Privacy Policy

Your privacy is important to Nicholas Sparks and Willow Holdings, Inc., so we’ve developed a Privacy Policy that covers how we collect, use, disclose, transfer, and store your information. We know that you care how information about you is used and shared, and we appreciate your trust that we will do so carefully and sensibly. This notice describes our Privacy Policy. Please take a moment to familiarize yourself with our policy practices and feel free to contact us if you have any further questions.

IMPORTANT: By visiting NicholasSparks.com, you are accepting all of the practices described in this Privacy Notice, and any dispute over privacy is subject to this notice of privacy and our conditions of use, including limitations on damages, resolutions of disputes and applications of the laws of the State of North Carolina.

Unless stated otherwise, our current Privacy Notice applies to all information that we have about you and your account. We may e-mail periodic reminders of our notices and conditions, but you should check our Web site frequently to see recent changes which will control retroactively even if we do not notify you of those changes. We stand behind the promises we make. If you have concern about privacy at NicholasSparks.com, please contact us with a complete description and we will try and resolve it.

Links to information below:

Collection and use of personal information: What personal information do we collect?

Personal information is data that can be used to identify or contact a single person due to your unique information. We collect information from you when you register on our site, subscribe to our newsletter or fill out a form.

When ordering (if that option is available) or registering on our site, or when you contact us, as appropriate, you may be asked to provide personal information and to enter your: name, e-mail address, mailing address or phone number, contact preferences and credit card information, etc. You may, however, visit our site anonymously and you can choose not to provide us with that information, but you might not be able to take advantage of our many features.

We may store and share this personal information with those in this company or with its affiliated companies, and use it consistent with this Privacy Policy. These companies may also combine it with other information they have gathered in order to provide and improve their products, services, content and advertising. If you choose to provide us with contact information such as the above for friends or family, we may collect and use that information as well.

What do we use your information for?

The personal information we collect from you allows us to keep you posted on our latest announcements, updates and upcoming events, for example. We also use personal information to help us develop, deliver and improve our products or materials, services, content and advertising. Any of the information we collect from you may be used in one of the following ways:

1. To personalize your experience:
Your information helps us to better respond to your individual needs;

2. To improve our website:
We continually strive to improve our website offerings based on the information and feedback we receive from you;

3. To process transactions:
Your information, whether public or private, will not be sold, exchanged, transferred, or given to any other company for any reason whatsoever, without your consent, other than for the express purpose of delivering the purchased product or a service you have requested;

4. To administer a contest, promotion, survey or other site feature;

5. To send periodic emails:
The email address you provide for order processing or registering, may be used to send you information and updates pertaining to your order or registration, in addition to receiving occasional company news, updates, important notices, related product or service information, changes in our terms or policies which will be effective retroactively without further notice to you, etc.; and,

6. We may use personal information for internal purposes such as auditing, data analysis, and research to improve ourselves and what we provide to you.

Note: If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from receiving future emails, we include detailed unsubscribe instructions at the bottom of each email.

Collection and use of Non-personal information: What information do we collect?

We also collect non-personal information which is data in a form that does not permit direct association with any specific person or individual. We may collect, use, transfer, and disclose non-personal information for any purpose. The following are some examples of what we collect and how we might use it:
1. We may collect information such as your occupation, language, zip code, area code, unique device identifier, location, etc. so that we can better appreciate you and perhaps provide or improve products, services, announcements and advertising;
2. We may also collect information about your activities on this website, and this information will be used to help us provide you with more useful information, as well as understand which parts of our website, products and services are of most interest to people like you. We call this “aggregated data” and it is considered non-personal information for the purposes of this Privacy Policy. Of course, if we do combine this “non-personal information” with “personal information” the combined information will be treated as personal information for the duration that it is combined.

Automatic Information

Examples of the information we collect and analyze include the Internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer to the Internet; login; e-mail address; password for this site; computer and connection information such as browser type, version, and time zone setting, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system, and platform; purchase history, which we sometimes aggregate with similar information from other customers; the full Uniform Resource Locator (URL) clickstream to, through, and from our Web site, including date and time; cookie number (see below for more explanation about “cookies”); and products you viewed or searched for. During some visits we may use software tools such as JavaScript to measure and collect session information, including page response times, download errors, length of visits to certain pages, page interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks, and mouse-overs), and methods used to browse away from the page. We may also collect technical information to help us identify your device for fraud prevention and diagnostic purposes.

How do we protect your information?

We implement a variety of security measures to maintain the safety and security of your personal information when you enter, submit, or access your personal information.

We offer the use of a secure server. All supplied sensitive/credit information that you may offer to us is transmitted via Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology and then encrypted into our Database to be only accessed by those authorized with special access rights to our systems, and are required to keep the information confidential.

After a transaction, your private information (credit cards, social security numbers, financials, etc.) will not be kept on file for more than sixty (60) days. If and when we request credit card for orders, we will reveal only the last four digits of your credit card numbers when confirming an order. Of course, we transmit the entire credit card number to the appropriate credit card company during order processing, and you agree to allow us to do so. If you do give us your credit card information, it is important for you to protect against unauthorized access to your password and to your computer. Be sure to sign off or log off when finished using a shared computer.

“Cookies and Other Technologies–What are “cookies” and do we use cookies?

We receive and store certain types of information whenever you interact with us. For example, like many Web sites, we use “cookies.” Cookies are small files that a site or its service provider transfers to your computer’s hard drive through your Web browser (if you so allow) that enables the sites or service providers systems to recognize your browser and capture and remember certain information. We use them and other technologies you may have heard of such as “Pixel Tags” and “Web Beacons.”

We use cookies and such other technologies to better understand your behavior, tell us which part of the website you have visited and to save your preferences for future visits and compile aggregate data about site traffic and site interaction so that we can offer better site experiences and tools in the future. We may contract with third-party service providers to assist us in better understanding our site visitors. These service providers are not permitted to use the information collected on our behalf except to help us conduct and improve our business.

We treat information collected by cookies and other technologies as non-personal information. However, to the extent that Internet Protocol (IP) addresses or similar identifiers are considered personal information by local law, we also treat these identifiers as personal information. Similarly, to the extent that non-personal information is combined with personal information, we treat the combined information as personal information for the purposes of this Privacy Policy.

If you want to disable cookies and you’re using the Safari web browser, go to Safari preferences and then to the Security pane to disable cookies. On your mobile device, go to Settings, then Safari, and then to the Cookies section. The Help feature on most other browsers will tell you how to prevent your browser from accepting new cookies, how to have the browser notify you when you receive a new cookie, or how to disable cookies altogether. Additionally, you can disable or delete similar data used by browser add-ons, such as Flash cookies, by changing the add-on’s settings or visiting the Web site of its manufacturer. For other browsers, check with your provider to find out how to disable cookies. Please note that certain features of this website may not be available once cookies are disabled. Because cookies allow you to take advantage of some of our essential features, we recommend that you leave them turned on, but the choice is entirely up to you.

As is true of most websites, we gather some information automatically and store it in log files. This information may include but not be limited to Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, browser type and language, Internet service provider (ISP), referring and exit pages, operating system, date/time stamp, and clickstream data.

We use this information to understand and analyze trends, to administer the site, to learn about user behavior on the site, and to gather demographic information about our user base as a whole. We may also use this information in our marketing and advertising services.
In some of our email messages, we might use a “click-through URL” linked to content on our website. When you click one of these URLs, you will pass through a separate web server before arriving at the destination page on our website. We track this click-through data to help us determine interest in particular topics and measure the effectiveness of our communications with you. If you prefer not to be tracked in this way, you should not click text or graphic links in the email messages.

Pixel tags enable us to send email messages in a format you can read, and they tell us whether mail has been opened. We may use this information to reduce or eliminate messages sent to readers.

Do we disclose any information to outside parties?

We are not in the business of selling your important information to others and so we won’t do so. At times we may make certain personal information available to strategic partners that work with us to provide products, services, advice or that help us market to our readers. Personal information will only be shared by us to provide or improve our products, services, notices, announcements and advertising; it will not be shared with third parties for their marketing purposes. We do not sell, trade, or otherwise transfer to outside parties your personally identifiable information. However, this does not include trusted third parties who assist us in operating our website, conducting our business, or servicing you, so long as those parties agree to keep this information confidential pursuant to this Privacy Policy.

Who else might we disclose your information to?

We may also release your information when we believe release is appropriate to enforce our site policies, or protect ours or others rights, property, or safety. However, non-personally identifiable visitor information may be provided to other parties for marketing, advertising, or other uses.

It may be necessary − by law, legal process, litigation, and/or requests from public and governmental authorities within or outside your country of residence − for us to disclose your personal information. We may also disclose information about you if we determine that for purposes of national security, law enforcement, or other issues of public importance, disclosure is necessary or appropriate, to protect the rights, property, or safety of our users, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organizations for fraud protection and credit risk reduction. Obviously, however, this does not include selling, renting, sharing, or otherwise disclosing personally identifiable information from you for commercial purposes in violation of the commitments set forth in this Privacy Notice.

We may also disclose information about you if we determine that disclosure is reasonably necessary to enforce our terms and conditions or protect our operations or users. Additionally, in the event of a reorganization, merger, or sale we may transfer any and all personal information we collect to the relevant third party.

Occasionally, at our discretion, we may include or offer third party products or services on our website. These third party sites have separate and independent privacy policies and you should review those when applicable. We therefore have no responsibility or liability for the content and activities of these linked sites. Nonetheless, we seek to protect the integrity of our site and welcome any feedback about these sites.

Protection of Personal Information

We take precautions — including administrative, technical, and physical measures — to safeguard your personal information against loss, theft, and misuse, as well as against unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction.

When you use some of our services, or post on a forum, chat room, or social networking service, the personal information you share is visible to other users and can be read, collected, or used by them. You are responsible for the personal information you choose to submit in these instances. For example, if you list your name and email address in a forum posting, that information is public. Please take care when using these features.

Integrity and Retention of Personal Information

We hope to make it easy for you to keep your personal information accurate, complete, and up to date. We will retain your personal information for the period necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this Privacy Policy unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law.

Access to Personal Information

For personal information, we make good faith efforts to provide you with access so you can request that we correct the data if it is inaccurate or delete the data if we are not required to retain it by law or for legitimate business purposes. We may decline to process requests that are unreasonably repetitive, require disproportionate technical effort, jeopardize the privacy of others, are extremely impractical, or for which access is not otherwise required by local law. Access, correction, or deletion requests can be made through the following link contact us via email

California Online Privacy Protection Act Compliance

We value your privacy, and so if you are located in California, we have taken the necessary precautions to be in compliance with the California Online Privacy Protection Act. We therefore will not distribute your personal information to outside parties pursuant to those regulations without your consent.

Children under 13 and 18

We are in compliance with the requirements of COPPA (Childrens’ Online Privacy Protection Act). We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If we learn that we have collected the personal information of a child under 13 years of age we will take steps to delete the information as soon as possible. If we sell products and if you are under 18, you may use our site only with the involvement of a parent or guardian.

Our Companywide Commitment to Your Privacy

To make sure your personal information is secure, we communicate our privacy and security guidelines to our employees and strictly enforce privacy safeguards within the company.

Privacy Questions and Contacting us

If you have any questions or concerns about our Privacy Policy or data processing, please contact us via email.

Online Privacy Policy Only

This online Privacy Policy applies only to information collected through our website and not to information collected offline.

By using our site, you consent to our web site Privacy Policy and all additions or deletions posted by us at any time.

Changes to our Privacy Policy

We may update our Privacy Policy from time to time. When we change the policy in a material way, we will do our best to provide a notice which will be posted on our website along with the updated Privacy Policy. All changes will be enforceable retroactively.

Willow Holdings, Inc. c/o Park & Fine Literary and Media, 55 Broadway, Suite 1601, New York, NY 10006
Last updated: May 17, 2012

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Nicholas Sparks