Perks, and Borders Rewards Perks Plus) or promotional offers, services or features that may be contained on the Websites or on the kiosks, or to purchase any products or services (including, but not limited to, gift cards, and placement of items into an online shopping cart), we may require you to provide certain personal information. For example, we will collect certain personal information if you choose to join our Borders Rewards and/or Borders Rewards Perks programs, if you subscribe to any of our email or mobile content delivery programs, if you participate in creating and sharing wish list information, or if you choose to write and/or rate reviews of various products.

Our primary goal in collecting personal information—including your first name, last name, purchase history, phone number(s), valid email and residential address (zip code), and credit card data—is to provide you with a smooth, efficient, customized shopping experience. When we collect your personal information, you are sharing it with Borders, Inc., Borders Direct, LLC, Walden Book Company, Inc., and our affiliate, subsidiary, and parent entities as mentioned above and third parties as further described herein.

In certain instances, other demographic data may be collected. Borders uses this information to provide benefits and/or services associated with its various programs, including but not limited to Borders Rewards and Borders Rewards Perks.Borders may also receive on its Websites and/or kiosks user-generated content, which may include personal information, including but not limited to, user-created book, music and movie reviews, and user-created wish lists. This user-generated content may be collected by Borders and posted on Borders' Websites and/or kiosks. Further information regarding user-generated content is available in the Borders Terms of Use located at www.borders.com/termsofuse.

Information Collected Automatically
We may collect information about your visit to the Websites and/or the kiosks, including what pages you view, the number of bytes transferred, the links you click, the materials you access, and other actions taken within the Websites. We may also collect certain standard information that your browser sends to every website you visit, such as your Internet Protocol address, your browser type and capabilities and language, your operating system, the date and time you access the Websites, and the website from which you linked to our Websites. From time to time, we may use this information to optimize third-party offers of products and/or services through programs like Borders Rewards Perks.

Additionally, Borders and/or our service providers may collect your click-stream data and other preference information. We do this to improve the design and vendor selection of the Websites. Click-stream data represents a page-by-page history of your website usage. Your preference data includes reminder, search, and other information-related information that you submit to the site.

Our Use Of Information

If you provide us with personal information, we may retain and use that information for several purposes. For example, we may use your personal information in order to provide transactional and/or commercial information and services via email, direct mail, or via other methods of delivery, such as via mobile content delivery programs. If you have given us permission and have not opted-out, we also may share your personal information with third parties who can offer you products and/or services that we believe may be of interest to you. In addition, we may use your personal information to ensure compliance with Borders policies and applicable law.

In order to offer you a more consistent experience in your interactions with Borders, information collected via the Websites and/or kiosks may be combined with information we collect by other means. We may also use your personal information to improve the Websites, to optimize third-party offers of products and/or services through programs like Borders Rewards Perks, or to make the Websites easier to use by eliminating the need for you to repeatedly enter the same information or by customizing the Websites to your particular preference or interests.

If you have chosen to receive communications by email from us but later wish to opt-out of receiving such communications from us at any time, simply follow the instructions for doing so included in the emails.

If you would like to opt-out of receiving any program-related and other direct mail from us, please send a written request to:

Borders
Attn: Customer Care
P.O. Box 7002
LaVergne, TN 37086

We reserve the right to send you certain communications relating to the Websites, the kiosks, the Borders Rewards and/or Borders Rewards Perks programs, or any of our email subscription or mobile content delivery programs, such as service announcements or similar administrative or transactional messages, without offering you the opportunity to opt-out of receiving them.

Aggregate Information

From time to time, we and our service providers may collect general, non-personal, statistical information about the use of the Websites and/or kiosks, such as how many visitors visit a specific page on the Websites and/or kiosks, how long they stay on that page, and which hyperlinks, if any, they click on. We and our service providers collect this information through the use of technologies such as "cookies", which are discussed in greater detail in this Privacy Policy, and those described in the "Information Collected Automatically" section above. We and our service providers collect this information in order to determine which areas of the Websites and/or kiosks are most popular and to enhance the Websites and/or kiosks for visitors. We and our service providers may also group this information into aggregate visitor data in order to describe the use of the Websites and/or kiosks to our existing or potential business partners or other third parties, or in response to a government request. From time to time, we and our service providers may use this information to optimize third-party offers of products and/or services through programs like Borders Rewards Perks.

Borders and our service providers may share aggregated demographic and preference data with other service providers or third parties to enable the provision of targeted information and/or discounts on products and services to members. This information represents a generic overview of our users' collective viewing habits and allows vendors participating in Borders' programs, such as Borders Rewards Perks, to modify their discounts based on user traffic.

Our Use Of Cookies; Third Party Cookies; Web Beacons

Cookies are small files that websites save to your hard disk or to your browser's memory. We may use them to track the number of times you have visited the Websites and/or kiosks, to track the number of visitors to the Websites and/or kiosks, to determine and analyze visitors' use of the Websites, to store information that you provide such as your preferences, and to store technical information useful for your interactions with the Websites and/or kiosks.

The Websites and kiosks use both session ID cookies and persistent cookies. Session cookies are used to make it easier for you to navigate the site(s). A session ID cookie expires when you close your browser. A persistent cookie remains on your hard drive for an extended period of time. You can remove persistent cookies by following directions provided in your Internet browser's "help" file. Persistent cookies are set to store an encrypted link to your account information, so you don't have to enter it more than once. Persistent cookies also enable Borders to track and target the interests of users to enhance the experience on the site(s).

Most Internet browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser settings to decline cookies or to notify you when a cookie is being placed on your computer. If you choose to decline cookies, you may not be able to fully experience the features of the Websites.

You may occasionally get cookies from our business partners (e.g., advertisers, tracking utilities) or other third parties with links on the Websites. Borders has no control or access to these cookies. The use of advertising cookies sent by third-party servers is standard in the Internet industry. For the sake of clarity, this Privacy Policy covers the use of cookies by Borders' Websites and private label sub-domains delivered by Borders only and does not cover the use of cookies by any advertisers.

Our Websites and/or kiosks also may contain electronic images known as web beacons—sometimes called single-pixel gifs—that allow us to count the number of users who have visited those pages. We may include web beacons in promotional email messages or newsletters in order to determine whether messages have been opened and acted upon.

When You Subscribe To Borders Email Programs

You can choose to receive email from us by signing up in store, on our Websites via program preferences pages, and on any in-store kiosk. When you sign up for email, we will send you information about our affiliated companies based on the preferences you have set. The emails we send will include special offers, promotions, updates on services offered, invitations to join other promotional programs, and notification of upcoming author events. To ensure that we are providing materials of interest to you, we may monitor whether you opened a particular email and whether you have clicked on the images and/or links therein.

Our HTML-based email messages include an invisible coded sensor that is activated when the email message is opened. This sensor communicates the date and time the message was opened and, more importantly, whether your computer is capable of receiving HTML-based email. You will receive a functioning sensor only if your computer is enabled to accept HTML email.

You may unsubscribe at any time from our email programs by clicking on the unsubscribe link at the bottom of any email message. All unsubscribe requests will be honored within ten (10) days. At any time, users may opt-out of Borders correspondence by sending an email to ccare@borders.com or by visiting www.borders.com/optout. Users may also access their personal information, including email address, to make edits in the "Your Account" summary page of the particular Borders program website.

Users may choose to receive Borders Rewards and/or Borders Rewards Perks correspondence, including email reminders of specific vendor offers and Borders Rewards Perks newsletters. The "Your Account" summary page on Borders' Websites displays the correspondence you have elected to receive, and provides the option to unsubscribe from future Borders program related emails.

Disclosure Of Your Personal Information

Except as described in this Privacy Policy, personal information you provide to Borders through the Websites, the kiosks, the Borders Rewards or Borders Rewards Perks programs, or any of our email subscription or mobile content delivery programs, will not be shared outside of Borders and its service providers without your permission.

Disclosure regarding service providers. Borders contracts with other companies to provide services on our behalf, such as hosting the Websites, kiosks and product review pages, sending out information or promotional offers that may be of interest to you (e.g., via email, direct mail, or on mobile devices), and analyzing the Websites and kiosks. We provide these companies with only those elements of your personal information they need to deliver those services. These companies and their employees are prohibited from using that personal information for any other purpose.

Disclosure regarding other third parties. In some cases, if we have your permission and you have not opted-out, we may make your personal information available to third parties who have products or services that we believe will be of interest to you. If you later decide that you do not want us to share your personal information with these companies please click here www.borders.com/optout.

Disclosures in connection with acquisitions or divestitures. Circumstances may arise where for strategic or other business reasons Borders decides to sell, buy, merge or otherwise reorganize its own or other businesses. Such a transaction may involve the disclosure of personal and other information to prospective or actual purchasers, or receiving it from sellers. It is Borders' practice to seek appropriate protection for information in these types of transactions. In the event that Borders or all of its assets are acquired in such a transaction, customer information would be one of the transferred assets.

Disclosure for other reasons. Borders reserves the right to disclose your personally information, including email address, as required by law and when it is believed that disclosure is necessary to protect Borders' rights and/or comply with a judicial proceeding, court order, or legal process served on the site(s), or in urgent circumstances to protect the personal safety of any individual. Further, when you RSVP for in-store retail events, limited information may be provided to participating merchants in the form of the guest list for admittance into the private event. This information is limited to your first name and last name, and if you will be bringing a guest. This information will not be used for any purposes outside of the particular event.

Security

The security of your personal information is important to us. We maintain physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards to secure your personal information. However, "perfect security" does not exist on the Internet, and there is always some risk in transmitting information electronically. The personal information we collect is stored within databases that we control directly or through our service providers. As we deem appropriate, we use security measures consistent with industry standards, such as firewalls and encryption technology, to protect your information. However, since no security system is impenetrable, we cannot guarantee the security of our databases, nor can we guarantee that information you supply will not be intercepted while being transmitted to us over the Internet. Of course, any information you post to any message board, discussion group, or other public posting area on our Websites and/or kiosks is available to anyone with Internet access.

If you create an account on the Websites and/or kiosks, and if you join the Borders Rewards and/or Borders Rewards Perks programs, you may be asked to choose a password for your account, in which case your online account information shall be protected by your password. We recommend that you do not disclose your password to any other person. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your password and account, and are fully responsible for all activities that occur under your password or account.

Links To Other Sites

The Borders Websites and the kiosks contain links to other third-party websites. Please be aware that Borders is not responsible for the privacy practices of other websites. If you submit any personal information to a third-party website or transact a purchase after clicking on a link from Borders' Websites, you are not submitting that information to Borders and Borders has no control over the collection and/or disclosure of that submitted information. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to familiarize themselves with the privacy statements of every website that collects personally information.

Service Providers

The Websites, kiosks, and Borders programs therein, use other third parties to process credit card transactions on the Websites. When you sign up for programs such as Borders Rewards, Borders Rewards Perks, and Borders Rewards Perks Plus, Borders and our service providers may collect and/or share first name, last name, credit card information and billing address as necessary for the third party to provide that service. No other information is shared with third parties for this purpose. These third parties are prohibited from using your personal information, including email address, for any other purpose.

Third-Party Vendors' Privacy

Borders Rewards Perks (www.bordersrewardsperks.com) is a portal that enables users to purchase discounted products on the websites of participating vendors. Each vendor maintains its own privacy policy that you should be familiar with before you submit your personal information. Our privacy policy is not applicable on any of the vendor sites. Therefore, it is important for a potential buyer to familiarize himself with the privacy policies of each vendor.

Children's Privacy

We do not seek or knowingly collect any personal information about children under 13 years of age. If we become aware that we have unknowingly collected personal information from a child under the age of 13, we will make commercially reasonable efforts to delete such information from our database.

In Summary

Borders is committed to protecting your privacy. Borders does not sell, trade, give away, or rent personal or company information, including email address, to any outside parties in ways other than disclosed in this Privacy Policy. Borders uses the information collected on the site to make shopping and promotional activities possible and to enhance your overall experience with Borders.

Governing Law; Visitors Residing Outside The United States

This Privacy Policy and the privacy practices of Borders will be subject exclusively to the laws of the State of Michigan within the United States of America, without regard to its conflict of law principles. Borders makes no representation that this Privacy Policy and such practices comply with the laws of any other country. Visitors who use the Websites and/or kiosks and reside outside the United States do so on their own initiative and are responsible for compliance with local laws, if and to the extent local laws are applicable. If you reside outside of the United States, by using our Websites and/or kiosks, you consent to the transfer and use of your information outside your country. Without limiting the foregoing, by providing any personally information to Borders, all Website and/or kiosk visitors, including, without limitation, Website and/or kiosk visitors in the member states of the European Union, fully understand and unambiguously consent to this Privacy Policy and to the collection, storage, and processing of such information in the United States of America.

Updates to this Policy

We reserve the right to update our Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will post a notice on the Websites for a reasonable period of time after such changes are made that this Privacy Policy has been updated and we will revise the "Last Modified" date at the top of this Privacy Policy. We encourage you to check this page periodically for any updates. Your continued use of the Websites following the posting of updates to this Privacy Policy will mean you accept those updates.

Contact Us

Any questions you may have regarding our Privacy Policy should be directed via email to ccare@borders.com, or via telephone at 800.770.7811. You can also write us at:

Borders
Attn: Customer Care
P.O. Box 7002
LaVergne, TN 37086