PRIVACY POLICY

Last updated: November 2025

Rakuten Kobo Inc., located in Toronto, Canada, and its subsidiaries (“Kobo”, “we” “our” and/or “us”) operate websites (including online storefronts), mobile applications, and a digital reading platform that enable customers to read or listen to written or creative works, including eBooks, audiobooks, or any literary works made available (“Digital Content”) using a variety of electronic devices, software applications, and other services, and provide an account that you may use to access Digital Content (“Kobo Account”) (collectively, the "Service"). Kobo is part of the Rakuten Group, which includes the affiliates and subsidiaries of our parent company, Rakuten Group, Inc., based in Tokyo, Japan (collectively, “Rakuten Group”). More information about Rakuten is available at http://global.rakuten.com/corp/about/company.

This Privacy Policy (“Policy”) describes how we collect, use, and disclose Personal Information (as defined below) about you when you use your Kobo Account, any Services that link to this Policy, including Kobo Writing Life (the author self-publishing service), or purchase a Kobo device or associated accessories from Kobo.

Please note that any reference in this Policy to a user’s acquisition, order, or purchase of Digital Content should be understood as the user securing or gaining a license that grants them the right to access such Digital Content, that license being restricted by the Terms of Use applicable to Kobo’s Services. For clarity, Services accountholders do not own accessed Digital Content and gain no right to copy or transfer Digital Content or portions thereof.

1. Collection of Personal Information.

Generally, we collect, process, and use your Personal Information when you:

  • register for a Kobo Account or log into an existing Kobo Account;
  • interact with the Services or our marketing;
  • order products or license Digital Content from us;
  • use the Services to access Digital Content; or
  • contact us for customer care.

You may, in some cases, have the option to decline providing us information. However, your choice to not provide information may impact your use of certain optional features or services to the extent they require the information to function.

"Personal Information" is any information or a combination of pieces of information that can reasonably permit you to be identified, or that can reasonably be linked to you, and includes information deemed “personal data” in various privacy and data protection laws. “Sensitive Personal Information” includes certain types of Personal Information that have been designated in various privacy and data protection laws as “sensitive’ or belonging to “special categories” due to their ability to be used by unauthorized recipients to perpetrate fraud, theft, or discriminatory treatment of individuals, such as financial account information, username/password combinations, health data, religion, political affiliation or union membership, and demographic information such as race, ethnicity, or sexual orientation. Kobo does not collect or store any Sensitive Personal Information except your Kobo Account credentials and payment information, unless you choose to provide this type of information about yourself in your profile, open-text comments, or reviews. Information that is anonymized, aggregated or irreversibly de-identified so it is no longer reasonably associated with an identified or identifiable person is not Personal Information under applicable Privacy Laws, and we may use such non-personal information for any business purpose.

1.1. Categories of Personal Information we collect.

The types of Personal Information we collect from you include:

  • Identifiers: For example, your name, email address, postal address, username, password, IP address, and online identifiers.
  • Demographics: Such as your age and gender if you choose to provide them (optional).
  • Transactional information: Such as the products or devices you purchase, Digital Content you access or review; subscriptions; payment methods; and discount programs in which you participate.
  • Online activities: For example, browsing and search history; interactions with web or other digital content; whether you open, interact with, or forward our electronic communications; and how you interact with advertisements offered by us or third parties.
  • Reading and other device/in-app activity: We keep track of your reading activity and other interaction with Digital Content to customize your experience, including to provide you with reading statistics, to synchronize reading progress across devices and to save bookmarks.
  • Billing location information: Based on the information you provide or inferred from your IP address, to ensure we have the right to sell you the books you wish to purchase.
  • Inferences: We may use the information we collect to attempt to identify your potential preferences, characteristics, predispositions, behaviours, or attitudes, abilities, and aptitudes, to improve personalized Digital Content recommendations and advertising.
  • No data from known children: Users must be at least 16 years old or older to register for a Kobo Account to use the Services. Kobo does not knowingly collect, use, process, sell, or share any Personal Information from children under the age of 16. If you are a parent or guardian who believes your child under the age of 16 has improperly provided Kobo with their Personal Information, please contact us at [email protected] to remedy the situation.

1.2. Categories of sources from which we collect Personal Information.

We collect Personal Information about you from a variety of sources. We collect information from you directly (e.g., when you contact us or create an account with us), automatically (e.g., data collected via pixels, cookies, web development tools, and similar technologies (collectively, “Tracking Technologies”); please see our Cookie and Tracking Technologies Policy for more information), and from other sources, including commercially available sources, such as public databases (where permitted by law).

1.3. Information we collect from you directly:

  • Registration and account information: When you create an account, you voluntarily provide us with certain Personal Information, such as your email address and password.
  • Profile information: You may also complete an optional registration profile or edit this Personal Information in your Kobo Account Settings, which may include your name, birth date, contact phone number and communications preferences.
  • Shipping and Payment information: We collect your payment information when you purchase Digital Content, devices or accessories, or sign up for subscription-based services. For certain types of payments, this may require a billing address or postal code or both. We also collect your shipping address for the purposes of mailing physical products you purchase. We also collect deposit account information when you are due payments from self-published works in Kobo Writing Life program.
  • Communications: You provide us with your email address or mobile number when you sign up to receive email communications or SMS communications. We also collect information you provide in the content of your communications to us, such as when you fill out a form or contact us with a question, comment, or request.
  • Content and opinions: You may choose to provide us with certain Personal Information when you respond to a survey or provide feedback, submit ratings and reviews, post comments, or participate in promotions or contests.
  • Kobo Writing Life program: When you create a Kobo Writing Life account to provide authored content, you may voluntarily provide us with certain Personal Information, including but not limited to registration and account information and your membership in, or identification or association with, a particular community.

1.4. Information we collect automatically:

  • Usage information: We collect Personal Information when you use or otherwise interact with the Services or our marketing and communications. For example, we collect information about how you use the Services, such as pages you view, the rate at which you consume Digital Content (how often and for how long), genres, authors or subject matter you read or listen to and searches you make or share, the Digital Content you rated, where you left comments and websites you viewed through links in the comments. We collect this information across the various devices, applications, and other tools from which you access and interact with the Services.
  • Device information: We collect certain technical information about your device – such as your IP address, device type, device model and manufacturer, device identifier and your device operating system type and version. In addition, Kobo eReaders generate certain Product-generated Data, as defined in our Terms of Use, some of which may be Personal Information.
  • Transactional information: We automatically collect certain information about your transactions on the Services such as amount charged, date and time, and use of promotions including affiliations with any retailer partners.

1.5. Information we collect from other sources:

  • Third-party authorization services: We provide you with the option to sign-in to the Services using an account you have with another provider (such as: Facebook, Google or Rakuten ID). In such cases, these third-party services may provide us with information such as your name, email address, profile picture, device information, contact information, and your preferences and consents (note: whether this information is provided is controlled by the third-party services or as authorized by you via your privacy settings on the third-party services).
  • Partners and advertising providers: We may receive additional information about you, such as demographic data and your activities on and off the Services through partnerships, retailer partners, our affiliates in the Rakuten Group, and our third-party advertising providers.
  • Data providers and public sources: We may supplement the information we collect from other sources with information received from data suppliers and commercially available resources (e.g., demographic information and additional contact information).

1.6. Information we create or generate:

  • Internal IDs: We may assign you internal customer IDs or other identifiers with which we associate your account on the Services. In addition, we may link together your activity across the Services and the devices you use to access them.
  • Inferences: We may use the Personal Information we collect to draw inferences about your preferences and characteristics to develop a record of your potential preferences, characteristics, predispositions, behaviour, attitudes, abilities, and aptitudes. We do not, however, collect, process, use, or disclose (i) Personal Information to infer Sensitive Personal Information or (ii) Sensitive Personal Information to infer characteristics about you.

2. How and why we use the information we collect.

We may use your Personal Information for the following purposes:

  • Identification and authentication: We use your identifiers to verify your identity when you access your Kobo Account and to ensure the security of your Personal Information.
  • Account creation: We use your Personal Information to create and monitor your Kobo Account.
  • Operating the Services: We process your Personal Information to provide you with access to the Services and to process your transactions, as you have requested. We use Personal Information, such as your location based on your IP address, to identify whether content is available in your region.
  • Improving the Services: We analyze information about how you use the Services to identify and troubleshoot errors and to provide an improved experience for all users.
  • Communicating with you: We may use your Personal Information to communicate with you, for example, if we are providing information about changes to the terms and conditions, to issue security alerts or reminders, or if you contact us with questions or concerns or requests.
  • Customizing your experience: When you use the Services, we may use your Personal Information to improve your experience, such as by providing interactive or personalized elements and providing you with content based on your interests.
  • Marketing: We may use your Personal Information such as the devices you use to access the Services, and your activity on the Services, and information from partners and/or affiliates to learn about your interests as a customer and to better understand your preferences to appropriately segment the marketing messages we send to you and measure their effectiveness. We may also use your identifiers to send you direct marketing communications about the Services and other products or services that may be of interest to you, including those from our partners and affiliates, subject to any consent or opt-out that may be required under applicable law.
  • Personalized Advertising and Re-marketing: Subject to any consent or opt-out that may be required under applicable law, Kobo uses Personal Information including your contact information or your activity on and off the Services as the basis to: (1) show you personalized advertising that may interest you based on your device activity and inferred interests, (2) create marketing lists using your email address to personalize off-platform advertising, and (3) measure the effectiveness of our personalized advertising. To the extent Kobo uses a third party to process your Personal Information for these purposes, Kobo contractually obligates third parties to process Personal Information for these purposes on behalf of Kobo and honor your consent preferences and opt-outs where applicable.
  • Kobo Writing Life program administration: Kobo processes Personal Information you provide as a member of the Kobo Writing Life program to administer and provide the program, including conducting marketing and publicity of your Digital Content, as may be further specified in the Writing Life Terms to administer the Kobo Writing Life program.
  • Managing contests: From time to time, Kobo may invite you to enter various contests or promotions. If you choose to participate in a contest or promotion, your Personal Information may be used to administer the contest, and as specified in applicable terms and contest or promotion notices.
  • Exercising our rights: We may use your Personal Information to exercise, protect, or defend our legal rights or those of third parties such as authors, licensors, or other Kobo users where it is necessary to do so, for example to detect, prevent and respond to fraud claims, intellectual property infringement claims, or violations of law or our terms and conditions, and to secure the Services.
  • Complying with our obligations: We may process your Personal Information to comply with our legal or regulatory requirements, such as responding to court orders or requests from law enforcement or other third parties, or to comply with privacy or financial regulations or reporting requirements; and
  • Protecting against harm: We may use Personal Information as necessary to protect the rights and safety of us, you, or others such as security, fraud prevention and incident detection.

3. How we may share the information we collect with others.

3.1. Retailer partners.

Kobo partners with retailers to distribute the Services in your country. Certain retailer partners, as listed below, have fully integrated their online catalogues and purchase paths with the Services. When you use such a retailer partner’s platform to access Services or use an account you created with such retailer partner to log in to Kobo, Kobo and such retailer partner will exchange your Personal Information for the joint purpose of providing you the Services and access to Digital Content, including authenticating your log in, facilitating and verifying the transaction, and enabling you to access licensed Digital Content. In this context, these retailer partners act as joint controllers with Kobo, although each of us handles different aspects of the joint processing and can only access certain data, with Kobo generally responsible for processing Personal Information relative to providing you the Services and Digital Content. In such cases, our legal basis for exchanging Personal Information is fulfillment of a contract with you, to provide the services and transaction you requested.

We may also disclose additional personal information about your use of the Services to these retailer partners, or the shared information may be used outside the context of the login or transactions. In such cases, Kobo and its retailer partners act as independent controllers and will process your Personal Information for our or their legitimate interests, such as understanding your purchase patterns to predict other Digital Content that may be of interest to you for marketing purposes. Depending on your jurisdiction, you have either a right to object to this processing or a right to withdraw your inferred consent for Kobo to disclose Personal Information shared with retailer partners on this basis, by adjusting the toggle for this sharing within your Kobo Account Settings. Please follow the relevant links on the list of Kobo’s fully integrated retailer partners below, for additional privacy terms applicable to certain retailer partners.

Partner Bol.Com BV
Country Netherlands
Contact https://www.bol.com/nl/
Partner FNAC-Darty
Country France
Contact http://www.fnacdarty.com
Partner Grandes Almacenes FNAC España S.A.U.
Country Spain
Contact https://www.fnac.es/
Partner FNAC PORTUGAL - Actividades Culturais e Distribuição de Livros, Discos, Multimédia e Produtos Técnicos Lda
Country Portugal
Contact https://www.fnac.pt/
Partner Turkuvaz Müzik Kitap Mağazacılık Pazarlama A.Ş.
Country Turkey
Contact www.dr.com.tr; www.idefix.com
Partner EFFE 2005 Gruppo Feltrinelli S.p.A. – laFeltrinelli, Libraccio, and ibs
Country Italy
Contact https://www.lafeltrinelli.it/; www.libraccio.it; www.ibs.it
Partner Booktopia Pty Ltd.
Country Australia
Contact https://www.booktopia.com.au/; https://www.angusrobertson.com.au/
Partner PChome International Information Co., Ltd.
Country Taiwan
Contact https://24h.pchome.com.tw/
Partner Porrùa
Country Mexico
Contact https://porrua.mx/
Partner Gandhi
Country Mexico
Contact https://www.gandhi.com.mx/
Partner Orbile
Country Mexico
Contact https://merge.orbile.com/

Other retailer partners link their purchase paths to ours but are not fully integrated with the Services. If you are referred to the Services by an affiliate retailer partner (not listed above), Kobo and such retailer partners act as independent controllers and Kobo may share with them information about your activity on the Services for our and their legitimate interests, including verifying commissions payments, notwithstanding that the use and sharing of this information between partners for marketing purposes is subject to your objection. You may withdraw from the use and sharing information between partners in your Kobo Account Settings, by adjusting the toggle for partner data sharing. Please contact your referring retailer partner to address their independent use of your Personal Information.

For some retailer partners, Kobo powers their eBook retail operation as a processor or service provider. In such cases, Kobo follows the instructions of the retailer partner and does not make decisions about the purposes or material means of Personal Information processing. These partners act as the controller of your Personal Information, and you should contact them directly to exercise any privacy requests.

3.2. Service Providers and Business Partners.

To support our business purposes, we disclose your Personal Information to service providers and business partners who are data processors. We disclose your Personal Information with our service providers that perform business services or operations on our behalf or under our instructions.

For example, we may engage other companies to process secure payments, provide authentication services, optimize Services, fulfill orders, perform analytics, send our newsletters and marketing emails, support email and messaging services, administer our promotions, and provide sweepstakes, contests, and surveys. Some of our service providers or business partners may engage their own service providers or business partners to further assist us. Our legal bases for these processing activities are specified in Section 5 below.

Regarding Payment Processors and Checkout: When you pay for Digital Content or purchase a device or accessory from our online store, Kobo uses a payment processor to process payments on our behalf to aid in our fulfillment of your order. At checkout, Kobo may provide you an opportunity to choose other payment options provided directly to you by third parties (e.g., PayPal, Afterpay, Klarna, etc.) or to save your checkout information by creating an account with a third-party payment service (e.g., Shop), all of which are governed by such third parties’ privacy policies and terms and conditions with you, and not by Kobo’s terms or privacy policy. In such cases, Kobo will only share such Personal Information with these third-party services as you direct them to collect from Kobo according to the terms you agree to with them.

3.3. Marketing and Advertising Partners and Providers.

We may disclose certain Personal Information to send you marketing communications about the Services and other products or services that may be of interest to you. This may include information regarding services and offers associated with (i) our affiliates (within the Rakuten Group) and (ii) our retailer partners.

Subject to any consent or opt-out that may be required under applicable law, we may share information about your visit to the Kobo site with certain third parties or data controllers via their Tracking Technology placed on our website (for more information, see our Cookie and Tracking Technologies Policy). We may also disclose your email address to third parties for our personalized advertising purposes, subject to your consent or opt-out, as applicable. You should be aware that we engage these third parties to show you personalized ads for Kobo on third-party properties, but they may also use your collected Personal Information according to their privacy policies and consent or opt-out settings for other advertising purposes.

3.4. Rakuten Group administration.

  • Internal corporate administration: We work closely with our affiliated businesses and companies within the Rakuten Group and disclose certain Personal Information for Rakuten Group internal corporate administration.
  • Rakuten ID: The Rakuten Group aims to provide you with a common service experience through the “Rakuten ID,” a program that enables you to use the same log in credentials with any participating Rakuten Group services you use. If you choose to connect to Kobo and another Rakuten ID participating service using the same username or email address, Kobo will securely share your account credentials with the Rakuten ID program for future account authentication purposes, according to the terms explained in the Rakuten ID Privacy Policy here: https://corp.rakuten.co.jp/privacy/en/rakuten-id.html.

3.5. Law enforcement agencies, courts, regulators and government authorities.

We may share the information we collect, including Personal Information, with law enforcement or to otherwise comply with any statutory or regulatory requirement or the order of a court or other public authority agency, regulator, government authority or other third party where we believe this is necessary to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation, or otherwise to protect our rights or the rights of any third party.

3.6. In the context of a corporate transaction.

We may share the information we collect, including Personal Information, with any third party that purchases, or to which we transfer, all or substantially all our assets and business. Should such a sale or transfer occur, we will use reasonable efforts to try to ensure that the entity to which we transfer your Personal Information uses it in a manner that is consistent with this Privacy Policy.

4. International Data Transfer.

We may transfer your Personal Information to the entities, and for the purposes, described in Section 3 above. Those entities may be located outside of your home country, and your Personal Information may be processed in countries where data protection and privacy regulations may not offer the same level of protection as in your home country. In such cases, we will use various means to require the recipient to provide appropriate protection for the Personal Information disclosed to it, in compliance with applicable data protection laws.

We take great care in protecting your Personal Information and have put in place mechanisms to protect it when it is transferred internationally, consistent with applicable law. We have put in place appropriate safeguards (such as contractual commitments) in accordance with applicable legal requirements. For more information on the appropriate safeguards in place, please contact us at [email protected].

As part of the Rakuten Group, Kobo relies on Rakuten’s European Union (“EU”) and United Kingdom (“UK”) Binding Corporate Rules (“BCRs”) to legitimize international data transfers between Rakuten Group entities. The Rakuten EU BCRs have been approved by the Commission for Data Protection , the Data Protection Authority of Luxembourg acting as the lead authority under the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), and the UK BCRs have been approved by the Information Commissioner’s Office, the Data Protection Authority of the UK. Both can be found at https://corp.rakuten.co.jp/privacy/en/bcr.html.

Additionally, for the transfers to Canada we rely on the Commission Decision 2002/2/EC granting adequate protection for personal data in Canada processed pursuant to the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, S.C. 2000, c.5., as amended (“PIPEDA”), and Canada’s anti-spam legislation, amending the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission Act, the Competition Act, PIPEDA and the Telecommunications Act (S.C. 2010, c. 23), as well as the Digital Privacy Act (S.C. 2015, c. 32) and certain provincial legislation deemed substantially similar to PIPEDA and any amending or successor legislation.

5. Legal basis for using your Personal Information.

If you use the Services while in the EEA, UK, or any other jurisdiction with laws similar to the GDPR, we must have a legal basis to process your Personal Information, including data received from third party authorization services, partners and advertisers, data received from other sources used for statistics, or data shared with third party advertisers. There are different legal bases that we rely on to collect and use your Personal Information, namely:

  • Performance of a contract – We use your Personal Information to create and monitor your Kobo Account, authenticate your login, provide the Services, including to process transactions and payments, make Digital Content available to you, and send you emails and messages concerning your Kobo Account or the Services, in order to fulfill our contract to provide you the Services you request. We will also disclose your Personal Information, e.g., your account credentials, usage information, and transaction information to retailer partners based on performance of a contract if you use a retailer partner account or platform to access the Services.
  • Consent – We will rely on your consent to use technical or Personal Information related to Tracking Technologies, your email address and other contact information for personalized advertising purposes. With respect to Tracking Technologies and other advertising purposes, you may withdraw your consent at any time by adjusting your privacy preferences as further explained in Section 7 or, for direct marketing, by following an unsubscribe link in any marketing communication you receive from us or adjusting your Kobo Account Settings.
  • Legitimate interests – We may use your Personal Information for our legitimate interests to improve our products and services, including the content available on the Services and your experience using the Services. These improvements are dependent on analyzing (for example) how you use the Services, such as pages you view, the rate at which you consume Digital Content (how often, and for how long), genres, authors or subject matter you prefer and searches you make or share, the Digital Content you have liked, comments you have left, websites you have viewed through links, the success rate(s) of any promotion, marketing campaign, or event, certain technical information about your device, or when you access our application through a certain device, purchase path or transactional data and customer care interactions. We disclose this Personal Information to retailer partners if you use a retailer partner to access or link to the Services, to fulfill our or their legitimate interests. We will also use your Personal Information based on our legitimate interests for security purposes, and to share information with our affiliates for internal corporate administration. If we process your Personal Information based on our legitimate interests, we put in place robust safeguards to ensure that your privacy is protected, and our legitimate interests do not override your data protection interests or fundamental rights and freedoms. You have a right to object to any of these uses except where our compelling interest outweighs your concerns, such as our interest in ensuring the security of our platform and the Services.
  • Legal obligation – Where compelled by applicable law, or to assert, protect or defend our or a third party’s legal rights, we may have a legal obligation to collect, retain, use, or share your Personal Information.

If we need to further process your Personal Information, we will let you know if there is a different legal basis for that further processing that is not compatible with the notices and consents that we have provided or collected already from you, and we will provide you with any relevant further information and consent options.

6. Your choices and rights over your Personal Information.

You have certain rights with respect to your Personal Information based on where you reside (“Privacy Rights”), in accordance with applicable domestic law and limitations, as detailed below. Please see Section 7 for how to exercise these Privacy Rights.

6.1. If you are visiting a Kobo website or accessing Services from Canada:

  • Right to access your Personal Information that we hold.
  • Right to withdraw your (express or inferred) consent on which our processing of your Personal Information is based.
  • In Quebec, right to cease our dissemination of your Personal Information.

6.2. If you are visiting a Kobo website or accessing Services from the EEA, UK, Brazil, or any other jurisdiction with Privacy Rights like the GDPR, as applicable:

  • Right to rectify any Personal Information we hold about you that is incorrect or incomplete.
  • Right to access the categories and specific pieces of your Personal Information we hold. To the extent any Product-generated Data is Personal Information, it will be provided as part of the request process outlined in our Terms of Use.
  • Right to data portability: right to receive the Personal Information you provided us in a usable electronic format and/or transmit it to a third party.
  • Right to object to our use of your Personal Information, in the event our use is based on our legitimate interests or is used for direct marketing purposes.
  • Right to data deletion (erasure), or the “right to be forgotten” which enables you to request us to delete your Personal Information.
  • Right to withdraw consent when our use is based on your prior consent.
  • Right to restrict our use of your Personal Information: You can request to restrict our use of Personal Information during the pendency of your request to rectify or your objection to our use for legitimate interests, or when alleging that our use of Personal Information is unlawful or no longer necessary for the purpose.

6.3. If you are a resident of a U.S. state visiting a Kobo website or accessing Services:

  • Right to know about/confirm our processing of your Personal Information: you may request that we inform you of the categories of Personal Information we have collected about you; the categories of sources from which we collected the information; our purpose for collecting the information; the categories of third parties to which we disclosed your personal information; and the categories of your Personal Information that we disclosed for a business purpose, sold or shared and our purpose for doing so.
  • Right to access specific pieces of Personal Information that we collect about you, including in a portable and usable electronic format that allows you to transmit it to another entity.
  • Right to delete the Personal Information you provided to us or that we obtained about you.
  • Right to opt-out of sale, sharing, and processing your Personal Information for targeted advertising: You have the right to opt-out of our disclosure to a third party or exchange of your Personal Information for monetary or other value and for the purposes of cross-context behavioral advertising or targeted advertising. In association with our personalized advertising and re-marketing activities, we may share Personal Information such as online identifiers, cookie information, and information about your online activity with advertisers, digital advertising companies, and other entities that support our personalized advertising activities. You may register your opt-out by clicking here https://www.kobo.com/privacy or by selecting the button at the bottom right of our website labelled “Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information (Personal Data Opt-Out)” or “Your Privacy Choices.”
  • Right to correct inaccurate or incomplete Personal Information that we maintain about you.
  • Right to not be retaliated against for exercising privacy rights: You may freely exercise these privacy rights without fear of being denied goods or services. We may, however, provide a different level of service where such personal data is necessary to provide the additional features or functionality.

6.4. Additional California Disclosures and User rights:

  • California “Shine the Light”: In addition to the privacy rights set forth above, residents of California may request information once per calendar year about our disclosures of certain categories of your personally identifiable information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes, under California’s “Shine the Light” law.
  • California Notice of Financial Incentives: The California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, as thereafter amended requires certain disclosures related to financial incentive offerings, including in relation to the value of your consumer data to our business. We may offer an opportunity to sign up to receive interest-based content via email by providing us your name, email address, or other personal contact information. There is no obligation to opt-in, and you may unsubscribe at any time by following the instructions in the mailing. From time to time, we may offer a financial incentive to those who sign up for or remain on our mailing list, complete a market research survey, make a purchase, or do not complete a purchase, such as a discount coupon or an opportunity to win a prize or giveaway in a random drawing. The details of each incentive program will be contained in the program terms. We offer these programs, among other things, to enhance our relationship with you, to provide you with content that may be of interest to you, and/or so you can enjoy more of our products/services at a lower price. Although we do not calculate the value of consumer data to our business in our accounting statements, we make the following good faith estimate for California residents to use in making an informed decision whether or not to take advantage of any financial incentive or price or service difference we may offer that relates to the collection, retention or sale of your personal information: To the extent we create overall value for our business from our financial incentive marketing programs that could be directly or reasonably related to the value of customer data, that value would vary from program to program and among individuals, but our method for calculating this value to our business would include, for each program, and in the aggregate, whether and by what amount the sales generated by the program(s) exceed the cost to us of offering them, which would include costs associated with (1) any financial incentives that are paid to consumers; (2) the cost of the marketing and distribution of the offer; (3) our marketing team’s efforts to enhance the resulting consumer data through campaign optimization and consumer engagement at sufficient scale; (4) leveraging our past investments in understanding consumers as our existing and future customers; (5) collecting and maintaining data as intellectual property; and (6) all other costs reasonably related to the programs.

7. How to exercise your Privacy Rights:

Kobo’s Legal and Privacy Team, led by our General Counsel, is responsible for protecting Personal Information and responding to your Privacy Rights requests. Please contact us at [email protected] to exercise your Privacy Rights. For relationships with retailer partners where Kobo acts as a joint controller, Kobo will effectuate your requests as to data it processes relative to its provision of the Services and Digital Content but does not have access to all data processed by retailer partners. Nevertheless, depending on the circumstances, we can endeavor to communicate your request to the relevant retail partner in relation to their part of the joint processing upon express request. You may also exercise your Privacy Rights specified below as follows:

7.1. Right to withdraw your (express or inferred) consent:

  • You can withdraw consent to our sharing of Personal Information with third parties for personalized advertising for Kobo by clicking the Privacy Settings or, for users with USA based IP addresses, the “Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Data/Personal Data Opt-Out” or “Your Privacy Choices” button at the foot of our website homepage to reach the Privacy Settings page. In addition to adjusting your privacy preferences in the Privacy Settings, you may control the use of cookies at the browser level. If you choose to completely disable cookies, it may limit your use of certain features or functions of our Services for which these cookies are necessary. For more information on how we use Tracking Technologies and how you can manage them, please see our Cookie and Tracking Technologies Policy.
  • You can withdraw any consent you provided for, or opt out of, our use of your email address as the basis to create marketing lists for personalized advertising to you on third-party sites and services by adjusting the toggle for such use within the “Privacy Settings”.
  • You can withdraw consent for our sharing of Personal Information with retailer partners that act as independent controllers through which you linked to the Services and for Kobo’s use of your information for Kobo research and marketing initiatives by adjusting the toggles for such sharing within your Kobo Account Settings.
  • You can unsubscribe from, opt-out of, or withdraw consent to receive direct marketing communications from us by adjusting the Marketing Preferences in your Kobo Account Settings, or by clicking the “Unsubscribe” link at the bottom of any marketing email. Please note that we may continue to send you informational (non-marketing) emails and other types of communications, as permitted by law, such as responses to your support requests, or service email relating to your account.

7.2. Right to opt-out of sale, sharing, and processing your Personal Information for targeted advertising:

  • You may register your opt-out by clicking the “Privacy Setting” button and then adjusting the toggle selections to align with your election or, for the US based users, reaching the Privacy Settings page by clicking the “Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information (Personal Data Opt-Out)” or “Your Privacy Choices” button at the foot of our U.S. storefront website homepage.
  • We also recognize valid opt-out preference signals sent from browsers or devices, including the Global Privacy Control. When we receive such signals, we will automatically exercise rights that may be available to you based on your residency, such as the right to opt-out of sale, sharing, and processing your Personal Information for targeted advertising, for your browser, device, or account, as applicable. One way that you can use such opt-out signals is by following the instructions for your device or browser located here https://globalprivacycontrol.org/.

7.3. Right to rectify / correct:

You can self-correct your Personal Information in your Kobo Account Settings, Payment Information, and in other locations where you entered or provided your Personal Information at any time.

7.4. Right to delete:

You can deactivate or reactivate your Kobo Account within your Account Settings (for more information, please see the article at https://help.kobo.com/hc/articles/360017863113). Please note that this account deactivation does not serve to delete your Personal Information held by Kobo as part of your Kobo Account, because Kobo has a legal obligation to maintain your ability to access paid licensed content for a period of time, as described more fully in our Terms of Use, unless you affirmatively request us to fully delete your account including all Digital Content. To fully delete your account and all Personal Information, please contact Kobo as set forth above.

7.5. Privacy Rights requests from authorized agents.

An agent may submit requests on your behalf, provided you or your agent provide proof that the agent is authorized to act on your behalf. Please note that we may require additional information from you to validate your identity and/or honour your request.

7.6. Right to appeal or complain to authorities.

We may decline your request as permitted under applicable law, and in some USA jurisdictions, you have the right to appeal our decision on your request by contacting [email protected]. For any other privacy complaint, please contact us at the email provided above so that we can facilitate a resolution. If contacting us does not resolve your complaint, you have the right to make a complaint to your data protection authority (if one exists in your country). In the EEA, you have the right to make a complaint to your data protection authority without contacting us first.

8. Third party Websites or Services.

The Services may contain links to websites or services not owned or controlled by Kobo. We encourage you to be aware of when you are leaving the Kobo site and visiting these other third-party websites or services and to understand their privacy statements, as we cannot be responsible for privacy policies or practices of third-party websites or services you may choose to visit or use. This Privacy Policy applies solely to the information collected by Kobo or on behalf of Kobo from your use of the Kobo website and Services. Please review the Terms of Use applicable to the Services for more information.

9. Security and Data Retention.

We care about the security of your Personal Information. We deploy administrative, technical, organizational, and physical measures designed to ensure a level of security appropriate to the risk of processing to the Personal Information we collect. We evaluate these safeguards on an ongoing basis to help minimize risks from new security threats as they become known, although no information system can be 100% secure. We need your help too: it is your responsibility to make sure that your Personal Information is accurate and up-to-date, and we encourage you to ensure that your password is unique, robust, secure, and not shared with third parties.

We retain the information collected via the Services for as long as we have a relationship with you. Subject to Section 7.4 above, if you choose to permanently delete your Kobo Account, or Kobo terminates or cancels your access to, or use of, the Services pursuant to our Terms of Use, then we will delete or permanently anonymize your Personal Information. If we permanently anonymize Personal Information, we will implement appropriate technical and organizational measures to ensure that the data cannot be reassociated to an individual.

When your Personal Information is deleted or anonymized as described above, it will no longer be considered Personal Information. We will only retain your Personal Information in an identifiable form after your Kobo Account is subject to permanent deletion if we are required to do so to comply with local law, or the data is necessary to pursue, defend, or exercise a legal right or claim.

10. Changes to this Privacy Policy.

We will update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The effective date of the current Privacy Policy is noted at the top of this page. You are responsible for reviewing this Privacy Policy for changes and you should review this Privacy Policy regularly. Kobo will provide you with notice of material changes, such as by sending an email, posting to our website, providing a notice through the Service, or other reasonable means. Changes to this Privacy Policy are effective upon receipt of such notice, or your continued use of the Service, whichever is sooner.

11.How to contact us.

If you would like to contact us with questions about our privacy or data protection practices, please email us at [email protected].


Last updated: November 2025

Rakuten Kobo Inc., located in Toronto, Canada, and its subsidiaries (“Kobo,” “we,” "our,” or “us”) operate websites (including online storefronts), mobile applications, and a digital reading platform that enable customers to read or listen to written or creative works, including ebooks, audiobooks, or any literary works made available (“Digital Content”) using a variety of electronic devices, software applications, widgets, and other services, and provide an account that you may use to access Digital Content (“Kobo Account”) (collectively, the "Services").

1. TRACKING TECHNOLOGIES OVERVIEW

We, along with our third-party service providers or business partners, use cookies, web development tools, and similar tracking technologies (collectively, the “Tracking Technologies”) to automatically collect information that might relate to you, your activity and preferences, or your device over time and across different websites or online services. Please refer to Section 2 “Types of Tracking Technologies” below for more information about the types of Tracking Technologies and use cases.

Tracking Technologies can either be persistent (i.e., they remain on your computer until you delete them) or temporary (i.e., they last only until you close your browser). We use both session and persistent Tracking Technologies. We use first and third-party Tracking Technologies. First party Tracking Technologies are used and controlled by us to provide the Services. Third-party Tracking Technologies are controlled by third parties that help provide services like analytics and advertising.

You can configure Tracking Technologies by adjusting your preferences in the Privacy Settings by selecting the button at the bottom right of our website homepage labelled either “Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information (Personal Data Opt-Out)” (“DNS”) for users with USA based IP addresses at our US storefront or “Privacy Settings” for users with IP addresses based outside of the USA. (Any reference under this policy to attendance at the “Privacy Settings” is achieved for USA-based IP addresses by selecting the DNS button.) Your settings may impact your experience on the site and the enhanced functionality we are able to offer you with Tracking Technologies, as further explained in Section 3 below.

2. TYPES OF TRACKING TECHNOLOGIES WE USE

  • Essential (required to use the site) – [Class A]:

    We use these Tracking Technologies to enable essential website operations and to ensure certain features work properly, like log-in or adding products to your shopping cart. These Tracking Technologies allow you to be remembered as you explore our site in a single session or, if you are signed in, from session to session.

    These are always enabled, otherwise, you can not view the website or shop online. They are typically used in response to an action made by you that amounts to a request for our Services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in, adding items to the cart, or filling out forms. They also assist in addressing security issues and help the site conform to regulation.

    Examples

    • Wishlist and shopping cart functionality
    • Tracking consent and opt-out
    • Explicitly entered preferences
    • Purchase records
    • Reading notes, highlights, bookmarks and reading statistics

  • Personalization – [Class B]:

    We may collect and process information about your use of our Services to personalize your reading experience or content for you in other contexts, such as personalized emails, recommendations, and personalized pages over time. Your activity on the Services is used to make inferences about your interests, which inform future selection of on-site or direct marketing content.

    Examples

    • Personalized book recommendations and other direct marketing emails
    • Personalized page layouts

  • Performance/Analytics – [Class C]:

    We measure and analyze how our Services are used to discover errors and develop new designs, test the effectiveness of our website, and provide insights for advertising analytics, to improve the performance of our Services. For instance, the data we gather about site visits and traffic sources helps us understand the popularity of pages and learn more about how visitors move around the site and use certain features.

    If you do not allow this type of tracking, we will not assess your visit to our site, may not be able to monitor its performance optimally, and will no longer be able to track your website usage to improve your experience.

    Examples

    • Click tracking
    • A/B testing
    • Product usage analytics

  • Third-Party Advertising and Social Media – [Class D]:

    Kobo enables third-party Tracking Technologies and email address matching by our advertising partners and social media sites so these companies can target Kobo advertisements to you on third-party sites or apps on our behalf and so that you can connect to your friends and social networks and share content from our website through social media.

    This means that Tracking Technologies are set by third parties through the Kobo site and Kobo may additionally disclose your email address to third parties to create marketing lists for personalizing Kobo’s advertisements. You acknowledge that the third parties listed below may receive your personal information as detailed in our Privacy Policy when the toggle is set to “On” (tracking enabled).

    If you do not allow this tracking or the use of your email for custom marketing, advertisements will not be tailored to your interests, and you may not be able to see or use social media sharing tools on the site. Please note that if you disable this tracking, you will still see advertisements on these other platforms or our platform; they just won't be tailored to your interests.

    Examples

    • Pixel tracking
    • Ad retargeting based on cookies or email lists
    • Social tracking

3. PRIVACY SETTINGS

You can opt-out or withdraw your consent to the use of Class B, C, and D Tracking Technologies, at any time, by adjusting your preferences in the “Privacy Settings” or “DNS” areas on our website. You cannot opt-out or withdraw your consent to the use of Class A Tracking Technologies, as these are used to ensure proper functioning of our website and our core Services.

You may also be able to delete or disable cookies globally in your browser settings. Most browsers are initially set up to accept HTTP cookies. The “help” feature of the menu bar on most browsers will tell you how to stop accepting new cookies, how to receive notification of new cookies and how to disable existing cookies. Controlling the HTML5 local storage on your browser depends on which browser you use. For more information regarding your specific browser please consult the browser’s website (often in the Help section). Please note, however, that without HTTP cookies and HTML5 local storage, you may not be able to take full advantage of all the features of our Services and some parts of the Services may not function properly.

You can also disable analytics for mobile apps from the settings screen on your mobile device.

Subject to local law, you may have certain rights regarding information that we or third parties collect from Tracking Technologies. Please refer to our Privacy Policy for more information about your privacy rights.

4. READING ACTIVITY

We keep track of your reading activity to provide you with information such as reading statistics and to improve personalized book recommendations. If you would like to turn it off on your eReader, you may do so by visiting.

5. CONTACT US

For any queries in relation to this Cookie and Tracking Technologies Policy please contact us at [email protected].

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