Terms & Privacy | MenrvaBooks

Terms of Service

Effective Date: January 15, 2025
Last Updated: November 19, 2025

1. Introduction

Welcome to Menrva Books LLC ("Menrva Books", "we", "us"). By accessing our website at https://www.menrvabooks.com, any related mobile device application, or any other service we provide (collectively, the "Service"), you agree to be bound by these Terms of Use ("Terms"). These Terms affect your legal rights and obligations, so if you do not agree to them, do not use our Service.

2. User Requirements

You must be at least 13 years old to use our Service. By agreeing to these Terms, you represent and warrant that you are of legal age to form a binding contract with us.

3. Subscription Plans

Menrva Books offers two subscription tiers:

Explorer (Free): Includes unlimited searches, genre recommendations, ability to track read books, like and dislike books, follow authors, receive new release notifications, and limited commenting (5 comments per month).

Bookworm (Paid): Available as monthly ($1.99/month) or annual ($11.99/year) subscriptions. Includes all Explorer features plus: ad-free experience, personalized recommendations, ability to track To-Be-Read (TBR), In-Progress, Did Not Finish (DNF), and Favorites lists, and unlimited commenting.

4. Billing and Payment

Paid subscriptions are processed through Stripe, our third-party payment processor. By subscribing to a paid plan, you authorize us to charge your payment method on a recurring basis (monthly or annually, depending on your plan selection). Subscription fees are billed in advance and are non-refundable except as described in Section 5 below. You are responsible for maintaining valid payment information. If your payment fails, we may suspend or cancel your subscription.

5. Refund Policy

48-Hour Refund Window: You may request a full refund of your subscription payment within 48 hours of the initial purchase or renewal. To request a refund, navigate to your account settings and select the refund option. You will be asked to provide a reason for the refund (e.g., "Too expensive," "Not using the features," "Technical issues," etc.). Upon approval, your subscription will be immediately cancelled, you will receive a full refund, and your account will be downgraded to the free Explorer plan.

After 48 Hours: Refunds are generally not available after the 48-hour window. However, in exceptional circumstances, our administrators may approve a refund at their discretion. Please contact contact@menrvabooks.com with your request and explanation.

No Pro-Rated Refunds: We do not offer pro-rated refunds for partial subscription periods. If you cancel your subscription, you will retain access to paid features until the end of your current billing cycle.

6. Subscription Cancellation

You may cancel your paid subscription at any time through your account settings. Upon cancellation, you will continue to have access to paid features until the end of your current billing period. After your billing period ends, your account will automatically downgrade to the free Explorer plan. No refunds will be provided for the remaining time in your current billing cycle unless you cancel within the 48-hour refund window described above.

7. Account Deletion

Grace Period: When you request account deletion through your account settings, your account will be scheduled for permanent deletion after a grace period of 30 days OR at the end of your current paid subscription cycle, whichever comes first. During this grace period, your account will remain accessible but marked for deletion. You will receive an email confirmation with the scheduled deletion date.

Cancelling Deletion: You may cancel a scheduled deletion at any time during the grace period by logging into your account settings and selecting "Cancel Deletion." Both initiating and cancelling account deletion require multi-factor authentication (MFA) verification via a 6-digit code sent to your email address for security purposes. If you log in to your account during the grace period but do not actively cancel the deletion, the deletion will proceed as scheduled.

Content Preservation: Upon account deletion, your personal information and account data will be permanently deleted. However, your public contributions to the Service, including book ratings, reviews, and comments, will be preserved and remain visible to other users. These contributions will be anonymized and will no longer be associated with your account.

Admin Deletion: Administrators may immediately delete user accounts for violations of these Terms or applicable law without providing a grace period.

8. Use of Service

Subject to these Terms, we grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, and revocable license to use our Service for your personal, non-commercial use.

9. User Content

You may be able to submit content, including text, images, and videos. You retain all rights to your content, but you grant us a worldwide, royalty-free license to use, reproduce, distribute, modify, and display this content in connection with the Service.

10. Prohibited Conduct

You agree not to engage in the following activities: Illegal activities or promoting illegal activities. Posting harmful, threatening, abusive, or harassing content. Transmitting viruses, malware, or other malicious code. Attempting to interfere with the Service's operation.

11. Disclaimers

The Service is provided "as is" and "as available" without any warranties, expressed or implied. We do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or timeliness of the information on our Service.

12. Limitation of Liability

In no event will we be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages arising out of or related to your use of the Service.

13. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold us harmless from any claims, damages, and expenses, including attorney's fees, arising from your use of the Service or violation of these Terms.

14. Changes to Terms

We reserve the right to modify these Terms at any time. Your continued use of the Service following any changes indicates your acceptance of the new Terms.

15. Account Suspension and Termination

Immediate Termination: We reserve the right to immediately disable, suspend, or terminate your account and access to the Service, without prior notice and without refund, if you violate these Terms or engage in conduct that we determine, in our sole discretion, to be harmful to other users, authors, or the Service. Examples of conduct that may result in immediate termination include, but are not limited to:

Harassing, threatening, or abusing authors, other users, or staff members
Posting spam, offensive, hateful, or discriminatory content in comments or reviews
Attempting to manipulate ratings or reviews through fraudulent means
Engaging in illegal activities or promoting illegal content
Violating intellectual property rights
Attempting to compromise the security or integrity of the Service
Creating multiple accounts to evade restrictions or bans

No Refund for Violations: If your account is terminated for violating these Terms, you will not be entitled to a refund of any subscription fees, regardless of when the violation occurred during your billing cycle.

Appeals Process: If you believe your account was terminated in error, you may submit an appeal within 30 days of termination by contacting us through our contact form or emailing contact@menrvabooks.com. Include your account information and a detailed explanation of why you believe the termination was unjustified. We will review your appeal and make a determination in our sole discretion. Reinstatement is not guaranteed, and our decision is final.

Voluntary Termination: You may voluntarily terminate your account at any time through the account deletion process described in Section 7. Voluntary account deletion follows the standard grace period and refund policies.

16. Governing Law

These Terms shall be governed by the laws of Colorado, USA without regard to its conflict of law provisions.

17. Contact Us

If you have any questions about these Terms of Use, please contact us:

By email: contact@menrvabooks.com

By visiting the Contact us page on our website.

Privacy Policy

Effective Date: January 15, 2025
Last Updated: November 19, 2025

Welcome to Menrva Books, LLC. Your privacy is of paramount importance to us. This Privacy Policy describes how we collect, use, store, and protect your personal information when you use our book discovery and recommendation platform at https://www.menrvabooks.com.

1. Consent

By using our Services, you hereby consent to our Privacy Policy and agree to its terms. If you do not agree with this policy, please do not use our Services.

2. Information We Collect

We collect various types of information to provide and improve our Services:

Account Information:

First name and last name
Email address (required for account creation and communication)
Phone number (optional, for account recovery)
Recovery email address (optional, for additional account security)
Birth year (for age verification; users must be 13 or older)
Password (stored using industry-standard bcrypt hashing)

Authentication and Security Data:

JWT (JSON Web Token) authentication tokens stored in HttpOnly cookies with 24-hour expiration
Two-factor authentication codes (6-digit codes sent via email, automatically enabled for all users)
Passkey/WebAuthn credentials (if you choose to use passwordless authentication)
Session data including user role and tag identifiers

Device and Location Information:

Device fingerprints for trusted device recognition
Browser type and version
Operating system information
IP addresses
Approximate geographic location (country, region, and city only) derived from your IP address using third-party geolocation services. This data has an accuracy of approximately 50-100 kilometers and is NOT GPS-precise. We do not collect or store street addresses, building numbers, or postal codes.
Login history (we retain only your last 10 logins per device for security monitoring)
Device usage analytics including login counts and last used timestamps

Payment Information:

Payment processing is handled exclusively by Stripe, our third-party payment processor
We do NOT store credit card numbers, CVV codes, or other sensitive payment information on our servers
We store only your Stripe customer ID to manage your subscription
Billing history and subscription details

User-Generated Content:

Book ratings (like/dislike)
Book reviews and comments
Reading lists (To-Be-Read, In-Progress, Did Not Finish, Favorites)
Followed authors
Book interaction history for personalized recommendations

3. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect for the following purposes:

Account Management: To create and manage your user account, process subscriptions, and provide customer support
Authentication and Security: To verify your identity, enable two-factor authentication, detect suspicious login activity, monitor trusted devices, and protect against unauthorized access
Personalization: To provide personalized book recommendations based on your reading history, preferences, and interactions
Service Delivery: To provide, maintain, and improve our book discovery platform, including search functionality, recommendation algorithms, and user features
Communication: To send you important service notifications, subscription updates, refund confirmations, account deletion schedules, security alerts, and (for paid subscribers) new release notifications from followed authors
Payment Processing: To process subscription payments and refunds through our payment processor, Stripe
Analytics and Improvement: To understand how users interact with our platform, identify technical issues, and improve our Services
Legal Compliance: To comply with applicable laws, regulations, and legal processes

4. Third-Party Services

We use the following third-party services to provide our platform:

Stripe: Payment processing for paid subscriptions. Stripe handles all credit card information and payment transactions. We never store your credit card details on our servers. Please review Stripe's Privacy Policy at https://stripe.com/privacy for more information.
IP Geolocation Service: We use a third-party IP geolocation service to determine your approximate geographic location (city-level) for security monitoring purposes. This helps us detect unusual login locations and protect your account.
Email Service Provider: We use an email service to send transactional emails (account notifications, 2FA codes, password resets, etc.).

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to third parties for marketing purposes.

5. Cookies and Tracking Technologies

We use cookies and similar technologies to provide and secure our Services:

JWT Cookie: HttpOnly, SameSite=Lax cookie that stores your authentication token. Expires after 24 hours for security. This cookie is essential for maintaining your logged-in session.
Tag Cookie: Stores your unique user identifier for personalization features.
Role Cookie: Stores your account role (user, admin, etc.) to control access to features.

All cookies are transmitted over HTTPS (encrypted connections only) and include security attributes to prevent unauthorized access.

6. Data Security

We implement industry-standard security measures to protect your personal information:

Encryption: All data transmission occurs over HTTPS (TLS/SSL encryption). Passwords are hashed using bcrypt before storage.
Two-Factor Authentication: Automatically enabled for all user accounts. A 6-digit verification code is sent to your email for sensitive operations.
Passkey Support: We support WebAuthn/passkey authentication for enhanced security and passwordless login.
Trusted Device System: Devices are tracked and expire after 30 days of inactivity. You can review and revoke trusted devices at any time.
CSRF Protection: Cross-Site Request Forgery tokens protect against unauthorized actions.
Rate Limiting: Automated systems prevent brute-force attacks and abuse.
Bot Detection: Sophisticated filters prevent automated abuse of our platform.

While we implement robust security measures, no method of internet transmission or electronic storage is 100% secure. We cannot guarantee absolute security.

7. Data Retention

We retain your personal information only as long as necessary to provide our Services and comply with legal obligations:

Account Data: Retained while your account is active. If you delete your account, personal data is permanently deleted after the grace period (30 days or end of paid subscription, whichever comes first).
Location Data: Updated on each login (maximum once per day). Only your current location is stored; historical location data is not retained.
Login History: Only your last 10 logins per device are kept. Older login records are automatically deleted.
Trusted Devices: Device data expires after 30 days of inactivity and is automatically deleted by a scheduled cleanup process.
User-Generated Content: Book ratings, reviews, and comments are preserved even after account deletion to maintain the integrity of our community. This content is anonymized and no longer associated with your account.
Payment Records: Subscription and billing history is retained for accounting and tax compliance purposes.
Terminated Accounts: If your account is terminated for violating our Terms of Use, we may retain certain data (including account information, violation records, and IP addresses) for up to 12 months to prevent abuse, enforce our policies, and comply with legal obligations. Content posted in violation of our Terms may be removed at our discretion.

8. Your Privacy Rights (GDPR and CCPA)

Depending on your location, you may have the following rights regarding your personal information:

Right to Access: You can view all your personal data through your account settings page, including trusted devices, location data, and login history.
Right to Rectification: You can update your account information (name, email, recovery email, phone number) at any time through your settings.
Right to Erasure ("Right to be Forgotten"): You can request account deletion at any time. Your data will be permanently deleted after the grace period. Note that anonymized user-generated content (reviews, comments, ratings) will be preserved.
Right to Data Portability: You can request a copy of your data in a structured, machine-readable format by contacting us.
Right to Withdraw Consent: You can revoke trusted devices, disable features, or delete your account at any time.
Right to Object: You can opt out of certain data processing activities by adjusting your account settings or contacting us.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at contact@menrvabooks.com. We will respond to your request within 30 days.

9. Account Deletion

When you request account deletion through your settings:

Your account will be scheduled for deletion after a grace period of 30 days OR at the end of your current paid subscription cycle, whichever comes first
You will receive an email confirmation with the scheduled deletion date
During the grace period, you can cancel the deletion by logging in to your settings and clicking "Cancel Deletion"
Both deletion and cancellation require multi-factor authentication (MFA) verification for security
After the grace period, your personal data is permanently deleted
Your public contributions (ratings, reviews, comments) are preserved in anonymized form

10. Children's Privacy

Our Services are intended for users aged 13 and older. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has provided us with personal information, please contact us immediately, and we will delete such information.

11. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update our Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technology, legal requirements, or other factors. We will notify you of any material changes by posting the updated Privacy Policy on this page and updating the "Last Updated" date. Your continued use of our Services after such changes constitutes acceptance of the updated Privacy Policy. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically.

12. Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us:

By email: contact@menrvabooks.com

By visiting the Contact us page on our website.