Privacy Policy

bb-flow’s mission is to help build connections between authors and publishers/agents and make the publishing world more transparent and inclusive. Our offering is built on trust. You are entrusting us with your creative property and your contact details, and we wish to be clear about how we use your information.

The bb-flow platform offers an online platform that enables authors (“Authors”) to submit their manuscripts (“Manuscripts”) to agents or publishers (“Company, Companies”) who have subscribed to the bb-flow manuscript handling system. When you submit to one of these companies from their landing page, you must register an account with bb-flow and must keep your account information accurate. When registering an account with bb-flow and keeping your account information accurate, you provide personal data to the bb-flow platform. This Privacy Policy describes how bb-flow and its affiliates (“we,” “us,” or “bb-flow”) process personal information in accordance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in connection with your use of the bb-flow Platform.

1. Definitions

Undefined terms in this Privacy Policy have the same definition as in our Terms and Conditions (“Terms”).

2. Personal information we collect

We collect personal information about you when you use the bb-flow platform. Without it, we may not be able to provide all services you may want to use on the platform. This information includes:

Your first name, last name, phone number, email address, and country of residence.
We will consider data referring to persons in your Manuscript as fictional, unless you have indicated or it is evident from the context that these are of an autobiographical nature. If the title of your Manuscript or the Manuscript itself contains autobiographical material, this would also constitute personal data. We suggest that you avoid uploading sensitive information about yourself in the attached manuscript or in the Manuscript title. We do not take responsibility for personal data that you include in the title, as we keep the title on file to be able to answer any personal queries you may have in the future, i.e. information about when a manuscript and personal data was deleted etc.

3. How we use the information we collect

3.1. We may process this information to:

enable you to access the bb-flow platform
enable you to receive communications from editors/agents
send you messages, updates, security alerts, and account notifications

4. Your rights

You can exercise any of the rights described below:

4.1. Managing your information.

You can access and update your personal information through your account settings. You are responsible for keeping your personal information up to date.

4.2. Data erasure.

You can request that your personal information be deleted or object to our processing of your personal data. Please note that if you request deletion of your personal information, object to the processing of your personal data, or if your account is suspended, terminated or voluntarily closed:

You will no longer be able to access your Manuscript presentation and all correspondence related to it as posted on the platform.
Publishers /agents will only have on record the title of your Manuscript in order to enable them to identify your submission in case of a future query from you. Your Manuscript presentation, attached files and any correspondence with you that may have taken place in the past will no longer be available.
We will not use your personal data for automated decision making and profiling.

If you have complaints about our processing of your personal data, you are invited to contact us at [email protected]. You also have the right to file a complaint with the local data protection authority.

5. Security

bb-flow is designed, built and maintained on principles such as ’privacy by design’ and we have a strong focus on protection of personal data. Data processing procedures are integrated into the platform and you are able to revoke access to your Manuscript presentation and personal data at any point during or after the submission process via your account with bb-flow.

Whilst the bb-flow platform takes steps to secure user data, 100% security is not guaranteed. You understand that there are inherent risks associated with using online services that are beyond the bb-flow platform’s control and you agree to use the platform at your own risk.

We partner with Digital Ocean to securely store and manage your personal data. Data is stored in data centres that are region-specific to comply with the applicable data protection laws. For instance, data of users located in Europe is stored within the European Economic Area (EEA) at a data centre in Frankfurt, Germany. Digital Ocean complies with relevant security standards to protect your data from unauthorized access or breaches.

If you would like more information on our data storage practices or to access Digital Ocean’s security policies, please refer to Digital Ocean’s Security Pillars.

6. Log data

We want to inform you that whenever you visit our platform, we collect information that your browser sends to us called log data. This log data may include information such as your computer’s Internet Protocol ("IP") address, browser version, pages of our platform that you visit, the time and date of your visit, the time spent on those pages, and other statistics. We only log data to enable us to provide our service. It will not be use in any other way.

7. Service Providers

We may employ third-party companies and individuals due to the following reasons:

To facilitate our services;
To provide services on our behalf;
or
To assist us in analysing how our services are used.

In order to be able to perform the tasks assigned to them on our behalf, these third parties have access to your personal information. These are bb-flow’s IT maintenance providers who ensure a smooth functioning of the platform and they are bound by a data processor Agreement in compliance with the GDPR not to disclose or use the information for any other purpose.

8. Changes to this Privacy Policy

bb-flow reserves the right to amend this Privacy Policy at any time in accordance with applicable law. In case of material changes, Authors will be notified of significant changes through the platform or via email. Continued use of the platform following changes indicates acceptance of the revised Privacy Policy.

9. Contact information and responsible bb-flow entities

For questions or complaints about this Privacy Policy or bb-flow’s handling of personal information, please email us on [email protected]

10. Legal review disclaimer

This document has been reviewed by legal professionals to ensure compliance with applicable laws and regulations.