Once the issue of privacy comes up on the Internet, things get scary. We get that, we really do. So to put your mind at ease you should know the following things about how we safeguard your personal information, including your email, other contact information and payment information. Here's how:
Generally speaking, we only use your e-mail and personal information to process any payment you're asking us to process and we only share this information with the appropriate recipient. The only time a third party sees this information is when a charge is actually transmitted to your credit card company. Your personal info goes from us to them and nowhere else, and the whole thing happens securely. We'll never sell, rent or even let a third party peek at your information; you are very near and dear to us and we could never do such a thing.
Online Purchases/Bookstore
This is how our bookstore works. When you go to check out we establish a secure connection directly to you. When you're typing in your name, credit card and everything else, you're already protected. In fact, we are certified... payment processors are all certified, and your bank is definitely certified or the credit card company won't let any of us process payments.
These days anyone who's anyone taking credit card information has to be certified and recertified on a regular basis as being secure and protected from hackers. This process is called PCI compliance and you can read all about it here.
Hotel Reservations
We're even less involved in hotel reservation payments; we aren't at all involved in processing your payment. This is a good thing. We pass your information directly to the hotel to process, and if you can't trust the hotel to maintain your privacy, you probably shouldn't be staying there. With that being said, we absolutely trust all of the hotels listed on our site, otherwise we wouldn't let them be here at all.
For more information on how the whole process is secured, check out this introduction to digital certificates.
