Skip to content
bervet
Sign in Join free
Books Advance copies Forum For readers Audiobooks For authors

Look

E-ink reader

Privacy

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

The short version

If you're just browsing

We count page views to see which pages people use, and to spot robots and abuse. For each view we keep the page address, the website that sent you (just its name, like google.com), your IP address, your browser's description of itself (its name, version and operating system), a country worked out from your IP address (or from your browser's language setting when it can't be), any campaign tag on the link you followed, and, if you're signed in, your account. We don't set a cookie to do this. Only Bervet's admins see these records, and they're never shared or sold.

When you use one of the free author tools, we add one to that day's count for the tool and what it did (for example, "made a PDF"). That's all we record: nothing about you, and nothing from your files. The tools that open your files do it in your browser, and the files never reach us.

If something on one of our pages goes wrong in your browser, the page sends us the error message, which page it was, where in our code it happened, and your browser's name and version, so we can fix it. Nothing about you, and nothing from your files.

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. Bervet counts store clicks on books for their authors: which book, which store, where on Bervet the click was (the book's page, the end of a free chapter, or the author's smart link), your country (worked out from your connection, or from your browser's language when the connection doesn't show it), and the author's campaign tag if the link had one. No cookie is used and nothing that identifies you is kept with the count. Many store links carry Bervet's affiliate codes: if you buy after following one, the store pays Bervet a commission, at no cost to you, and pages with these links say so. As an Amazon Associate, Bervet earns from qualifying purchases. Once you follow a link, the store (Amazon or any other) may show you its own content and ads, collect information directly from you, and place or read cookies in your browser; that's covered by the store's privacy policy, not this one.

If you have an account

We keep:

Signing in with Google

If you choose "Sign in with Google", Google tells us your name, your email address and that Google has verified that address. We keep the email address and your Google account ID (a number Google uses for you, so we know it's you next time), and use the name as your starting display name, which you can change. We don't get your Google password or anything else in your Google account, and we don't keep your Google profile photo. You can remove Bervet's access from your Google account's settings at any time; your Bervet account stays, and "Forgot password" on the sign-in page sets a password for it.

Emails

Everything we'd tell you is in your notifications on the site. We email you only:

If you follow an author, you hear when they list a new book or open an advance copy, in your notifications, and by email if you tick it. If you follow from a link in one of their books, Bervet notes which book's link it was, so the author can see how many readers each book brought them (a count, never who). 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.

Following an author never gives them your email address. Some authors open a mailing list on Bervet: if you choose "Join the mailing list" on their page, that author gets your name and email address for their own newsletter, and nobody else does. It's your choice for each author. Stop any time, on their page or your account page: they're told, so they can take you off, but Bervet can't delete a copy they've already made, so email them if their newsletter keeps coming. Authors promise to use the addresses only for their own newsletter, never sell or share them, and remove anyone who asks.

The same notices also show in the bell at the top of the site; they're kept for 90 days. 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 name co-authors, their names are public on the listing. If you give a co-author's email address to invite them, we send them one email and keep the address, encrypted, only until they answer or for 30 days, whichever comes first; it's never shown to anyone. A co-author's name links to their author page only after they've said the book is theirs; they can take themselves off it any time.

If you register as a publisher, what you send so we can check it (an ISBN prefix, a company number, an address) is seen only by Bervet. Your imprint's name, website and about text are public once it's approved to show. If you invite an author to claim the pen name you list them under, it works as a co-author invite does: one email, the address kept encrypted until they answer or for 30 days.

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, linked to your account. 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 a copy leaks. We only use the code if text from the book turns up shared without permission. Its author or publisher can report it to us; nobody can look a reader up any other way. A person at Bervet checks whose copy the code belongs to. If it's yours, and the rights holder has told us they'll use your details only to act on the leak (asking for it to be taken down, or a legal claim), we give your name and email address to the book's author, publisher or rights holder, who may be outside Australia. We tell you when we've done so, and we keep a record of who received them, when and why. A code says whose copy it was, not who shared it: if you didn't share it (a lost device, or someone else using your account), tell us. If you're in the EU or the UK, we do this because it's in our legitimate interest, and the rights holder's, to protect the book; you can object, but we may still share your details where they're needed for a legal claim. We keep the link between a copy's code and your account while you can read it, and for 2 years after the advance copy closes or you close your account, in case a leak turns up; then we delete it. (When you close your account, everything else about your copies goes straight away, as it always has. If the book's author closes theirs, the advance copy and every link to it go at once.) We keep a leak report for 2 years after we've finished with it.

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), and to Bervet's moderators when they need to check something. 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.

If you write for a publisher, or work at one

A publisher on Bervet can commission a book from you on Bervet. It enters the working title, your name as it'll be on the cover, its dates and the length it wants. If it invites you by email, we send one email and keep the address, encrypted, until you answer or for 30 days. Before you accept, you see exactly what it would see, and you can change that any time after:

Taking something away stops it from then on; copies already sent stay with them. If you ask for more time, your reason is seen only by the publisher's people. When you deliver a copy from Bervet Studio, it's sealed on your device and Bervet can't read it; we keep the name you gave it (like "Draft 2"), its length, when it was sent and a fingerprint (a code worked out from the text, which doesn't contain it). If you send it another way, we keep only that you sent it. Everything that happens to a commission (accepting, deliveries, dates moved, access changed, ending it) goes in a history that you and the publisher both see and nobody can edit.

If you're on a publisher's team, or one of its authors with a seat, its people see your name and role. Authors never see the email addresses of a publisher's people. The publisher's own records (payments, editions, printings) are kept for the publisher.

A publisher can also ask you to send it your writing (Bervet takes no submissions it hasn't asked for). It says what it would like, and we keep that, its note to you and your email address if it invited you by email (encrypted, until you take it up or for 30 days). What you send is sealed on your computer, in Bervet Studio or your browser, so only the devices of the people who read submissions there can open it: Bervet can't. Before you send, you're shown those devices, each with the 6 digits it shows on its own screen. Sent from your browser, the sealing is done by our web page's code; from Bervet Studio, by the app's own. We keep the sealed files, the file names and sizes, and a history you both see. If you withdraw, the files are deleted straight away; otherwise they're deleted 90 days after the publisher answers.

If you make a calendar address for your commissions' dates, we keep only a scrambled form of it, so it's shown to you once. It shows only the books you can see, and anyone you give it to sees their titles and dates. Make a new one, or stop it, at the foot of your commissions pages.

If you use Bervet Studio (the app)

Your manuscripts, covers, PDFs, designs and the files you make stay on your device: in the app, and on a computer in each book's own folder. Nothing from your books goes to Bervet unless you send it: a beta read sends the draft you choose to the readers you invite; a listing (for a book's page or its QR codes) sends the book's details and cover; a writing record sends the book's title and pen name, counts and fingerprints, never the words (below); a book linked to a publisher's commission sends its word count and chapter statuses while you share them, and records your deliveries (above). Spelling, grammar and the thesaurus work on the device, and dictation is your system's own.

Apart from looking for updates (below), the app talks to Bervet only for your account. When you sign in, it sends your email and password to confirm them, and we keep a sign-in for that device, named after the device, until you sign out. When it opens and you're online, it checks the sign-in is still good. If you link a book to a book plan, the plan's details sync with the website, as they do there. To tell you what's waiting (advance copy requests, messages, replies), it asks for your unread notifications. What you do with them (read, snoozed or finished) and your notification settings (what to mute, a pause, quiet hours) are kept with your account, so each of your devices shows the same. Once a day it asks whether you have a Bervet Studio licence, and keeps the answer on the device so the app works offline. Settings lists your devices: each device's name, when it was last used, and whether it's signed in, holds a place on your licence or is in your cloud, so you can rename this one or remove another.

If you keep a writing record for a book, the app sends the book's title and pen name when it begins (both shown on the record's page), then a summary every few minutes while you write: how many words you added and took out, the size of anything you pasted or brought in (an earlier version brought back, a co-writer's chapters), a fingerprint of each chapter (a code worked out from the chapter's text, which doesn't contain the text) and the time on your device. Never the words themselves. Bervet stamps each summary with the time it arrived and shows the record on its own page, which search engines are asked not to list. Stopping the record, or deleting your account, deletes it and its page.

If you report a problem from the app, the report has what you write, what went wrong, where in the app, and the app's version and your system's name. Never anything from your books.

When you open a page of the app that shows something kept on Bervet (your advance copies and beta reads, your commissions, whether your account has the cloud), it asks Bervet for it then.

If you installed the app from bervet.com, it looks for a new version at most twice a day while you're online, signed in or not, by downloading a small file from bervet.com that says what the latest version is. It sends nothing about you or your books; like any download, our server sees your IP address.

If you install the app from the Microsoft Store, Microsoft's own terms and privacy policy cover the download and updates.

Who else handles your data

Only the services the site needs to run:

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. If you arrive on a link an author shared (it ends in "via=" and their pen name), one cookie remembers which author for 30 days, so that if you join, their dashboard can count you as a reader they brought. It holds only the author, and it's gone once you join. There are no advertising or tracking cookies. The chapter reader keeps your settings and place in your browser's own storage, and once you've said you're an adult on a book for adults, your browser remembers that until you close the tab.

Keeping and deleting

Delete your account from your account page and it closes straight away: your name shows as "Deleted member" and your listings, reviews and author page come down. Once we've dealt with it, we remove your 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. We may keep what we need to deal with abuse of the site. Your forum posts and messages stay so conversations still make sense, but they show as "Deleted member". Commissions you write or publish end, and seats you hold end; the other side keeps its record of the commission and its history. Copies can remain in our backups until they're replaced by newer ones: the server keeps the last seven, and a copy kept off the server, on a computer we control, keeps the last thirty.

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.