Privacy policy

This policy explains how personal data is handled on this site, in accordance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Who is responsible

The data controller is the author Dan Buthler, Malta. For anything concerning your personal data, write to books@buthler.com.

What we collect, and why

The site collects personal data in one place: the Advance Reader signup form. When you join we store the name and email address you enter, the time of your signup, your consent choice, and — if you arrived through a campaign link — which campaign brought you here.

To deliver what you asked for (legal basis: performance of an agreement, Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR): we use your name and email to send your advance copy and the practical messages that belong to it.

To send you updates from Dan (legal basis: consent, Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR): only if you tick the optional box. The box is never required — leaving it unticked does not affect your advance copy, and you can withdraw consent at any time with the unsubscribe link in any email.

Every signup starts with a confirmation email: until you click the link in it, your address is held as unconfirmed, receives nothing except that one request, and is automatically deleted after 14 days — along with any provisional cover vote.

Providing your data is not a legal requirement; without a name and email address we simply cannot send you the book.

How the site is measured

We measure how the site is used with our own cookieless statistics: which pages are viewed, how far they are scrolled, how long they are read, and which buttons are used. These measurements are stored on our own EU servers and identify no one — no name, no email, no IP address, no browser fingerprint. They are tied only to a random value in your browser’s session storage that disappears when you close the tab. If your browser sends a Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control signal, we don’t measure your visit at all.

What we don’t do

We do not sell or share your details. We use no advertising trackers, no marketing cookies and no third-party analytics on this site. Beyond the measurements described above, the only thing stored in your browser is a short-lived session note of which campaign link you arrived through; it disappears when you close the browser and identifies the campaign, not you.

No decisions about you are made by automated means, and no profiling takes place.

Where your data lives, and for how long

Signups are stored in a database operated for this site on servers within the EU. Your data is not transferred outside the EU/EEA. It is processed only by the site’s technical operator, acting on the controller’s instructions.

We keep signup data for as long as the advance reader programme and the series launch need it, and consent-based mailings continue only until you unsubscribe. Data that is no longer needed is deleted.

Your rights

Under the GDPR you have the right to access the data we hold about you, to have it corrected or deleted, to restrict or object to its processing, and to receive it in a portable format. You can withdraw your consent at any time, without affecting the lawfulness of what was done before the withdrawal.

To use any of these rights, write to books@buthler.com and it will be handled.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority — in Malta the Information and Data Protection Commissioner (IDPC, idpc.org.mt), or the data protection authority in your own country.

Changes to this policy

If the way this site handles data changes, this page is updated at the same time, with a new date at the top.