We are SparkNotes! We make the guides and resources you’ve been using to help you understand books, write papers, or study other subjects. Throughout the Privacy Notice, when we say “Sparknotes”, “we”, “us”, or “our”, we are referring to Barnes & Noble, Inc. who own SparkNotes.
Last Updated Date: 2/5/2026
In order for you to use SparkNotes and to make our site work, we need to collect some information. This includes personal information.
On this page, called a Privacy Policy, we explain the information we collect on our site, how we use it, and who we share it with. For more information about our general privacy practices, please visit our general privacy policy.
This Privacy Policy also tells you what rights you have over your personal information.
Personal Information could be your first name, your email address, your age, or other information we ask for. It could also be something that your phone or computer tells us about you, like a unique device ID. You should always be careful about how you share your information.
We collect your personal information when you visit the SparkNotes site and when you create a SparkNotes PLUS account.
In order to make sure the SparkNotes site works properly, we collect the following personal information when you visit the SparkNotes site:
In order to use SparkNotes PLUS, we collect the following personal information when you create a SparkNotes PLUS account:
We keep your information as long as you have an active SparkNotes PLUS subscription. An inactive user's information is deleted after 2 years. An inactive user is defined as a user whose subscription has expired and has not logged into their account in 2 years.
Your email may be used to send our newsletter, promotional emails, and product updates if you have opted in, and you or your parent may request that you be opted out at any time.
If you contact our support team and don’t have an account with SparkNotes, we’ll use your email to respond to your question and then delete the email. If you do have a SparkNotes PLUS account, we will use your email address to respond to you until we can resolve your issue.
We sometimes need some help to build and run our site, and when we do, we work with other companies who can support us. These companies are called third parties or service providers, and they are not allowed to share your information with anyone. We do not use this information to build a profile of your browsing history, serve you targeted ads, or for any other purpose.
We work with these third party companies :
If you or your parent would like more information on how these companies use your information, you can contact us at custserv@bn.com.
We may need to disclose personal information collected if required by law or in the event of a company sale or proposed change of ownership. We may also disclose it to protect SparkNotes’ rights and properties, or to investigate fraud or intellectual property infringement.
Keeping your information safe:
It’s important to keep any information we collect safe and secure. We do our best to make sure we use all the right tools and measures to keep your information as safe as possible. However, no method of transferring information/data over the internet or storing electronic information/data is entirely secure, so while we strive to use reasonable means to protect your personal information/ data, we cannot guarantee security against all threats.
If you or your parent would like to review, modify or request that we delete any personal information, they can contact us at custserv@bn.com. We may need to ask questions to help verify who is making the request, and then we’ll make sure we delete your information within 30 days.
Just like adults, you have the following rights and control over your personal data.
If you wish to action these rights please contact us at custserv@bn.com and we have one month to respond to your request.
If you are an EU or UK citizen and would like to make a complaint about the way we process your personal data, you can contact the relevant Data Protection Authority (DPA). Please contact us at custserv@bn.com to find out more.
Sometimes we need to make some changes to our site. If we do, and they include changes to the way we might collect or use your information, we will post a notice to tell you at the top of this page. If we make a material change to the way we collect or use your personal information, we will post notice at the top of this policy prior to making the change. If we have your email address, or your parent’s email address, we will also contact you by email to notify you before we make the change.
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or your personal data, you can contact us at any of the below:
1-855-476-8054
Barnes & Noble, Inc.
33 East 17th Street
New York, NY 1003
Ad-free experience
Study Guides for 1,000+ titles
Full Text content for 250+ titles
No Fear Translations of Shakespeare’s plays (along with audio!) and other classic works
Flashcards
Mastery Quizzes
Infographics
Graphic Novels
AP® Practice & Lessons
Note-taking
Bookmarking
Dashboard
