Privacy

Bervet is run from New South Wales, Australia. Questions or requests: hello@bervet.com.

The short version

• No advertising cookies, no tracking pixels, no third-party analytics.
• We never sell your data or share your email address with authors, advertisers or anyone else.
• Emails you didn't ask for: none. The weekly round-up is opt-in, and every bulk email has a one-click unsubscribe.
• You can delete your account yourself, any time, from your account page.

If you're just browsing

We count page views to see which pages people use. For each view we keep the page address, the website that sent you (just its name, like google.com) and a country guessed from your browser's language setting. We don't keep your IP address and don't set a cookie to do this.

When you read a chapter preview, your browser makes up a random code for that reading session. We use it to count how far readers get, which paragraph they stopped at, why (only if they choose to tell us), and whether they click through to a store, so authors can see how their opening is doing. It isn't linked to you, and it disappears when you close the tab. Your reading settings (text size, font, page colour) and your place in the chapter stay in your own browser and never reach us.

When you click a link to a bookshop, you leave Bervet and that shop's own privacy policy applies. Some links may be affiliate links, which are labelled.

If you have an account

We keep:

• your name (shown on your posts; a pen name is fine) and your email address;
• a securely hashed password, or your Google account ID if you sign in with Google;
• what brought you here (reading, writing or both) and the genres you picked, which we use to show you books you'll want and, if you asked for it, for the weekly email;
• the authors you follow, your reviews, your forum posts, your book listings and chapter previews;
• advance copies you give out or read, and your place and progress in them (below);
• your shelf: books you want to read, have read, or didn't finish (and why, if you say). Only you see it; an author sees how many readers shelved their book each way and the reasons, never who;
• your private messages. Moderators only see a private message if someone reports it;
• your email settings, and whether emails to you are bouncing (so we stop sending to a dead address).

Emails

We email you about your account (confirming your address, resetting your password), about things you've switched on (replies to your threads, new messages, the weekly round-up), about your own listings (new reviews, a monthly summary of how your books did, and one getting-started email if you joined as an author and haven't listed a book yet; you can switch these off), and about advance copies you've asked for (you're in, a new version, it's out, one reminder if you haven't started, and one a few days before it's out). If you tick "email me when they have another advance copy", you get one email when that author opens their next one; untick it any time in your account. If you follow an author, you hear when they list a new book or open an advance copy, collected with your other notices; you can switch that off in your account. You choose which ones on your account page, and every bulk email has an unsubscribe link that works in one click.

If you list a book

Your listing, cover, blurb, store links and any chapter preview are public. Your answers to the setup questions that aren't shown on the listing (like whether you used AI) stay private to Bervet. As the author you see anonymous totals for your book: page views, how far readers got into your preview and how many clicked to a store. You never see who those readers are, and they never see your email address.

If you read an advance copy

The author of an advance copy you ask for, or are let in to, sees your display name, the note you sent when asking, how far you've read (which chapter, and whether you finished or stopped), the notes and typos you send them, and any review links you add. They also see how many advance copies you've been let in to on Bervet and how many you finished. Your one-tap reactions at the end of a chapter, and your reason for stopping if you give one, are only ever shown to the author as counts, without names. The author never sees your email address: Bervet sends every email.

Your place in the book is saved to your account so it follows you between devices. Each reader's copy carries a hidden code in the text. We only use it to find out whose copy it was if the book is leaked. If the author lets readers download an ebook copy, the file is made for you: it has your display name in it and the same hidden code, and we record when you downloaded it (the author sees that you have the ebook).

If you give out advance copies

Your manuscript is kept privately and shown only to the readers you let in (and, if you choose, the first chapter to anyone). A file you've uploaded but not yet saved is held until you save it or upload another. When you delete an advance copy or your account, the manuscript is removed from the site straight away.

Who else handles your data

Only the services the site needs to run:

• Namecheap hosts the site and sends our email.
• Cloudflare runs the "are you human?" check on sign-up and some forms (Turnstile), which sees your IP address and browser.
• Google, only if you choose "Sign in with Google".
• If our mailing list outgrows our host, a bulk email service will send the weekly round-up for us. We'll name it here when that happens.

Some of these services store data outside Australia, including in the United States.

Cookies and browser storage

We use a small number of cookies the site needs to work: one keeping you signed in, one protecting forms against forgery, one remembering "keep me signed in" if you ticked it, one holding your time zone so times show in your local time, and, if you switch the e-ink look on or off yourself, one remembering your choice. There are no advertising or tracking cookies. The chapter reader keeps your settings and place in your browser's own storage.

Keeping and deleting

Delete your account from your account page and we remove your name, email address, password, genres, follows, reviews, shelf, book listings, advance copies you gave out (and their manuscripts), your reading of other people's advance copies, and your email settings straight away. Your forum posts and messages stay so conversations still make sense, but they show as "Deleted member". Copies can remain in our backups until they're replaced by newer ones (we keep the last seven).

You can see and change most of what we hold on your account page. For anything else, or to ask what we hold about you, email hello@bervet.com. If you're not happy with how we've handled your information, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (oaic.gov.au).

Age

You need to be 16 or older to create an account.

Changes

If we change how we use your data in a way that matters, we'll say so on the site before it takes effect.