document: title: security & privacyguaranteed
text: Powell's Books has built its outstanding reputation with more than twenty-five years of personal service. Online, we believe you should feel just as safe as you would in our Portland, Oregon aisles. We'll stake our reputation on it. 

If you choose our secure server option, all of your personal information will be encrypted before it is transmitted over the Internet. (Note the change from http:// to https:// in the URL as you enter our security zone.) This means that data cannot be read as it travels through the internet to our system. Our secure server, certified by Verisign (click on our Verisign Authenticity Seal above), provides the highest level of security available. And once we receive your encrypted personal information, we then store it on a machine that is not accessible from the internet. 

We're confident that our security system is the best in the business, and you should be, too. That's why we guarantee that every transaction you make at Powells.com will be 100% safe. If unauthorized charges are made to your card as a result of shopping at Powells.com, you will pay nothing. 

In the event of unauthorized use of your credit card, you must first notify your credit card provider in accordance with its reporting rules and procedures. Under US Federal Law, your bank can not hold you liable for more than $50.00 of fraudulent charges. If your bank does hold you liable for any or all of the maximum $50 amount, Powells.com will cover the charge (assuming that the unauthorized use of your credit card resulted through no fault of your own from purchases made at Powells.com while using our secure server). 

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Your privacy is your right.

The personal information you submit to Powells.com will not be shared, sold, or disclosed to third parties in any form, for any purposes, at any time. 

Powell's will not disclose your sales history to third parties for any purposes, at any time. The items you purchase will not be shared with other businesses or customers, period, online or off. 

If you'd like to receive Powell's newsletter, please join our list of informed subscribers. If, however, you place an order at our web site but would prefer not to receive our newsletter, you will receive only email directly related to your orders - confirmation and receipt, etc. 

This is what is known as an opt-in policy concerning commercial email. More common, unfortunately, is the opt-out policy, where email is sent unsolicited to customers, who are then forced to respond saying they don't want it (they must opt out of the situation). We hope the opt-in method will become the norm rather than the exception for commercial interests on the internet. 

When you purchase a book from Powells.com, you are voicing your support for one of the Internet's opt-in policy pioneers and a longstanding voice in the fight against spam. 

To join an ongoing conversation about opt-in, opt-out and related aspects of spam theory, visit the news.admin.net-abuse.email newsgroup. 

Thanks for shopping at Powells.com!