App Privacy policy

This policy applies to users of the Book Creator app at app.bookcreator.com, admin.bookcreator.com and read.bookcreator.com. For the marketing website at bookcreator.com please see Privacy Policy (for US/Canada users) or Privacy Policy (for non-US/Canada users).

Organization: Tools for Schools or TfS refers to Tools for Schools, Inc. for users resident in the US and Canada, or Tools for Schools Limited otherwise.

Effective Date: 26 June 2025

Introduction

Book Creator (the product, the service, the app) is run by Tools for Schools (we, us, our) and we collect and use information in order to run and manage Book Creator. This policy sets out our practices for collecting, using, maintaining, protecting, and disclosing that information and applies to anyone who uses Book Creator. Please read it carefully and if you are under 13, please ask a parent or guardian to read it for you.

Who do we collect information from?

Student: You will be classified as a Student if:

• you chose the “Sign up as Student” option when you create your account; or
• you have subsequently successfully logged in using the “Sign in as a Student” route; or
• your account has been changed to a Student by an Administrator or Book Creator Staff; or
• Your account was created using the “Student logins without an email” function.

Teacher: You will be classified as a Teacher if:

• you chose the “Sign up as Teacher” option when you create your account; or 
• you have subsequently successfully logged in using the “Sign in as a Teacher” route; or 
• your account has been changed to a Teacher by an Administrator or Book Creator Staff.

Administrator: You will be classified as a School or District Administrator if you can log in to admin.bookcreator.com.

Anonymous: If you do not have an account with us you are classified as an Anonymous user. This might apply if you are reading a book on read.bookcreator.com.

What personal information do we collect?

Personal information means any information that identifies, relates to, or could reasonably be linked with or describes an individual or household, either directly or indirectly.

We classify most of the personal data we process into two categories: Account Data and User Content. 

Account Data is personal information that we collect in connection with the set up and management of your account. 

When collecting Account Data, we will act as the data controller. This means that we decide how and why we use your Account Data and we are legally responsible for the use of your Account Data. We also collect the following information as a data controller:

• Device and Usage Data – this is information about your device and how you use Book Creator, which helps us to improve our services.
• Geolocation Data – this is your approximate location and helps us understand how people are using Book Creator, and personalise our service.
• Diagnostic Data – this is information about things that might go wrong occasionally with Book Creator, such as bugs or crashes, which helps us to keep Book Creator secure and prevent those things from happening again.

User Content is your, or anyone else’s, content that you upload to a book.

When collecting User Content, we will act as the data processor on behalf of your school, district or teacher. This means that your school, district or teacher decides how and why the User Content should be used and is responsible for obtaining any consent which might be required for the use of the User Content. We process User Content only on your school, district or teacher's instructions, for example to create and publish books that your teacher has decided you should create.

More information about the specific types of data we collect, and the purposes for use, is set out in the Annex to this policy.

How do we collect personal information?

We collect personal information you provide to us - for example when you sign up for an account or when you create or upload content - as well as information collected automatically.

Third-party login is supported for authentication into Book Creator. When you choose to log in to our services using third-party authentication, such as through Google or Microsoft accounts, or other external identity providers, we collect certain information from your chosen third-party platform. This may include basic profile details, such as your name, email address, and profile picture. 

We will only collect the minimum data necessary to run and manage Book Creator.

Sometimes you might want to upload information about other people to Book Creator as part of the content you create, for example, a photo or audio recording of someone else. Please do not do this unless you have that person's consent (or their parent's or guardian's consent, if applicable).

Sometimes we might be given information about you by someone else who is using Book Creator. For example, someone might upload a photo of you to one of their books. It is that person's responsibility to make sure that you don't mind them doing this.

We will not combine your data with additional data from third-party sources and your Personal Information is not collected by any third parties.

All Student created content and Student interactions are always logged and viewable by Teachers or Administrators.

A Teacher may choose to publish content, or allow Students in their libraries to publish content. We may review, screen or monitor any content that gets published.

How do we use your data?

We will only use your personal information where we have a legal basis for doing so as set out in the data protection legislation. We rely on the following legal bases to use your Account Data in order to provide our services.

In order to perform the service under the contract we have entered into with you (i.e. the Terms of service) and allow you to use Book Creator, we use your Account Data to:

• provide Book Creator and make sure you can use it properly, securely and effectively; and
• manage and administer your account; and
• respond to any questions, requests or complaints we receive from you; and
• send you occasional communication to help you get the most out of Book Creator.

Failure to provide your data may mean that we are unable to provide proper, secure and effective access to Book Creator, manage and administer your account, respond to your questions, requests, complaints, or send communications to help you get the most out of Book Creator.

We will also use your Account Data, Device and Usage Data, Geolocation Data and Diagnostic Data:

• for the purpose of protecting your interests (or someone else’s interests); or 
• for our legitimate interests (or those of a third-party) when your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests;

 to:

• investigate potential illegal activities (as it is in our interests to ensure Book Creator is used legally); and
• investigate or violations of these terms (as it is in our interests to ensure Book Creator is used in compliance with our contracts); and                                                                                                     
• analyze use of Book Creator, and improve Book Creator by resolving any technical issues (as it is in our interests to make sure we are providing the best possible product); and
• ensure we meet our legal and compliance obligations including retention (as it is in our interests to make sure we comply with laws and regulations).

We occasionally run giveaways ourselves to encourage you to complete a task to help us improve our service, such as answering some questions about your experience of Book Creator. In these cases, the recipient of the gift will be chosen by random drawing from a list of entries. Completing the task will automatically add an entry to the list for you, and you can also contact us to add an entry without needing to complete the task.

We do not: 

• include any advertising in the product, including targeted or personalised adverts;
• use your information to target advertising at you;
• use Student data for any type of advertising or marketing;
• build a personal profile of you other than for supporting authorized educational or school purposes, or as authorized by you (or by a parent or guardian if necessary);
• use your information for any purposes except those above without letting you know and getting your permission if necessary;
• collect data for the purpose of tracking you outside Book Creator or allow third-parties to do so;
• allow partners and third parties to create data profiles for personalized advertisements;
• ask users to participate in any sweepstakes, contests, or other similar promotions from third-parties;
• use your data in automated systems for wholly automated decision-making.

If you are a Teacher or Administrator, we will work with you as far as we are legally able to accommodate your instructions regarding our treatment of personal data belonging to your Students and Teachers, however the school or district may be in control of personal data relating to its Students and Teachers.

When we work with educational institutions in the US, we will work to ensure mutual compliance with the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). FERPA is a federal law that protects personally identifiable information in students’ education records from unauthorized disclosure. It affords parents the right to access their child’s education records, the right to seek to have the records amended, and the right to have some control over the disclosure of personally identifiable information from the education records. If you are a parent, you may request access to, or review of, your child’s records at any time by contacting your child’s school or district directly.

The information you share with us does not have to be further shared or revealed in order to:

• participate in social interactions, or
• access other functions in Book Creator with the exception of: publishing related functions; or when you create an account with a third-party integration (such as Canva) to use their services.

How do we share your information?

We will only share your information in the following circumstances:

• For the purposes listed above, with third-party service providers, such as hosting providers or an email service, so that they can provide services to us. In cases where we share data with these third-parties they will be obligated to comply with the commitments in this policy. We maintain a list of these third-party service providers.
• If we have a legal obligation to disclose the information (for example, if a court orders us to).
• If another company buys our company, or if we go insolvent, or if we merge with another company, in which case the company that receives your information will protect the information in the same way we do. If we transfer our obligations under our terms of use to another company, this may mean that we need to transfer your personal data to that company. We will contact you to let you know if we plan to do this. If you are unhappy with the transfer you may contact us to end your contract with us within 30 days and if you do so, we will not transfer your data to that company.
• We use a third-party analytics service, which collects and processes data about how Book Creator is used so that we can understand usage and improve the service. The data processing is contractually limited to providing us an analytics service and not for other purposes.
• In certain circumstances, we may need to share personal data about Teachers or Students (Subjects) with Administrators or Teachers (Requesters) under our contractual arrangements with schools or districts, or we may be asked to take other actions in relation to Subject data, such as deleting it or correcting it. We may need to do this even after the relevant Subject is no longer at the school or district, or if Book Creator is no longer being used by the school, district or relevant Subject. We will always ensure that the Requester has a legal and/or contractual entitlement to the Subject data requested, and will take steps to verify the Requester’s identity and position.

Other people might be able to see book content that you create, as well as your name, if they are invited to view the books. For educational usage it is the Teacher's responsibility to invite people to view books. People will be invited by a private link so the information cannot be viewed publicly unless someone chooses to make it public. Published books can be removed at any time by the Teacher through Book Creator.

We do not:

• sell or rent your information for any purposes; 
• share your data with third parties for research and/or product improvement; or
• share your data for third-party marketing purposes.

All information collected through Book Creator is stored in Google Cloud and hosted in the USA. We take reasonable steps to protect your personal data when it is transferred to Google Cloud. Google is registered with the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and the UK extension to that Framework . This means it safeguards your personal data appropriately. 

Your choices

You can control how your data is displayed to others. 

You can opt out of marketing. Even if you don’t have an account with us.

We understand the importance of safeguarding your data, and therefore, we provide methods to control and restrict access to it. Our platform is equipped with access control mechanisms, allowing you to define and manage permissions for your data. For example, you can choose a limited audience for books you create or only enable collaboration with a limited audience.  

Your privacy rights

You have certain rights over your personal data which you can exercise by getting in touch with us. Please note that not all rights listed below may apply to all users, as some rights only apply in certain countries or states. 

These rights include: 

• Access: You can request a copy of the personal information that we have collected about you. If you are a Student, your parent or guardian can request your information by contacting your school or district.
• Correction: You can request that we correct inaccurate personal information that we hold about you. 
• Deletion: You can request that we delete your personal information. Please note that once we process a deletion request, we may be unable to provide access or support to any past products or services. 
• Restriction: This means that we will only store your personal information and not do anything further with it. This is useful in certain circumstances, such as where you think your account data is inaccurate and we need time to verify the data.
• Objection: In some circumstances, you can object to us using your personal information. If this right applies, we will stop processing your personal information for that purpose, unless we have a compelling reason to do so. 

• Portability: You can ask us to give you a copy of your Account Data, or transfer it to a third party, in a commonly-used, electronic format.

• Opt out of direct marketing: You can opt out of receiving direct marketing from us. 

Verification: If you make a request to exercise one of these rights, we will need to check that you are the individual for whom we hold information in our system. We’ll ask you for some extra information to do this, so we can check it against information we hold. We’ll only use the further information you provide to verify your identity and authority to make the request, and we’ll delete it once we have completed the verification process. 

Authorized Agents: If you authorize someone else to make a request on your behalf, we will need to verify their identity and authority to act on your behalf. 

Deleting your information

Generally, we will only keep your information for as long as your account is open and you can ask us to delete your account and all associated personal data at any time. You can also ask us to provide you with written confirmation of the deletion of your data. In some cases, we may retain your data after your account has been closed in order to resolve disputes, comply with legal obligations, or otherwise. Anonymized data, which is no longer attached to you personally, may be retained for longer periods of time.

We have the right, after notifying you, to delete any books and information stored if you haven't used your account for over 12 months. You can download books at any stage and it is your responsibility to download books if you do not want to lose that content.

Security

We have strict security measures in place to try to protect your information and make sure that it is not lost, damaged or accessed by anyone who should not see it.

Access to your data is restricted to only authorized employees or agents of Tools for Schools with suitable training and background checks.

All data in transit is encrypted. 

All data is stored in an encrypted format. 

We conduct regular security audits on our own systems, as well as any third-party services we rely on.

In the unlikely event of an unauthorized disclosure of your data we will notify you by email (or by telephone where possible) and act in accordance with our legal requirements to resolve such disclosure and prevent any future unauthorized disclosure.

If you require multi-factor authentication please log in to Book Creator using Google or Microsoft account with this enabled.

Cookies

Our cookies policy is integrated into this policy. For the avoidance of doubt, we do not use third-party cookies in our service for personalized advertising or to track users and display personalized advertisements on other third-party websites or services.

Children’s privacy notice

Our service is designed for children under 13, teens, and their teachers. We do not allow interactions with untrusted individuals, including strangers and adults. We do offer managed accounts and outline processes for entering education records into our product. When collecting User Content, your school, district or teacher decides how and why the User Content should be used and is responsible for getting any consent which might be required for the use of the User Content. We only use User Content for the reasons decided by your school, district or teacher – we don’t do anything else with it or use it for our own purposes. Parents have the right to withdraw consent for the collection of their child's information at any time and should contact their child’s school or district to do so. 

Our privacy notice for children is available here.

Changes to this privacy policy

From time to time we may need to change this policy. We will post any changes within the policy, so you should check the policy regularly for any changes. If the changes are significant we will provide a more prominent notice (within Book Creator, or otherwise), and will provide you with advance notice of the changes by email.

How to contact us

If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out in this policy, please contact our designated Data Protection Officer on [email protected].

If you have questions or concerns regarding this Privacy Policy, please contact us using the details below. 

A grievance or remedy mechanism is available for users to file a complaint in the event their content or account is restricted or removed. 

You have the right to make a complaint at any time to a relevant authority such as the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk).

Contact Email: [email protected] 

Tools for Schools, Inc.: 1321 Upland Dr., Suite 8524, Houston, TX, 77043, USA

Tools for Schools Limited: Desklodge Beacon Tower, Colston Street, Bristol, United Kingdom, BS1 4XE

ANNEX: Detailed table of data processing 

Where marked “(Teachers only)” that data collection or purpose is only applicable for Teachers and Administrators and not Students.

Previous versions

Please see Privacy Policy (for US/Canada users) and Privacy Policy (for non-US/Canada users) for the versions of this policy that were in place before 26 June 2025.