Terms of Service

1. Acceptance of Terms

By accessing or using Book Assembly ("the Service"), you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service. If you do not agree to these terms, please do not use the Service.

2. Description of Service

Book Assembly is a personal book tracking application that allows you to catalogue your books, track reading progress, and organise your library. The Service is currently in beta testing and is provided free of charge during this period.

3. Account Terms

• You must provide a valid email address to create an account
• You are responsible for maintaining the security of your account and password
• You are responsible for all activity that occurs under your account
• You must be at least 13 years old to use this Service
• Each person may maintain only one account

4. Acceptable Use

You agree not to:

• Use the Service for any unlawful purpose
• Attempt to gain unauthorised access to the Service or its related systems
• Interfere with or disrupt the integrity or performance of the Service
• Use automated scripts to collect information from or interact with the Service
• Upload malicious code or attempt to compromise the security of the Service
• Impersonate another person or misrepresent your identity

5. Public Profiles and Content Standards

Most of what you add to Book Assembly is private to you. Some features let you make parts of your library public - for example a public profile, a shared list, or books you mark as public. When you do, the content you have chosen to share (such as your username, display name, bio, profile photo, and list names and descriptions) can be seen by other people, and public profiles may be found by search engines. You choose what to make public, and you can make it private again at any time in your settings.

You are responsible for the content you make public, and you must have the right to share it. When taking part in public features, you must not post, link to, or share content that:

• is unlawful, or encourages or facilitates illegal activity
• is hateful, harassing, bullying, threatening, or incites violence against others
• is sexually explicit, or depicts or promotes the abuse or exploitation of children
• impersonates another person or misrepresents your connection to anyone
• infringes someone else's intellectual property or privacy rights
• is spam, a scam, or otherwise designed to mislead or defraud others

These standards apply in addition to the Acceptable Use rules in section 4.

Reporting and Moderation

If you come across a public profile or list that you believe breaks these Terms or the law, please let us know. You can use the report option shown on public profiles and lists, or contact us through the Support page. Reports are reviewed by our team.

Where content breaks these Terms or the law, we may remove or hide it from public view, and we may suspend or permanently close the account responsible. We aim to act proportionately and treat serious or illegal content as a priority. This does not affect your other rights under these Terms or your statutory rights (see section 12).

Young People

You must be at least 13 years old to use Book Assembly (see section 3). We have designed the Service so that the same protections apply to everyone, which we believe is especially important for younger users:

• Your library is private by default. Nothing about your reading is public unless you turn on a public profile and choose what to share
• Public profiles are opt-in only, and you can make your profile or any part of it private again at any time
• We do not build advertising profiles about you, and we do not sell your personal data
• We do not encourage anyone to share more than they want to, and reporting tools are available on public profiles and lists

If you are under 18, we recommend keeping your profile private and speaking to a parent or guardian before sharing anything publicly. If you believe a child's personal information has been shared on the Service, please contact us through the Support page and we will act quickly.

6. Your Data

You retain full ownership of all data you enter into the Service, including book information, notes, ratings, and any other content you create. You grant us a limited, non-exclusive licence to store and display this data solely for the purpose of providing the Service to you.

If you choose to make part of your profile or library public (for example by setting up a public profile or sharing a list), you also grant us a licence to display that content to other people as part of that feature. This licence is limited to operating the feature you have turned on, and it ends when you make the content private again or delete it. You stay in control of what is public.

Images you upload: when you upload a cover image or other picture, you confirm that you own it or have permission to use it, and that sharing it through the Service does not infringe anyone else's rights. You grant us a licence to store and display your uploaded images for the purposes described above. Please do not upload images you do not have the right to use.

You can export your data in CSV or JSON format at any time from your account settings. You can permanently delete your account and all associated data at any time.

We will not sell, rent, or share your personal data with third parties for marketing purposes. See our Privacy Policy for complete details on data handling.

7. Intellectual Property

The Service, including its original content, features, and functionality, is owned by Book Assembly and is protected by copyright, trade mark, and other intellectual property laws.

Book metadata, cover images, and descriptions are sourced from third-party APIs (ISBNdb, Open Library) and remain the property of their respective owners. We claim no ownership of this third-party content.

Cover Images

Book cover images displayed within the Service are sourced from third-party APIs and publishers for the purpose of identifying books in your personal library. These images remain the property of their respective copyright holders. You may not download, redistribute, or use cover images obtained through the Service for any purpose outside of your personal book tracking.

Copyright Complaints

If you believe that content on Book Assembly infringes your copyright, please contact us at support@bookassembly.co.uk with the following information: (1) a description of the copyrighted work, (2) the location of the allegedly infringing content on our Service, (3) your contact details, and (4) a statement that you have a good faith belief the use is not authorised. We will investigate and respond within 14 days.

8. Third-Party Services

The Service integrates with third-party APIs (ISBNdb and Open Library) to provide book information and cover images. Your use of book data and cover images obtained through these providers is also subject to their own terms of service. We are not responsible for the availability, accuracy, or content of these external services.

Because these features depend on third-party providers, book look-ups and cover images may be unavailable, incomplete, or change at any time, and we may switch or remove a provider if its terms or availability change.

9. Service Availability

We strive to maintain high availability but do not guarantee uninterrupted access to the Service. As a beta service, availability may be less reliable than a production service. We may need to perform maintenance, updates, or data migrations that temporarily affect service access. Where possible, we will provide advance notice of planned downtime.

We may modify, suspend, or discontinue the Service (or any part of it) at any time. Where reasonably possible, we will give you advance notice of significant changes. We shall not be liable to you or any third party for any modification, suspension, or discontinuation of the Service, provided we have acted in good faith.

Events Outside Our Control

We are not responsible for any failure or delay in providing the Service that is caused by events beyond our reasonable control. This includes things like power or internet outages, failures of third-party providers we rely on (such as our hosting or book-data providers), strikes, natural disasters, or government action. If such an event happens, we will try to restore the Service as soon as we reasonably can. Nothing in this section affects your statutory rights as a consumer (see section 12).

10. Disclaimer of Warranties

The Service is provided "as is" and "as available" without warranties of any kind, either express or implied, including but not limited to implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.

In plain terms: we do our best to keep things running smoothly, but as a beta service, bugs and interruptions may happen. We will make reasonable efforts to fix issues reported by users, but we cannot guarantee the Service will always work perfectly.

11. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Book Assembly shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, including but not limited to loss of data, profits, or goodwill, arising from your use of the Service.

In plain terms: if something goes wrong, we are not responsible for knock-on losses like lost profits or damage to your reputation. This does not take away the statutory rights the law does not let us exclude (see section 12).

12. Your Statutory Rights

Nothing in these Terms affects your statutory rights as a consumer under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 or any other applicable UK legislation. Where these Terms conflict with your statutory rights, your statutory rights will prevail.

13. Account Termination

You may delete your account at any time from the Settings page. We reserve the right to suspend or terminate your account if you violate these Terms or engage in behaviour that we reasonably believe is harmful to other users or the Service.

Upon termination, your right to use the Service will immediately cease. You may request an export of your data within 30 days of termination, after which it will be permanently deleted from our systems.

14. Data Retention

If you delete your account, we will permanently delete your personal data within 30 days, except where we are required by law to retain certain information. Anonymised usage statistics may be retained for service improvement purposes, but these statistics cannot be linked back to you or your account.

15. Pricing and Future Changes

The Service is currently free to use. We may introduce paid features or subscription tiers in the future. Any such changes will be communicated at least 30 days in advance via email and prominent notice on the Service.

You will not be automatically enrolled in paid plans without explicit consent. If we introduce paid tiers, you will have the option to continue using a free tier (if available), upgrade to a paid tier, or export your data and close your account.

16. Changes to Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. We will notify you of any material changes by posting the new Terms on this page, updating the "Last updated" date, and sending an email to the address associated with your account.

Your continued use of the Service after any changes constitutes acceptance of the new Terms. If you do not agree to the modified Terms, you should discontinue use of the Service and may delete your account.

17. Governing Law and Disputes

These Terms shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of England and Wales, without regard to its conflict of law provisions.

Any disputes arising from these Terms or use of the Service shall first be attempted to be resolved through good faith negotiation. If unresolved, disputes shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.

You may also be able to use an alternative dispute resolution (ADR) service. For guidance on your options, you can contact Citizens Advice.

In plain terms: these Terms follow the law of England and Wales. If a dispute comes up, we will first try to sort it out with you directly; if we can't, the courts of England and Wales will handle it.

18. Severability

If any provision of these Terms is found to be unenforceable or invalid, that provision shall be limited or eliminated to the minimum extent necessary, and the remaining provisions shall remain in full force and effect.

In plain terms: if a court finds one part of these Terms invalid, only that part is affected - the rest still applies.

19. Entire Agreement

These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy, constitute the entire agreement between you and Book Assembly regarding the use of the Service and supersede any prior agreements.

20. Contact

If you have any questions about these Terms, please contact us via the Support page.