Privacy policy

Last updated: 19 August 2026

This policy explains what personal information Towers Rare Books collects, why, how long it is kept, and what rights you have over it. It is written to describe what this business actually does, which is not very much: we sell a small number of books each year, by correspondence, to people who write to us.

Who is responsible for your information

The data controller is Towers Rare Books, the trading name of Ugur Saglik, a sole trader established in the United Kingdom. Our contact details, including our geographic address, are in the legal notice. You can reach us at towersmacro@gmail.com or on +44 7721 149216.

We are a sole trader and are not required to appoint a data protection officer. Correspondence about data protection comes to the same address as everything else, and is dealt with personally.

What we do not collect

It is worth saying this plainly, because a general shop privacy policy would tell you otherwise.

There is no basket and no checkout on this website, and there are no customer accounts. We do not collect or store card numbers, bank details or any other payment information through this website. We never ask for card details, and if payment is made by bank transfer we see only what your bank shows on the statement. We do not track what you look at in order to advertise to you, we run no advertising, we operate no advertising or social media pixels, we do not build profiles, and we do not make automated decisions about you. We do not sell or rent personal information to anyone, and never will.

What we collect, why, and on what legal basis

1. Your correspondence with us. Your name, email address, telephone number if you give it, and whatever you write in your message. We use it to answer you and to keep a record of what was said about a book. Legal basis: our legitimate interests in responding to enquiries and in keeping an accurate record of what we told a buyer about an item, and, once a sale is in prospect, performance of a contract with you.

2. Sale records. If you buy a book: your name and contact details, the book, the agreed price, the date, the payment reference, and the collection arrangements. We use this to perform the sale, to know who owns what and where a book has gone, and to keep proper business records. Legal basis: performance of a contract with you, and compliance with a legal obligation for tax and accounting records.

3. The email list. If you enter your email address in the footer sign-up, we use it to send occasional announcements of new acquisitions. Nothing else. There is no discount, no incentive and no other list. Legal basis: your consent, which you may withdraw at any time using the unsubscribe link in any message or by writing to us.

4. Technical information collected automatically. When you visit, Shopify records information such as your IP address, browser and device type, the pages you visit and when, and similar usage data, together with cookies necessary to make the website work. We use it to keep the website running and secure and to understand in general terms how it is used. Legal basis: our legitimate interests in operating and securing the website; and for any non-essential cookies, your consent, given through the cookie banner and withdrawable at any time.

Cookies

Essential cookies are needed to make the website work and cannot be switched off. Any non-essential cookies are set only if you agree through the banner, and you can change your mind at any time through the cookie preferences link in the footer. Shopify sets these cookies as part of hosting the website.

Who else sees your information

Shopify hosts this website and processes information on our behalf. Shopify also processes some information as a controller in its own right, in order to provide and improve its platform; its own consumer privacy policy explains that.

Google provides the email account through which we correspond, so your messages to us are stored there.

Our bank processes any payment you make, and our accountant and HMRC see sale records where the law requires it.

We may also disclose information where we are legally obliged to, or to establish, exercise or defend a legal claim. We do not disclose personal information to anyone else.

Transfers outside the United Kingdom

Shopify and Google are based outside the United Kingdom, principally in the United States and Canada, so your information may be stored and processed there. Where information is transferred out of the UK, it is protected by an approved transfer mechanism, such as the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or the UK Addendum to the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses, or by a finding that the receiving country provides adequate protection. You may ask us for details.

How long we keep it

Enquiries that do not lead to a sale: up to 12 months from our last exchange, then deleted.

Correspondence that does lead to a sale, and the sale record itself: six years from the end of the tax year in which the sale took place, which is the period HMRC requires for business records. Where correspondence describes the condition of a book we sold, we keep it for the same period, so that we can answer a question about what was said at the time.

Email list: until you unsubscribe, after which your address is removed.

Technical and cookie data: as set by Shopify, typically no more than 12 months.

Your rights

Under the UK GDPR you have the right to be told what we hold about you and to have a copy of it; to have inaccurate information corrected; to have information erased in certain circumstances; to restrict or object to our processing, including objecting at any time to processing based on our legitimate interests; to receive certain information in a portable form; and, where we rely on consent, to withdraw that consent at any time without affecting anything done before you withdrew it.

To exercise any of these, write to towersmacro@gmail.com. We will respond within one month. There is no charge. We may need to satisfy ourselves of your identity first, which for most people means replying from the address we already correspond with.

Complaints

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, please tell us first and we will try to put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office, which is the UK supervisory authority for data protection.

Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF. Helpline 0303 123 1113. ico.org.uk.

Children

This website is not intended for children, and we do not knowingly collect information about anyone under 18. If you believe a child has given us their information, write to us and we will delete it.

Security

The website is served over HTTPS and is hosted by Shopify, which is responsible for the security of its platform. Our correspondence is held in a password-protected email account with two-factor authentication. No system is perfectly secure, and email in particular is not a secure channel: please do not send us bank details, identity documents or other sensitive information by email unless we have agreed a safe way to do it.

Changes to this policy

If we change this policy we will post the new version here and update the date at the top. If a change is significant, and we hold your email address, we will tell you.