Privacy Policy

1 Who we are

COBRAND ("we", "us", "our") is a business growth platform operating from Ibadan, Nigeria. We decide how the personal data described in this policy is used.

2 What we collect

2.1 Your account

• Account details — your name, email address and password, or, if you sign in with Google, the name, email address and profile picture Google shares (section 5). Your account is stored on our servers (section 6). Passwords are stored only in scrambled (hashed) form; nobody at COBRAND can read them.
• Your purchases and library — the books you order and the ones in your library, so you can read what you bought.

2.2 If you apply to publish in the Book Store

To verify publishers and pay them, the publisher application asks for:

• Identity and contact — your legal name, pen name, business name if you have one, phone number and postal address.
• Tax and business — your tax identification number and, for a company, its registration number.
• Payout details — your bank name, account name, account number and, where needed, SWIFT/BIC code and payout currency.
• Identity document — the document you upload to prove who you are. It is kept in private storage that only you and COBRAND's reviewers can open.
• Agreement records — which version of our terms you accepted, and when.
• Review history — the decisions COBRAND makes on your application and your books, with the reasons given.

2.3 If you publish a book

• Manuscripts and covers — the files you upload. Manuscripts are kept in private storage: only you, COBRAND's reviewers and buyers of the book can open them. Covers are shown publicly in the store.
• Book details — title, description, author names, prices and your choices, such as whether shoppers may read the first four pages ("Look Inside"). When Look Inside is on, a separate file holding only those pages is shown publicly.
• Change requests and promotions — the changes you ask for on a live book and any promotion you run.

2.4 Email we send you

When we email you about your application or your books, we keep a log of each message: who it went to, which kind of message it was, and whether it was sent.

2.5 Information collected automatically

• Technical data — your IP address, browser type and the pages you request are seen by the services that deliver the website (section 6) and may be recorded in their standard logs.
• Your approximate country — to show regional prices and pre-fill the publisher country and dialling code, your approximate country is derived from the connection received by our website. This supports regional prices and country pre-filling. You can change the answer.

2.6 Payments

COBRAND does not take payments through this website yet. Before it does, this policy will name the payment provider and link to its privacy policy. Card details will be entered with that provider directly, never on COBRAND.

3 Why we use your data

• To create and run your account, your library and, if you publish, your Publisher Studio.
• To verify publishers before their books go on sale, and to pay them what they earn.
• To review books and changes to live books before they appear in the store.
• To send you the emails your application and books need, such as a decision or a change being approved.
• To answer your questions and provide support.
• To detect fraud, abuse and prohibited content.
• To meet our legal and tax obligations in Nigeria.

4 Our legal basis

Under the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023 and the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation 2019, we rely on: performance of a contract with you; your consent, where you have given it, which you may withdraw at any time; our legitimate interest in running a safe and trustworthy store; and compliance with legal obligations.

5 Signing in with Google

Where you choose to sign in using Google, Google sends us your name, your email address and your profile picture. We use them only to create and identify your COBRAND account.

• We request only what is needed to sign you in: your basic profile and email address.
• We do not read, send or store your email messages, contacts, calendar or files.
• We do not transfer Google user data to third parties except the service providers in section 6 that run the service, or where the law requires it.
• We do not use Google user data for advertising, and we never sell it.
• You can disconnect COBRAND at any time from your Google account's permissions page.

6 The services that run COBRAND

We use these providers to run the websites. Each handles personal data only to provide its service to us.

• Account and file services — our database, user accounts and file storage (manuscripts, covers, identity documents). Hosted in London, United Kingdom.
• Website hosting and security — hosts and delivers the websites and controls access to areas that are not yet public. It sees the IP address and requests of every visit.
• Email delivery — sends the emails described in section 2.4.
• Google — Google sign-in, for people who choose it (section 5).

We also share data where it is needed to deliver the service or required by law:

• Buyers and the public — a listed book's title, cover, description, author names, publisher name and, if Look Inside is on, its first four pages are public in the store.
• Authorities — where we are legally required to disclose, or must act to prevent harm.

We do not sell personal data, and we do not share it for advertising.

7 What is stored in your browser

We use your browser's own storage, not tracking cookies, for these things. They stay on your device, can be read only by our site, and are removed when you clear your browser data:

• Your sign-in session — a token that keeps you signed in. Your account itself is held on our servers (section 6), not in your browser.
• Your basket, wishlist, recently viewed books and theme (light or dark).
• Publish-a-book drafts — while you fill in the publish form, your answers and the files you picked are saved in this browser so you do not lose them. They are not sent to us until you submit, and they are deleted when you do.

Our website security service may set a cookie that is strictly necessary to control access to areas that are not yet public. We do not use analytics or advertising cookies. If we ever add them, we will list them here and ask for your consent first.

8 How long we keep it

• Your account and publisher records — while your account is open.
• Server and delivery logs — as kept by the providers in section 6 in the ordinary course of their service.

We will publish how long we keep closed accounts, transaction records and identity documents when our company registration is complete. In the meantime you can ask us to delete your data at any time (section 9); we will do so unless the law requires us to keep it, and we will tell you if that is the case.

9 Your rights

Under Nigerian data protection law you have the right to ask for a copy of your data, to correct it, to have it deleted, to restrict or object to how we use it, to receive it in a portable form, and to withdraw consent at any time. To exercise any of these, email hello@cobrandapgp.com. We respond within 30 days.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you may complain to the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC).

10 Security

Data travels over HTTPS. Access to your records is enforced by rules in the database itself, so each person can reach only what is theirs; identity documents and manuscripts are in private storage; and only COBRAND's reviewers have administrative access. No system is perfectly secure; if a breach affects your personal data we will tell you and the NDPC as the law requires.

11 Children

COBRAND is not intended for anyone under 18. We do not knowingly collect data from children. If you believe a child has given us personal data, contact us and we will delete it.

12 International transfers

Your account, files and records are stored in the United Kingdom (London) by our account and file service. Our website hosting, email delivery and optional Google sign-in providers may process data in other countries where they operate. We use providers that protect personal data to a standard comparable to Nigerian law.

13 Changes to this policy

When this policy changes we update the date at the top of this page. For significant changes we will also tell you by email or with a notice on the site.

14 Contact us

Questions about this policy, or about your data:

See also our Terms and Conditions.