Why we need your address?

This question has come up with various users, so let me explain a little bit of the complications involved in this matter.

Almost all of what we sell is in the format of electronic books. But we also receive donations for theWord program which goes to Costas Stergiou, theWord’s programmer. In those cases, they can either just donate, or they can receive a DVD or USB with the program preinstalled on it. For those orders, we need a complete physical shipping address in order to get that DVD or USB to you. In the software that we use, we cannot separate out which orders will require a shipping address and those that will not, and sometimes people mix book purchases with a donation, which makes it even more of a headache to try to do that.

Secondly, we sell works with contracts with our publishers, and some of those publishers specify that on certain products, they want to know how many of their products sold were sold in which countries (EU, South America, US, etc.) where the sales were made. This is impossible for us if we don’t ask for your address information.

Thirdly, we are located in Florida in the United States, and for all Florida sales, we have to pay a Florida sales tax, So we need the country at times, and the state at times. We don’t charge you extra for this, we pay it ourselves, but we need to separate out sales that were to people in Flordia.

Fourthly, Paypal uses the user’s address information to verify that it is really you.

So this why our system is as it is.

As far as using your address information (or any information on you, such as email, what you have purchased, etc.) we do use that information, but we only use it internally (in-house) as is needed to complete our commitment to you the customer, i.e. we send you a confirmation email with your unlock codes and download links. At times, we send emails answering questions you ask us. We do send those who buy something physical what they purchased to their mailing address. This is the only way we use your information.

We do not give out the names, emails, nor address information to anybody. Paypal uses it for making the transaction, and they are like a bank, so their security is very high. Your personal information is only for our internal use in running the business. For those wanting something from us (lawful taxing authorities like the state of Florida, or our publishers), we give them grouped information, such as there were 10 sales of xyz book in Canada. We don’t give individual purchase information of our customers to them. Your specific information is not given out, you are only counted in that summary information on all of Canada in that example.

Please fill out a customer support request if you have any other questions because these might help other people.